there] said to them: Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of things which he possesses. And he spoke a similitude to them, saying: The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits, and he thought within himself, saying: What shall I do (6)? because I have no room where to bestow my fruits (7). And he said: This will I do: I will pull down my barns (8), and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods; and I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods laid for many years; take thy rest, eat, drink, make good cheer (9). But God said to him: Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee (10); and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided (11)? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself (12), and is not rich towards God."

up

We may say, perhaps, that he might have to live for a long time; and, in this supposition, that what is treated as folly, on account of the unexpected event of his death, might be regarded as a wise foresight. No, even that cannot excuse him, because, in his foresight, there was an excess which rendered it as foolish as it was criminal,

(6) The steward, whose bad conduct reduced him to indigence, likewise said: What shall I do? Excessive opulence and extreme misery express their embarrassment in the same terms.

(7) Because he has too much grain, he has not sufficient barns. Abundance produces a sort of indigence. If he had had less wealth, he would have had fewer wants.

(8) To throw down his barns and construct new ones—what embarrassment and trouble! We only toil in order to become rich: do we enrich ourselves only to toil further? (9) This language, so usual amongst men, contains nothing which would surprise us, if it were that of an ox, who is only in the world in order to graze and ruminate.

(10) Death deceived him, as still it doth deceive so many other rich men, whom it carries off at the moment when they hope for enjoyment. But if death had not deceived him, he would have deceived himself. Instead of tranquilly enjoying his abundance, he would have made fresh accumulations, and constructed granaries still more spacious. Accumulated treasures have never cured any one of the lust of gain.

(11) Very often they are provided for a prodigal, who is reckoned a fool, whilst the rich man above mentioned is regarded as a wise man. Nevertheless, the folly of the spendthrift might be termed wisdom, when compared with that of the amasser of riches. (12) Because he amassed for himself, he finds out that he has not amassed for himself: others, not himself, enjoy his treasures. He would have enjoyed them if he had cast them into the bosom of the poor. By keeping all, all is lost: by giving all, all is saved.

It is quite fair to take precautions to a certain extent for a futurity which may or may not occur. But, for the few years of life which remain to us, to amass as if we were to live for centuries-to accumulate harvest on harvest, as if the earth, condemned to eternal sterility, were never to produce any more; but, at the same time that the mind dwells upon a long life, to forget the possibility of death being near-to dream, if we may venture so to speak, that we shall never die, because we have made provision for not dying of hunger -this is the point of view in which this man was a fool, in common with many other rich misers who resemble him. There is, therefore, a measure of foresight, which is not unreasonable, because it is moderate, and which is not criminal when we join to it a much greater confidence in Divine Providence than in all our own exertions. But a much more excellent disposition is, to renounce the precautions against future need, and to repose alone upon the creator and preserver of all things. The apostles were called to this perfection, and they were to form thereto a small number of chosen souls, who have imitated them in this point in every succeeding age, but, above all, during those splendid days of the Church's infancy, when the faithful brought to their feet the price of their inheritance, reserving no other fund to themselves than that of Providence.

This was that sublime morality which the Saviour taught to the world "when he said to his disciples: Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life (13), what you shall eat; nor for your body, what you shall put on. The life is more than the meat, and the body is more than the raiment." Believe, then, that God, who has given life to the body, will give what is necessary for the preservation of both one and the other. "Consider the ravens: for they sow not; neither do they reap; neither have they store-house nor barn; and God feedeth them. How much are you more valuable than they? And which of you, by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? If, then, ye be not able to do so much as the least thing, why are you solicitous for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow they labor not; neither do they spin; but I say to you, not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these.

(13) Part I., pages 137, 138.

Now, if God clothe in this manner the grass that is to-day in the field, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, how much more you, O ye of little faith? Therefore seek not you what you shall eat nor what you shall drink; be not lifted up on high; for all these things do the nations of the world (14) seek, and your Father knoweth that you have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you."

It is, therefore, this eternal kingdom which was henceforward to be the only object of their search. What can they renounce which is equivalent to this? And shall God, who gives them so great a gift, refuse to them a morsel of bread? Such is the indemnity for their sacrifices, and the pledge of their confidence, which the Saviour proposes in these tender words: "Fear not, little flock; for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom. Sell what you possess, and give alms (15). Make to yourselves bags which grow not old; a treasure in heaven which faileth not: where no thief approacheth nor moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

The prodigious wealth of the rich miser had given occasion for the lessons which Jesus Christ had just given to his disciples. His sudden and unforeseen death constitutes the subject of the following moral: "Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands, and you yourselves like to men who wait for their Lord, when he shall return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately (16). Blessed are those servants

(14) In other words, people of the world, those who are called worldlings, because by forgetting the future, they occupy themselves exclusively with the present. Or, if we wish to construe it as indicating the Gentiles, we may say that this excessive disquietude about the wants of life is a species of paganism: if it be not an utter ignorance of God, it is at least a misconception of his providence.

