disciples went back to the sea-shore. For He had told them to take the boat, and to return without Him to the western side of the lake. This He did, as the event showed, to convince them of their weakness in the absence of their Divine Master, without whom they could do nothing. They had no sooner put to sea than a storm arose, and the boat was violently tossed by the foaming waves. They plied their oars, they exerted all their strength, and struggled against the contrary wind the whole night.

Our blessed Saviour saw them from the shore, but He was in no haste to help them. About the break of day He advanced towards them upon the surface of the deep, and came near the boat, as if He meant to pass them by. The spectacle was new to the disciples: not knowing how any one could walk upon the waters, they took it for a phantom, and cried aloud for fright. Jesus then spoke to them, and said: "Fear not; it is I." Peter was the first to recognise his Master's voice, and being as regardless of danger, as he was confident of the Divine succour, he immediately replied: "Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come to Thee upon the waters." Jesus said, "Come." Peter that instant threw himself out of the boat, and to the great astonishment of the rest, walked as steadily upon the rolling billows, as though he were treading on solid ground. He went boldly on, until he came near to our blessed Saviour, when, perceiving that the wind was high and the sea rough, he lost courage, and began to sink. Terrified at his situation, he cried out: "Save me, O Lord!" and Jesus stretched forth His hand and took hold of the faint-hearted Apostle, saying: "Thou man of little faith, why dost thou doubt ?" He then entered the boat with Peter; and immediately the wind ceased, and they reached the shore.

The holy Fathers, who regard all the words and actions of our Saviour as full of mystery, ask why He would permit His Apostle to sink, after He had expressly commanded him to come forth upon the waters. It was, they reply, to convince St. Peter by experience, that his life and being depended on the saving hand of God; it was to check that confidence which seems to have been blended in his natural disposition, and which, if unrestrained, might make

JESUS, THE LIVING BREAD.

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him vain and presumptuous. A certain degree of fearfulness is conducive to our spiritual good; it helps to make us humble and diffident of ourselves; it is founded on the knowledge of our own inability; and this knowledge tells us, that for the success of our undertakings, we must depend solely on God. Of all those who have the happiness to believe in Christ, there is not one who has not received, and who does not daily receive from His Divine hand, greater favours than St. Peter did, in being preserved from the watery deep. There are other storms more fatal to our souls; there are other gulfs and other waters of perdition, from which we hourly stand in need of being saved by the grace of our Redeemer: without His supporting hand, we should long since have sunk beneath the evils that surround us.

Jesus, the Living Bread.-John vi.

In the meantime the Jews who had followed Jesus into the desert lost sight of Him, but knowing that His disciples had crossed the lake, they returned to Capharnaum. Finding Him there, in the Synagogue, they asked Him when and how He had come-for they knew that He had not crossed in the boat with His disciples. Without taking notice of their questions, He told them that they had followed Him only for the sake of the bread which they had miraculously received the day before; thence He took occasion to mention a much more excellent Bread, which He promised to give them for their nourishment unto eternal life. "For I," said He, "am the Living Bread, which came down from Heaven; and the Bread that I will give is My flesh, for the life of the world, and whosoever eateth thereof shall live for

The incredulous Jews not being able to comprehend a doctrine so spiritual and so sublime, called it a harsh saying, and disputed with one another, how it was possible that He could give them His flesh to eat. But notwithstanding their cavils, our Blessed Lord positively asserted the point in question, and in terms still more explicit, thus

confirmed what He had before told them: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath life everlasting: he abideth in Me and I in him. For, My Flesh is truly meat, and My Blood is truly drink. This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven, not like the manna, of which your fathers eat, and they died. He that eateth this Bread shall live for ever."

Many, therefore, of the Jews who were present, and even some of the disciples, took offence at these expressions, and were scandalised at the doctrine they conveyed; and because they did not understand how Christ could really give them His flesh to eat, and His blood to drink, they refused to believe, and left him. According to their carnal notion of things, they concluded that He meant to give them His flesh to eat, and His blood to drink, not concealed under the pure appearances of bread and wine, but in a gross and carnal manner, like the flesh of a dead man, as St. Augustine says, or like a piece of meat from the shambles. And, therefore, to disabuse them of that gross mistake, our Blessed Saviour told them, that flesh inanimate and separated from the spirit would profit nothing, but that the flesh which He should give them was enlivened by the spirit, and should give them spiritual life.

