O Jesus, assist us with Thy Grace!

   1. When the Scribes and Pharisees tried to ensnare the Savior in His speech, He asked them saying: "What think you of Christ? Whose Son is He?" Why did He ask this question? For no other purpose than to obtain from the mouth of His enemies themselves a testimony of Himself. It could not have been a matter of indifference to Him what His contemporaries thought of Him as the promised Messias, for precisely on the knowledge of His Person depended the salvation of the world; And it was for this same reason that He asked the Apostles: "Whom do men say that the Son of man is?" [Matt. 16, 13]. When they had given the different opinions, He addressed to the Apostles themselves the question: "But whom do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered and said: "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God!" "But God Who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers through the prophets, last of all, in these days hath spoken to us through His Son, Whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by Whom also he made the world" [Heb. 1, 1, 2]. God inspired the prophets and the Apostles, and we are taught today the things of God through them the same as were the Jewish people in former times. We have already learned the power of the prophecies. The prophet Isaias exclaims: "God Himself will come and will save you. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb man shall be free" [35, 4, 6]. Hence Jesus Christ could truthfully answer the disciples of St. John by pointing to the fulfillment of this prophecy. And He could justly answer the question of the Jews: "Who art Thou?" "Search the Scriptures, for they give testimony of Me" [John 5, 39]. In fact, Holy Scripture is replete with testimonies, and God Himself it was Who spoke through the prophets. Therefore all those who do not believe in the Savior as the Son of God are inexcusable in the stern judgment of God. In the language of Holy Writ: "He that believeth not is already judged: "he carries around with him the reason of his condemnation. But the Heavenly Father did not give testimony of His Divine Son through the prophets alone, but likewise even in His Own Person, for His voice resounded from the heavens in the presence of a great multitude at the Baptism of Christ at the river Jordan: "This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased" [Matt. 3, 17]. And this is the same God Who made Himself heard from the burning bush on Mt. Sinai: "I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange Gods before Me" [Ex. 20, 2]. It is the same God that spoke through the mouth of the prophet Isaias: "I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to graven things" [42, 8]. God repeats the same as often as He confirmed by miracles the assertion of Christ that He was the Son of God. Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrim, said to Christ: "For no man can do these signs which Thou doest, unless God be with Him" [John 3, 2]. Therefore Christ with authority referred the Jews to His miracles: "If you do not believe My words believe, at least, the works that I do" [John 14].

   And truly, my dearly beloved, Christ commanded His Angels not as man but as God, while He as the Child, promised by the prophet Isaias lay in the crib, to descend from Heaven and intone the anthem: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will. As God He called the three Magi from the East, guided by His star, in order that they might come and adore Him, and offer gold, frankincense and myrrh, His Divine omnipotence called the dead Lazarus to life; it was this same power that with mighty voice commanded the dead youth of Naim: "Arise!" It was this same omnipotent power which the raging storms of the sea obeyed, and ceased their fury, so that the terrified sailors fell on their knees and exclaimed:  "Thou art truly the Son of God!" Quaking and trembling did the evil spirits whom He commanded to depart from the obsessed, confess Him to be the Son of God. "I am He," He said to the soldiers who would apprehend Jesus of Nazareth; "I am He," and this word prostrated them to the ground twice. As God, on the Cross where He suffered according to His human nature, He made the earth tremble. As God He commanded the sun to veil itself in darkness, the rocks to be rent asunder, the graves to open, and the veil of the temple to be torn, so that the pagan centurion himself in fear exclaimed: "Verily this is the Son of God." All the people who were present on this occasion, and witnessed what had taken place, beat their breast in fear. As man Jesus died on the Cross, but by the power of His Divinity He rolled back the huge stone from the door of the sepulcher and arose, to the terror of His enemies, gloriously from the grave.

       Therefore Jesus Christ as God could give others the power to work miracles in His name, as He really did when He commanded His Apostles and disciples to go forth into the world and to preach and teach, in order that their words might find a hearing among the pagans.

