"When Jesus and his disciples had passed over, they came into the land of Genesareth, and set ashore. Immediately when they were gone out of the ship, the men of that place knew Jesus, and, running through the whole country, they brought in beds those that were sick where they heard he was. And whithersoever he entered, into towns or into villages or cities, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch but the hem of his garment. And as many as touched him were made whole."

CHAPTER XXV.

DISCOURSE OF JESUS CHRIST ON THE EUCHARIST.-MURMUR OF THE JEWS.

(a) "THE next day," after the multiplication of the loaves, "the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other ship but one; that Jesus had not entered into the ship with his disciples; but that his disciples were gone away alone." They were at a loss to know what was become of him; and this people, still proposing to proclaim him king, sought for him in vain, when "other ships came in from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they had eaten [miraculous] bread, the Lord giving thanks. When, therefore, they saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples," presuming, moreover, that whatever was the case, he had gone to rejoin them, "they took shipping, and came to Capharnaum, seeking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea," either that same day, or perhaps the day after, "they said to him,” with sur(a) St. John, vi. 22-27.

embarrassing difficulty for the interpreters. All agree that Jesus went successively to these places, which were not far distant from one another. But some state that he first arrived at Capharnaum, in order to go afterwards to Genesareth. Others state that he disembarked at Genesareth, whence he proceeded almost immediately to Capharnaum. It would be too long to report their reasons; and the question, which is not very important, would not, after a full report, be any thing clearer than it now is.

prise: "Rabbi, when camest thou hither?" Instead of satisfying their curiosity, Jesus, who wished to instruct them, deemed it more proper to disclose to them the interested motive of their great eagerness to find him. "He answered them [therefore]: Amen, amen, I say to you, you seek me, not because you have seen miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto life everlasting (1), which the Son of man will give you, for him hath God the Father sealed" by the prodigies which attest the truth of his mission, and which are, as it were, the letters patent by which God declares to all men that it is himself who sends him, and that all his words should be received as the express declaration of the divine will.

An idle life, passed amid the abundance of good things, was, as we see, the sole attraction to this people, and this the bread miraculously multiplied made them hope from Jesus Christ. The first of these hopes is already destroyed by this word of the Saviour: "Labor." Neither will he let the other exist, at least in the manner they had conceived it. Nevertheless, as he has just spoken to them of a nourishment which, according to the meaning they attached to his words, should hinder them from dying, their appetite, excited by so flattering a hope, makes them consent to labor. The only

(1) Some heretics have concluded, from this expression, that it is forbidden to work for our living. They should have further concluded that it is forbidden to eat, since Saint Paul said: If any man will not work, neither let him eat; but their logic did not go quite so far. We must toil in order to live, in fulfilment of that sentence pronounced against the human race: In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread. But there are two different lives: the life of the body and the life of the soul-the present life and the future life. The body perishes, the soul perisheth not; the present life is short, the future life shall be eternal. To prefer the first to the second-to do every thing for the former and nothing for the latter is the disorderly, but too common, state of things, which Jesus Christ reproves by this expression: Labor not (principally) for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto life everlasting. do so

We must toil from necessity, but also from virtue; we must toil, but we may from the motive of fulfilling the will of God; we must labor to procure ourselves the bread which is necessary for the support of this mortal life, but, above all, in order to share that immortal life, which shall be the recompense of necessary labor, sanctified by similar motives. This labor practically harmonizes Jesus Christ with Saint Paul; and, by means of the nourishment which perisheth, worketh out that which endureth unto life everlasting.

thing they had yet to hear was, by what labor they should merit this nourishment. "They said, therefore, unto him: What shall we do that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered, and said to them: This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he hath sent (2)."

This was but the commencement, and the effort was not very painful still they stopped short at this first step. "What sign, therefore, dost thou show, that we may see, and may believe thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them from heaven to eat."

Partly foiled in their hopes, they already began to waver in their faith. They demanded miracles from him who had just been workstriking in their favor. It is true, they do not as yet formally reject him; but, by a subtlety worthy of their stubborn and ungrateful hearts, they taunt him with the miracle of the manna, which they judged so superior to his, that the latter, according to their notions, could no longer be called a miracle. Whence their incredulity tacitly drew this conclusion, which tended less to elevate Moses than to lower Jesus Christ: Let this new legislator work miracles like to those of the old, and we shall have in him the same faith which our fathers had in Moses.

