{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_67486/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_67486","id":"gutenberg_67486","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67486","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Jesus Christ -- Biography"],"text":"LIFE OF CHRIST\n\n\n\n\n                             LIFE OF CHRIST\n\n                                  _by_\n\n                            GIOVANNI PAPINI\n\n\n                   Freely translated from the Italian\n\n                                  _by_\n\n                        DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER\n\n                                NEW YORK\n                      HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY\n\n\n\n\n                          COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY\n                   HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.\n\n                       PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY\n                       THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY\n                             RAHWAY, N. J.\n\n\n\n\n                           TRANSLATOR\u2019S NOTE\n\n\nThe King James English version has been followed in the Bible quotations\nof this translation, except in a few cases where an alteration in the\nRevised Version was evidently the result of a better understanding of\nthe original Greek or Hebrew text.\n\nFor the form of proper names, the spelling of the Century Dictionary has\nbeen used as a rule; for names not given in the Century, the form\ncurrent in the usual standard works. Since this book is intended to be\npopular rather than either scholarly or arch\u00e6ological, it was thought\nbest to use the name-forms best known to most readers.\n\nIt will be noted that a number of the quotations are mosaics made up of\nphrases taken from different parts of the Bible and put together to make\none passage. This not being the English usage in such matters, it seems\ndesirable to call the reader\u2019s attention to the character of such\nquotations.\n\nThe only other explanation which may be necessary is in connection with\nthe omission of occasional sentences, paragraphs and of one or two\nchapters. In the case of individual sentences or phrases, they were\nusually omitted because they contained an allusion sure to be obscure to\nnon-Italian readers. A characteristic example of such omissions is in\nthe scene of the crucifixion where Christ is described as being nailed\nto the cross with outstretched arms like an owl nailed with outstretched\nwings to a barn-door. This revolting country-side custom being unknown\nto American readers, a reference to it could only cloud the passage.\n\nSince translators into English who omit passages are usually accused of\nsuppressing valuable material which might displease too-narrow\nAnglo-Saxon readers, it is perhaps as well to explain that the excision\nof paragraphs here and there, and of a few chapters, is in no sense an\nexpurgation, because this _Life of Christ_ is very much of the same\nquality throughout. It simply seemed to me that such occasional\nlightening of the text would make it more acceptable to English-speaking\nreaders, so much less tolerant of long descriptions and minute\ndiscussions than Italians.\n\nI quite realize that this may seem a slight and arbitrary basis for\nmaking actual excisions in an author\u2019s work, and I understand that the\ntranslator is not at all responsible for the matter which he translates,\nbut only for the truthfulness with which he presents the text given him\nto set into another language. I was moved first by the fact that the\npassages omitted are of no more importance than any other passages in\nthe book; and secondly by the author\u2019s wish expressly stated in his\nIntroduction, to have this a readable book which will hold those who\npick it up, rather than to have it a book of exact learning or great\nliterature. This translation was made with the purpose of allowing the\ngeneral American reading-public to form an opinion on a book which has\naroused a great deal of discussion in modern Italy; and to carry out\nthis purpose, the occasional omissions mentioned and a certain freedom\nin the rendering of the Italian seemed to me justifiable.\n\nDorothy Canfield Fisher.\n\n\n\n\n                              INTRODUCTION\n\n\n                                   1\n\n\nFor five hundred years those who call themselves free spirits because\nthey prefer prison life to army service have been trying desperately to\nkill Jesus a second time\u2014to kill Him in the hearts of men.\n\nThe army of His enemies assembled to bury Him as soon as they thought\nthey heard the death-rattle of Christ\u2019s second death. Presumptuous\ndonkeys mistaking libraries for their stables, top-heavy brains\npretending to explore the highest heavens in philosophy\u2019s drifting\nballoon, professors poisoned by the fatal strong drink of philology and\nmetaphysics, armed themselves. Paraphrasing the rallying-cry of Peter\nthe Hermit to the crusaders, they shouted \u201cMan wills it!\u201d as they set\nout on their crusade against the Cross. Certain of them drew on their\nboundless imaginations to evolve what they considered proof positive of\na fantastic theory that the story of the Gospel is no more than a legend\nfrom which we can reconstruct the natural life of Jesus as a man,\none-third prophet, one-third necromancer, one-third demagogue, a man who\nwrought no miracles except the hypnotic cure of some obsessed devotees,\nwho did not die on the cross, but came to Himself in the chill of the\nsepulcher and reappeared with mysterious airs to delude men into\nbelieving that He had risen from the dead.\n\nOthers demonstrated as certainly as two and two make four that Jesus was\na myth developed in the time of Augustus and of Tiberius, and that all\nthe Gospels can be reduced to a clumsy mosaic of prophetic texts. Others\nconceived of Jesus as a good, well-meaning man, but too high-flown and\nfantastic, who went to school to the Greeks, the Buddhists, and the\nEssenes and patched together His plagiarisms as best He could to support\nHis claim to be the Messiah of Israel. Others made Him out to be an\nunbalanced humanitarian, precursor of Rousseau and of divine democracy;\nan excellent man for his time but who to-day would be put under the care\nof an alienist. Others to get rid of the subject once for all took up\nthe idea of the myth again, and by dint of puzzlings and comparisons\nconcluded that Jesus never was born anywhere in any spot on the globe.