that he may give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him. Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent (8). I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do; and now glorify thou me, O Father, with thyself, with the glory which I had, before the world was, with thee (9)."

After having prayed for himself, he is now going to pray for his disciples. The greater length of the discourse, and the exquisite tenderness of the expressions, would almost make us believe that he takes a greater interest in their happiness than in his own. It is, therefore, exclusively for them that he thus continues to address his Father: "I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they were, and to me thou hast given them; and they have kept thy word. Now, they have known that all things which thou hast given me are from thee; because the words thou gavest me I have given to them: they have received them, and have known in very deed that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I

pray for them; I

to all men that is to say, which he has offered to them, so that on his side nothing has been wanting which was necessary in order that all men might obtain it.

(8) Eternal life, that is to say, faith, which is the root thereof, has for fundamental dogmas the existence of one only God, and the mission of Jesus Christ as Saviour of the world. The second dogma was to be proposed to the Jews, who already believed the first, and both were to be proposed to the Gentiles, who were ignorant of both. To recognize the Father as the only true God is not excluding from the divinity they who constitute one and the same God with the Father. The Son and the Holy Ghost are not, therefore, excluded by this text; and the Arians, who sought to avail themselves of it, could turn it to no account.

If Jesus Christ is the ambassador of God, we should, therefore, have faith in all his words, and believe that he is God, if he has elsewhere said that he is God. Wherefore all that could be concluded from this text is, that the divinity of Jesus Christ is neither proved nor contradicted by it, and we are not the less bound to believe it, supposing that it is proved by other texts.

The Ancient Fathers have proved the divinity by this same text. They translate it thus: This is eternal life, that they may know thee, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent, as the only true God. There is nothing objectionable in this interpretation; and when Saint Athanasius employed it against Arius, the latter knew not how to answer.

(9) Before the creation of the world, the Word was with God, where he possessed the glory which belongeth to the only Son of the Father. He asks that his humanity may be associated in this glory, and that the uncreated Word may be recognized in the splen

dor of the Word incarnate.

pray not for the world (10), but for them whom thou hadst given me, because they are thine." He said this, speaking as man; but he speaks as God when he adds: "All my things are thine, and thine are mine: I am glorified in them (11)."

Let us not be surprised at seeing him urge so many motives in order to induce his Father to love them and to take them under his protection; they are about to be deprived of his presence, and of the sensible support which they had found therein. "Now I," said he, "am not in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name (12), whom thou hast given me, that they may be one (13) as we also are. While I was with them, I kept them in thy name. have I kept; and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition (14), that the Scripture may be fulfilled (15). And now I come to thee,

Those whom thou gavest me

(10) Jesus Christ does not here pray for the incredulous and perverse world, but for his disciples who had faith and justice. Thus it is that he asks for them what it is suitable to ask for just and faithful men, viz., perseverance in faith and justice, and the consummation of charity. Upon the cross he shall ask for the wicked and for the impious what should first be asked for this class of men, viz., the pardon of their sins, the first effect of which is the justification of sinners.

(11) The glory which he had hitherto derived from them was so inconsiderable, one `would almost venture to say that it was scarcely worth speaking of. In the same way

he has just been praising them for having believed in his word, although their faith was so unsettled, and for having practised the duties which he inculcated, although their virtue was so imperfect that he had been obliged often to reproach them with the weakness of both their faith and their virtue. This conduct is just like that of a tender and enlightened mother who points out their faults to her children, in order that they may correct them, and entertains their father with an account of those praiseworthy and virtuous qualities which may make him love them.

(12) That is to say, for the glory of thy name. P. De Ligny translates into French, à cause de votre nom, because of thy name. The note states that others translate, par la vertu de votre nom, or by virtue of thy name; and that we may choose between both meanings.

(13) In order that they may be one and the same thing by union of heart, as we are one and the same thing by unity of nature.

If they have charity, they shall have all the virtues; and if they shall remain perfectly united, they are assured of all success. And, indeed, Jesus Christ seems to sum up in charity all that he asks for them from his Father.

(14) An individual may have been given by the Father to Jesus Christ, and nevertheless be lost.

(15) It was necessary that he should be lost, since his loss was foretold in Scripture;

and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy filled in themselves (16). I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them (17), because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world. I do not ask that thou take them away out of the world, but that thou preserve them from evil (18). They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world. Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth (19). As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world (20). For them I do sanctify myself (21), that they also may be sanctified in truth.

"And not for them only do I pray, but for those also who, through their word, shall believe in me; that they also may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us (22),

but his loss had been foretold only because he was to perish by the free and voluntary determination of his own heart.

(16) The joy which I shall have at seeing them preserved and sanctified; or otherwise that joy which they shall feel when they first experience, in my absence, the same effects from your protection as when I was present with them. We may choose between these two explanations.

(17) A further reason why God should love them; as the enemy of God and of Jesus Christ hates them.

(18) God does much for virtuous people, whom he delivers by death from the dangers and persecutions of the world. He does more for them whom he leaves therein with grace to surmount those difficulties: the first class constitute the just, the second are the heroes of religion.

