that were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. They came, and filled both the ships, so that they were almost sinking; which, when Simon Peter saw, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying: Depart from me, O Lord (8), for I am a sinful man. For he was wholly astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken, and so were also James and John the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's partners. But Jesus saith to Simon: Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men; and having brought their ships to land, leaving all things, they followed him. (a) Simon and Andrew left their nets; James and John," not only "their nets they were mending, but their father, Zebedee, (b) in the ship with his hired men."

FIRST PASSOVER.

We have said that this first sojourn which Jesus made at Capharnaum was but for a few days. (c) "The pasch of the Jews was at hand," and the time was come when Jesus should make known to all Israel its Messiah and its King. "He went up" then with his new disciples "to Jerusalem," whither the festival had gathered together Jews from all nations under the sun. He made himself remarkable there at the outset, by an action which attracted all eyes towards him. "He found in the temple them that sold oxen, sheep, and doves, and the changers of money (9), sitting. When he had made, as it were, a scourge of little cords (10), he drove them all out of (a) St. Matthew, iv. 20, 21.

(b) St. Mark, i. 20.

(c) St. John, ii. 13–25.

the unity of the Church; and whose rupture the schisms and the heresies by which she loses part of her fishing, if we can call a loss a circumstance which delivers her from those cruel children who only were fostered in her bosom to tear her asunder.

(8) The same humility that makes the centurion say: Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof, made Peter say here: Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man. Some have wished to give a different meaning to this saying; but the reason which Peter adds, because I am a sinful man, seems to exclude them, and fixes the sense to our construction.

(9) The money-changers gave small change in exchange for large coin, and drew a profit from this sort of traffic.

(10) In order that the weakness of the instrument should make more apparent the power

the temple, the sheep, and also the oxen; the money of the changers he poured out, and the tables he overthrew. To those who sold doves he said: Take these things hence (11), and make not the house of my Father (12) a house of traffic. His disciples remembered that it was written: The zeal of my house hath eaten me up. The Jews said to him: What sign dost thou shew unto us, seeing thou dost these things (13)? Jesus answered: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said: Six-and-forty years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of his body. When, therefore, he was risen again from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed (14) the Scripture, and the word that Jesus had said. When he was at Jerusalem at the pasch, upon the festival day, many believed in his name, seeing his signs which he did. But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men, and he needed not that any should give testimony of man; for he knew what was in man."

of him who employed it. This miracle seemed to Saint Jerome the most surprising of all those which Jesus Christ performed.

(11) Had he acted towards these as with the others, the pigeons would have flown off, and be lost to the owners. Jesus, who wishes to frighten all, wishes to wrong none of them; and in an action so calculated to excite, he further teaches us that zeal should ever be regulated by prudence and tempered by charity.

(12) An expression till then unheard of. Who, therefore, is this man who calls the house of God the house of my father, and who exhibits himself there with all the authority of a master?

(13) Jesus Christ never worked miracles when either curiosity or malignity was the motive which made them be sought after.

(14) They then comprehended the sense of this expression, which they had not at first understood; they saw its conformity with those passages of Scripture where the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so clearly figured, and they were corroborated in their faith.

What served to establish the faith of the disciples furnished matter to the Jews for calumniating the Saviour. The same results follow from the word of Jesus Christ as from the flesh of Jesus Christ; both one and the other are a bread of life for the good, and a mortal poison for the wicked. Mors est malis, vita bonis.

CHAPTER VII.

DISCOURSE WITH NICODEMUS.

THIS regards those who at first believed in him, but whose inconstancy, known clearly to him before whose eyes all is naked and uncovered, obliged him to take certain precautions with them. Others had even then openly declared against him, and his miracles and doctrine had already produced the double effect always produced by great merit when signalized by great actions, viz.: esteem and veneration in upright hearts; in perverse hearts, envy and hatred. These two passions ever persecuting, and at last accomplishing the death of the Saviour, were inflamed at the sight of his first successes, and thenceforth menaced those who ventured to declare themselves in his favor. This appears by the conduct (a) "Of a man then of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;" already faithful, yet timid, anxious for instruction, still dreading persecution, "He came to Jesus by night, and said to him: Rabbi, we know that thou art come a teacher from God, for no man can do these signs which thou dost, unless God be with him."