\n\nBut who could have taken the place of the man they were trying to\ndispose of? The grave they dug was deeper every day, and still they\ncould not bury Him from sight.\n\nThen began the manufacture of religions for the irreligious. During the\nwhole of the nineteenth century they were turned out in couples and half\ndozens at a time: the religion of Truth, of the Spirit, of the\nProletariat, of the Hero, of Humanity, of Nationalism, of Imperialism,\nof Reason, of Beauty, of Peace, of Sorrow, of Pity, of the Ego, of the\nFuture and so on. Some were only new arrangements of Christianity,\nuncrowned, spineless Christianity, Christianity without God; most of\nthem were political, or philosophic, trying to make themselves out\nmystics. But faithful followers of these religions were few and their\nardor faint. Such frozen abstractions, although sometimes helped along\nby social interest or literary passions, did not fill the hearts which\nhad renounced Jesus.\n\nThen attempts were made to throw together facsimiles of religion which\nwould make a better job of offering what men looked for in religion.\nFree-Masons, Spiritualists, Theosophists, Occultists, Scientists,\nprofessed to have found the infallible substitute for Christianity. But\nsuch mixtures of moldy superstition and worm-eaten necromancy, such a\nhash of musty rationalism and science gone bad, of simian symbolism and\nhumanitarianism turned sour, such unskillful rearrangements of Buddhism,\nmanufactured-for-export, and of betrayed Christianity, contented some\nthousands of leisure-class women, of condensers of the void ... and went\nno further.\n\nIn the meantime, partly in a German parsonage and partly in a\nprofessor\u2019s chair in Switzerland, the last Anti-Christ was making ready.\n\u201cJesus,\u201d he said, coming down from the Alps in the sunshine, \u201cJesus\nmortified mankind; sin is beautiful, violence is beautiful. Everything\nthat says \u2018yes\u2019 to Life is beautiful.\u201d And Zarathushtra, after having\nthrown into the Mediterranean the Greek texts of Leipzig and the works\nof Machiavelli, began to gambol at the feet of the statue of Dionysius\nwith the grace that might be expected of a German, born of a Lutheran\nminister, who had just stepped down from a chair in a Swiss University.\nBut, although his songs were sweet to the ear, he never succeeded in\nexplaining exactly what he meant when he spoke of this adorable \u201cLife\u201d\nto which men should sacrifice such a living part of themselves as their\nneed to repress their own animal instincts: nor could he ever say in\nwhat way Christ, the true Christ of the Gospels, opposed Himself to\nlife, He who wanted to make life higher and happy. And the poor\nsyphilitic Anti-Christ, when insanity was close upon him, signed his\nlast letter, \u201cThe Crucified One.\u201d\n\n\n                                   2\n\n\nAnd still Christ is not yet expelled from the earth either by the\nravages of time or by the efforts of men. His memory is everywhere: on\nthe walls of the churches and the schools, on the tops of bell-towers\nand of mountains, in street-shrines, at the heads of beds and over\ntombs, thousands of crosses bring to mind the death of the Crucified\nOne. Take away the frescoes from the churches, carry off the pictures\nfrom the altars and from the houses, and the life of Christ fills\nmuseums and picture-galleries. Throw away breviaries and missals, and\nyou find His name and His words in all the books of literature. Even\noaths are an involuntary remembrance of His presence.\n\nWhen all is said and done, Christ is an end and a beginning, an abyss of\ndivine mystery between two divisions of human history. Paganism and\nChristianity can never be welded together. Before Christ and After\nChrist! Our era, our civilization, our life, begins with the birth of\nChrist. We can seek out what comes before Christ, we can acquire\ninformation about it, but it is no longer ours, it is signed with other\nsigns, limited by other systems, no longer moves our passions; it may be\nbeautiful, but it is dead. C\u00e6sar was more talked about in his time than\nJesus, and Plato taught more science than Christ. People still discuss\nthe Roman ruler and the Greek philosopher, but who nowadays is hotly for\nC\u00e6sar or against him; and where now are the Platonists and the\nanti-Platonists?\n\nChrist, on the contrary, is still living among us. There are still\npeople who love Him and who hate Him. There is a passion for the love of\nChrist and a passion for His destruction. The fury of so many against\nHim is a proof that He is not dead. The very people who devote\nthemselves to denying His ideas and His existence pass their lives in\nbringing His name to memory.\n\nWe live in the Christian era, and it is not yet finished. If we are to\nunderstand the world, our life, ourselves, we must refer to Christ.\nEvery age must re-write its own Gospel. More than any other, our own age\nhas so re-written its own Gospel, and therefore the author ought perhaps\nto justify himself for having written this book. But the justification,\nif there is need of such, will be plain to those who read it.\n\nThere never was a time more cut off from Christ than ours, nor one which\nneeded Him more. But to find Him, the old books are not enough. No life\nof Christ, even if it were written by an author of greater genius than\nany who has ever lived, could be more beautiful and perfect than the\nGospels. The candid sobriety of the first four stories can never be\nimproved upon by any miracle of style and poetry. And we can add very\nlittle to the information they give us.\n\nBut who reads the Gospels nowadays? And who could read them, even if he\nset himself at it. Glosses of philologists, comments of the exegetical\nexperts, varying readings of erudite marginal editors, emendations of\nletters, such things can provide entertainment for patient brains. But\nthe heart needs something more than this.\n\nEvery generation has its preoccupations and its thoughts, and its own\ninsanities. The old Gospels must be re-translated for the help of the\nlost. If Christ is to remain alive in the life of men, eternally present\nwith us, it is absolutely necessary to resuscitate Him from time to\ntime; not to color Him with the dyes of the present day, but to\nrepresent with new words, with references to things now happening, His\neternal truth and His never-changing story.