LAZARUS RAISED FROM THE DEAD.

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Martha whispered in her ear that Jesus had come, and that He had sent for her. She quickly arose and went towards Him; for He had remained in the place where Martha had met Him. The Jews who did not hear what Martha had whispered, thought that Mary was going, in the excess of her grief, to weep over her brother's grave; they rose up and followed her. When she came to Jesus, she threw herself at His feet, and pouring forth a torrent of tears, said: "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Her friends also were melted into tears: Jesus likewise wept, and was much troubled. He asked where they had laid Lazarus; they desired Him to come and see. He therefore went, groaning in spirit, to the sepulchre, and ordered the stone to be removed which covered it. And when Martha gently expostulated with Him, reminding Him of the condition in which the body must be, as Lazarus was four days dead, "Did I not tell thee," He replied, "that if thou believe, thou shalt see the glory of God." They then took the stone away: Jesus lifted his eyes to Heaven, and having addressed His Father in a short but fervent prayer, cried with a loud voice: "Lazarus, come forth;" and on the instant, he that had been dead came forth, bound as he was, hands and feet, with the grave clothes. "Loose him," said Jesus, "and let him go.'

The holy Fathers consider this resurrection of Lazarus, as a figure of the spiritual resurrection of a soul from the state of sin. Jesus Christ approaches the sinner by His holy grace: He calls upon him by His holy word; He animates him with a strong purpose of amendment by the infusion of His holy Spirit; He unbinds him by the power which He has given to the ministers of His Church, and He bids him go to lead a new life. Such is the wonderful work which the Saviour of our souls produces in the order of grace. The tears, the sighs, the groans, and the prayer of Jesus Christ at the tomb of Lazarus indicate how difficult it is to resuscitate a soul that has long been dead in a habit of mortal sin. But however great the difficulty may be, the sinner who is sincerely desirous of recovering the grace of God ought never to despair, but should always, on the contrary, rely with confidence on the power and the goodness, of an Almighty and an all-merciful Redeemer.

The Council of the Jews; our Lord's Mission in Peraa; Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard.—John, xi.; Matt., xxii.

'The immediate effect of this great miracle, was twofold. It won the full faith of many to our Lord: on the other hand, it drove His enemies to desperation.' The Priests and Pharisees met in council, and warmly debated what course should be pursued. The notable miracle He had just wrought at Bethany could not be gainsayed: if some decisive step were not taken, all the people, it was argued, would believe in Him. He would be proclaimed King; and such a step, followed as it would be by the intervention of the Roman authority, would probably lead to the utter destruction of even the little that now remained of their national existence. Then it was that the High Priest, Caiphas, made his unwitting prophecy, that it was expedient one man should die for the sake of the nation, and it was determined that our Lord should be put to death. After this, as St. John tells us, He withdrew from any public appearance in Judea, and went for a time to Ephrem, a place in the desert country, to the north-east of Jerusalem.

We cannot fix with certainty the date of the raising of Lazarus, nor, in consequence, the interval of time which ensued between that miracle and our Lord's last approach to Jerusalem. If, as seems likely, Lazarus was raised from the dead not long after the feast of the Dedication, we have still a period of two or three months to account for before the last Pasch.'

It is probable that to this time we should refer what is. recorded by the Evangelists regarding His preaching in Peræa.* We are told that He pursued in that district His usual method of teaching, and working miracles of mercy, and that multitudes thronged to hear Him, and to witness His wondrous works.

Among the discourses of our Blessed Redeemer, which St. Matthew records in reference to this portion of His sacred mission, is that in which He narrated the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard. "The kingdom of Heaven,"

See Note, p. 439.

THE COUNCIL OF THE JEWS.

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said He, "is like to a householder who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. He agreed with them what wages they should have, and then set them to work. About the third hour of the day, he went out again, and finding others standing in the market-place idle, he told them also to go into his vineyard, promising to give them fair wages for their labour. He did the same at the sixth, and again at the ninth hour of the day. Going out, moreover, towards evening, and meeting with others still unemployed, he asked them why they stood there all the day idle. They answered that no one had hired them: he, therefore, bade them go, like the rest, into his vineyard, giving them the same promise that he had given to the others.

