This answer is addressed to John, because the demand was made in his name; but, at bottom, it was for the disciples it was made. The conclusion of the answer completely demonstrated this. Happy, in point of fact, whosoever does not become scandalized in Jesus Christ! The greatest misfortune of the Jews was their being scandalized in him. But this had a particular application to the disciples of John, who had taken scandal, because Jesus Christ did not prescribe to his disciples a kind of life as austere as what they practised themselves; and we have not forgotten that they combined with the Pharisees to make this a cause of reproach against him. Here, then, they found all that they needed-proof of the mission of Jesus Christ by miracles, to which he condescended to let them be ocular witnesses, and, moreover, a preservative against every thing that could alienate them from his person. Neither one nor the other was necessary to John the Baptist. Wherefore the Saviour had nothing to give him but eulogy, the most magnificent that ever issued from his sacred lips, but of which no person could have been less worthy than the precursor, if, after having been blessed beforehand with so many lights, he had been capable of doubting, for one instant, that Jesus was truly the Messiah.

For whether Jesus Christ wished only to praise John, or whether his design was to hinder, at the same time, those who had witnessed the deputation from believing that John vacillated in the testimony he had rendered to him, (a)" when the messengers were departed, Jesus began to speak concerning John," and beginning by praise of his unshakable firmness, "he began to say to the multitudes" who listened to him: "What went you out to the desert to see? a reed shaken with the wind?" Could a soul so superficial, and a character so frivolous, excite to such a pitch your curiosity and your admiration? "But what went you out to see? a man clothed in soft garments? Behold, they that are clothed in costly apparel and live delicately are in the houses of kings." Another circumstance which gives weight to the testimony of John. A man devoted to such an

(a) St. Luke, vii. 24-26, 28; St. Matthew, xi. 10-14.

of the dead. Would to Heaven that it had no other point of resemblance to these prodigies-that of being as rare!

Yet he

austere course of life, having no wants, had no interest in this world. He could not, therefore, be suspected of flattery; for what profit could he have derived from it? "But," in short, adds the Saviour, "what, then, went you out to see?"a prophet? Yea, I say to you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written: Behold, I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare the way before thee (12). For, amen, I say to you, amongst those that are born of women, there is not a greater than John the Baptist (13). that is lesser in the kingdom of God is greater than he." Such is the superiority of the law which commences at the close of the existing law, that the first of the one, in the order of the ministry, is the last of the other. For here a new order of things is actually being established, and John, placed between the two Testaments, terminates the ancient, and announces the new. แ From the days of the preaching of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven," previously proposed to one nation alone, "is open to all people." Let the Jews cease to boast of the rights to which they lay claim. This is not an inheritance in which children must succeed to their

(12) God said, in Malachy, chapter iii.: Behold, I send my angel, and he shall prepare the way before my face. In the prophet it is the Son who speaks; in the evangelist it is the Son who makes the Father speak; in both cases it is always God, and the same God; and the difference of the two texts shows the distinction and the equality of the persons. This is the first proof which Jesus Christ gives of the superiority of John over all the other prophets; for he is the only prophet who has been foretold. He is called angel, which signifies sent, on account of his office, and also on account of his life, more angelical than human, which, as Eusebius reports (Demon. Evang., lib. ix., chap. 5), made some believe that, in point of fact, and by nature, John was not a man, but an angel. No doubt they were deceived; but then it was a matter in which they might easily be so.

(13) Saint Matthew only says: There has not arisen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist. What he says before and after lets us easily see that it is with reference to prophecy that John is preferred to all that had appeared up to that time. Saint Luke, who says plainly that there is no greater prophet than John the Baptist, does not permit us to doubt any longer of this being its literal sense. The text of Saint Matthew has made some believe that Saint John was the greatest saint, as well in the Old as in the New Testament; or, to speak with more precision, that none was more saintly than he; for the text does not exclude equality. This sense, although not literal, should always be respected, because it has been always followed by antiquity, and the Church seems to have adopted it in these words, which it sings in honor of the holy precursor: No one in this vast universe has been more holy than Saint John.

fathers; it is a conquest reserved for whosoever shall have the courage to carry it sword in hand: it suffereth violence, and the "violent bear it away. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John." But prophecy ceases when accomplishment begins. True, you think that Elias should be the precursor of the Messiah; but "if you will receive it, John is Elias that is to come. He who hath

ears to hear, let him hear (14)."

Informed of what John the Baptist really was, and of the interesting object of his mission, (a) " the people and the publicans, being baptized with John's baptism, hearing, justified God," and recognized his justice in the means by which he attained his ends. "But the Pharisees and the lawyers, being not baptized by John (15), despised the council of God against themselves," and their inflexible stubbornness in rejecting all the means which God had set in motion to gain them over, drew down upon them this just reproach: "Whereunto, said he, shall I liken the men of this generation, and

(a) St. Luke, vii. 29–35.