\n\nThe world is full of such bookish resuscitations of Christ, learned or\nliterary: but it seems to the author of this one that many are\nforgotten, and others are not suitable. To write the history of the\nstories of Christ would take another book and one even longer than this\none. But it is easy to divide into two great divisions those which are\nbest known and most read: (1) Those written by orthodox authors for the\nuse of the orthodox; (2) and those written by scientists for the use of\nnon-believers. Neither the first nor the second can satisfy those who\nare seeking in such lives for Life.\n\n\n                                   3\n\n\nThe lives of Jesus written for pious readers exhale, almost all of them,\na sort of withered mustiness, the very first page of which repels\nreaders used to more delicate and substantial fare. There is an odor of\nburnt-out lamp-wick, a smell of stale incense and of rancid oil that\nsticks in the throat. You cannot draw a long, free breath. The reader\nacquainted with the biographies of great men written with greatness, and\npossessing some notions of his own about the art of writing and of\npoetry, who incautiously picks up one of these pious books, feels his\nheart fail him as he advances into this flabby prose, torpid, tangled,\npatched up with commonplaces that were alive a thousand years ago, but\nwhich are now dead and petrified. It is even worse when these worn-out\nold hacks try to break into the lyric gallop or the trot of eloquence.\nTheir faded graces, their ornamentations of countrified purisms, of\n\u201cfine writing\u201d fit for provincial academies, their artificial warmth\ncooled down to tepidity by unctuous dignity, discourage the endurance of\nthe boldest reader. And when they are not engulfed in the thorny\nmysteries of scholasticism, they fall into the roaring eloquence of the\nSunday sermon. In short, these are books written for readers who believe\nin Jesus, that is, for those who could, in a way, get along without\nthem. But ordinary people, indifferent people, irreverent people,\nartists, those accustomed to the greatness of Antiquity and to the\nnovelty of Modernity, never look at even the best of such volumes; or if\nthey pick them up, let them fall at once. And yet these are the very\npeople whom such a book should win because they are those whom Christ\nhas lost, they are those who to-day form public opinion and count in the\nworld.\n\nAnother sort of books, those written by the learned men for the\nneutrals, succeed even less in turning towards Christ the souls that\nhave not learned the way to Christianity. In the first place they almost\nnever have any intention of doing this, and in the second place they\nthemselves, almost all of them, are among those who ought to be brought\nback to the true and living Christ. Furthermore, their method which is,\nas they say, historical, scientific, critical, leads them to pause over\ntexts and external facts, to establish them or to eliminate them, rather\nthan to consider the meaning and the value and the light which, if they\nwould, they could find in those texts and those facts. Most of them try\nto find the man in the God, the actual external facts of the miracles,\nthe legend in the tradition and, above all, they are on the look-out for\ninterpolations, for falsifications and apocrypha in the first part of\nChristian literature. Those who do not go so far as to deny that Jesus\never lived, take away from the testimony about Him everything they can,\nand by dint of \u201cifs\u201d and \u201cbuts\u201d and doubts and hypotheses, so far from\nwriting any definite story themselves, succeed in spoiling the story\ncontained in the Gospels. In short, such historians with all their\nconfusion of fret-work and bunglings, with all the resources of textual\ncriticism, of mythology, of paleography, of archeology, of Greek and\nHebrew philology, only triturate and liquefy the simple life of Christ.\nThe most logical conclusion to draw from their rambling incoherent talk\nis that Jesus never did appear on the earth, or if by chance He really\ndid appear, that we know nothing certain about His life. Christianity\nstill exists, of course, in spite of such conclusions, and Christianity\nis a fact not easily disregarded. To offset this fact the best these\nenemies of Christ can do is to search through the Orient and Occident\nfor the origins, as they say, of Christianity, their intention being\nquite openly to parcel it out among its predecessors, Jewish, Greek, for\nthat matter Hindu and Chinese, as if to say: \u201cYou see, your Jesus at\nbottom was not only a man, but a poor specimen of a man, since he said\nnothing that the human race did not know by heart before his day.\u201d\n\nOne might ask these deniers of miracles how they explain the miracle of\na syncretism of old traditions which has grown about the memory of an\nobscure plagiarist, an immense movement of men, of thoughts, of\ninstitutions, so strong, overwhelmingly strong, as to change the face of\nthe earth for centuries. But this question, and many others, we will not\nput to them, at least for the present.\n\nIn short, when in looking for light we pass from the bad taste of the\ndevotional compilers to the writers who monopolize \u201chistoric truth\u201d we\nfall from pietistic boredom into sterile confusion. The pious writers\nare unable to lead men to Christ, and the \u201chistorians\u201d lose Him in\ncontroversy. And neither one nor the other tempt men to read. They may\ndiffer from each other in matters of faith, but they resemble each other\nin the uncouthness of their style. And unctuous rhetoric is as\ndistasteful to cultivated minds, even superficially acquainted with the\ndivine idyll and divine tragedy of the Gospels, as is the\ncold-heartedness of learned writers. So true is all this that even\nto-day, after the passage of so many years, after so many changes of\ntaste and opinion, the only life of Jesus which is read by many lay\nreaders is that of the apostate priest, Renan, a book which all true\nChristians dislike for its dilettante attitude, insulting even in\npraise, and which every real historian distrusts because of its\ncompromises and its insufficient scholarship. But although this book of\nRenan\u2019s seems written by a skeptical romancer, wedded to philology, or\nby a Semitic scholar suffering from literary nostalgia, it has the\nmerits of being really \u201cwritten,\u201d that is, of getting itself read, even\nby those who are neither believers nor specialists.\n\nTo make itself readily read is not the only value nor the greatest which\na book can have, and the writer who contents himself with that alone and\nwho thinks of nothing else shows that vanity rather than ardor is his\nmotive-power. But let us admit that to be readable is a merit and not a\nsmall merit for a book, especially when it is not intended as a tool for\nstudy, but when it aims at the mark called, \u201cmoving the emotions,\u201d or to\ngive it its real name, when its aim is to \u201ctransform human beings.