shall lay down His life for sin, He shall see a long-lived seed (Isaias liii.); and the promise concerning His Blessed Mother: After her shall virgins be brought to the King, her neighbours shall be brought to thee (Psalm xliv.); and the prophetic description of His Holy Church: The Gentiles shall walk in Thy light; and Kings in the brightness of Thy rising (Isaias lx.). Therefore He is saying: Peace to you all, to those at table with Him, and to all who shall hereafter believe through them and therefore immediately makes provision that His peace shall reach all in ages to come.

B. As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you.

Mardochai said to Queen Esther: Think not that thou mayest save thy life only (Esther iv.). We are none of us called merely to save our own souls; nay, we shall not save our own souls unless we love our neighbours as ourselves, and help to win salvation for them also. The Apostles have all this Easter joy not for themselves only: As the Father hath sent Me, I send you. I go to the Father, but I send you in My place. When the Paraclete cometh, the Spirit of Truth, He shall give testimony of Me, and you shall give testimony because you are with Me from the beginning (St. John xv.).

C. As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you.

"Shall we then, dear Lord, be obliged to listen to your Apostles, as if we were listening to you?"

"Yes," He answers, "for I have said to them: He that heareth you, heareth Me; he that despiseth you, despiseth Me" (St. Luke x.).

What if your

"Suffer me to speak again, my Lord. Apostles become wicked? Must I still believe in them?"

"Yes," He answers, "for I guarantee their teaching, whether their private life be good or bad. The Scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses; all things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not" (St. Matt. xxiii.).

"Once more, my Lord, suffer me to speak whereas I am dust and ashes (Genesis xviii.). When your Apostles die, whom shall I then believe?"

"Never shall their office die," our Lord answers, "I have died for all men and wish all to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy ii.). Therefore I am with My Church all days, even to the consummation of the world."

D. When He had said this, He breathed on them, and He said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost.

By breathing on them and saying: Receive ye the Holy Ghost, He teaches us that the Holy Spirit proceeds from Him as well as from the Father.

Veni Creator Spiritus. Veni Sancte Spiritus.

E. Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain they are retained.

In this hour He gives to them the second great power of the priesthood. At the Last Supper He had already given to them the marvellous power given only to His priests: "Solis presbyteris": the power of consecrating and offering up the Everlasting Sacrifice. A few days later, He will add the third power: Go and preach the Gospel to every creature.

F. Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them.

"Now indeed," the Blessed Mother's heart responds, "according to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, Thy comforts have given joy to my soul (Psalm xciii.). My soul doth magnify the Lord, my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For according to the multitude of (His) tender mercies He hath made redemption plentiful. The sinner need not die, for to sinners who have a fellow-feeling for him, because they are themselves sinners, my Son hath said: Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven."

"Juravit Dominus et non pænitebit eum”—The Lord hath sworn and He will not repent (Psalm cix.). All you that thirst come to the waters, and you that have no money make haste, buy and eat: come ye, buy wine and milk, without money and without any price (Isaias lv.).

G. Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven. We may contemplate the blessed angels watching in wonder and delight this scene in the Supper-room, the

boundless charity of our Lord's Heart, and the wonderful joy and contentment of the Blessed Mother's heart that the poor sinner, the child of (her) pain is not to die, but to be forgiven. "What have we in Heaven better than our King and our Queen? The earth is no longer the valley of tears; but the dwelling-place of God: the gate and outer court of Heaven" (Genesis xxviii.).

St. Bonaventure, with his usual piety, sets before us this scene in the Conaculum in these words:

"Behold how full all these things are of joy and gladness: The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord. They who before were affrighted, now rejoice in His presence. Oh! with what delight did they set meat before Him, that He might eat! How diligently did they serve Him! How gladly did they stand around Him!

