being Master of power judgest with tranquillity (Wisdom xii.). Think of the supreme foolishness of those whom the father of lies persuades to trust to their own intellects and their science, rather than to the revelations of the allwise God. Alas! they will spend their eternity weeping, wailing and gnashing their teeth, and saying, full of anguish and rage: We fools. We have erred from the way of truth, and the light of justice hath not shined unto us (Wisdom v.). And the mocking spirits answer : "What is that to us, disciple of Christ? You look to it. Remember the day and the hour when we advised you to renounce Jesus, and to take Lucifer for your king and your master for ever, and you consented. You have what you chose, be at peace. Jesus and His friends repeated till you were tired of hearing it, that here there would be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, but you still preferred to be with us. So be ready now to give praise and reverence and service to your king and lord and master, Lucifer." B. Give to Cæsar what belongs to Cæsar, and to God what belongs to God!

Make a careful examination: do we give to our neighbour what belongs to him? do we give to God what belongs to God?

To God, and also to man His image, we owe praise, reverence, service: do we praise; do we reverence; do we serve God?

Do we praise, do we reverence, do we serve God's image, man, our neighbour?

And to ourselves what is due ?

Daniel answers: To us, O Lord, who have sinned, confusion of face (c. ix.).

C. Even the crafty spies, and their masters who put them forward, are filled with wonder and astonishment at the simple answer of our Lord.

And hearing they wondered, and leaving Him they went their ways (St. Matt.). And they marvelled at Him (St. Mark xii.). And they could not reprehend His word before the people and wondering at His answer they held their peace

(St. Luke xx.). Alas! why did they not acknowledge themselves conquered and become the disciples of so wise a Master? Who hath bewitched you? St. Paul would ask, that you prefer to serve the most foolish of all fools, the fallen angel, who would not serve his God?

STATION V.

THE SADDUCEES. THEIR CAPTIOUS QUESTION.

And there came to Him some of the Sadducees, and they asked Him, saying: In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife shall she be? And Jesus said to them: The children of this world marry and are given in marriage, but they that shall be accounted worthy of that world and of the resurrection shall neither be married nor take wives. Neither can they die any more, for they are equal to the angels and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection (St. Luke xx. 33—36).

The Sadducees, seeing the Pharisees discomfited, come forward, full of hope that their learning will succeed better. They do not believe in the resurrection. They say there is no resurrection (St. Matt. xxii.); and they propose what they think a subtle case of the woman who had been married to seven brothers in succession.

A. Mark how our Lord impresses on them the doctrine of the resurrection, and tries to spiritualise their views.

B. Let us pray humbly and earnestly, not once nor seven times, but seventy times seven times, that we may be the children of God accounted worthy of that world, and of the resurrection.

STATION VI.

And the multitudes hearing it were in admiration at His doctrine (St. Matt. xxii. 33).

Let us join with our Blessed Lady, saying: My soul doth magnify the Lord: for He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Herodians are all baffled and silenced.

Alas! why do they continue to kick against the goad ? why do they not fall down at His feet, saying: Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? (Acts ix.).

Full of charity for their souls, our Blessed Saviour goes on to prove to the Sadducees the all-important doctrine of the resurrection.

Now, that the dead rise again, Moses also showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord: The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him (St. Luke xx.). A. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

The implied conclusion is therefore, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still living, and not extinct, as the Sadducees maintained.

B. He is not the God of the dead.

Therefore, too, His Church must be a living Church.

We are the disciples of Moses, the Pharisees said; we know that God spoke to Moses. But our Blessed Saviour insisted that they must believe in Him, the living Messias. If you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sin (St. John viii.). A Church that only believes in Moses, or in the Church of the first four centuries, and rejects all living authority, is not a living Church, but dead, and no Church of Christ. For He is the God of the living, and the Supreme Head of the one living Church, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

C. By thus maintaining the doctrine of the resurrection, our Lord made a good impression on some of the Scribes who did not belong to the sect of the Sadducees. Some of the Scribes answering, said to Him, Master, Thou hast said well (St. Luke xx.).

If afterwards they grew in grace, and came to believe in Him, they would recognise with humble gladness that He is justified in all His words, and that He hath done all things well (St. Mark vii.). The Lord is faithful in all His words, and holy in all His works (Psalm cxliv.).

STATION VII.

THE SCRIBE.

And there came one of the Scribes.

And now a better disposed man comes forward, a Scribe, but not one of the conspirators against our Saviour.

There came one of the Scribes who had heard them reasoning together, and seeing that He had answered them well, asked Him which was the first commandment of all (St. Mark xii. 28). St. Matthew's account seems at first sight to differ from this.

But the Pharisees, hearing that He had silenced the Sadducees, came together, and one of them, a Doctor of the Law, asked Him, tempting Him, Master, which is the great commandment in the Law? Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole Law and the Prophets (St. Matt. xxii.).

From what follows in St. Mark's Gospel, the commentators reconcile the two narratives in this way. The Pharisees, with most unhappy perseverance, are anxious to make a new effort to ensnare Him in His speech, and to effect what the Sadducees and Herodians failed to do. This Scribe tells them that he has a difficult question on his mind that he would like to ask. He is really desirous to see whether Jesus can give him a good answer; but the Pharisees put him forward merely to gain their own ends --that is, to see whether they can find anything against the Law of Moses in His teaching.

STATION VIII.

Jesus answered: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, etc. And the Scribe said to Him: Well, Master, Thou hast said in truth that there is one God, and there is no other besides Him, and that He should be

loved with the whole heart, and with the whole understanding, and with the whole soul, and with the whole strength and to love one's neighbour as oneself is a greater thing than all holocausts and sacrifices. And Jesus, seeing that he had answered wisely, said to him: Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God (St. Mark xii.).

A. Each answer given by our Lord was a victory over human folly, and these victories ought to have beaten down the passions and prejudices of the Pharisees. Have we not reason to tremble at the terrible power of sin, and the blindness and hardness of heart which result from sin ? "Delicta quis intelligit ?"-Who understands sins? (Psalm xviii.).

B. And here we have matter for many hours of contemplation. "Listen to the words," St. Ignatius says when he teaches us how to contemplate. deserve to be listened to if these do not?

What words

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart. And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two commandments, our Lord added, dependeth the whole Law and the Prophets. St. Paul simplifies our work still farther. He writes to the Romans, and his teaching is the teaching of the Holy Ghost: He that loveth his neighbour hath fulfilled the Law (Romans xiii.). He knew that he who rightly loves God's image will also love the unseen God.

This then is all man (Eccles. xii.) to love God, and to love man, His image. Let us beg earnestly for a share of that Divine light which is dawning in the heart of this Scribe: That to love one's neighbour as oneself is a greater thing than all holocausts and sacrifices.

STATION IX.

And no man after that dared ask Him any question (St. Mark xii.).

They have gained nothing. They have not ensnared Him in His words.