himself far indeed from his expectations, if it be true, as is generally thought, that when tendering himself to Jesus Christ with such apparent generosity of purpose, his sole aim was his own fortune, which he thought to make by attaching himself to this Messiah, of whom he had no more correct ideas than the bulk of his nation. Another truth, of which he seems to have been ignorant, is, that Jesus Christ, who was not always followed by those whom he called to be his followers, never was followed, and never could be followed, except by those whom he first called. (a) “Jesus" taught him this by saying "to another" in the throng: "Follow me." This latter was already one of his disciples, but yet not so as to be inseparably attached to him. Having now received such a special call by this second vocation, (b) "he said to him: Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father." He meant by this to assist his father in his extreme old age, and not to quit him until he had closed his eyes. For if, as some have thought, he had received recent intelligence of the death or extremity of his father, it is natural to suppose that this man, who had not as yet fettered himself by final engagements with Jesus Christ, would have hurried off on the spot, and if he were in the act of asking permission from Jesus Christ, even supposing he had asked him, he never would have calmly tarried until the Lord issued the unexpected order to follow him. (c) "Jesus said to him: Follow me: Let the dead bury their dead (11).” That is to say, let the children of the world take care of the things of the world (12). "But go thou," he added to him, "and preach the kingdom of God."

(a) St. Luke, ix. 59.

(b) St. Matthew, viii. 21.

(c) St. Matthew, viii. 22.

(11) Let the dead of soul take the care of burying those who are dead both in soul and body. The world is full of dead, and those who are mourned for are not more to be pitied than the other class, because death of the body, which is the only subject of tears, impresses the last seal upon the death of the soul, for which we never think of shedding tears, although it is only by the latter that the former death is rendered truly deplorable.

(12) This saying of our Saviour still serves to strengthen the constancy of those whom God calls to a perfect state against the efforts which the world makes to retain them. The world even adopts it in worldly concerns, and would be the first to treat as a rebel or a coward whoever would oppose to an order for marching in the service

To these two transactions which are reported in the same way by Saint Matthew and by Saint Luke, the latter adds a third, supposed not to have taken place upon this same day, yet which the Evangelist thought proper to place here, on account of the resemblance it bears to the two preceding. (a)" Another (man also) said: I will follow thee, Lord, but let me first take my leave of them that are at my house." It does not appear by his request that he sought to pursue a different course of action from that which was subsequently by Jesus Christ himself recommended to the young man to whom he said: (b) "Go, sell what thou hast; give to the poor; and come, follow me." But apparently the renunciation he was projecting was one requiring a very long discussion, for (c) "Jesus said to him: No man putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God;" giving him to understand by these words, that if there are in the world certain professions, requiring from those who pursue them connected and uninterrupted attention, such as that of a laborer who never could plough a furrow straight, if he amused himself looking behind, and let the horses tread off right and left as they pleased; such for a much stronger reason is the apostleship, the most laborious, as well as the most sublime of all ministries, and one that requires imperatively the entire man, which is tantamount to the saying of Saint Paul (13): (d) "No

(a) St. Luke, ix. 60, 61. (b) St. Matthew, xix. 21.

(c) St. Luke, ix. 62.
(d) II. Timothy, ii. 4.

of a prince, the most pressing duties of nature. Yet the world chafes with indignation when hearing the words applied to the service of God; and cruelty is the mildest term which is then given to piety. Then, is te world in contradiction with itself? No; for it thinks, and, if you press the matter a little, will tell you that a prince is of more consequence than God, the earth is of more value than heaven, and that care of the body is preferable to the salvation of souls.

(13) Perhaps Jesus Christ only wished to give this man notice to weigh maturely the step he was desirous of taking, and thus to anticipate the regret which might be caused by the reminiscence of those goods he had too inconsiderately renounced. Such a result would be doubly mischievous to him, since, when stripped of every thing by a sacrifice he might repent, his repenting thereof would render him unworthy of the perfect state for which he had sacrificed every thing. The explanation inserted in the text is that of the majority of interpreters. This, which is not so followed by the learned, seems to be the popular interpretation. For when it is said, that when put

man, being a soldier to God, entangleth himself with secular businesses (14)."

CHAPTER XI.

THE TEMPEST STILLED.-TWO DEMONIACS CURED.-SWINE PRECIPITATED INTO THE SEA.-PARALYTIC CURED.—VOCATION OF SAINT MATTHEW.-JESUS EATS AMONGST SINNERS.-DISPUTE RELATIVE TO FASTING.

come, saith to And, sending

ON that same day (a) "Jesus, when evening was his disciples: Let us pass over to the other side. away the multitude, he went into a little ship with them. They launched forth, and there were other ships with him. When they were sailing, Jesus slept. Behold, a great tempest arose in the sea: there came down a storm of wind upon the lake, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was covered. The ship was filled, and they were in danger. (b) Jesus was in the hinder part of the ship, sleeping upon a pillow (1). His disciples came to him and awaked him.

(a) St. Mark, iv. 35; St. Luke,

viii. 22, 23.

(b) St. Matthew, viii. 25, 26;
St. Mark, iv. 38-40.

ting hand to the plough no man should look back again, the common meaning is, that when once a first step has been taken, we must support it with constancy, and not retrace our steps.