\u201d\n\nThe author of the present book finds\u2014and if he is mistaken he will be\nvery glad to be convinced by any one who sees more clearly than he\u2014that\nin the thousands of books which tell the story of Jesus, there is not\none which seeks, instead of dogmatic proofs and learned discussions, to\ngive food fit for the soul, for the needs of men of our time.\n\nThe book we need is a living book, to make Christ more living, to set\nChrist the Ever-Living with loving vividness before the eyes of living\nmen, to make us feel Him as actually and eternally present in our lives.\nWe need a book which would show Him in all His living and present\ngreatness\u2014perennial and yet belonging intimately to us moderns\u2014to those\nwho have scorned and refused Him, to those who do not love Him because\nthey have never seen His true face; which would show how much there is\nof supernatural and symbolic in the human, obscure, simple and humble\nbeginning of His life, and how much familiar humanity, how much\nsimple-hearted plainness shines out when He becomes a Heavenly Deliverer\nat the end of His life, when He becomes a martyr and rises again\ndivinely from the dead. We need a book which would show in that tragic\nepic, written by both Heaven and earth, the many teachings suited to us,\nsuited to our time and to our life, which can be found there, not only\nin what Christ said, but in the very succession of events which begin in\nthe stable at Bethlehem and end in the cloud over Bethany. A book\nwritten by a layman for the laymen who are not Christians or who are\nonly superficially Christians, a book without the affectations of\nprofessional piety and without the insipidity of scientific literature,\ncalled \u201cscientific\u201d only because it perpetually fears to make the\nslightest affirmation. A book, in short, written by a modern writer who\nrespects and understands his art, and knows how to hold the attention\neven of the hostile.\n\n\n                                   4\n\n\nThe author of this book does not pretend to have written such a book;\nbut at least he has tried as far as his capacities can take him, to draw\nnear to that ideal.\n\nLet him state at once with sincere humility that he has not written a\n\u201cscientific history.\u201d In the first place because he could not; in any\ncase because he would not, even if he had possessed all the necessary\nlearning. He warns the reader, among other things, that this book was\nwritten (almost all of it) in the country, in a distant and sparsely\nsettled countryside with very few books at hand, with no advice from\nfriends or revision from masters. It will, therefore, never be cited by\nhigher criticism or by those who scrutinize original sources with a\nmicroscope; but that is of little importance compared to the possibility\nof its doing a little good to a few souls, even to one alone. For as he\nhas explained, the author wishes this book to be another coming of\nChrist and not another burial.\n\nThe author bases his book on the Gospels; as much, let it be understood,\non the synoptic Gospels as on the fourth. He confesses that he has no\ninterest in the endless dissertations and disputes over the authority of\nthe four Gospels, over their dates and interpolations, over their mutual\nrelationship, and over their probabilities and sources. We have no older\nnor no other documents, contemporaneous, Jewish or Pagan, which would\npermit us to correct them or to deny them. He who goes into all this\nminute investigation can destroy many doctrines, but he cannot advance\nthe true knowledge of Christ by a single step. Christ is in the Gospels,\nin the apostolic tradition, and in the Church. Outside of that is\ndarkness and silence. He who accepts the four Gospels must accept them\nwholly, entire, syllable by syllable,\u2014or else reject them from the first\nto the last and say, \u201cWe know nothing.\u201d To attempt in these texts to\ndifferentiate what is sure from what is probable, what is historic from\nwhat is legendary, what is original from what has been added, the\nprimitive from the dogmatic is a hopeless undertaking, which almost\nalways ends in defeat, in the despair of the readers, who in the midst\nof this hubbub of contradictory systems, changing from one decade to\nanother, end by understanding nothing and by letting it all drop. The\nmost famous New Testament authorities agree on only one thing, that the\nChurch was able to select in the great mass of primitive literature the\noldest Gospels thought up to that time to be the most reliable. No more\nneed be asked.\n\nIn addition to the Gospels, the author of this book has had before his\neyes \u201cthe Logia and the Agrapha,\u201d which seemed to have the most\nevangelical flavor, and also some apocryphal texts used with judgment.\nAnd finally nine or ten modern books which he had at hand.\n\nIt seems to him as well as he can judge, that he has departed sometimes\nfrom ordinary ideas and that he has painted a Christ who has not always\nthe perfunctory features of the ordinary holy picture, but he is not\nsure of this nor does he value any new thing which may be in this book,\nwritten more in the hope of having it a good book than of having it a\nbeautiful book. It is rather more likely that he has repeated things\nalready said by others, of which he in his ignorance has never heard. In\nthese matters, the subject, which is truth, is unchangeable and there\ncan be nothing new except the manner of presenting it in a form more\nefficacious because it may be more easily grasped.\n\nJust as he has tried to avoid the thorns of erudite criticism on the one\nhand, he has no pretensions, on the other, of going too deeply into the\nmysteries of theology. He has approached Jesus with the\nsimple-heartedness of longing and of love, just as during His life-time\nHe was approached by the fishermen of Capernaum, who were, fortunately\nfor them, even more ignorant than the author. Holding loyally to the\nwords of the orthodox Gospels and to the dogmas of the Catholic Church,\nhe has tried to represent those dogmas and those words in unusual ways,\nin a style violent with contrasts and with foreshortening, colored with\ncrude and vividly felt words, to see if he could startle modern souls\nused to highly colored error, into seeing the truth.