said to them: What would you that I should do for you? Grant to us, they said, that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left (4), in thy glory." Another evangelist relates the transaction in a different way. "Then," says he, that is to say, immediately after the prophecy of the passion, "came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee, with her sons, adoring, and asking something of him: who said to her: What wilt thou? She said to him: Say that these, my two sons, may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom."

The request is precisely the same; and the two recitals, although different, do not contradict each other: the mother may have repeated what her children had said, or the children what the mother had said; or else, what appears most likely, the mother alone may have spoken, but in her children's name, for whom, as it were, she pleaded; and one evangelist may have attributed to them a request which had them alone for its object, and which their mother had only made at their suggestion, or at least with their connivance. In the same way the centurion is made to utter the prayer which his deputies made in his name, praying for the cure of his servant. However it was, inasmuch as the request regarded the two brothers, it was to them that Jesus addressed the reply: (a) “You know not, he said to

(a) St. Matthew, xx. 22-28; St. Mark, x. 38-41.

(4) Jesus Christ had promised them all that they should be seated upon thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. What an elevation for poor fishermen, who could not have ventured to hope that they should be the first even in their own town! Nevertheless these poor fishermen were not yet content. Being promised the enjoyment of thrones, each of them wished to have the first, and their pride was humbled by the very thought of seeing one take precedency of the other. Ambition has no limits; we must say this in reference to all men without exception. It always ascends, according to the expression of the Psalmist. When it seems to confine its pretensions to a middle rank, the reason is because this rank happens to be the only one within reach. When ambition finds itself placed in this rank, this will merely be a step to rise to another. No sooner is it raised to this, than it turns its thoughts to the rank above. In mediocrity, we sigh after the pageantry and magnificence of the rich; the rich regard with an eye of envy the titles and the prerogatives of grandeur; the great man would fain become a prince; the prince aspires after sovereignty, and the sovereign to universal monarchy. The objects are different according to the different positions: ambition is ever the same, as strong in a villager who wishes to become the chief man in his village, as in Cæsar desiring to rule the Roman Empire.

them, what you ask. Can you drink of the chalice (5) that I shall drink (6), or be baptized wherewith I am baptized? We can (7), they say to him. My chalice, indeed, he saith to them, you shall drink (8), and with the baptism wherewith I am baptized you shall be baptized. But to sit on my right hand or on my left is not mine to give, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father (9)."

But pride ever meets pride in its way. If, amongst the apostles, some sought to be the first, others did not wish to be thus distanced. There was not one of them who did not deem himself of

(5) The chalice and baptism signify the passion of the Saviour: he elsewhere makes use of these two terms in order to express the same thing. It appears by divers texts in Scripture, that the word chalice was much used for the purpose of signifying sufferings. It is a metaphor drawn from a bitter potion which an individual might be obliged to quaff. The word baptism, in the figurative sense, is more circumscribed; it is seldom appropriated to any thing but the passion, in which Jesus Christ was, as it were, bathed in the flood of his own blood. Some understand by the chalice the death of Jesus Christ, and by the baptism the assemblage of torments which he endured in every part of his sacred body.

(6) If we suffer with Jesus Christ, says Saint Paul, we shall be glorified with him. It is in this sense above all others that they did not know what they asked. So great a glory could not be conferred through favor; it could only be the reward of merit. The aspirant should either purchase it at the price of his blood, or otherwise renounce it.

(7) That is to say, we are disposed to do so; for it is not certain that they as yet had the courage. It is always praiseworthy and salutary to make good resolutions, but still we can place no confidence except in tried virtue. What doth he know that hath not been tried?-Eccles. xxxiv. 9.

(8) We read of the martyrdom of Saint James in the Acts of the Apostles. Saint John died a natural death. But if martyrdom did not await him, he awaited martyrdom. We know that Domitian caused him to be plunged into a cauldron of boiling oil. He came forth from it more fresh and more vigorous than ever; but transported subsequently to the island of Patmos, he there suffered the rigors of a distressing exile. The Church recognizes several other martyrs who have not suffered any greater pains than he did.

(9) Besides that these places shall only be adjudged to merit, a special choice on the part of God is necessary, in order to be called to this merit to which they shall be adjudged. From all eternity this choice is made and recorded in the councils of the Most High. The Son and the Holy Ghost have no less a part in it than the Father. However, Jesus Christ attributes it more particularly to the Father, who, in the Trinity, is the first principle, as if to give us to understand that, if it were possible that any inequality could exist between the divine persons, it is that which should be highest and most absolute in the Divinity that should dispose of these places. We may judge, therefore, how silly it was to hope that these could be obtained through favor, or through the solicitations of a woman.

fended by this ambitious pretension, and "hearing it, the ten were moved with indignation against the two brothers, James and John." This furnished an occasion for the Saviour to give to them all the admirable lesson which we are about to see. "He called them to him, and saith to them: You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that are the greater exercise power over them. It shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister, and he that will be first among you, shall be your servant; even as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many.'