(19) This word is the evangelical law; Jesus Christ asks that his disciples may perfectly accomplish it: it alone produces true and perfect sanctity.

(20) Jesus Christ is the ambassador of God, the apostles were the ambassadors of Jesus Christ; the latter, in the name of God and of Jesus Christ, have sent their disciples, who, in their turn, have sent others. The persons employed are different, but the source of the mission is always the same, and the last bishop who shall be consecrated in the Catholic Church shall have his mission from God as truly as Jesus Christ had his.

The apostles sent into the world should be saints: first, in order to preserve themselves from the corruption of the world; second, in order to sanctify the world by their example, without which preaching seldom produces a salutary effect. Each of them should be enabled to say: Be ye imitators of me, as I am of Jesus Christ.

(21) The sanctity of Jesus Christ is the source and the model of ours. Although as God he was essentially holy, and although he was necessarily so as man personally united to the Word, he still might not sanctify himself in the rigorous sense of this term, which signifies to render one's self holy, but to produce acts of sanctity in the sight of men who were to be sanctified by his merits and example.

(22) By means of Jesus Christ, who is one with God, and who has made himself one with us, there is formed of God, of Jesus Christ, and of us so intimate a union,

that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them (23), that they may be one, as we also are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me (24). Father, I will, that where I am, they also whom thou hast given me may be with me, that they may see my glory, which thou hast given me; because thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world. Just Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent And I have made known thy name to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them (25).”

me.

that the term union scarcely suffices to express it, so that the term "Unity" seems to be more properly applicable. The mystery shall be unveiled in Heaven; the union of the faithful is its image upon earth. Although the eye doth not perceive either God, who is the soul and centre of it, or Jesus Christ, who is the connecting link, yet both one and the other manifest themselves by the effects in which we recognize the author of the law of charity, as we recognize the Creator by the works of creation. It is on this account that the Saviour adds, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The world, in point of fact, has recognized him by this mark, and many an infidel who had withstood the proof of miracles, could no longer resist that of charity.

(23) By this glory some understand the divine filiation, others the apostolical mission, and others still the participation of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Some think that the Saviour here means the gift by anticipation of eternal glory. We may as well observe in this place that we have omitted to explain several expressions in the Saviour's prayer, which are taken in different senses by the Fathers and Catholic interpreters. All these senses are good; none of them is so manifestly the literal sense as to exclude the other. To report them all would be merely multiplying commentaries, and then it is scarcely possible but that some one of these commentaries should present itself to those who read with attention this admirable prayer, and it is natural that each individual should be more affected by what occurs to his own mind, than by what might otherwise be suggested to him.

(24) God loves us with the same love with which he has loved Jesus Christ. It is properly Jesus Christ whom he loves in us, and the love which he has for us is only an extension of that which he has for Jesus Christ.

(25) This love is in them, because the love of the Father is no other than the Holy Ghost who is really given to those whom God loves, with that special love by which they are made his children. It is this which made Saint Paul say: The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us (Rom. v.).

CHAPTER LXIII.

GARDEN OF OLIVES.-KISS OF JUDAS. SOLDIERS STRUCK DOWN.-MALCHUS.-JESUS IS APPREHENDED AND CONDUCTED TO ANNAS AND CAIPHAS.-THE BLOW.-FALSE WITNESSES.-CONFESSION OF JESUS CHRIST.

(a)" WHEN Jesus had said these things," having nothing more to do in this world but to suffer and to die, "he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron. He went, according to his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. Then Jesus came with them into a country place which is called Gethsemani, where there was a garden, into which he entered with his disciples. And Judas also, who betrayed him, knew the place; because Jesus had often resorted thither together with his disciples." Very far from avoiding the traitor, he advanced to meet him; and as the mo ment of the combat drew nigh, (b) "He said to his disciples: Sit you here, till I go yonder and pray; pray [ye also], lest ye enter into temptation. And [leaving the others behind] he taketh Peter, and James, and John with him, and he began to grow sorrowful (1), and to be sad. And he saith to them: My soul is sorrowful even unto death (2); stay you here, and watch with me.

(a) St. John, xviii. 1, 2; St. Luke, xxii. 39: St. Matthew, xxvi. 36.

And going a little

(b) St. Matthew, xxvi. 36-38, 39; St. Luke, xxii. 40-44; St. Mark, xiv. 33, 34-36.

(1) He began to feel sorrow and also fear. He might experience both these sentiments, because he was man; but because he was the Man-God, he felt them only at the moment and in the degree that he wished, and these feelings ceased when he commanded them to depart from him. If this be weakness, we may term it the weakness of a God; and the power of mastering his passions when at this height, evinced greater strength than if he were utterly devoid of passions.

This is properly the passion of the Saviour's soul. Man had sinned in his body and in his soul. Fear and sorrow are not sins; these two feelings are no imperfections in him who was one tempted in all things like as we are, without sin (Heb. iv. 15).

Neither is it beneath the Man-God to feel the bitterness of sorrow, any more than it was to endure pain when scourged and crucified, since in reality both one and the other is grief, and it is still the soul which feels.

(2) My soul is sorrowful, and it will be so until the moment of