But as this prophecy, the accomplishment of which was to be confided to their care, was not yet as clear to them as it subsequently was, Jesus warned them to meditate on the sense thereof: "If any man hath ears to hear, let him hear."

And, to awaken their attention further, "he said to them: Take heed, therefore, what you hear. In what measure you shall mete, it shall be measured to you again, and more shall be given to you; for he that hath, to him shall be given; but whosoever hath not, that also which he thinketh he hath shall be taken away." This was not the first time that Jesus Christ gave them to understand these two truths; but, when applied to the existing circumstances, they became to the apostles a powerful exhortation to diffuse abundantly the lights he had communicated to them, persuaded that the diffusion of these lights would merit for them an increase thereof, whereas they would be withdrawn from him who attempted to withhold them from others.

CHAPTER XXII.

PARABLES OF THE COCKLE, OF THE MUSTARD-SEED, OF THE LEAVEN, AND OF THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA.-PREACHING OF JESUS CHRIST AT NAZARETH.-PROPHET WITHOUT HONOR IN HIS OWN COUNTRY.

WHETHER What follows was spoken on another day, or whether, which does not appear unlikely, after having conversed for some time apart with his disciples, Jesus began again immediately to address the multitude: (a) "He proposed to them another parable, saying: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seed in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and sowed cockle among the wheat, and went away. And when the blade was sprung up, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle. The servants of the good man of the house coming, said to him: Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field?

(a) St. Matthew, xiii. 24–30.

Whence, then, hath it cockle? And he said to them: An enemy hath done this. The servants said to him: Wilt thou that we go and gather it up? No, he said, lest perhaps gathering up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it (1). Suffer both to grow until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers (2): Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn; but the wheat gather ye into my barn."

Without pausing then for the explanation of this parable, which his disciples desired, but which they would not venture to ask their Divine Master for fear of interrupting him, (a) "Jesus" continued, and "said: So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the earth; and should sleep and rise night and day, the seed should spring and grow up night and day whilst he knoweth not (3):

(a) St. Mark, iv. 26-29.

(1) Wherefore, if it were evident that, in gathering the cockle, we should not root up the wheat, we should gather it, since the father of the family gives no other reason for leaving it. Another consequence.-Therefore the doubt alone, whether if, when gathering the cockle, we may not root up the wheat, obliges us to leave it, since the father of the family does not say absolutely, You should root up the wheat, but lest perhaps you may root it up. In the application we oftener meet doubt than evidence to the contrary, and the cases in which the cockle should be left are much more common than those in which it must be prematurely gathered. Note that it is on account of the wheat that the cockle is spared, and not upon its own account; if we let it grow, it is only to cast it into the fire.

(2) The reapers seem distinguished from the servants; the first are the angels, according to the Saviour's explanation. As he does not say who the servants are, we may be permitted to seek it, and it is natural to think that they are the ministers of his Church. Those whom he speaks of here are not altogether faultless. The sleepers give to the enemy time and opportunity to sow the cockle. The ardent would root it up immediately when it appeared. These faults are not so opposite that they may not be met with in

the same persons. We may be too fond of sleeping, and not be overwise when we awake. May we not also say that this great zeal was the consequence of negligence? The mischief had occurred through their fault; hence their vexation and their impatient desire to root it up.

(3) Jesus Christ was never really to abandon his Church; but would appear to abandon it when, ascending to heaven, he should deprive it of his sensible presence. The state of apparent weakness in which he left it might make his disciples apprehend lest it should disappear with its founder, and that the epoch of its birth was only that of its ruin. Jesus Christ teaches them here that the seed of the word, being once cast by his divine hands, shall not fall in vain upon that blessed earth; and that when he shall appear to be the least occupied concerning it, they shall see it grow and ripen before their eyes, as

For the earth of itself bringeth forth fruit, first the blade, then the ear, afterwards the full corn in the ear (4): and when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come."