Having thus indicated the manner in which His promise was to be fulfilled, as it was at His Last Supper in the institution of the Blessed Eucharist, He turned to the Twelve, and asked them if they also would leave Him. Upon which St. Peter, with his wonted zeal, made answer: "To whom, Lord, shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life: we believe and know that Thou art Christ the Son of God." Our Lord's answer was a mournful prediction of His betrayal by one of their number. "Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil."

With these events, another year of our Lord's ministry came to an end. The Feast of the Passover-the third after His Baptism-was at hand. But on this occasion, he did not go up to Jerusalem.

6

We find Him next in the border-land of Tyre and Sidon,

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into which He had passed through the mountain district in the north-west of Galilee. Here a Gentile woman who besought Him to cure her daughter, and was at first rejected by Him, on the ground that she did not belong to the house of Israel for whom He was sent, and that the bread of the children should not be given to dogs, afterwards won from Him the full granting of her desire, by the reply that the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the children's table.'

Our blessed Saviour, says St. Chrysostom, at first refused to listen to the petition of this Chanaanean woman, that by her example He might instruct us, with what faith, humility, and perseverance we ought to pray. To make His servants the more sensible of His mercy, and the more eager to obtain it, He often seems to pay no attention to their prayers, until He has exercised them in the virtues of humility and patience. "Ask," He says, "and you shall receive: knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

St. Peter's Confession of Faith; the Transfiguration of our Lord.-Matt. xvi., xvii.

From Tyre and Sidon He passed homewards again through the territory of the cluster of towns called Decapolis, where He healed a deaf and dumb man, by putting His fingers into the ears of the sufferer, and touching his tongue, saying, at the same time, "Ephpheta," that is, "Be opened."

After this He is again found on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee, where, among other wondrous miracles, He repeated that of the feeding of the multitude-on this occa sion feeding with seven loaves and a few fishes as many as 4,000 men, besides women and children.

Then, crossing the lake to its northern shore, He passed through Bethsaida, on the Jordan, near which town He had landed. Here again He wrought the cure of a blind man. His course lay still farther north, until he reached the neighbourhood of Cæsarea Philippi."

)*

* This town which was situated not far from the Jordan, but very much to the north of the Lake of Galilee, had anciently been called Panium or

This was the locality of the great Confession of St. Peter, and of our Lord's first promise to confer upon that Apostle the Primacy in the Church which He was about to establish. He began by asking the Apostles generally, "Whom do men say that I am ?" They told Him, John the Baptist, Elias, Jeremias, or some other of the Prophets. "But you," said our Blessed Saviour, "whom do you say that I am?" This time it was Peter alone who answered: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." "Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jona," replied our Saviour; "because it is not from the dictates of flesh and blood, but by the ⚫ revelation of My heavenly Father that thou hast learned this truth. And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, which is to say a Rock, and that upon this Rock I will build My Church, and the powers of hell shall never prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed also in Heaven."

Such is the solemn promise which Jesus Christ then made to St. Peter, of constituting him the head of His Church, which, like a great fabric, being built on him, as on a firm rock, shall never fail.

"The first thing we find mentioned in the history of the remaining period of our Lord's ministry is, that He now began to tell His Apostles that He was to go to Jerusalem, there to be rejected by the Chief Priests and the Pharisees, at whose hands He should suffer many things, and by whom He should be put to death. But He added that on the third day He should rise again from the dead.

To the Apostles it seemed a hard thing that their Lord and Master was to undergo the extreme ignominy and violence of which He now, for the first time, spoke. St. Peter, in his human devotion and love for our Lord, began to remonstrate with Him, "This could never be, God forbid

Peneas, whence is derived its modern name of Banias. (See Maps of Palestine in the Time of Christ, and of Modern Palestine, in the Bible Atlas.)

The town had retained its old name under Herod the Great. Herod Philip (see Note, 457), who made large additions to it, named it Cæsarea Philippi, partly after his own name, and partly in honour of the Roman Emperor.