       In the Acts of the Apostles, we see how the Apostles made use of this Divine power, in order to spread the faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Redeemer. "In the name of Jesus arise and walk!" spoke St. Peter to the man born lame who was begging at the gate of the temple, and he rose up and walked. "And all the people saw him walking and praising God . . . and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened to him" [Acts 3, 9, 10]. "But many of those who heard and saw believed, and the number of men was five thousand" [Acts 4, 4]. Many signs and wonders were performed by the Apostles among the people, so that they carried their sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mattresses in order that when Peter came, at least his shadow might fall upon each one and that they might be cured of their sickness. The people from the surrounding villages even brought their sick and those possessed by evil spirits to the Apostles at Jerusalem, and the Apostles cured them all. The consequence of this was that the Christian community at Jerusalem continually grew larger until the first persecution took place, in which Stephen was stoned, the Apostle St. James beheaded by Herod, and the other Apostles and disciples passed out into the world to bring the glad tidings to pagan peoples. They bore with them the power confided to them, and by it won over the pagans to faith in the Savior. This power was not extinguished with the death of the Apostles, but shone brilliantly and marvelously in the Saints and Martyrs of the early Church, and reveals itself always in the true Church of Christ, even though not so frequently as in former times. But if you wish to know the real reason of this listen to the words of the Apostle St. Paul: "The signs are for the unbelievers," in order that they may be moved by true miracles to acknowledge the truth of the Christian faith and obtain their salvation. But for the faithful who already are in possession of the true faith such signs are not necessary, for these have another sign just as expressive, the Church, ruled by the Holy Ghost. The gardener waters the tree which he has planted only until it has taken root and can draw moisture from the earth. In the same manner does the Divine Husbandman Jesus Christ.

   2. Our Divine Savior however attests His Divinity also by His omniscience. He reveals the thoughts and plans of the Pharisees against Him, and foretells the betrayal of Judas, the threefold denial of Peter and the flight of the Apostles, as also His scourging, His Crucifixion, and Resurrection from the dead. How perfectly were His words fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem! Here, indeed, is more than a prophet, for if He were not the Son of God, and God Himself from eternity, which He claimed to be and in testimony of which claim He died, how could He have possessed the gifts of omniscience and omnipotence, since God would evidently not give such a gift to a blasphemer! Therefore He either did not have them, and then He could not have performed such miracles, nor made such prophecies, or else He had them of Himself as His Divine attributes; He is indeed the Son of God, and God from eternity.

   But why should we concern ourselves with proofs from the distant past when the present is full of such proofs? Before your very eyes is His Divine word fulfilled, that the Gospel will be announced throughout the whole world. Go out into the world and seek a people that has not been visited by Catholic missionaries; seek a land where the Holy and Unbloody Sacrifice of the Cross is not offered up! Go back to the time of the Redeemer-----what was more improbable at that time than that this most undeniable of all facts should take place? What was more incredible than that paganism which was spread throughout the whole world and had colossal power, could not withstand the struggle with Jesus Christ, the Crucified, Who was a scandal to the Jews, and to the pagans foolishness; could not resist twelve poor, uneducated Apostles; could not resist the new articles of faith which were so diametrically opposed to all human passions?

 Paganism was overcome, and disappeared! To this event so wonderful to the whole world should be added an apparently unimportant circumstance. With the announcement of the Gospel, there should be proclaimed in the whole world at the same time the story of how a converted sinner gratefully anointed the head and feet of the Redeemer: "Amen I say to you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, that also which she hath done shall be told as a memory of her" [Matt. 26, 13]. Who would have thought that the woman prostrate at the feet of Jesus, against the will of the guests present, would now be the glorious Magdalen honored throughout the world in the Church and on her altars!

   3. Is this, then, the only proof which we have for the Divinity of Christ, Who reveals Himself to us? No, there is another proof just as cogent, which is ever present and speaks in no uncertain terms, and that throughout the whole world: "Thou art Christ the Son ot the living God." This living proof IS the Catholic Church, the Church of which Jesus Christ had said even before He had founded it, that it would victoriously withstand all persecutions: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it" [Matt. 16, 18], a miracle that has been constantly and continuously renewed for nineteen hundred years. The unbroken series of Pontiffs in the See of Peter down to the present Holy Father Benedict XV is truly a magnificent evidence of the power of God in governing His Church. Recall to your minds the first three hundred years, when the mighty hosts of paganism were arrayed against the Church, and numberless Christians went to their death as Martyrs to their faith in Christ. What paganism could not accomplish, false teachers have tried to do in every age so that there remains hardly an article of faith that has not been attacked. But these gates of Hell could not prevail against the Church, although they tore away from the bosom of the Church whole nations. What paganism and false teachers could not accomplish, her enemies strove to do by enslaving the Church, by public or secret and hostile laws, the breaking of the natural bonds between the bishops and the Pope, the Vicar of Christ, between the priests and their bishops, between the faithful and their pastors; by the prevention of the promulgation of the laws of the Church and the discipline of the Church, by forbidding solemnities, by robbery of the goods of the Church, and other acts of violence which in the course of time had a more destructive effect than the bloody persecutions of Nero which begot Saints and Martyrs, and confirmed the other Christians in their faith, while the false teachers had advanced unbelief, the desecration of Sunday, increased immorality and robbed numberless souls of their salvation. And yet these gates of Hell could not prevail against the Church. The Church is still as vigorous as ever with the vigor of youth, and spreads out her branches as the true tree of life over the earth, dispenses blessing and salvation, and produces glorious fruits of innumerable holy souls for Heaven. Truly here is the power of God; here is the living proof of the Divinity of Christ.