(14) Jesus Christ sometimes makes use of this conclusion when his words have a mysterious and profound sense, or when they propose a sublime perfection. The words which he has just spoken are of the first kind; and we do not flatter ourselves that the explanation inserted in the text removes all the difficulties: here is an abstract thereof, which may throw further light upon it. John is declared to be the greatest of the children of women, not for his sanctity, if we confine ourselves to the literal sense, but for his quality of immediate precursor of the Messiah, a quality which raises him above all the prophets. But the Church, which the Messiah came to found, is so superior to the synagogue, that the lowest of its ministers is, by his ministry, superior to John himself. This Church is actually established, and is designated by the most magnificent characters, by its universality, which embraces all people, called from the four parts of the world to enter into it as into a conquered country. The preaching of John was given to announce its establishment, and the cessation of the law and of the prophets, which only served as preparatives to it. The Jews were under the persuasion that Elias should precede the Messiah. John has the spirit and virtue of Elias, and in this matter their expectation is already fulfilled, without reference as to what shall happen at the second coming, when every one agrees that the Messiah shall be preceded by Elias in person.

(15) It was through the baptism of John that God wished to bring them to the faith. The contempt of the smallest grace made them miss the decisive grace of salvation. The chain, being once broken, was never more renewed for them. Let us profit from every thing, since the greatest things are often hinged upon the smallest, and that it is not impossible that the very thing upon which all depends seems to dwindle to a mere trifle.

to what are they like? They are like to children (16) sitting in the market-place, speaking one to another, and saying: We have piped to you, and you have not danced; we have mourned, and you have not wept. For John the Baptist came, neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and you say: He hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and you say: Behold a man that is a glutton and a drinker of wine, a friend of publicans and sinners. Thus wisdom is justified by all her children," not merely by those who have been docile to her voice, but also by the rebellious. Did the latter wish for an austere life? They found that in Saint John the Baptist. Did they like a common life? Such was the life of Jesus Christ. Take the two opposite kinds of life: criticism of the one was apology for the other, and meant respectively preference of one to the other. In this state of things, to be scandalized at both one and the other, and not submit to either, is a declaration of purpose to be scandalized at every thing, and submit to nothing. As regarded God, the means did not fail, but they became useless, by the obstinacy of the incredulous, and the reasons which the latter advanced to elude them were at the same time the apology of God's conduct, and the condemnation of their own incredulity. Let us not be surprised that they should be included under the common denomination of children of wisdom. All the Jews had God for their legislator, and his wisdom for their director; and, though for the most part bad disciples, they were not the less under her discipline; and in this sense all might be called her children.

(16) It is not the incredulous Jews, it is Jesus Christ and Saint John who are compared to children who sing and weep; and unbelievers are compared to children whom others cannot induce by any means to share in their joys or sorrows. This mode of comparison is not unexampled in Scripture, which often compares the whole to the whole, leaving to the attentive reader the care of distributing the different members of the comparison.

CHAPTER XX.

THE HOLY WOMEN WHO FOLLOWED JESUS CHRIST.-HIS FRIENDS WISH TO SEIZE HIS PERSON.-HEALING OF A BLIND AND DUMB MAN WHO WAS POSSESSED.BLASPHEMY OF THE PHARISEES.-SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST.

MEANTIME "Jesus," whose zeal could neither be blunted by contradiction, nor exhausted by toil, (a) “ travelled through the cities and towns, preaching and evangelizing the kingdom of God. The twelve," to whom his examples were to serve as lessons for the same ministry, "were with him. were with him. And [there also were] with him certain women (1) who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, viz. : Mary, who is called Magdalen (2), out of whom seven devils were

(a) St. Luke, viii. 1, 2.

(1) Perhaps we may be surprised that Jesus Christ should have suffered women in his retinue. It was, says Saint Jerome, an established usage among the Jews, that women, and especially widows, should follow their religious teachers, and administer to their wants. The custom took away the scandal, and assuredly the Jews took no scandal at Jesus on this account, since they never made any reproach to him concerning it, whilst they calumniated him upon every thing else. The apostles conducted themselves in the same way as their divine Master. Saint Paul decides positively that they had a right to do so. If he did not avail himself of this right, it was out of precaution for the Gentiles, who, not being aware of this usage, might thereupon take scandal. The heretics have much too far abused it; and you will find very few sects, indeed, who have failed to avail themselves of it. We, therefore, have a right to this usage founded on the example of Jesus Christ. We have, in the example of Saint Paul, reserve, if, when availing ourselves of the right, there be apprehensions lest people should be scandalized; and in heretics, we have the abuse; the consequences of which should make those persons tremble who are so badly advised as to attach themselves to these false teachers. For, if she who serves the apostle shall have the same reward as he, the punishment of the heresiarch shall therefore be reserved for her who shall have served the heresiarch.

(2) The reader has seen, page 104, Chap. XIV., the reasons on account of which we do not distinguish her from the penitent woman, nor from Mary, the sister of Lazarus, and of Martha. Some interpreters understand by the seven demons, the vices from which she was delivered. Others hold that she really was possessed by seven demons, whom Jesus Christ expelled from her body by the virtue of his word. Those who declare themselves to be of this opinion should add, that this deliverance preceded, and apparently occasioned the conversion of Magdalen.