tables, and practised their calling; and others sold in the sacred places the doves which were needed as offerings. And in the daytime He was teaching in the temple; and at night He went out, and abode in Mount Olivet. The following morning Jesus returned into the city. And as they passed along, they saw the fig-tree that had been cursed and dried up from the roots. And Peter said, Master, behold the fig-tree is withered away. And Jesus bade them have faith in the power of God, and promised them that whatsoever they should ask of God in prayer, even such wonders as should seem like the removing a mountain, and casting it into the sea, should be granted to their undoubting faith. Then He went into the temple, and, as He was teaching, there came to Him the chief priests and ancients of the people, and said: By what authority doest Thou these things? and who gave Thee this authority? Jesus, answering, said to them: I also will ask you one word, which if you shall tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven or from men? But they thought within themselves, saying: If we shall say, From heaven, He will say to us: Why then did not you believe Him? But if we shall say, From men, we are afraid of the multitude: for all held John as a prophet. And answering Jesus, they said: We know not. And He said to them: Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things. But what think you? A certain man had two sons; and coming to the first, he said: Son, go work to-day in my vineyard. And he, answering, said I will not. But, afterwards, being moved with repentance, he went. And coming to the other, he said in like manner. And he answering, said: I go, sir. And he went not. Which of the two did the father's will? They say to Him: The first. Jesus saith to them: Amen I say to you, that the publicans and the harlots shall go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of justice: and you did not believe him. But the publicans and the harlots believed him: but you, seeing it, did not even afterwards repent, that you might believe him. And He spoke another parable foreshadowing His death, and the obstinacy of the Jews, who having first rejected and slain the prophets of the old law, would now slay the Son of God when He came among them, and, refusing to receive Him as the promised Messias, would be disowned by God as His people, that the Gentiles might come in and take their place, and believe in Him whom the Jews had refused to hear. There was a man (He said) a householder who planted a vineyard, and made a hedge round about it, and dug in it a winepress, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen : and went into a strange country. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen having laid hold of his servants, they beat one, they killed another, and another they stoned. Again he sent other servants more than the former and they did to them in like manner. And last of all he sent to them his son, saying: They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves: This is the heir, come, let us kill him, and we shall have his inheritance. And taking him they cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him. When the lord, therefore, of the vineyard shall come, what will he do to those husbandmen? They say to him: He will bring those evil men to an evil end; and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, that shall render him the fruit in due season. CHAP. XXXVI. The Parable of the Marriage-Feast. AND Jesus spoke again to them in parables, saying: The kingdom of heaven is like to a man being a king, who made a marriage for his son. And he sent his servants to call them that were invited to the marriage: and they would not come. Again he sent other ser : vants, saying: Tell them that were invited: Behold, I have prepared my dinner : my beeves and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come ye to the wedding. But they neglected, and went their ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise. And the rest laid hands on his servants, and having treated them contumeliously, put them to death. But when the king heard of it, he was angry, and sending his armies, he destroyed those murderers, and burnt their city. Then he saith to his servants: The wedding, indeed, is ready but they that were invited were not worthy. Go ye, therefore, into the highways, and as many as you shall find, invite to the wedding. And his servants going out into the highways, gathered together all that they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was filled with guests. And the king went in to see the guests: and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment. And he saith to him: Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? But he was silent. Then the king said to the waiters : Having bound his hands and feet, cast him into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. This parable again prefigures the rejection of the Jewish people for their unbelief, and the calling in of the Gentiles to the rewards of Christ's kingdom. The wedding garment represents that holiness of heart and life without which no man can sit down at the marriagefeast of the Lamb in heaven; and the guilt of the guest who came in without the required garment was doubly great, because it was the custom of princes and wealthy men on such occasions to furnish the garments to those guests who needed them, as God of His free mercy Himself bestows on us those graces which He requires at our hands. The Pharisees then watched Jesus, and sent spies to ensnare Him by fresh devices. The Jews, though now subject to the Romans, had ever claimed to be an independent nation, as the chosen people of God. And the Pharisees hoped to bring Jesus to declare that they ought now to be independent, and that it was unlawful to pay taxes to the Romans, in order that they might report His words to the governor, who ruled them as a deputy of Cæsar, the Roman emperor. Yet they themselves admitted that Cæsar was their master, by making use of the money which bore his portrait and royal titles; and thus out of their own mouths were they convicted. Then again the Sadducees, a sect who denied a future life, sought to entangle Jesus into an admission that the doctrine of the resurrection was impossible. If a woman, they said, had seven husbands, one after another, during her life, to which of them would she belong in a future world. And Jesus replied that in the next world there was neither marrying nor giving. And when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they came together: and one of them, a doctor of the law, asked Him, tempting Him: Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets. CHAP. XXXVII. The Parables of the Widow's Mites, the Ten Virgins, the Talents, and the Sheep and the Goats. AND Jesus, sitting over against the treasury, beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she cast in two mites, which make a farthing. And calling His disciples together, He said to them: Amen I say to you, this poor widow hath cast in more than all they who have cast into the treasury. For they all did cast in of their abundance; but she, of her want, cast in all she had, even her whole living. Then Jesus began to speak to them of the vengeance that He would finally take upon the Jews for their sins, and of the terrible destruction of their city and nation. And He gave many signs and tokens by which His second coming to judge the world should be known to His people, and warned them of the last awful persecutions with which their faith should be tried, commanding them to be ever on the watch for His coming, because He would come as a thief in the night. And He taught them the same things in parables. Then shall the kingdom of heaven, He said, be like to ten virgins, who, taking their lamps, went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. Now five of them were foolish; and five were wise. But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. And while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold, the bridegroom cometh: go ye forth to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: Give us of your oil: for our lamps are gone out. The wise answered, saying: Lest there be not enough for us and for you; go you rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. Now, while they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they who were ready, went in with him to the marriage; and the door was shut. But at last came also the other virgins, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us. But he, answering, said: Amen I say to you, I know you not. And thus will it be with those Christians who sleep the sleep of worldliness and sin, while the lamp of holiness, which God has given them to burn, is found extinguished at the moment that Christ calls them to judgment. In another parable, which represented Himself as a man going into a far country, and giving to his servants certain talents, or large sums of money, to employ in his service, He warned them of the reckoning we shall all undergo at His judgment-seat. To one, said Jesus, he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to every one according to his proper ability: and immediately he took his journey. And he that had |