\n\nThe author claims the right to take to himself the words of St. Paul:\n\u201cTo them that are without law, I became as without law that I might gain\nthem that are without law. To the weak became I as weak that I might\ngain the weak; I am made all things to all men, that I might by all\nmeans save some. And this I do for the Gospel\u2019s sake.\u201d\n\nThe author has tried to present not only the Hebrew world, but the world\nof antiquity, hoping to show how new and how great Christ was compared\nto those who preceded Him. He has not always followed the chronological\norder of events, because it better suited his aims, which are not (as he\nhas said) entirely historical, to gather together certain groups of\nthoughts and facts and to throw a stronger light on them instead of\nleaving them to be scattered here and there in the course of the\nnarrative.\n\nIn order not to give a pedantic look to the book he has suppressed all\nreferences to quotations and has used no foot-notes. He did not wish to\nseem what he is not, a learned bibliographer, and he did not wish to\nhave his work smell, however faintly, of the oil of the lamp of\nerudition. Those who understand these things will recognize the un-named\nauthorities, and the solutions which the author has chosen when\nconfronted with certain problems of concordance. The others, those who\nare only trying to see how Christ appeared to one of them, would be\nwearied by the apparatus of textual learning and by dissertations at the\nbottom of the pages. One word only must be said here in connection with\nthe sinning woman weeping at Jesus\u2019 feet: although it is generally\nunderstood from the Gospel story that there were two different scenes\nand two different women, the author for artistic purposes has allowed\nhimself to treat them as one, and he asks a pardon for this which he\nhopes will be easily granted since there is no question of dogma\ninvolved.\n\nHe must warn the reader that he refrained from developing the episodes\nwhere the Virgin Mother appears, in order not to lengthen too greatly a\nbook already long, and especially because of the difficulty of showing\nby passing allusions all the rich wealth of religious beauty which is in\nthe figure of Mary. Another volume would be necessary for that, and the\nwriter is tempted to try if God grants him life and sight to \u201csay of her\nwhat was never said of any woman.\u201d\n\nThose who are experienced in reading the Gospels will realize that other\nthings of lesser importance have been shortened and some others, on the\ncontrary, lengthened more than is customary. Some have seemed to the\nwriter more appropriate than the others for his purpose, which is, to\nuse an expression now out of date and distasteful to sophisticated\npeople, the purpose of edification.\n\n\n                                   5\n\n\nThis book is meant to be a book\u2014the author knows how he will be jeered\nat\u2014of edification. Not in the meaning of mechanical bigotry, but in the\nhuman and manly meaning of the \u201crefashioning\u201d of souls.\n\nTo build, or as the old word expressed it, to edify a house, is a great\nand holy action; to make a shelter against winter and the night. But to\nbuild up or edify a soul, to construct it with stones of truth! When\nthere is talk of edification you see in it only an abstract word worn\nout with use. To edify in the original meaning was to construct walls.\nWho of you has ever thought of all that goes into the making of a house,\na house firm on the earth, and honestly built, with well-plumbed walls,\nwith a good sheltering roof? Think of all that is needed to build a\nhouse: well-squared stones, well-baked bricks, sound beams,\nfreshly-burned lime, fine, clean sand, cement that has not lost its\nstrength through age! And then patient, expert workmen to put each thing\nin its place, to join the stones perfectly one by one, not to put too\nmuch water or too much sand in the mortar, to keep the walls damp, to\nknow how to fill in the chinks, to smooth the rough-cast plaster! All\nthis so that a house may go up day by day towards heaven, a man\u2019s house,\nthe house where he will bring his wife, the house where his children\nwill be born, where he can invite his friends.\n\nBut most people think that to make a book it is enough to have an idea\nand then to take so many words and put them together. Not so. A kiln of\ntiles, a pile of rocks, are not a house. To build up a house, to build\nup a book, to build up a soul, are undertakings which require all of a\nman\u2019s power. The aim of this book is to build up Christian souls because\nthat seems to the writer at this time in this country an urgent need. He\nwho has written it cannot now say whether he will succeed or not. But\nreaders will recognize, he hopes, that it is a real book and not a\ncollection of scraps, not an assemblage of little pieces, a book that\nmay be mediocre and mistaken, but which is constructed: a work built up\nas well as edifying or building up; a book with its own plan and its own\narchitecture, a real house with its atrium and its architraves, with its\ndivisions and its vaultings\u2014and also with some openings towards heaven\nand over the fields.\n\nThe author of this book is, or would fain be, an artist, and in writing\nit he could not forget his own character. But he declares here that he\nhas not wished to create a work of Belles Lettres, or as they say now,\nof \u201cpure poetry,\u201d because at least for this time truth is dearer to him\nthan beauty. But if his powers as a writer, however feeble they may be,\nas a writer loving his art, are sufficient to persuade one more soul, he\nwill be more thankful than ever in his life for the gifts which he has\nreceived. His inclination towards poetry has perhaps been of use to him\nin rendering fresher and more vivid the picture of those things which\nseem petrified in the usual hieratic consecrated wording.\n\nThe man of imagination sees everything as though it were new: every\ngreat star, wheeling in the night, might lead you to the house hiding\nthe Son of God; every stable has a manger which, filled with dry hay and\nclean straw, might become a cradle; every bare mountain top flaming with\nlight in the golden mornings above the still somber valley, might be\nSinai or Mt. Tabor: in the fires in the stubble, or in the charcoal\nkilns shining on the evening hills you can see the flame lighted by God\nto guide you in the desert; and the column of smoke rising from the poor\nman\u2019s hearth shows the road from afar to the returning laborer. The ass\nwho carries the shepherdess just come from her milking is the one ridden\ntowards the tents of Israel, or the one which went down towards\nJerusalem for the feast of the Passover. The dove cooing on the edge of\nthe slate roof is the same that announced the end of the great\npunishment to the Patriarch, or the same that descended on the waters of\nthe Jordan. For the poet everything is of equal value and omnipresent,\nand all history is sacred history.