Jesus had already stated more than once that we must become little in order to become great, and that by humility alone can we attain lasting elevation. This lesson, which is found repeated in the words which he has just pronounced, is not the only lesson here inculcated. He also presents therein the sole motive which can make authority the object of legitimate desire, viz., serving our fellow-men; and the noblest use which can be made of authority, is to exhaust our energies, and, if it be necessary, to sacrifice ourselves utterly and entirely for those whom we have a right to command. Such is the authority which a tender mother exercises over her little child, which may be regarded at the same time as the highest of all earthly authorities, and the most obedient of all servitudes. Nothing, perhaps, could furnish a better illustration than this comparison, had not the Saviour made us sensible of it by another much more affecting and more persuasive example, viz., his own. From his earliest infancy, during which the state of weakness which he had chosen to assume required him to accept the services of his mother, we always behold him obeying, and never commanding, always serving, and never served. His time, his cares, his strength, his repose, his glory, his blood, and his life-all, without exception, were lavished for the benefit of mankind. During the three years which he passed with his disciples, there can be no doubt but that he refused their services, and tendered them his own. Although the evangelists furnish us with no details on this subject, they yet say enough to give us to understand that such was the case. If the washing of the feet is one of the most signal acts, it is far

from being the only one; and are not all the details comprised in that single assertion, which the Saviour was only enabled to advance, because his conduct was the sensible and perpetual proof thereof? I am "not come to be ministered unto, but to minister." What the holy Pope Saint Clement relates of his master, the apostle Saint Peter, may find a suitable place here. He says that, when the holy apostle beheld any one asleep, the tears immediately started to his eyes. When they inquired from him the reason, he replied, that this object recalled to him the remembrance of his dear Master, who, whilst they all were asleep, watched for all; and if it so happened that any of them uncovered himself whilst sleeping, or tossed his poor bed, he carefully covered him again, and replaced what had been disturbed. This one instance will suffice to show his usual manner of treating his disciples, and will make us thoroughly acquainted with that maternal authority, which it is lawful to desire, as it is also lawful for a woman to desire to have children, in order that she may have persons to love as much, and more than herself, and upon whom she may lavish her affections, her cares, her attentions, her health, and sometimes her life. It is thus, I say, that it is lawful to desire authority, because such a desire springs from the pure motive of charity. This is, to the letter, desiring, not the pageantry, but the (a) “good work of the episcopacy "-the only thing which charity allows us to desire therein, because "charity is not ambitious;" whereas the desires of ambition point exclusively towards the titles and prerogatives of authority, because ambition is anything but charitable.

(a) St. Paul, I. Tim. iii. 1.

CHAPTER L.

PASSAGE THROUGH JERICHO.-A BLIND MAN RESTORED TO SIGHT.-ZACHEUS.--PARABLE OF THE TEN POUNDS.-SIGHT RESTORED TO TWO BLIND MEN.

EPHREM, whither the Saviour retired after the resurrection of Laz arus, is placed by geographers northeast of Jerusalem, on the frontiers of Judea and Samaria, or, according to the more ancient author ities, on the confines of the tribes of Ephraim and of Benjamin. In proceeding thence to the capital, one could not pass through Jericho without turning aside towards the east. The nature of the roads, or the necessity of finding accommodation, might indeed render this imperative; but, supposing that none of these reasons existed, the great things which Jesus had to do and to say in Jericho were a sufficient reason for him to prolong his journey in order to go thither. He therefore took his way through that city, and the moment he set foot upon its territory, he began to display his Almighty goodness. (a)" It came to pass, when he drew nigh Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the wayside, begging. And when he heard the multitude passing by, he asked what this meant. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by; and he cried out, saying: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. They that went before rebuked him (1), that he should hold his peace; but he cried out much more: Son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus standing, commanded him to be brought unto him (2); and when he was come near, he asked

(a) St. Luke, xviii. 35–43.

(1) Further on we shall find them murmuring, although with as little success, because the Saviour takes up his abode with a publican. There are two classes of people with whose notions we do not on a single occasion find Jesus Christ coinciding, viz., those who censure and those who rebuke others. The reason is, that nothing is less conformable to his benignity than the malignity of the first, nor to his meekness than the harshness of the second.

(2) If, as they commanded him, he had ceased to cry out, perhaps the Saviour would not have approached him, and he might have remained blind. Those who wish to approach God will not reach him, if they do not begin by despising the remonstrances of worldlings.