(14) Of these three men, it is thought that only the second followed Jesus Christ. The conclusion is probable enough, from the fact of his being the only one to whom Jesus Christ said, and that even twice: Follow me. He therefore had a vocation, which the two others, who came to offer themselves, had not. Moreover, the difficulty which he made for the present moment sprang from a good principle, and apparently from the persuasion he was under, that the assistance he meant to give his father was to him a duty from which he could not dispense himself without crime. And, in point of fact, before the great maxims of the Gospel had appeared to the world, what obligation could be more binding?

(1) This sleep was not counterfeit, as some have unreasonably contended. Jesus Christ truly slept, and had assumed this weakness of our nature with all the others. Yet there was this difference, that sleep which suspended the use of the senses in the rest of mankind, never deprived him of knowledge. His mind actually knew every thing, and thought of every thing; but he saw nothing, and he heard nothing, with the eyes or ears of the body. He might say of himself, and to the letter: I sleep; but my heart (and mind) watcheth (Cant. 5).

Lord, say they to him, save us, or we perish. Doth it not concern thee that we perish? Jesus," who chose to see in this reproach only the effect of their terror, merely "saith to them" the following words: "Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then, rising up, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was made a great calm; and he said to them" a second time, but in a milder tone than at first, when it required a firm tone to quiet their apprehensions: (a) "Why are you fearful? Have you not faith? yet they feared exceedingly;" but their fear was now of a very different sort; "and they said one to another: Who is this, thinkest thou, that he commandeth both the winds and the sea; and both wind and sea obey him?"

It has been thought that the demons had excited the frightful tempest we have just spoken of. The following narrative, by informing us what interest they had in thwarting this journey, gives ground to the conjecture:-When the calm returned, they continued to sail onward, (b)" and they came over the strait of the sea, on the other side of the water, to the country of the Gerasens, which is over against Galilee. As Jesus went out of the ship, there met him two that were possessed with devils, coming out of the sepulchres, exceeding fierce, so that none could pass by that way." One of the two, apparently the best known, and, for this reason, the only one spoken of by two of the three Evangelists who recount this fact, (c) "had a devil now a very long time," and that in a very violent manner. "He wore no clothes; neither did he abide in a house, but in the sepulchres. No man now could bind him, not even with chains. For having been often bound with fetters and chains, he had burst the chains and broken the fetters in pieces, and no one could tame him. He was always day and night in the monuments (2), and in the mountains, crying, and cutting himself with

(a) St. Mark, iv. 40; St. Luke,

viii. 35.

(b) St. Mark, v. 1; St. Luke, viii. 26, 27; St. Matthew, viii. 28.

(c) St. Luke, viii. 27; St. Mark, v. 3–6.

(2) The sepulchres of the Jews were outside the towns. They were grottoes built of stone and brick, like our cellars, or hewn out of the rock, as was that of Jesus Christ; which shows that they were spacious enough for a living man to dwell therein. We

organ:

stones. (a) Seeing Jesus afar off, he ran, and adored him; and they both cried out," at the same time, or rather the demons, by their "What have we to do with thee, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time (3)? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not," added the devil who possessed the unfortunate man we have just been speaking of. "For Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to go out of the man, and said unto him: Go out of the man, thou unclean spirit." When the unclean spirit still lingered, "Jesus," who desired to make manifest the splendor of his victory over the powers of hell, (b) “asked him: What is thy name? My name is Legion, he said, for we are many. Because [in reality] many devils were entered into him. The demons," forced by the word of Jesus to depart thence, (c) "besought him much that he would not drive them out of the country, and that he would not command them to go into the abyss. There was then a herd of many swine feeding on the mountain. The devils besought him, saying: If thou cast us out hence, send us into the swine, that we may enter into them (4). Jesus immediately gave leave to them; and the unclean spirits going out, entered into the

(a) St. Matthew, viii. 29; St. Mark, v. 7; (b) St. Luke, viii. 30, 31, 32; St. St. Luke, viii. 29; St. Mark, v. 8. Mark, v. 9, 10. (c) St. Matthew, viii. 31; St. Mark, v. 12, 13.

also read of the sepulchre of Jesus Christ, that Peter and John entered there, as well as the holy women who came to embalm the body of the Saviour.

(3) This saying induced several ancient interpreters of respectable authority to believe that the demons were not as yet tormented, and that they should not commence their torments until after the last judgment. This opinion is now-a-days abandoned, and the prevailing one now in the Church is, that the demons suffer, and have suffered from the time of their fall; and that, wherever they go, they carry their hell along with them, Yet they retain a relic of liberty, and the pleasure of doing injury. Now, they will lose both one and the other when, after the last judgment, they shall be closed up in the abyss, whence they shall never more be permitted to emerge. They were apprehensive lest Jesus Christ, who waged against them so terrible a war, might precipitate them there before that time. Hence their complaints and their entreaties not to command them to go into the abyss.

(4) Among the many motives which are supposed to have induced them to make such a demand, the most likely is, that, unable any longer to torment men in their bodies and in their souls, they desired to be allowed to cause them damage in their goods.