say to you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down (6) with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven (7), but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. [Then] Jesus said to the centurion," through the intervention of those whom the latter had deputed: "Go, and as thou hast believed, so be it done to thee (8); and the servant was healed at the same hour; and they who were sent being returned to the house, found the servant whole who had been sick."

(a) "Jesus went [after] into a city called Naim: there went with him his disciples, and a great multitude." We have already seen

(a) St. Luke, vii. 11–17.

is no one in my kingdom who has such affection for me as this person, although the king be not ignorant that he is much dearer to his wife and to his children.

(6) The Latin word signifies supper, which was properly the repast of the ancients. Scripture often compares to it the happiness of heaven. What follows continues the comparison. Whilst strangers shall be sitting there with the patriarchs, the children of the kingdom, that is to say, the Jews, who, by virtue of the promises, had that right to it which children have to sit at the table of their father, shall be driven from it and cast out into exterior darkness. When supper is going on, the light is in the apartment, and darkness is outside. There they shall weep from grief, and shall gnash their teeth with rage, at seeing themselves excluded from the feast to which they first of all had been called.

(7) By the kingdom of heaven some understand here the Church, or faith in Jesus Christ. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have believed in the Messiah who was to come, as we believe in the Messiah who is come; they, therefore, were members of the Church as well as the Gentiles. Moreover, we know that the Gentiles shall have their place in heaven with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The kingdom, therefore, is both the Church and heaven, the happiness of which is represented by the feast, as exterior darkness is the image of hell, the punishment of which is expressed by weeping and gnashing of teeth.

(8) Jesus Christ appears to speak to the centurion as if he were present; and it seems, according to Saint Matthew, that in reality he was present in person. According to Saint Luke, he did not deem himself worthy to present himself before Jesus Christ, and he first deputes the ancients of the Jews, and then his friends. This difference has induced the belief that these were two different occurrences; but there is a groundwork of resemblance which decides that it is the same. In both narratives we have a centurion, a sick servant, the same discourse of the Master, and the same prayer to Jesus Christ not to come to his residence, the same faith, and on the part of Jesus Christ the same admiration which makes him say that he has not found such great faith in Israel. With all this, it is still in any one's power to cavil at the difference; but at bottom it is the same narrative, and good sense will not permit us to entertain a doubt on the subject.

that the Jews were in the habit of interring their dead outside of the cities, whether to avoid some legal penalty, or whether this was merely a salutary civic regulation. When, therefore, he came nigh to the gate of the city (9), behold," by one of those seeming chances which were never such to the Saviour, "a dead man was carried out. He was the only son of his mother, and she a widow, and a great multitude of the city was with her. Whom, when the Lord had seen, being moved with mercy towards her, Weep not, he said to her. And he came near and touched the bier. They that carried it stood still." Then assuming an absolute tone, which only suits the sovereign arbiter of life and death: "Young man, said he, arise, I say to thee. He that was dead sat up, and began to speak; and Jesus gave him to his mother. There came a [religious] fear upon them all, and they glorified God, saying: A great prophet is risen up amongst us, and God hath visited his people. This rumor of him went forth throughout all Judea, and all the country round about."

The miracle at last reached the ears of John, who, though detained in a prison, into which he had been cast by the incestuous Herod, was not kept in such solitary confinement as to be deprived of outside communication. There he was visited, and in pursuance of the practice of saints, who perform all the good they can, when they cannot perform all they might wish to do, he announced the Messiah, at least to his disciples, and profited by the occasions which were offered to make him known to them. That which presented

(9) The meeting of the people who followed Jesus, with the crowd that accompanied the funeral, furnished spectators to this miracle; and it is certain that Jesus Christ wished to make it public. The interpreters add, besides, to the gathering the people who happened to be waiting at the gate of the city for the legal decisions. We read, in point of fact, in Scripture, that the Israelites held there a sort of court, where causes were decided; but did this custom still exist in the time of Jesus Christ? The texts which are cited with reference to this matter are not posterior to the times of the kings of Juda. In matters of custom, several centuries make great changes, especially among a people who, during various transmigrations, might have quitted many of its usages to assume those of the nation in whose midst it dwelt. It sometimes occurs to interpreters to give thus as customs of the time of Jesus Christ those for which we find no example but in centuries much anterior. Nothing is more uncertain, and we have thought that it might not be useless to make this remark here.

itself on the occasion of this miracle was one too favorable to be overlooked by him. (a) "When, therefore, he had heard in prison," the rigor of which this recital had made him forget ("his disciples told him of all these things), he called to him two of his disciples, and sent them to Jesus, saying: Art thou he that art to come, or look we for another?" It is not difficult to penetrate his design. John could not be ignorant what Jesus was, he who made him known to others, nor could he begin to doubt if he were the Messiah when he heard of him working miracles, after having recognized him before he had worked any. But his disciples, always too much prepossessed in favor of their master, still doubted whether Jesus was preferable to him. John wished them to see him with their own eyes, the evidence of which would complete their conviction, although, with regard to them, it should not have greater certainty than the testimony they had heard from his lips. The two deputies, who apparently were some of the most incredulous," when they were come unto Jesus: John the Baptist," said they, "hath sent us to thee, saying: Art thou he that art to come, or look we for another?" Before replying to them, Jesus did what John had foreseen. "In that same hour he cured many of their diseases and hurts," with which they were afflicted, "and of evil spirits, which possessed them to many that were blind he gave sight. Then, making answer, he said to John's disciples: Go, relate to John what you have heard and seen: the blind see, the lame walk (10), the lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, to the poor the Gospel is preached (11): blessed is he whosoever shall not be scandalized in me."

(a) St. Matthew, xi. 2; St. Luke, vii. 18–23.

(10) We read in the 35th chapter of Isaiah, that in the time of the Messiah the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the cars of the deaf shall be unclosed; that then the lame man shall leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be free. Jesus Christ manifestly makes allusion to these words, which allusion furnishes the disciples of John with a double proof-that of his miracles, and the accomplishment of the prophecies regarding him.

(11) He who would preach only for the rich, would prove nothing, for he would not even prove that he is persuaded of the truths that he preaches. So disinterested a charity becomes a proof of religion, comparable to the cure of the blind and the resurrection