CHAPTER XXI. THE SIGN OF JONAS.-THE NINIVITES. THE QUEEN OF SABA.—THE EXPELLED DEMON ENTERS IN AGAIN.-EXCLAMATION OF A WOMAN. -THE MOTHER AND BRETHREN OF JESUS.-PARABLE OF THE SEED. (a) "THEN Some of the Scribes and Pharisees answering him, said Master, we would see a sign." Apparently these petitioners were the same who had already asked him for a heavenly sign. Jesus had left them unanswered, because he should first reply to the odious accusation we have just spoken of. These inquisitive and artful men renewed the tempting solicitation, and (b) "the multitude running together," to see the wonder they expected, “Jesus began to say: This generation is wicked and adulterous; it asketh a sign, and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet (1). For as Jonas was a sign to the Ninivites, so shall the Son of man also be to this generation. As then Jonas was in the whale's belly three days and three nights (2), so (a) St. Matthew, xii. 38. (b) St. Luke, xi. 29, 30; St. Matthew, xii. 40. (1) Jesus Christ refuses to them the miracle which they asked, and he promises one to them which they did not ask. Was it reasonable that the divine power should be subservient to their caprices, and that it should perform the miracles which they wished for, because they did not wish to yield submission, in consequence of those which it wrought? Yet, if we are even slightly acquainted with the genius of incredulity, we shall not hesitate to believe that they were highly puffed up after the refusal, and that they said more than once, and with an air of triumph: Why does he not work the miracle which is asked of him? (2) Jesus Christ was not three entire days and three entire nights in the bosom of the earth; he only passed there one entire day and one entire night, with a part of two other days and of two other nights. It is in this sense it is said that he passed there three days and three nights. Here is the way in which this is explained. We must just reckon the entire day from midnight unto midnight. We do so thus: and although this was not the Jewish mode, it was that of the Egyptians, whom all people then regarded as legislators in astronomy, and that of the Romans, the masters of the world, and particularly of Judea, where it is natural to think that they partly introduced this usage, as well as in the other countries of their domination; for they dated, apparently, the public transactions according to their ordinary manner of reckoning the days. Sup shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth (3) three days and three nights." This sign, more wonderful than that of Jonas, since it is more wonderful to come forth alive from the bosom of the earth, after having entered it dead, than to come forth alive from a fish, which a living man had entered this sign, I say, according to God's intention, was to be for the Jews a sign of conviction and salvation; but because Jesus Christ foresaw that their incredulity would render it useless, he proposes it to them here as a sign of judgment and of condemnation, the equity and rigor of which are justified with regard to them by the example of the Ninivites. He proceeds, therefore, as follows: (a) "The men of Ninive shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they did penance at the preaching of Jonas; and behold a greater than Jonas here. The Queen of the South shall rise in judgment with this generation, and (a) St. Matthew, xii. 41-45; St. Luke, xi. 24, 26. posing this to be the case, there exist no longer any difficulties. Jesus Christ, having died on Friday at three o'clock, after mid-day, and being almost immediately taken down from the cross, may have been laid in the tomb before sunset, which was then after six o'clock. This is the more likely, as the repose of the festival, which obliged the Jews to suspend their work, commenced at sunset. Thus Jesus Christ shall have passed in the bosom of the earth the part of the day which remained from his deposition in the sepulchre until sunset. From sunset until midnight there are about six hours of the night which belong to Friday. We therefore have already part of a day, and of the night of Friday, passed in the tomb. The Saturday does not puzzle us. As to Sunday, we have firstly, the part of the night which commenced at midnight, when Saturday closed; and as to the day, although it be held that the Lord rose before sunrise, he may not have risen until the day gleamed with sufficient light to enable us to say truly that it was day. And that period of light, or day, passed in the tomb, if it were only to have lasted for a moment, suffices to enable us to say with truth that he was there upon the day of Sunday. (3) There is in the Latin text in corde terra, in the heart of the earth this word is usually understood with reference to the bosom of the earth, in which the body of the Lord was inclosed. Yet as this is the only passage where Scripture makes use of this mode of speech to express a sepulchre, and as, besides, the Hebrew phrase also signifies the centre of the earth, an expression too strong for the sepulchres, which we may say were only on the surface, Catholic interpreters have thought, with reason, that it should also be understood with reference to Limbo, whither the holy soul of the Saviour descended immediately after his death. Saint Paul has said, in the same sense, that Jesus Christ descended into the lower parts of the earth (Ephes. iv.). This truth is of faith; it forms a part of the Apostles' Creed, and we do not see upon what grounds, nor for what reasons Protestants insist on rejecting it. shall condemn it; because she came from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon; and behold a greater than Solomon here." It was on the occasion of a man being possessed by the demon that Jesus said all this. He closes by a sort of parable, in which, under the figure of a man repossessed after deliverance, he announces to the Jews the increase of their crimes, and the excess of their future misfortunes. "When the unclean spirit," said he to them, "is gone out of a man, he walked through dry places, seeking rest, and not finding, he saith: I will return into my house whence I came out; and coming, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then he goeth, and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself. They enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. So shall it be also to this wicked generation." There are several ways of explaining this parable, but we pass them over to confine ourselves to its clear