\n\nThe author begs the pardon of his austere contemporaries if rather more\nthan is fitting he lets himself go to what is nowadays disdainfully\ndubbed eloquence, illegitimate issue of pompous rhetoric and\nillegitimate mother of overemphasis and other dropsical growths of\nelocution.\n\nHe knows very well that eloquence displeases moderns as bright red cloth\ndispleases the fine city lady, as the organ in a church displeases\nminuet dancers, but he has not always succeeded in dispensing with it.\nWhen it is not borrowed declamation, eloquence is the ardent expression\nof faith, and in an era which has no faith there is no place for\neloquence. And yet the life of Jesus is such a drama and such a poem\nthat in place of the words, worn thread-bare, which have at our\ndisposition, we should use only those \u201ctorn and sentient\u201d words of which\nPassavanti speaks. Bossuet, who knew something about eloquence, once\nwrote: \u201cPl\u00fbt \u00e0 Dieu que nous puissions d\u00e9tacher de notre parole tout se\nqui delecte l\u2019esprit, tout ce qui surprend l\u2019imagination, pour ne\nlaisser que la verit\u00e9 toute simple, la seule force et l\u2019efficace toute\npure du Saint Esprit, nulle pens\u00e9e que pour convertir.\u201d\n\nVery true, but difficult to achieve.\n\nAt times the author of this book would have liked to possess an\neloquence vivid and powerful enough to shake all hearts, an imagination\nrich enough to transport the soul by enchantment into a world of light,\nof gold and of fire. Yet at other times he almost regretted that he was\ntoo much the artist, too much the man of letters, too much given to\ninlaying and chiseling, and that he did not know how to leave things in\ntheir powerful nudity.\n\nOnly when he has finished a book does an author know how he ought to\nhave written it. When he has set down the last word, he ought to turn\nback, begin at the beginning, and do it all over again with the\nexperience acquired in the work. But who has, I do not say the energy to\ndo this, but even the conception that it ought to be done.\n\nIf on some of its pages this book sounds like a sermon, there is no\ngreat harm done. In these days when for the most part only women, and an\noccasional old man, go to listen to the preaching in churches, where\nmediocre things are often said in a mediocre manner, but where more\noften still, truths are repeated which ought not to be forgotten, we\nmust think of the others, of the scholarly men, of \u201cintellectuals,\u201d of\nthe sophisticated, of those who never enter a church, but sometimes step\ninto a book-shop. For nothing in the world would they listen to a\nfriar\u2019s sermon, but they condescend to read it when it is printed in a\nbook. And let it be said once and for all, this book is specially\nwritten for those who are outside the Church of Christ; the others,\nthose who have remained within, united to the heirs of the Apostles, do\nnot need my words.\n\nThe author excuses himself for having written a book with so many, with\ntoo many pages, on only one theme. Now that most books\u2014even his own\nbooks\u2014are only bundles of pages taken out of journals, or short-winded\nlittle stories, or short notes taken from note-books, and generally do\nnot go beyond two or three hundred pages, to have written more than four\nhundred pages on one theme will seem a tremendous presumption. The book\ncertainly will seem long to modern readers used to light wafers rather\nthan to substantial home-made loaves. But books, like days, are long or\nshort, according to what you put into them. And the author is not so\ncured of his pride as to think that this book will remain unread on\naccount of its length, and he flatters himself that it may be read with\nless tedium than other books that are shorter. So difficult it is to\ncure oneself of conceit\u2014even for those whose wish it is to cure others.\n\n\n                                   6\n\n\nSome years ago the author of this book wrote another to describe the\nmelancholy life of a man who wished for a moment to become God. Now in\nthe maturity of his years and of his consciousness he has tried to write\nthe life of a God who made Himself man.\n\nThis same writer in those days let his mad and voluble humor run wild\nalong all the roads of paradox, holding that a consequence of the\nnegation of everything transcendental was the need to despoil oneself of\nany bigotry, even profane and worldly, to arrive at integral and perfect\natheism; and he was logical as the \u201cblack cherubim\u201d of Dante, because\nthere is only one choice allowed man, the choice between God and\nnothingness. When man turns from God there is no valid reason to uphold\nthe idols of the tribe or any other of the old fetiches of reason or of\npassion. In those proud and feverish days he who writes affronted Christ\nas few men before him have ever done. And yet scarcely six years\nafterwards (but six years of great travail and devastation without and\nwithin his heart), after long months of agitated meditations, he\nsuddenly interrupted another work begun many years ago, and almost as if\nurged and forced by a power stronger than himself, he began to write\nthis book about Christ which seems to him insufficient expiation for his\nguilt. It has happened often to Christ that He has been more tenaciously\nloved by the very men who hated Him at first. Hate is sometimes only\nimperfect and unconscious love: and in any case it is a better\nfoundation for love than indifference.\n\nHow the writer came to discover Christ again, by himself, treading many\nroads, which all brought him to the foot of the Mount of the Gospel,\nwould be too long and too hard a story to tell. But there is a\nsignificance not perhaps wholly personal and private in the example of a\nman who always from his childhood felt a repulsion for all recognized\nforms of religious faith, and for all churches, and for all forms of\nspiritual vassalage and who passed, with disappointments as deep as the\nenthusiasms had been vivid, through many experiences, the most varied\nand the most unhackneyed which he could find, who had consumed in\nhimself the ambitions of an epoch unstable and restless as few have\nbeen, and who after so many wanderings, ravings and dreamings, drew near\nto Christ.