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sought in Him for a
carnal greatness.
663. Typical.--Nothing is so like charity as covetousness, and nothing is so
opposed to it. Thus the Jews, full of possessions which flattered their
covetousness, were very like Christians, and very contrary. And by this
means they had the two qualities which it was necessary they should have, to
be very like the Messiah to typify Him, and very contrary not to be
suspected witnesses.
664. Typical.--God made use of the lust of the Jews to make them minister to
Jesus Christ, who brought the remedy for their lust.
665. Charity is not a figurative precept. It is dreadful to say that Jesus
Christ, who came to take away types in order to establish the truth, came
only to establish the type of charity, in order to take away the existing
reality which was there before.
"If the light be darkness, how great is that darkness!"
666. Fascination. Somnum suum.118 Figura hujus mundi.119
The Eucharist. Comedes panem tuum.120 Panem nostrum.121
Inimici Dei terram lingent.122 Sinners lick the dust, that is to say, love
earthly pleasures.
The Old Testament contains the types of future joy, and the New contains the
means of arriving at it. The types were of joy; the means of penitence; and
nevertheless the Paschal Lamb was eaten with bitter herbs, cum
amaritudinibus.123
Singularis sum ego donec transeam.124 Jesus Christ before His death was
almost the only martyr.
667. Typical.--The expressions sword, shield. Potentissime.[125]
668. We are estranged only by departing from charity. Our prayers and our
virtues are abominable before God, if they are not the prayers and the
virtues of Jesus Christ. And our sins will never be the object of mercy, but
of the justice of God, if they a
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