This introduction expressed the object of his visit; he came to be instructed. Jesus stated to him in a few words the entire plan of Christianity, and commencing by regeneration, which is the groundwork, "Answered him: Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." This reply surprised Nicodemus, who, aware of but one way of being born, could imagine no other. "How can a man be born, saith he, when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born again?" He asked for an explanation, which Jesus immediately gave him. "Amen, amen, he answered, I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water (1) and the Holy Ghost, he cannot en

(a) St. John, iii. 1–13.

(1) This water is that of baptism; for it is not allowable to seek here for another mean

ter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Wonder not that I said to thee: You must be born again. The spirit breatheth where he will (2); and thou hearest his voice; but thou knowest not whence he cometh, and whither he goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Which is tantamount to the known maxim: Every thing produces its kind. The production of the spirit is, therefore, spiritual, like its principal, wherefore it falls not under the senses. Yet it has effects which hinder us from doubting its reality, like the air or wind, which, though not perceptible to the eyes of the body, is known by sound or other peculiar effects.

The mystery had been explained as clearly as it could be: still "Nicodemus answered: How can these things be done? Art thou, said Jesus to him, a master in Israel, and knowest not these things! Amen, amen, I say to thee, that we speak what we know, and we testify what we have seen, and you receive not our testimony. If I have spoken to you earthly things, and you believe not, how will you believe when I speak to you heavenly things? No man hath ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven-the Son of man who is in heaven (3).”

These words, all full of depth, signify, 1st, That faith in mysteries

ing after the decision of the Council of Trent, Sess. 7, Can. 2: Should any one say that very and natural water is not necessary in baptism, and consequently if he gives a metaphorical sense to those words of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Unless a man be born again

of water and the Holy Ghost, &c., let him be anathema.

(2) This expression signifies here properly either the breath or the wind. This does not hinder an appropriate application of the expression to the free and independent operation of the Holy Ghost in our souls.

(3) Yet the humanity of the Saviour had not descended from heaven, but only ascended there on the day of the ascension. This is explained by the personal union of the Word with human nature. By this ineffable union, the Sovereign God who reigns in the highest heavens is truly the Son of man; in this sense he could have said that the Son of man hath ascended into heaven, since he who is in heaven became the Son of man, which he was not previously. He might also have said that he descended from heaven, because this Son of man, who conversed on earth with man, was the same person with the Sovereign God who reigns in the highest heaven. He could have added that he was still in heaven, because his immensity renders him present everywhere, and his persevering union with humanity makes him who is everywhere present be everywhere and always with the character of Son of man, although his humanity be not everywhere present, as the Lutherans say, by an error, the absurdity of which equals at least its impiety.

is not grounded on the evidence of the object, but on the authority of the testimony of Jesus Christ, a proposition which Nicodemus could not gainsay, he having just recognized the divinity of a mission proved manifestly by miracles; 2d, that the explanation just given to him was the most proper to make him comprehend the mystery which Jesus Christ had proposed to him; I say, to make him comprehend it in such a way as it can be comprehended, at least in this life, he clothed it in sensible and corporal images, such as birth, the wind, and its effects. Whence the Saviour concluded that, if he did not place faith in him when speaking such language as he calls earthly, because proportioned to the human intellect ever cleaving to that earth to which it is bound, much less would he believe had expressions been used as sublime as the things themselves that were proposed, viz.: such expressions as no mortal man could understand, and such apparently as human language could not furnish. What Jesus Christ adds, "No man hath ascended unto heaven but he that descended from heaven," relates to two parts of his answer, and signifies that, both as to mysteries and the manner of proposing them, we must refer alone to him who, having descended from that heaven which he always continues to inhabit, and having alone seen them in their origin, is the only person who knows them, and who is in a position to speak of them; which we find similarly expressed in these words of the first chapter of Saint John: (a) "No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."

Nicodemus, thus disposed, was prepared to listen with docility to the other truths in which Jesus Christ was going to instruct him; the Saviour continued in these terms: (b)" As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him (4) may not perish, but may have life ever(a) St. John, i. 18.

(b) St. John, iii. 14-21.

(4) Here faith alone is spoken of: Doth faith, then, suffice, without works? No more than good works can suffice without faith, although in many places of Scripture salvation is attributed to works, without mention being at all made of faith. Join these texts, and in their union you will find the Catholic truth; separate them, or merely consider them in their apparent opposition, and you evidently come in collision with one of these two