\n\nHe did not turn back to Christ out of weariness, because his return to\nChrist made life become more difficult and responsibilities heavier to\nbear; not through the fears of old age, for he can still call himself a\nyoung man; and not through desire for worldly fame, because as things go\nnowadays he would receive more commendation if he continued in his old\nideas. But this man, turning back to Christ, saw that Christ is\nbetrayed, and, worse than any affront to Him, that He is being\nforgotten. And he felt the impulse to bring Him to mind and to defend\nHim.\n\nFor not only His enemies have left Him, and despoiled Him; the very ones\nwho were His disciples when He was alive only half understood Him, and\ndeserted Him at the end; and many of those who were born in His church\ndisobey His commands, care more for His painted pictures than for His\nliving example, and when they have worn out their lips and knees in\nmaterialistic piety, think they are quits with Him, and that they have\ndone what He asked of man,\u2014what He still is asking, what He has been\nasking desperately and always in vain for nineteen hundred years.\n\nA story of Christ written to-day is an answer, a necessary reply, an\ninevitable conclusion. The balance of modern public opinion is against\nChrist. A book about Christ\u2019s life is therefore a weight thrown into the\nscales, in order that from the eternal war between love and hate there\nmay result at least the equilibrium of justice. And if the author is\ncalled a reactionary, that is nothing to him. The man who is thought to\nbe behind the times often is a man born too soon. The setting sun is the\nsame which at that very moment colors the early morning of a distant\ncountry. Christianity is not a piece of antiquity now assimilated, in as\nfar as it had anything good, by the wonderful and not-to-be-improved\nmodern consciousness; but it is for very many something so new that it\nhas not even yet begun. The world to-day seeks for peace rather than for\nliberty, and the only certain peace is found under the yoke of Christ.\n\nThey say that Christ is the prophet of the weak, and on the contrary He\ncame to give strength to the languishing, and to raise up those trodden\nunder foot to be higher than kings. They say that His is the religion of\nthe sick and of the dying, and yet He heals the sick and brings the\nsleeping to life. They say that He is against life, and yet He conquers\ndeath; that He is the God of sadness, and yet He exhorts His followers\nto be joyful and promises an everlasting banquet of joy to His friends.\nThey say that He introduced sadness and mortification into the world,\nand on the contrary when He was alive He ate and drank, and let His feet\nand hair be perfumed, and detested hypocritical fasts, and the\npenitential mummeries of vanity. Many have left Him because they never\nknew Him. This book is especially for such readers.\n\nThis book is written, if you will pardon the mention, by a Florentine, a\nson of the only nation which ever chose Christ for its King. Savonarola\nfirst had the idea in 1495, but could not carry it through. In spite of\na threatening siege, it was taken up in 1527 and approved by a great\nmajority. Over the door of the Palazzo Vecchio, between Michael Angelo\u2019s\nDavid and Bandinelli\u2019s Hercules, a marble tablet was built into the\nwall, with these words:\n\n                       JESUS CHRISTUS REX FLORENTINI\n                       POPULI P. DECRETO ELECTUS.\n\nAlthough changed by Cosimo, this inscription is still there; the decree\nwas never formally abrogated and denied, and even to-day after four\nhundred years of usurpations, the writer of this book is proud to call\nhimself a subject and soldier of Christ the King.\n\n\n\n\n                             LIFE OF CHRIST\n\n\nJesus was born in a stable, a real stable, not the bright, airy portico\nwhich Christian painters have created for the Son of David, as if\nashamed that their God should have lain down in poverty and dirt. And\nnot the modern Christmas-eve \u201cHoly Stable\u201d either, made of plaster of\nParis, with little candy-like statuettes, the Holy Stable, clean and\nprettily painted, with a neat, tidy manger, an ecstatic Ass, a contrite\nOx, and Angels fluttering their wreaths on the roof\u2014this is not the\nstable where Jesus was born.\n\nA real stable is the house, the prison of the animals who work for man.\nThe poor, old stable of Christ\u2019s old, poor country is only four rough\nwalls, a dirty pavement, a roof of beams and slate. It is dark, reeking.\nThe only clean thing in it is the manger where the owner piles the hay\nand fodder.\n\nFresh in the clear morning, waving in the wind, sunny, lush,\nsweet-scented, the spring meadow was mown. The green grass, the long,\nslim blades were cut down by the scythe; and with the grass the\nbeautiful flowers in full bloom\u2014white, red, yellow, blue. They withered\nand dried and took on the one dull color of hay. Oxen dragged back to\nthe barn the dead plunder of May and June. And now that grass has become\ndry hay and those flowers, still smelling sweet, are there in the Manger\nto feed the slaves of man. The animals take it slowly with their great\nblack lips, and later the flowering fields, changed into moist dung,\nreturn to light on the litter which serves as bedding.\n\nThis is the real stable where Jesus was born. The filthiest place in the\nworld was the first room of the only Pure Man ever born of woman. The\nSon of Man, who was to be devoured by wild beasts calling themselves\nmen, had as His first cradle the manger where the animals chewed the cud\nof the miraculous flowers of Spring.\n\nIt was not by chance that Christ was born in a stable. What is the world\nbut an immense stable where men produce filth and wallow in it? Do they\nnot daily change the most beautiful, the purest, the most divine things\ninto excrements? Then, stretching themselves at full length on the piles\nof manure, they say they are \u201cenjoying life.\u201d Upon this earthly pig-sty,\nwhere no decorations or perfumes can hide the odor of filth, Jesus\nappeared one night, born of a stainless Virgin armed only with\ninnocence.\n\n\n                           THE OX AND THE ASS\n\n\nFirst to worship Jesus were animals, not men. Among men He sought out\nthe simple-hearted: among the simple-hearted He sought out children.\nSimpler than children, and milder, the beasts of burden welcomed Him.