42 For by that wherein you knew, O Pharisee, that our Lord was not a prophet, by that very thing it was proved that you did not know the prophets. For by this that you said— Had this man been a prophet, he would have known, you show herein that (in your esteem) whoever is a prophet knows all things. But lo! some matters were hidden from the prophets; how then do you attribute the revelation of all hidden things to the prophets? But this unwise teacher who perverted the scriptures of the Prophets, did not even understand what he read in the scriptures. For it was not only that the greatness of the Lord was not discerned by that Pharisee, but he did not even discern the weakness of the prophets. For our Lord, as knowing all things, allowed that sinful woman to come in and receive His peace. But Elisha, as one ignorant, said to the Shunamite;— Peace to you and peace be to the child. Accordingly he who supposed that our Lord was proved not to be a prophet, was himself proved not to know the Prophets. When the mind contains malice and cannot refrain, then that malice which is in it, is cunning in finding a pretext for opening a door; but in case that pretext, in which the deceiver takes refuge is confuted, he knows that within this there is another concealed which he may employ.
Now observe this son of Israel, how he was like Israel in stubbornness. For heathenism was bound up in the mind of the People; therefore Moses was taken away from them, that the wickedness that was within them might become manifest. But that they might not be put to shame, and that it might not be known how they were seeking idols, they first sought for Moses, and then for idols. As for this Moses, we know not what has become of him. And if God, Who cannot die, brought you out of Egypt, why do you seek for a man, who at some time must die? Yet they did not desire Moses, that he should become a god to them; because Moses could hear and see and reprove; but they sought for a god who could neither hear nor see nor reprove. But whenever Moses shall have died, what shall remain of him? For behold, your God is a living God, and lo! He has revealed Himself to you by living testimonies. For the bright cloud was at that time overshadowing them, and they had the pillar of light in the night-time. Water flowed for them from the rock, and they drank its streams. They were delighted every day by tasting that manna, the fame of which we have heard. How was Moses far from you? Behold the signs of Moses surround you. Or how does the person of Moses profit you, when you have such a guide as this? If your garments wear not old, and a temperate air refreshes you, if the heat and the cold do not hurt you, and you have rest from war, and art far removed from the fear of Egypt—what thing then was lacking to Israel that he sought for Moses? Open heathenism was lacking to him. For it was not for Moses that he sought, but on the pretext of Moses' absence he followed after the calf. Thus briefly have we showed, that when the mind is full of anything, but an opposing reason meets it, then it forces it by violence to open for it a door to that which it desires.
Source: On Our Lord (New Advent)