   4. But for the Divinity of Jesus Christ there is still a living proof which God holds before the eyes of His people as the antithesis of His Church. This proof is the punishment which soon after the Crucifixion of the Savior overtook the Jewish people. But if we have seen the Providence of God in the guidance of these people before the coming of Christ, and the wisdom of God in their preparation for the Messias by types and prophecies, we can always be assured that the same Providence, the same wisdom of God, reveals itself also after the coming of Christ, in order that we and all men may know by the living proofs the truth that the Son of God came down from Heaven, and that we may believe in Him, as once the world hoped for Him before His coming. 

Therefore, we will openly and fearlessly consider this new living proof for the Divinity of Christ, for thus spoke the Archangel Raphael to Tobias: "For it is good to hide the secret of a king; but honorable to reveal and profess the works of God" [Tob. 12, 7]. I do not seek my honor, but the honor of Our Divine Savior, Who has been scarcely at any time more blasphemed than at the present by the unChristian and scandalous life of Christians or by the scorn and contempt of infidels. The punishment, therefore, which overtook the Jewish people, and still continues, is this living proof of the Divinity of Jesus Christ.

   God did great and marvelous things for the Jewish people during almost two thousand years. His Providence over these people was glorious, still more glorious were His promises to them. And precisely because of the munificence toward these people, the punishment inflicted upon them in consequence of their disobedience was all the more terrible. In truth, they must have loaded themselves with guilt to have merited such a punishment and banishment. They were guilty and merited this punishment, for the Jews were guilty of deicide and in proportion to this guilt was the punishment meted out to them.

   And, in fact, all the circumstances of the misfortune which overtook Jerusalem plainly indicate that this guilty race should now receive the punishment which it had inflicted upon Jesus, and that His Blood should come upon them. At Easter time Jesus began His Passion; at Easter time when three millions of Jews had assembled for the festival, began the terrible sufferings of this people in consequence of the siege of Jerusalem-----sufferings, than which Christ Himself said the world had never seen greater nor ever would see greater. And how true this was an eye witness, Flavius Josephus, a Jew and celebrated historian, narrates in his history of the Jews.

   On Mount Olivet, the Jews first laid hands on the Savior; from Mount Olivet the city was first stormed. Jesus was led away a prisoner; ninety-seven thousand Jews fell into the hands of the Romans during the war and were led away as prisoners. Jesus during the night of His Passion was kept in a narrow cell, and Jerusalem, during the days of its suffering, was surrounded by Titus with a trench, and hemmed in from all sides. Jesus was sold for thirty pieces of silver, and thirty thousand Jews were sold into slavery. Jesus was scourged by the Roman soldiery, mocked and lifted up on the Cross; by these same soldiers all the Jews who had survived the famine and misery of Jerusalem, which was so terrible that mothers devoured their own children-----all these were driven out of the city, scourged, mocked and crucified, sometimes five hundred or more on one day, so that at last there were no more crosses to be had.

   And now for nineteen hundred years the remnants of this race have been scattered throughout the world. Many legislatures have used in vain their best endeavors to amalgamate the Jews with other nationalities, but, as little as oil and water can be mixed, so little can the Jewish people as a strange element be amalgamated with other nations. And although sometimes it seemed to succeed, a higher power always thwarted it and it was forcibly prevented. These people, therefore, must be guilty of a terrible crime which surpasses in malice all former ones, as the present visitation and banishment surpasses all former punishments in severity and endurance. On account of their idolatry and on account of their infidelity towards God they were kept in the Babylonian captivity for only seventy years, but the present banishment has already lasted over eighteen hundred years and the abomination of desolation still reigns in the Holy Place, and will continue to do so until the end of the world. God revealed all this even to King Solomon, Christ the Lord revealed it most minutely, the prophet Daniel foretold it as a consequence of their denial of the Messias and of His murder. Therefore, Jesus is God and the Son of God!

   The Jewish people is the living proof of the Divinity of Jesus Christ, a proof which God Himself places before our very eyes, and as this people had continuous promises, types, and prophecies of the Savior in the Old Testament, so we have in the New Testament living proofs for His Divinity in the spread of the Gospel, in Holy Church and in the punishment of the Jewish people. Anyone who does not now believe in the Divinity of Jesus Christ may not be afflicted with temporal punishment as the Jews, but instead he will be banished from Heaven and punished eternally in Hell.

   Nevertheless, my dear friends, cast no stone at the Jewish people on account of the murder of the Savior, for anyone who continues to sin in spite of Our Divine Savior, who continues to give scandal to his neighbor, induces him to transgress the Commandments of God, to desecrate Sunday, and to transgress the commandments of the Church, anyone who does these things murders the Savior in his own soul and the soul of his neighbor. His punishment is no longer a temporal one, it is an eternal one, and, in the Jewish people, he has a living example of what will happen to him in eternity, and as everything was minutely fulfilled in them, so, too, will everything be fulfilled in him with the same certainty and exactness.

