Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/333

gentle accents penetrate the soul, transform it, change it, entirely convert it to God, and compel it everywhere to seek the beloved object, in deserts or in populous cities, on rugged mountains or in fertile plains, in parched fields or in blooming gardens, no matter where. This is that voice which enkindles the chaste love of the spouse in the soul and attracts and inebriates it with the delicious odor of intoxicating perfumes, even as the panting deer seeks the fountains of fresh water. God came to cast fire on the earth, and the earth is enkindled and has commenced to burn, and the divine flames will spread from day to day, until finally the entire world will be wrapped in one general conflagration. Love explains the inexplicable, and man through love believes what appears incredible, and performs what seems impossible, because through love all things become possible and easy.

Those of the apostles who saw the Saviour when, previous to his passion, he was transfigured before them, when his face shone as the sun and his garments became whiter and more dazzling than the purest snow; those who saw this, exclaimed, in a transport of ecstasy, let us remain here. But they had formed no true idea as yet of the divine love, nor of its ineffable delights. Afterward, the great Apostle, who was already master of the excellent science of divine love, says, I have only desired to know one thing, and that is Jesus Christ and him crucified; which was the same as to say, I desire to understand all things, and, in order to comprehend all, I only need to understand Jesus Christ, because in him alone are all sciences and all things united; and the Apostle adds, "and him crucified." He does not say Jesus Christ glorified and transfigured, because it avails