D. Amen, amen, I say to you, if you ask the Father

anything in My name.

"Attendite."

Every word of this solemn promise deserves to be well weighed. To ask properly in our

Lord's Name:

1. We must not be at enmity with Him; we must be contrite for all our sins.

2. We must pray with faith and hope; nothing wavering, as St. James writes.

3. We must ask for such things as our Lord can wish for us.

4. We must ask, as He wishes us to ask, with persevering importunity, asking and knocking till the loaf is given.

E. Ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. When Eliseus was about to work a miracle for the poor widow woman, he said: Go borrow of all thy neighbours empty vessels not a few. He knew that the miraculous oil would flow as long as she presented an empty vessel to hold more. So our Lord wishes us to ask and ask again, and continue to ask a long time, that our joy may be full, that we may have grace in good measure, pressed down and shaken together, and running over (St. Luke vi.).

When King Joas, threatened by the Syrians, also came for help to Eliseus, saying in sorrow: O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the guide thereof: the Prophet said to him, Take the arrows, and strike with an arrow upon the ground. And he struck three times, and stood still. And the man of God was angry with him, and said, If thou hadst smitten five or six or seven times, thou hadst smitten Syria even to utter destruction: but now three times shalt thou smite it (4 Kings xiii.).

So is it when we are praying. Our Lord grieves exceedingly because we break off our prayers too soon, and do not continue to importune till our joy is full. He spake also a parable to them that we ought always to pray and not to faint (St. Luke xviii,).

STATION XXXII.

These things have I spoken to you in proverbs. The hour cometh when I will no more speak to you in proverbs, but will show you plainly of the Father (v. 25).

In proverbs, or parables, means in veiled and figurative language which they have not fully understood. After the Resurrection our Lord explained the Scripture more clearly; and when the Holy Ghost came down He taught the Apostles fully and perfectly all truth. Veni Creator Spiritus.

STATION XXXIII.

In that day you shall ask in My name; and I say not to you that I will ask the Father for you.

For the Father Himself loveth you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came from God (vv. 26, 27).

We must note carefully what pains our Blessed Lord takes to comfort His disciples; and how often He repeats to them this consoling assurance that when He is gone, they will not feel the need of His visible assistance, as they have hitherto done, since the Holy Ghost will fill them with faith and love, and His Father will love them, because they have believed in Him and loved Him. So that they will have a right to ask in His Name, and will obtain whatever they so ask, without it being necessary that He should be visibly present, as heretofore, to ask for them.

STATION XXXIV.

I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and I go to the Father.

His disciples say to Him: Behold, now Thou speakest plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now we know that Thou knowest all things, and Thou needest not that any man should ask Thee. By this we believe that Thou camest forth from God (vv. 28, 29).

A. Our Lord had before now said clearly, I go to the

Father. He had also said clearly: The Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men, and they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall rise again (St. Mark ix.). But as His Apostles had not light to understand these words when spoken, it was as if He had spoken in proverbs and parables. Now He has fed them with His Body and His Blood, and as the end draws nigh He is loving to the end, that is, He is pouring out more and more grace from His loving Heart, and the Apostles believe more firmly and understand His words more clearly.

B. Now we know that Thou knowest all things. By this we believe that Thou camest forth from God.

His disciples are now in a state of consolation. They are not under delusion, for they have received a large increase of faith, of hope, of charity; but our Blessed Saviour knows the storm that is coming, and that a measure of grace which might be sufficient for the time of calm and quiet is not sufficient for the time of trial that is close at hand. The Blessed Eucharist has strengthened them and enlightened them much; but not till the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit shall be poured out in abundance upon them, will they be fit for the battle that is to rage between them and the powers of darkness. Therefore, seeing them now cheered and consoled by the increase of light which they perceive in themselves, He gently adds a warning word against presumption upon the graces just received through the Holy Sacrament.

STATION XXXV.

Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, and it is now come, that you shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me (vv. 31-32).

A. When our Lord is speaking these words, He sees Satan and the princes of darkness present, with their

malicious and murderous eyes fixed on His Apostles, and burning with a most fierce rage and jealousy to be allowed to measure their strength with these favoured disciples. He also sees Judas and the priests busily engaged in gathering and arming their followers. He therefore understands how exceedingly His little flock need earnest prayer, and a most complete mistrust of their own strength. Hence His solemn word of caution, followed later by so many others: You shall be scattered, and shall leave Me alone.

At once, however, He adds another word to quicken their faith, and to impress upon their minds that He is not to be conquered in the coming struggle: Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.

B. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me (v. 32).

解

O it is good for us to be here, listening to this word of our Saviour. Which of us could find the burden of life unbearable, if we would make leisure, and ponder on this word till virtue comes out from His Heart into our poor hearts? For who is there among us that is not the child of our Heavenly Father? Who is there that has not a right to say: Yet after all, I am not alone in this sad world, because the Father is with me? My God is with me. My Lord Jesus Christ, Who loved me more than His own life, is with me. A young man lying sick in a remote part of India would be cheered unspeakably if he suddenly found out that a very good and kind relative of his was living close by. “If that be so," he would say, "I am not alone in this strange land." Can a man be alone who has his Creator near him? his good God near him? Jesus Christ with His loving Heart near him? and near him also the Blessed among women, who is charged to be a Mother to him?

C. When is man truly alone? Then only when he himself has obliged his God, his Creator, his Father, his Redeemer to abandon him. O then indeed it may truly be

said, Væ soli- -wo to him who is in this most deplorable loneliness.

The Holy Spirit tells us that during the Egyptian darkness, the wretched people of the country lay there exiled from the eternal Providence-scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness. But that misery lasted only three days.

66

'By Thy bitter Death and Passion, Lord Jesus, deliver us from everlasting loneliness and eternal separation from Thee." Well may the Christian who has lost his soul gnash with his teeth and pine away, when he finds himself given up entirely by his own choice to the government and tyranny of Satan, and that the providence of God no longer interferes to protect him. The dark veil of forgetfulness hangs between him and the charity of the loving God, Who once was his Father. He is to pine away for ever, to wail for ever in the land of forgetfulness, where God is never any more called Father. Shall Thy wonders, O Lord, be known in the dark, and Thy justice in the land of forgetfulness? (Psalm lxxxvii.).

STATION XXXVI.

These things I have spoken, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress; but have confidence, I have overcome the world (v. 33).

A. That in Me you may have peace.

'How, Blessed Lord, are they to have peace in Thee? Hast Thou not just said that they are to be scared and scattered, and in their terror to forget all Thy miracles and Thy Divine power, and Thy tender care of them, and to be scandalised and discouraged ? ”

Yes, in the first outburst of the storm they will be scared and scattered. Perchance, however, if they would follow their Divine Master's counsel and example, and would watch and pray, lest they enter into temptation, the strength already given them in Holy Communion would be multiplied, and would be sufficient for the crisis. But even if their hearts fail now for the moment, and they leave