(15) This was a counsel of perfection. Some believe it to have been a precept enjoined upon the apostles.

(16) The drift of this parable is to show that the day of the Lord, that is to say, the day of death, and of the judgment which follows it, being always uncertain, the only way to avoid being taken by surprise, is to be always prepared for it. Summing up the general sense, the fathers and interpreters explain in divers ways the different parts. According to the majority, the loins girt signify continence. By the lamps in the hands are understood good works and the light of good example. Watching for the master is the desire to see Jesus Christ. The saints sigh for his coming-at least the just do not

whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching! Amen, I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and, passing, will minister unto them (17). And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch (18), and find them so, blessed are those servants. But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open. Be you, then, also ready; for at what hour you think not, the Son of man will come."

"[Then] Peter said to him: Lord, dost thou speak this parable to us, or likewise to all?" The parable was applicable to all, but the inquiry from Peter caused it to apply to him personally, and at the same time to all the pastors of the Church, under the figure of the superintendent who is charged with the entire house. "Who thinkest thou, the Lord said, is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord setteth over his family, to give them their measure of wheat in

fear it. This is tantamount to that expression of Saint Paul (Titus, ii.): We should live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world, looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

(17) The masters of the earth do not act so. Jesus Christ doth not do so with this parade of servitude which is exhibited here merely to give propriety to the parable; but he does so really, not only by serving personally, but, if we may venture to use the expression, by serving out himself, that is to say, by giving himself entirely to his elect, in order to satiate all the desires of our heart in the possession of him.

(18) As to the division of the night into watches, see note 10, page 193, of Part I. Here the four watches represent the four ages of life. Jesus Christ only speaks expressly of the second and the third, which correspond with youth and manhood, the two ages` wherein we think least of death, and are least apprehensive of its approach. He says nothing of infancy, which is incapable of preparation, and where innocence forms a substitute for all care, nor of old age, which cannot be ignorant that death draws near, unless age has utterly lapsed into insanity: in this case it is like second infancy, at least as to preparation, and would to God it resembled it in its innocence.

When a man is attacked by a dangerous illness, we give him notice to regulate his conscience. We do not give him notice when, without sickness, reason begins to fail. The faculty is soon utterly lost, and were an individual to survive it several years, the lot of the soul is not the less decided; it shall be eternally what it was at the moment when delirium set in.

Of all surprises, there is none in which it is so difficult to warn the individual as in the case of him who has no fear for himself; for we may readily say to a sick man that he is very ill; but we cannot venture to tell a man in good health that he has lost his

senses.

due season? Blessed is that servant whom when his lord shall come he shall find so doing! Verily, I say to you, he will set him over all that he possesseth. But if that servant shall say in his heart: My lord is long a coming, and shall begin to strike the men-servants and maid-servants, and to eat, and to drink, and be drunk, the lord of that servant will come in the day that he hopeth not, and at the hour that he knoweth not, and shall separate him, and [although he be only guilty of misconduct] shall appoint him his portion with [theservants who are] unbelievers."

This treatment is as just as it is severe. The chief servant, he who has the ear of his master, knows his wishes better than the others, who only receive their instructions through him; and the abuse of a higher confidence renders the delinquent deserving of higher chastisement. The allusion to the pastors is always very distinct, and we may recognize it in these words by which the Saviour concludes this discourse: "That servant who knew the will of his lord, and prepared not himself, and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes (19). And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required; and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more."

CHAPTER XLII.

NECESSITY OF PENANCE. THE BARREN FIG-TREE.-
-THE INFIRM WOMAN CURED ON
THE SABBATH-DAY.-SMALL NUMBER OF THE ELECT. THE PROPHET SHOULD NOT
PERISH OUTSIDE OF JERUSALEM.

TAKING example from one of the evangelists, we shall place here the following truths, though they have no connection with the preceding subject. We can hardly connect even these together, and it

(19) The chastisement shall be proportioned to the degree of light and of knowledge. For to know, or not to have known, merely signifies here, as elsewhere, to have had more or less knowledge.