Today's Gospel, well-known especially to those who attend the TLM, brings home the point that not all people are equal.
Note verse 5-not all to whom Christ is revealed "comprehend" or accept Him.
The pertains not only to the Jews at the time of Christ, but to all those who hear the Word of God and reject Him.
Verses ten through twelve could not be more specific in relating the rejection of the Jews and the acceptance of the Gospel who hear the Word of God, who hear Christ and accept His Truth. Those who accept Christ become "sons of God" and those who do not are not "sons of God".
Those who are enlightened, the same term used by St. Paul in the second reading, are given power to become sons of God. And, those people, the new chosen, are born of the Will of God, God's Will not man's will.
Again, we are faced with the mystery of predestination, of predilection.
Christ alone reveals the Father to us, no one else does this. Therefore, those who accept Christ, those who become Christians, either through their parents at baptism or older, become the chosen ones of God, preordained from all time.
Let me here quote, again, Garrigou-Lagrange. What he explains is the Teaching of the Catholic Church, and, again, you may go back to the two long selections I placed on the blog in order for you to understand that not all are equal according to God's Will.
The Supreme Principles
Nothing comes to pass, either in heaven or on earth, unless God either brings it to pass in mercy, or then in justice permits it. This principle, taught in the universal Church, shows that there is in God a conditional and antecedent will, relative to a good which does not come to pass, the privation of which He permits in view of some higher good.
To this principle we must add another: [1457] God does not command the impossible. From these two revealed principles derives the distinction between God's efficacious consequent will and His antecedent will, which is the source of sufficient grace.
All that God wills, He does. This principle has no exception. All that God wills (purely, simply, unconditionally) comes to pass without our freedom being thereby in any way forced, because God moves that freedom sweetly and strongly, actualizing it, not destroying. He wills efficaciously that we freely consent and we do freely consent. The supreme efficacy of divine causality, says St. Thomas, [1458] extends to the free mode of our acts.
Many repeat these principles, but do not see that they contain the foundation of the distinction between the two kinds of grace, one that is self-efficacious, the other simply sufficient which man may resist, but not without divine permission.
Hence we find that in the ninth century, to terminate the long controversy with Gottschalk, the Council of Thuzey (860): at the instance of the Augustinian bishops, harmonized God's will of universal salvation with the sinner's responsibility. That Council's synodal letter [1459] contains this sentence: Whatever He has willed in heaven or on earth, God has done. For nothing comes to pass in heaven or on earth that He does not in mercy bring to pass or permits to come to pass in justice.
Since God's love is the cause of created goodness, says St. Thomas, [1460] no created thing would be better than another, if God did not give one a great good than He gives to another. This is equivalent to St. Paul's word: [1461] What hast thou that thou hast not received?
Have the synodal cardinals who are fighting the long teaching of the Church regarding marriage understand or even know the teaching of the Church on these matters? Are they rebellious? Have they lost their faith in grace and God's Will? Do they understand that all have sufficient grace, and that some say "no" to this grace? See my long series on January 1st and follow through with reading the two long selections from Garrigou-Lagrange, who merely recapitulates the Church's teaching on grace and predilection, seen in today's Gospel.
John 1:1-18Douay-Rheims
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the light, that all men might believe through him.
8 He was not the light, but was to give testimony of the light.
9 That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name.
13 Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
15 John beareth witness of him, and crieth out, saying: This was he of whom I spoke: He that shall come after me, is preferred before me: because he was before me.
16 And of his fulness we all have received, and grace for grace.
17 For the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
18 No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
