of the Redeemer. The Church has placed him among her saints; for tradition tells us that the Pharisees and Jewish priests condemned him as a follower of the Crucified, dismissed him from the council, pronounced sentence of banishment upon him, and expelled him from Jerusalem. 4. REITERATED TESTIMONY OF JOHN IN FAVOR OF JESUS "After these things, Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea:1 and there He abode with them and baptized. And John also was baptizing in Ennon near Salim: because there was much water there, and they came and were baptized. For John was not yet cast into prison. And there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews concerning purification: And they came to John and said to him: Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond the Jordan, to whom thou gavest testimony, behold He baptizeth and all men come to Him. John answered, and said: A man cannot receive anything, unless it be given him from heaven. You yourselves do bear me witness, that I said I am not Christ: but that I am sent before Him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth, of the earth he is, and of the earth he speaketh. He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what He hath seen, and heard, that He testifieth: and no man receiveth His testimony. He that hath received His testimony, hath set to his seal that God is true. For He whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God: for God doth not give the spirit by measure. The Father loveth the Son: and He hath given all things into His hand. He that believeth in the Son, hath life everlasting: but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.' St. John, filled with the Spirit of God, sees in spirit the whole work of Christ. He beholds mankind, so long estranged from its God, united to Him once more by Christ in the closest and most sacred relations; he sees the world in harmony with heaven, the creature reconciled with its Creator. He himself is but the friend who leads the bride to the bridegroom, or 'That is, from the city of Jerusalem into the surrounding country. who prepares mankind for its Saviour. His duties being over when the bridegroom has come, he steps humbly aside, and is not troubled when his jealous disciples complain that many come to Jesus to be baptized. He stands before us a perfect model of that charming humility, which, knowing its proper place and field of duty, is neither envious nor jealous. 5. IMPRISONMENT OF JOHN "But Herod the tetrarch, when he was reproved by John on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and of all the evil things which Herod did, also added this to all the rest, that he sent and apprehended John and bound him and put him into prison. For John said to Herod: It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife. Now Herodias laid snares for him and was desirous to put him to death. And when Herod would have put him to death, he feared the people, because they esteemed him as a prophet, and he feared John, knowing him to be a holy and a just man: and he kept him, and having heard him, did many things and gave ear to him willingly." Whilst John, a poor, defenceless captive in chains, bravely rebuked the royal adulterer, Herod, telling him that it is not allowed even to him to transgress the law, the latter, although a mighty king, fears and trembles. He is afraid of Herodias, he fears the people, fears the Baptist himself. How explain this contrast? John feels strong in the Lord his God, and in the calm consciousness of duties faithfully discharged. Herod quails before the reproaches of his own guilty conscience. CHAPTER VII JESUS AND THE SAMARITAN WOMAN AT JACOB'S WELL John iv. 1-42 "When Jesus therefore understood that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus maketh more disciples and baptizeth more than John (though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples) He left Judea, and went again into Galilee; and He was of necessity to pass through Samaria. He cometh, therefore, to a city of Samaria which is called Sichar: near the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith to her: Give me to drink. For His disciples were gone into the city to buy meats. Then that Samaritan woman saith to Him: How dost thou, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans. Jesus answered, and said to her: If thou didst know the gift of God, and who He is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink: thou perhaps wouldst have asked of Him and He would have given thee living water. The woman saith to Him: Sir, thou hast nothing wherein to draw, and the well is deep from whence then hast thou living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered, and said to her: Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again: but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst for ever: But the water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting. The woman saith to him: Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst: nor come hither to draw. Jesus saith to her: Go, call thy husband and come hither. The woman answered and said: I have no husband. Jesus said to her: Thou hast said well, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast, is not thy husband: this thou hast said truly. The woman saith to Him: Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers adored on this mountain, and you say, that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore. Jesus saith to her: Woman, believe Me, that the hour cometh, when you shall neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem adore the Father. You adore that which you know not: we adore that which we know, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore Him. God is a spirit: and they that adore Him, must adore Him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith to Him: I know that the Messias cometh (who is called Christ); therefore when He is come, He will tell us all things. Jesus saith to her: I am He, who am speaking with thee." Hardly had Jesus proved Himself to be a prophet by telling her the secret of her heart, when she turns her mind to serving God and saving her soul. She utters not a syllable to exculpate herself from the charges with which she is reproached. Hence she is endowed with such grace, and receives such glorious revelations from the lips of the divine Teacher. "And immediately His disciples came: and they wondered that He talked with the woman. Yet no man said: What seekest thou, or why talkest thou with her? The woman therefore left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men there: Come, and see a man who has told me all things whatsoever I have done: Is not He the Christ? They went therefore out of the city and came unto Him. In the mean time the disciples prayed Him, saying: Rabbi, eat. But He said to them: I have meat to eat which you know not. The disciples therefore said one to another: Hath any man brought Him to eat? Jesus saith to them: My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, that I may perfect His work. Do not you say, there are yet four months, and then the harvest cometh? Behold I say to you: Lift up your eyes and see the countries, for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting: that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth may rejoice together. For in this is the saying true: that it is one man that soweth, and it is another that reapeth. I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labor others have labored, and you have entered into their labors. Now of that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him, for the word of the woman giving testimony: He told me all things whatsoever I have done. So when the Samaritans were come to Him, they desired Him that He would tarry there. And He abode there two days. And many more believed in Him because of His own word. And they said to the woman: We now believe, not for thy saying: for we ourselves have heard Him, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world." Consider how these despised, rejected, semi-pagan Samaritans are called to salvation in Christ. See how a sinful woman is made worthy to be one of the first to hear from the Redeemer's own lips the mysteries of God's kingdom. Here we recognize in Jesus, the faithful shepherd who had come to find what was lost; the merciful Saviour come to seek sinners; the loving Mediator holding forth His arms to receive and forgive us. Two short days sufficed to establish so firm a faith in the hearts of the Samaritans, that they acknowledged Christ to be the Messias and the Saviour of the world. The heart of Jesus is filled with joy, as He foretells to His disciples the abundant harvests among the heathens, amid whom they will one day be called to labor, and to reap the fruit of the mysterious seed which He will sow by virtue of His saving blood, shed upon the cross. With delight He foresees how the temple of Sion will expand, miraculously extending itself into one vast spiritual edifice, whose glorious vaults will give shelter to all nations, forming a spiritual temple where Jews and Gentiles will be united in Christ under the same law of grace and truth. CHAPTER VIII THE FIRST SERMON OF JESUS. HE HEALS THE Matt. iv. 12-25; viii. 14-17; Mark i. 14-39; Luke iv. 14-44; John iv. 43-54 1. JESUS IN THE SYNAGOGUE AT NAZARETH "Now after two days, when Jesus had heard that John was delivered up, He came and returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. And when He was come into Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He had done in Jerusalem on the festival-day, for they also went to the festival-day. From that time Jesus began to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, and to say: The time is accomplished and the kingdom of God is at hand: do penance, and believe the gospel. And the fame of Him went out through the whole country, and He taught in their synagogues and was magnified by all. And He came to Nazareth, where He was brought up: and He went into the synagogue according to His custom on the Sabbath day, and He rose up to read. And the book of Isaias the prophet was delivered unto Him. And as He unfolded the book, He found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me: 162192P |