"When the day was over, he commanded his steward to call the workmen together and to pay them their hire. The last comers were called upon in the first place, and, though they had worked but one hour, they received each of them the same wages as the master had promised to the first. Those who had been set to work in the morning, imagining that when it came to their turn, they should receive something more, were grievously disappointed to find no addition made to the pay they had agreed for, and they received it with great murmuring against the master. These last,' said they, "have worked no more than one hour, and yet they receive the same wages as we do, who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.' Friend,' said the master to one of

them, 'I do thee no wrong. Didst thou not agree with me for a day's wages? Take what belongs to thee, and go thy way. It is my will to give to the last the same that I give to thee. Am I not master in this, to do as I please? or is thine eye to be jealous because I am good? So shall the last be first, and the first last. For, many are called, but few are chosen.””

The great lesson we are to learn from this parable is, that no vocation, however exalted, can secure for those who receive it, the highest rewards, to the exclusion of those whose vocation in the Church has been outwardly inferior or has been given to them at a later date, but who, after their call, have discharged faithfully the duties assigned to them.

Zacheus.-Luke, xix.

The time of the Paschal Feast was now at hand, and our Saviour, taking His apostles apart, said to them: "Behold! we now go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed to the Chief Priests and the Scribes, and they shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified; and on the third day He shall rise again."

On the journey to the holy city, He was followed by a great multitude, and when he came near to Jericho, Zacheus, a rich man and a publican, had a great desire. to see Him. Being of low stature, and unable to approach on account of the crowd, he ran forward and climbed up into a sycamore tree, that overlooked the way. When Jesus came to the place, He looked up, and bade Zacheus quickly come down, "for" said He, "I will abide this day in thy house."

Whenever God calls, no delay is to be made: if His first call be not answered, He may not call again. Zacheus lost not a single moment; he came down with haste, and joyfully received the Son of God into his house. The people were not a little surprised, and they murmured at seeing Jesus go to the house of a man who was publicly known as a sinner. But Zacheus was no longer a sinner;

he had renounced his evil practices; and now, standing humbly before our Lord, he declared the resolution he had taken, of distributing one-half of his goods among the poor, and of making reparation with the other half to those he had wronged. Our Lord thereupon pronounced him a true son of Abraham, and declared him to be in the straight path to salvation.

The holy Fathers look upon Zacheus as the model of a true penitent. To some it may seem as if he himself had made the first advances towards his justification. But, in reality, Jesus Christ by His sacred graces had first touched his heart, and the vigorous efforts that Zacheus made to come to Jesus, were the effects of those desires which the Divine mercy had already stirred up within him.

Zacheus gave to the poor no more than one-half of his goods, because God does not accept of alms which are not our own to give: so much of the other half as he had unjustly acquired, was not his, but the property of those he had wronged. The fourfold reparation he made to his neighbour is a mark of the sincerity of his repentance: he struck at the very root of that passion which had hitherto been predominant in his heart, and thereby began his conversion upon a solid and lasting foundation.

When the chief obstacle that opposes a sinner's return to God is once removed by a sincere repentance, his advancement in virtue becomes easy. If a neighbour has been maliciously injured, either in his goods or in his reputation, reparation must be made, so far as the offending party has it in his power: however difficult the task may seem to the proud and avaricious heart of man, the obligation is indispensable; the sin is not remitted, says St. Augustine, unless restitution be made of what was taken away.

Triumphal Entry of our Lord into Jerusalem.-John, xii.

Our Blessed Saviour advanced from Jericho to Bethany, where He arrived six days before the great feast of the Passover. There, on the evening of the Sabbath, a supper was

*Our Lord reached Bethany either on the Friday, or the Saturday, before His Passion. (See Note, p. 537.)