See,

"Contemplate also how our Lady is there likewise, for the disciples had gathered themselves unto her. then, with what unspeakable gladness she beholdeth these things, and sitteth familiarly beside her Son, and ministereth to Him with joy according as He hath need. And with great content doth the Lord Jesus receive service from her hands, and most reverently showeth her honour before the disciples.

"Neither shalt thou, in thy contemplation, forget Magdalen, the Beloved Disciple, the Apostle of the Apostles. See, how after her wonted fashion, she sitteth at her Master's feet, and eagerly listeneth to His words, and if in aught she may, doth most joyfully and most heartily minister unto Him. Oh! what has this poor little house now become, and how blessed a thing it were to dwell therein !

"And, if thou hast in thee any little share of devotion, doth this not seem to thee to be a great Pasch? I think it must.

"But the Lord doth tarry but a short time with them, for it is now late. And perchance they constrained Him to stay a little longer, begging Him not so quickly to

withdraw Himself from them. Dost thou not think that Magdalen, seated at His feet, would with trust and reverent boldness lay hold of the hem of His garment that He might not leave them? (For He was clad in vesture exceeding white, the raiment of His glory.) She held Him thus, not from presumption, but out of confidence; neither did one so loving and so loved displease the Lord. For the Lord, as He showed in the case of the disciples going to Emmaus, desireth to be held. At length, having done reverence to His Mother, and obtained her leave to go, He gave His blessing unto all, and departed from them. But they falling on their face before Him besought Him that He would return right speedily. For they were a-hungered and a-thirst for the Lord of Whose presence they were wont to have such plenty, and full often did they call Him back with sighings and desires."

SCENE XXXII.

THE CONACULUM. ST. THOMAS.

We have come to the close of the first Easter Sunday, the day of Resurrection. Sin and death are conquered; sin on Good Friday, death to-day.

This is the day the Lord hath made, Holy Church says to us, let us be glad and rejoice therein. Surely if any time on earth is to be a time of joy and peace, it is this new Paschal-tide.

Yet now, as always on this earth, mourning taketh hold of the end of joy (Prov. xiv.). One disturbing thought that mingles with the gladness is fear of the Jews. Their doors are shut (barred) for fear of the Jews.

Another trouble comes upon them when Thomas returns. For Thomas, one of the_twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came (St. John xx.).

Some of the early Fathers think that he had not yet recovered from the great panic, or returned from his hiding-place to the Conaculum. Others contend that he must have been there in the morning when the women brought the news from the Sepulchre, because St. Luke writes, they told all these things to the eleven. This argument, however, does not appear conclusive to some of the best commentators, as the words, "the twelve, "the eleven," had by this time become generic names, like “the family, "the regiment". If one visits a family, it does not

necessarily follow that every one of the family is present when he comes. If a regiment is said to have won a battle, we cannot conclude that all the men of the regiment took part in the action. A considerable part stands for the whole.

What is certain is, that Thomas was not with them when Jesus came. But now he is returned.

But he said to

STATION I.

The other disciples said to him: We have seen the Lord. them: Except I shall see in His hands nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe (St. John xx. 25).

the print of the

A. I will not believe.

It is asked: "What sin did St. Thomas commit by his refusal to believe?" Some of the early Fathers excuse him from all sin. They say that his love was very strong, and that his words are only an expression of his bitter disappointment because he had not seen the Lord. Others think that there was some sin, but not a grievous sin against faith; because he was not denying a dogma fully promulgated. He was merely asserting that he would not give his adhesion till more sure of the evidence.

How did St. Thomas come to think, it is asked, that the wounds would be preserved in His glorified Body? Probably the other Apostles had told him that they had seen and touched them.

B. I will not believe.

For a whole week Thomas remains in this disposition; and consequently a cloud hangs over the Paschal gladness of the others. So must it ever be. When things go well with us, we have always near us on earth, and also in Purgatory, brethren whose need is sore and whose sorrows we must share.

C. I will not believe.

How well for Thomas that he has so many friends to intercede for him. If a young prodigal goes astray, yet if