Here, again, we recognize the predominant taste of this people, inasmuch as, for the purpose of exciting the emulation of the Saviour, they oppose to him a miracle of abundance and satiety; for, as Jesus Christ had told them, they estimated much higher the nourishment which gratified their appetite than the miraculous work of God which produced it. This was, perhaps, the principal reason of the preference which they gave to Moses. The latter had fed two

(2) We shall shortly see that this wondrous aliment is nothing else than the eucharistic bread. We merit it by doing the work of God-that is faith, saith the Saviour; not that faith is enough to merit this gift, if the faith were alone, but because it is the first of all the requisite dispositions, and that it generally produces the others. It is, the efore, by faith that we must always commence when we prepare to eat the heavenly bread. Humility, desire, and love shall flow naturally from this source, and these sentiments shall have more or less strength, in proportion as the faith shall be more lively or more languishing. This is a point to which, perhaps, sufficient attention is not paid. Persons have faith; but they repose too easily upon habitual faith, which should be then redoubled, to make it produce double fervor.

millions of people during forty years; what was it, in comparison, to have once given food to a few thousands? As if the grandeur of miracles was to be measured (if we may dare use such language) by the bushel, and that, in a smaller compass, God might not display equal power. But, finally, Moses was not the author of the manna, which their fathers had received from God alone. Neither was this bread from heaven, which is only termed such in the sense in which we say, the birds of heaven; that is to say, because it fell from the upper region of the air, where it had been formed by the hands of angels; neither was this bread to be at all compared to that which Jesus Christ comes to give them. I say it was not comparable to this bread, neither in its origin, since the latter is properly the bread descended from heaven; nor in the extent of its use, since it may suffice for all men during all ages; nor in its effect, which shall be to give and preserve an immortal life. A truth which must have seemed incredible to these prejudiced and coarse minds; wherefore Jesus Christ, in order to give it greater weight, is going to assure them of it with an oath.

"He said to them then: Amen, amen, I say to you: Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven; for the bread of God is that which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world. They said, therefore, unto him: Lord, give us always this bread."

This was just the answer of the Samaritan, whom they also resembled, inasmuch as they did not understand the bread which gives life to the world in a sense more spiritual than that woman had at first understood the water which gives eternal life. But Jesus, then, beginning to enter into the depths of the mystery he had to propose to them, "answered them [thus]: I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never thirst. But I said unto you: that you also have seen me, and you believe not." Consequently you follow me in vain, because it is not with the feet of the body, but by faith, that men come really to me. Thus it is, that "all that the Father giveth to me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will not cast out, because I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. Now, this is the will of the Father, who

sent me (3), that of all that he hath given to me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again in the last day. This is the will of my Father, that sent me, that every one who seeth the Son, and believeth in him, may have life everlasting; and I will raise him up again in the last day (4)."

Such is the life which Jesus, the true bread of heaven, cometh to give to the world, and this part of the mystery is already explained. It is not this first state of existence, the termination of which is pronounced by an irrevocable sentence; it is that which Jesus Christ shall impart to those who will nourish themselves with him-a life eternal and eternally happy, which shall not only be exempt from death, but also from all the wants and miseries of the present life; a life of which Jesus Christ could say, in the most literal sense, that its possessor shall suffer neither hunger nor thirst, because, together with a relish ever new, he shall enjoy the fulness of everlasting bliss. What a life!—and what transports of joy should not such a magnificent promise cause to the Jews! But it must be allowed that the Saviour had to deal with most stubborn and untractable minds; instead of opening their hearts to this great and precious hope, they pause to criticise his words. "They, therefore, murmured at him, because he had said: I am the living bread which came

(3) The will of the Father and the divine will of the Son is but one and the same will; therefore, when Jesus Christ speaks of the will of his Father and of his own, as of two different wills, he speaks of his human will. By this will he receives all that his Father gives him; and when he says, with reference to this, that he is come to do not his own will, but that of his Father, he wishes to give us to understand, that such is his submission to the will of the Father, that, supposing (what is not the case) that he felt repugnance in receiving all those whom his Father gives him, he would make this repugnance yield to the desire which he has to execute, not his own will, but that of his Father. This submission, despite of the repugnance of his human nature, appeared in him when it was expedient to drink the chalice of his passion.

(4) All men, without distinction of good or bad, shall be resuscitated by the power of Jesus Christ; but there is only mention made here of the resurrection of the first, because this shall be the fruit of his merits, and, as it were, the development of the germ of life which the eucharistic bread shall have mingled with their flesh, and which shall have preserved itself even in their arid bones and inanimate ashes. Wherefore, this resurrection alone shall be happy and glorious, while that of the wicked, simply produced by the almighty justice of an avenging God, shall be less a return to life than the commencement of a life ever dying, and of an immortal death.