   5. Yes, Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He proves this not only by His miracles and prophecies, but also by His teaching, which is the reflection of the Divine Wisdom. This wisdom enlightens the world, rescues it from error and idolatry, and explains the holy and eternal Nature of God, the life beyond, and our own destiny. This wisdom reveals to the truly faithful eternal truths under the veil of simple words, which are intelligible to the learned and to the child, and instill in all reverence. This wisdom like a mild light enlightens the faithful soul, banishes darkness, inflames the heart, awakes Heavenly longing and spreads consolation and peace, hope and love.

   Christian souls, who plant the Heavenly truth in the garden of their soul, in order that they may grow and bring forth the fruits of innocence and obedience, of patience and of love, feel within themselves that the one Whom they have learned to know, is truly the Son of God.

   And in fact, the teaching of Jesus which flatters neither pride nor the passions, but demands that man deny himself, is loved and kept before the eyes as the one only rule by thousands and thousands of souls who are transformed and sanctified by it. Only He can do this Who holds in His hand the hearts of men, and is able to prepare a susceptible world in spite of the passions diametrically opposed to His teaching. Only Jesus the Son of God can do this.

   6. Jesus Christ is therefore the Son of God, God from eternity to eternity, and of the same substance as the Father, "I and the Father are one." Or as the Apostle St. Paul expresses it: "God hath spoken to His Son, Whom He has appointed heir to all things. By Whom also He made the world. Who being the brightness of His glory and the figure of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, sitteth on the right hand of His majesty on high" [Heb. 1, 2-3]. Therefore, the same Divine attributes belong to Him which belong to the Father and the Holy Ghost: eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, justice and mercy. True, men did not see His Divinity in its substance, for it was hidden in His Humanity, the same as our soul is hidden in our body. But, as the soul reveals itself through the life of the body and its works, so also the Divinity of Christ reveals Itself through its works. " If you do not believe My words, believe at least My works, which give testimony of Me." The Apostles believed; with this faith they went forth into the world, and for the sake of this faith they laid down their lives. Hosts of Martyrs, even children, have sealed their faith with their blood, and with real joy we read in their lives their willing confession of the Divinity of Christ. Even the tombstones of the first Christian centuries, found in the catacombs, speak to us by their inscriptions of the Divinity of Jesus.

   It was known to the pagans that the Christians honored Jesus as God. Yes, the successor of the emperor Augustus, Tiberius, under whom Christ was crucified, on receiving the news from Pontius Pilate regarding the Person of Christ, His miracles, and the more minute circumstances of His death, wished to place Him among the number of Roman Gods. But the Roman senate would not consent to this, for the sole and only reason that Jesus Christ excluded all other gods and demanded for Himself alone Divine worship. Pliny, the governor of Bithynia, narrated later, toward the end of the first century, to the Emperor Trajan, that the Christians assembled on certain days early in the morning, in order to sing hymns to Christ as their God. Lucian, and the philosopher Celsus despised the Christians, because they gave worship to a Crucified Man, and adored Him.

   This is, therefore, the adoration of the Son of God, which has been continued through all the centuries, of which we are also witnesses, and not only witnesses, but heart and soul, we join with all Christians in this adoration. What Christ foretold has been fulfilled: "When I am lifted up, I will draw all things to Me." From the moment that Peter fell upon his knees with the confession: "Thou art Christ the Son of the living God," from the moment that Thomas fell on his knees with the cry: "My Lord and My God,"-----these words have been fulfilled: "As I live sayeth the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me and every tongue shall confess to God" [Rom. 14, 11], or as the Apostle in his burning zeal for the honor of the Lord so longingly desires: "That in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of those that are in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue shall confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father" [Phil. 2, 10-11].

   Whence comes it then, my friends, that so many men today who believe, indeed, everything else, even the most silly things, strive only against the faith in Jesus Christ, as the Son of God Himself from eternity to eternity? Are then the truths of religion not sufficiently revealed, are the proofs of His Divine Providence not sufficiently evident? On every side mighty voices are raised to give testimony of Him. But when man has once concluded friendship with vice, then he recedes involuntarily from the Divine; the dark, hellish power, which rules within him, communicates to him the horror which it feels itself before God. Therefore, it drives him to deny Jesus Christ as the Son of God, or, at least, to deny Him by his life. Truth is only mirrored in a pure innocent heart, and by such a heart it is understood, loved and followed, and may you also preserve a pure heart, free from vice and disobedience to God, the Commandments, and the Church; then also truth will be mirrored in you; like a mild, soft light it will enlighten your mind, spread consolation and peace in your soul and make you happy in the confession, "O Lord, I believe; O Lord, I hope; O Lord, I love thee with all my heart,." Amen.