1 Corinthians 1:18

For the preaching of the cross, &c.— "The doctrine of the cross is a doctrine of such a nature as could not recommend itself by human eloquence to the imaginations of vicious and vain disputants, such as were most of the heathen philosophers; but to those who are saved,—to serious and well-disposed persons, who embrace truth wherever they find evidence of it, and who are more pleased with what improves their minds, than with the vain eloquence of the heathen oratory; to such persons the Gospel, in its greatest plainness and original simplicity, is, by the influence of the Holy Spirit, the power of God,—not to amuse men's understandings with needless speculations, but to convert their wills to righteousness and true holiness." See Calmet.