Two other parables directly followed this one, and the three have the same object, viz., the Church of Jesus Christ, hidden at first like seed in the bosom of the earth, but afterwards making its appearance, and by imperceptible degrees arriving at maturity: small as the mustard-seed, which springs up above all the vegetable tribe, and whose tall stem almost equals the height of the trees; or like paste, whose size is considerably increased by a little leaven. Here they are as pronounced by the Saviour. He said then to them further: (a) “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God, or to what parable shall we compare it? The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. It is the least of all the seeds that are in the earth; but, when it is sown, it groweth up and becometh greater than all the herbs; and shooteth out great branches, so that the birds of the air may dwell under the shadow thereof." He spoke to them, in few words, the other parable: (b) "The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened. Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the multitude. With many such parables he spoke to them the evangelical word, according as they were able to hear." For this simple style, which merely presented to them those images with which they were familiar, was most on a level with their minds, and the mist in which

(a) St. Matthew, xiii. 31-33; St. Mark,

iv. 30-32.

(b) St. Matthew, xiii. 33-35; St. Mark, iv. 33, 34.

the wheat which the laborer has sown in the field grows without his putting a hand near it. It is true, that the inaction of the latter is real, and that of Jesus is only apparent; for he alone giveth growth to the seed by the secret, but real and always active, virtue of his grace. Wherefore it is merely under the aspect of appearances that they are here compared to one another.

(4) Grace has its progression as well as nature, imperceptible from day to day, but perceptible from time to time. We cannot too earnestly desire its growth, but we should know how to await it. Precocious fruits do not ripen; and a stem when too luxuriant exhausts itself and withers.

these figures partly shrouded truths, the full blaze of which the people could not endure, proportioned the light to their present capacity. (a)" Therefore without parables Jesus did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world; but apart he explained all things to his disciples."

"Having sent away the multitudes, he came into the house, and his disciples came to him, saying: Expound to us the parable of the cockle of the field. Jesus made answer and saith to them: He that

soweth the good seed is the Son of man. The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the cockle are the children of the wicked one (5). The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world. The reapers are the angels. Even, therefore, as cockle is gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the world. The Son of man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all scandals, and them that work iniquity; and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the just shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

After the exposition of this parable, Jesus proceeded to propose some others to his disciples. Since he wished that their understanding of them should be the fruit of their close attention, he warns them according to his custom: "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear;" afterwards he continues to speak thus: "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in a field: which a man having found, hid it, and for joy thereof, goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like to a merchant seeking good pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went his way and sold all that he had, and bought it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like to a net cast into sea, and gathering together of all kinds of fishes: which, when

the

(a) St. Matthew, xiii. 36-52.

(5) The wicked can become good. If they do not become such, they serve at least to exercise and perfect the good. These are two reasons for which Saint Augustine says that God suffers them to remain on earth.

it was filled, they drew out, and sitting by the shore, they chose out the good into vessels, but the bad they cast forth. So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from the just (6), and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

The bad fish caught with the good in the same net, and the cockle sowed with the good seed in the same field, are two different images of one and the same thing. That is, in the profession of the same faith and in the bosom of the same Church, the mixture of the wicked with the good during this life, and the separation to be made at the end of the world. The apostles, to whom Jesus Christ had just explained the first of these two parables, had no difficulty in comprehending the second. The two which precede the first of these have another object, viz., the inestimable value of the evangelical doctrine, and the profound wisdom of the man who sacrifices all that he has to insure its possession to himself. These latter parables are so clear, that it was not requisite to explain them for the disciples. Wherefore, when Jesus Christ said to them: (a) "Have ye understood all these things? Yes, they say to him. Therefore," added he, wishing to teach them, by a new figure, the use they should make of the treasures wherewith he had enriched them, "therefore every Scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like to a man who is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old," in order that all his household may be abundantly provided.

“When Jesus had finished these parables, he passed from thence and came to Nazareth, his own country, where he was brought up; and his disciples followed him. When the Sabbath-day was come, Jesus went into the synagogue, according to his custom, and began to teach. He rose up to read. The book of Isaias the prophet was delivered to him, and as he unfolded the book, he found the place where it is written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me (7); where

(a) St. Matthew, xiii. 51-54; St. Luke, iv. 16-21; St. Mark, vi. 1, 2.

(6) This eternal separation of the wicked from the good, followed, for the latter, by eternal happiness, and for the others by eternal misfortune, explains in one word all that we might be inclined to reckon inexplicable in the conduct of Providence.

(7) He found there what he wished to find. There is nothing chance to him who knows every thing.