Pascal's Pensees Part 60
The types of the completeness of the Redemption, as that the sun gives light to all, indicate only completeness; but [_the types_] of exclusions, as of the Jews elected to the exclusion of the Gentiles, indicate exclusion.
"Jesus Christ the Redeemer of all."--Yes, for He has offered, like a man who has ransomed all those who were willing to come to Him. If any die on the way, it is their misfortune; but, so far as He was concerned, He offered them redemption.--That holds good in this example, where he who ransoms and he who prevents death are two persons, but not of Jesus Christ, who does both these things.--No, for Jesus Christ, in the quality of Redeemer, is not perhaps Master of all; and thus, in so far as it is in Him, He is the Redeemer of all.
When it is said that Jesus Christ did not die for all, you take undue advantage of a fault in men who at once apply this exception to themselves; and this is to favour despair, instead of turning them from it to favour hope. For men thus accustom themselves in inward virtues by outward customs.
781
The victory over death. "What is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?[309] Whosoever will save his soul, shall lose it."[310]
"I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil."[311]
"Lambs took not away the sins of the world, but I am the lamb which taketh away the sins."[312]
"Moses[313] hath not led you out of captivity, and made you truly free."
782
... Then Jesus Christ comes to tell men that they have no other enemies but themselves; that it is their pa.s.sions which keep them apart from G.o.d; that He comes to destroy these, and give them His grace, so as to make of them all one Holy Church; that He comes to bring back into this Church the heathen and Jews; that He comes to destroy the idols of the former and the superst.i.tion of the latter. To this all men are opposed, not only from the natural opposition of l.u.s.t; but, above all, the kings of the earth, as had been foretold, join together to destroy this religion at its birth. (_Proph.: Quare fremuerunt gentes ... reges terrae ... adversus Christum._)[314]
All that is great on earth is united together; the learned, the wise, the kings. The first write; the second condemn; the last kill. And notwithstanding all these oppositions, these men, simple and weak, resist all these powers, subdue even these kings, these learned men and these sages, and remove idolatry from all the earth. And all this is done by the power which had foretold it.
783
Jesus Christ would not have the testimony of devils, nor of those who were not called, but of G.o.d and John the Baptist.
784
I consider Jesus Christ in all persons and in ourselves: Jesus Christ as a Father in His Father, Jesus Christ as a Brother in His Brethren, Jesus Christ as poor in the poor, Jesus Christ as rich in the rich, Jesus Christ as Doctor and Priest in priests, Jesus Christ as Sovereign in princes, etc. For by His glory He is all that is great, being G.o.d; and by His mortal life He is all that is poor and abject. Therefore He has taken this unhappy condition, so that He could be in all persons, and the model of all conditions.
785
Jesus Christ is an obscurity (according to what the world calls obscurity), such that historians, writing only of important matters of states, have hardly noticed Him.
786
_On the fact that neither Josephus, nor Tacitus, nor other historians have spoken of Jesus Christ._--So far is this from telling against Christianity, that on the contrary it tells for it. For it is certain that Jesus Christ has existed; that His religion has made a great talk; and that these persons were not ignorant of it. Thus it is plain that they purposely concealed it, or that, if they did speak of it, their account has been suppressed or changed.
787
"I have reserved me seven thousand."[315] I love the worshippers unknown to the world and to the very prophets.
788
As Jesus Christ remained unknown among men, so His truth remains among common opinions without external difference. Thus the Eucharist among ordinary bread.
789
Jesus would not be slain without the forms of justice; for it is far more ignominious to die by justice than by an unjust sedition.
790
The false justice of Pilate only serves to make Jesus Christ suffer; for he causes Him to be scourged by his false justice, and afterwards puts Him to death. It would have been better to have put Him to death at once. Thus it is with the falsely just. They do good and evil works to please the world, and to show that they are not altogether of Jesus Christ; for they are ashamed of Him. And at last, under great temptation and on great occasions, they kill Him.
791
What man ever had more renown? The whole Jewish people foretell Him before His coming. The Gentile people worship Him after His coming. The two peoples, Gentile and Jewish, regard Him as their centre.
And yet what man enjoys this renown less? Of thirty-three years, He lives thirty without appearing. For three years He pa.s.ses as an impostor; the priests and the chief people reject Him; His friends and His nearest relatives despise Him. Finally, He dies, betrayed by one of His own disciples, denied by another, and abandoned by all.
What part, then, has He in this renown? Never had man so much renown; never had man more ignominy. All that renown has served only for us, to render us capable of recognising Him; and He had none of it for Himself.
792
The infinite distance between body and mind is a symbol of the infinitely more infinite distance between mind and charity; for charity is supernatural.
All the glory of greatness has no l.u.s.tre for people who are in search of understanding.
The greatness of clever men is invisible to kings, to the rich, to chiefs, and to all the worldly great.
The greatness of wisdom, which is nothing if not of G.o.d, is invisible to the carnal-minded and to the clever. These are three orders differing in kind.
Great geniuses have their power, their glory, their greatness, their victory, their l.u.s.tre, and have no need of worldly greatness, with which they are not in keeping. They are seen, not by the eye, but by the mind; this is sufficient.
The saints have their power, their glory, their victory, their l.u.s.tre, and need no worldly or intellectual greatness, with which they have no affinity; for these neither add anything to them, nor take away anything from them. They are seen of G.o.d and the angels, and not of the body, nor of the curious mind. G.o.d is enough for them.
Archimedes,[316] apart from his rank, would have the same veneration. He fought no battles for the eyes to feast upon; but he has given his discoveries to all men. Oh! how brilliant he was to the mind!
Jesus Christ, without riches, and without any external exhibition of knowledge, is in His own order of holiness. He did not invent; He did not reign. But He was humble, patient, holy, holy to G.o.d, terrible to devils, without any sin. Oh! in what great pomp, and in what wonderful splendour, He is come to the eyes of the heart, which perceive wisdom!
It would have been useless for Archimedes to have acted the prince in his books on geometry, although he was a prince.
It would have been useless for our Lord Jesus Christ to come like a king, in order to shine forth in His kingdom of holiness. But He came there appropriately in the glory of His own order.
It is most absurd to take offence at the lowliness of Jesus Christ, as if His lowliness were in the same order as the greatness which He came to manifest. If we consider this greatness in His life, in His pa.s.sion, in His obscurity, in His death, in the choice of His disciples, in their desertion, in His secret resurrection, and the rest, we shall see it to be so immense, that we shall have no reason for being offended at a lowliness which is not of that order.
But there are some who can only admire worldly greatness, as though there were no intellectual greatness; and others who only admire intellectual greatness, as though there were not infinitely higher things in wisdom.