Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/326

second person, that is to say, the center of the three divine persons. Considered solely as man, he is the focus in which human nature is condensed by a mysterious concentration. Considered as Redeemer, he is that central object upon whom all the graces of God and all the severity of his justice at the same time descend. The redemption is the great synthesis which reconciles and unites the divine justice and mercy. Considered as at the same time Lord of heaven and earth, and as born in a manger, leading a life of abnegation, and suffering death on the cross, he is that central point in which are united, in a superior synthesis, every thesis and antithesis, with their perpetual contradictions and their infinite diversity. He is the most indigent and the most opulent, the servant and the king, the slave and the master; he is naked and he is adorned with splendid vestments; he is obedient unto men, and he commands the stars; he has neither water to quench his thirst, nor bread to appease his hunger, and yet at his voice the waters gush forth from the rocks, and bread is multiplied in order to satisfy the wants of the people, and yields them an abundance. Men outrage him, and the seraphim adore him. He is at the same time most obedient and most powerful; he dies because he is condemned to die, but at his order the veil of the temple is rent, the graves open, the dead are resuscitated, the good thief is converted, the sun withdraws his rays, and all nature is in anguish. He appears in the midway of time, he walks in the midst of his disciples, he is born in the central point between two great seas and of three immense continents, he is a citizen of a nation which holds a middle rank between those nations which are entirely independent and those which