signification. This is, that the Jewish nation, so often criminal and so often penitent, having again given entrance to the demon by its outrageous contempt for the person of the Saviour, his doctrine and his miracles, shall again become more criminal and more unfortunate than it had ever been before. The event too truly justified the prophecy, and the application tested by every day's experience, in the case of relapsing sinners, is but too highly justified by experience. (a) "As he spoke these things it came to pass, a certain woman from the crowd lifting up her voice," midst the murmuring of the Pharisees, "said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck." She envied, as is usual with those of her sex, the happiness of her who had brought into the world a man so wonderful, and wished that herself could have been that happy mother. Jesus Christ instructed her, by informing her that there was a happiness preferable even to that of such an exalted maternity, and consoled her by giving her to understand that she could procure for herself this happiness. "Yea, rather," he said, “blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it." This expression was not meant to depreciate that inestimable happiness which the (a) St. Luke, xi. 27, 28. mother of God has foretold in her canticle should be celebrated by all the nations of the earth. Much less did it convey that the Blessed Virgin had not cherished the word of God, or failed to practise it herself. The expression merely denoted how preferable was the happiness of her fidelity to that of her maternity: that her fidelity surpasses in point of fact her maternity, inasmuch as she would not have been the happiest of all creatures, if she had not been the most faithful. This was the moment which the Son of God had chosen to establish that great maxim, that by perfect observance of the law of God, we unite ourselves to him by closer and stronger ties than those of flesh and blood. To imprint it still more deeply on the mind, he contrived the following transaction, which furnished him with an occasion to repeat it. (a) "As he was yet speaking to the multitudes, his mother and his brethren (4) stood without, wishing to speak to him. They could not come at him for the crowd. Standing without, they sent unto him, wishing to speak to him. The multitude (a) St. Matthew, xii. 46-49, 50; St. Luke, viii. 19; St. Mark, iii. 31–33. (4) Those who would say that after the birth of Jesus Christ the Blessed Virgin had several children by Saint Joseph, who are here called the brothers of the Lord, would renew the heresy of the infamous Helvidius, who was victoriously opposed by Saint Jerome. The Greeks, and among the Latins, Saint Hilarius and Saint Ambrose, who are followed on this point by some moderns, have thought that the brothers of the Lord were children of Saint Joseph, born from a first wife, whom he had before he married the Blessed Virgin. Saint Jerome has also refuted this opinion, and the perpetual virginity of the holy husband of Mary is recognized at the present, day by the common belief of the faithful. It is not, nevertheless, an article of faith, although the Cardinal Peter Damien seems to assert it in a letter which he wrote to Pope Nicholas II. We, therefore, should believe that the brothers of the Lord were only his cousins. Four of them are known to us-James the Lesser, Joseph, Jude or Thaddeus, and Simon. Saint Matthew says expressly that the two first were the sons of Mary, the wife of Cleophas, or of Alpheus, supposing that these two names belong to the same man; or, if they be two different men, the daughter of one and wife of the other. Now, this Mary is called by Saint John sister of the mother of Jesus, which no longer leaves us in ignorance of the sense in which her sons might have been called the brothers of the Lord. Those who do not wish to allow that Saint Joachim and Saint Anne have had other children besides the Blessed Virgin, say that Mary of Cleophas was her aunt, or her cousin-german. Be it so. This belief is pious, and Scripture may have employed here the name of sister, as it makes use of that of brothers with regard to those who were only the cousins of the Saviour. who sat about him say unto him: Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, seeking thee. Answering them, he said: Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? And looking round about on them who sat about him, and stretching forth his hand towards his disciples, he saith: Behold my mother and my brethren; for whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and my sister, and my mother (5)." We shall add to what we have already said, that this instruction was not for Mary, who was too enlightened to be ignorant of the truth it comprises, too humble to think of valuing herself upon her maternity, and, at the same time, too faithful an observer of the will of the heavenly Father, to require any other prop or stay. These words had reference, therefore, to the other relatives of the Saviour, and to all the Jewish nation. The former, for the most part, did not yet believe in him; the majority of the nation were never to believe in him; and it was proper that all should have notice that his relatives and fellow-citizens, if incredulous and prevaricating, should become strangers to the new alliance, and that, by the merit of an active and submissive faith, strangers would be judged worthy of being admitted in their place. (a) "Again, when a great multitude was gathered together, and hastened out of the cities to Jesus, the same day, he going out of the house, sat by the sea-side, and began to teach. And great multitudes were gathered unto him, so that he went up into a boat, and sat in the sea, and all the multitude was upon the land by the seaside. He taught them many things in parables, and said unto them, in his doctrine: Hear ye. The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the birds of the air came and ate it up. And others fell upon stony ground, where it had not much earth, and it shot up immediately, because it had no depth of earth; but when the sun was up, it was scorched, and (a) St. Luke, viii. 4-6; St. Matthew, xiii. 1; St. Mark, iv. 1-9. (5) By faith we become, says St. Gregory, the brethren of Jesus Christ; but a person becomes in some manner his mother, by whose preaching Jesus Christ is formed in the heart of his audience, according to this expression of Saint Paul : My little children, of whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed in you (Galatians, iv. 19.) |