\n\nThough humble, though servants of beings weaker and fiercer than they,\nthe ass and the ox had seen multitudes kneeling before them. Christ\u2019s\nown people, the people of Jehovah, the chosen people whom Jehovah had\nfreed from Egyptian slavery, when their leader left them alone in the\ndesert to go up and talk with the Eternal, did they not force Aaron to\nmake them a Golden Calf to worship? In Greece the ass was sacred to\nAres, to Dionysius, to Hyperborean Apollo. Balaam\u2019s ass, wiser than the\nprophet, saved him by speaking. Oxus, King of Persia, put an ass in the\ntemple of Ptha, and had it worshiped. And Augustus, Christ\u2019s temporal\nsovereign, had set up in the temple the brazen statue of an ass, to\ncommemorate the good omen of his meeting on the eve of Actium an ass\nnamed \u201cThe Victorious.\u201d\n\nUp to that time the Kings of the earth and the populace craving material\nthings had bowed before oxen and asses. But Jesus did not come into the\nworld to reign over the earth, nor to love material things. He was to\nbring to an end the bowing down before beasts, the weakness of Aaron,\nthe superstition of Augustus. The beasts of Jerusalem will murder Him,\nbut in the meantime the beasts of Bethlehem warm Him with their breath.\nIn later years, when Jesus went up to the city of death for the Feast of\nthe Passover, He was mounted on an ass. But He was a greater prophet\nthan Balaam, coming not to save the Jews alone but all men: and He did\nnot turn back from His path, no, not though all the mules of Jerusalem\nbrayed against him.\n\n\n                             THE SHEPHERDS\n\n\nAfter the animals came those who care for animals. Even if the Angel had\nnot announced the great birth, they would have gone to the stable to see\nthe son of the stranger woman. Shepherds live almost always alone and\nfar away. They know nothing of the distant world, nor of the feast-days\nof the earth. They are moved by whatever happens near to them, even if\nit is but a little thing.\n\nBut as they were watching their flocks in the long winter night, they\nwere shaken by the light and by the words of the Angel. \u201cFear not, for\nbehold I bring you good tidings of great joy.... Glory to God in the\nhighest and on earth peace to men of good will.\u201d In the dim light of the\nstable they saw a beautiful young woman gazing silently at her son. And\nas they saw the baby with His eyes just open, His delicate rosy flesh,\nHis mouth which had not yet eaten, their hearts softened. The birth of a\nnew man, a soul just become incarnate taking upon itself to suffer with\nother souls, is always a miracle so deep as to move to pity even the\nsimple-hearted who do not understand it. For the shepherds forewarned,\nthis new-born child was not just a baby, but He for whom their suffering\nrace had been waiting, for a thousand years.\n\nThe shepherds offered what little they had, that little which is so\ngreat when offered with love. They carried the white offerings of their\ncraft, milk, cheese, wool, the lamb. Even to-day in our mountains, where\none finds the last dying traces of hospitality and fraternal feeling, as\nsoon as a wife is delivered of a child, the sisters, wives and daughters\nof the shepherds come hurrying to her; and not one of them empty-handed.\nOne has three or four eggs still warm from the nest, another a cup of\nfreshly drawn milk, another a little cheese, another a pullet to make\nbroth for the new mother. A new being has begun his suffering: the\nneighbors hasten to carry their offerings almost as though to console\nthe mother.\n\nThemselves poor the old-time shepherds did not look down on the poor.\nSimple as children they loved children. They came of a race born of the\nShepherd of Ur, saved by the Shepherd of Madian. Their first kings had\nbeen shepherds\u2014Saul and David\u2014shepherds of herds before being shepherds\nof tribes. But these shepherds of Bethlehem, \u201cunknown to the hard\nworld,\u201d were not proud. A poor man was born among them and they looked\non Him with affection and lovingly brought Him their poor riches. They\nknew that this boy, born of poor people in poverty, born of common\npeople in the midst of common people, was to be the redeemer of the\nhumble, of those men of good will, on whom the Angel had called down\npeace.\n\n\n                              THE WISE MEN\n\n\nSome days after this, three wise men came from Chaldea and knelt before\nJesus. They came perhaps from Ecbatana, perhaps from the shores of the\nCaspian Sea. Mounted on their camels with their full-stuffed\nsaddle-bags, they had forded the Tigris and the Euphrates, crossed the\ngreat desert of the nomad tribes, followed along the Dead Sea. They were\nguided to Judea by a new star like the comet which appears every so\noften in the sky to announce the birth of a prophet or the death of a\nC\u00e6sar. They had come to adore a King, and they found a nursing baby,\npoorly swaddled, hidden within a stable. Almost a thousand years before\nthis, a Queen of the East had come on a pilgrimage to Judea, and she,\ntoo, had carried gifts, gold, fragrant perfumes and precious stones; but\nshe had found on the throne the greatest king who had ever reigned in\nJerusalem and from him had learned what no one else had been able to\nteach her.\n\nThe wise men found no king. They found a new-born baby, a tiny boy, who\ncould neither ask nor answer questions, a boy who in His maturity was to\ndisdain material treasures, and the learning which is based on material\nthings.\n\nThey were not kings, these wise men, but in Media and Persia they were\nthe masters of kings. The kings ruled over the people, but the wise men\ndirected the kings. They alone could communicate with Alma Mazda, the\ngood God. They alone knew the future, and Destiny. They killed with\ntheir own hands the enemies of men and of the harvests, snakes, harmful\ninsects, birds of prey. They purified souls, they purified the fields.\nExcept from their hands God accepted no sacrifices. No king began a war\nwithout consulting them. Theirs were the secrets of heaven and earth. In\nthe name of science and religion they held first rank in the nation. In\nthe midst of a people sunk in material things they represented the\nSpirit. It was fitting that they should come to kneel before Jesus.\nAfter the animals which are Nature, after the Shepherds which are the\ncommon people, this third power which is knowledge knelt at the manger\nin Bethlehem. The old priestly caste of the Orient made its act of\nsubmission before the new Lord, who was to send His Gospel to the west.\nThe learned men knelt before Him who was to set above the learning of\nwords and numbers the new wisdom of love.\n\nSymbolizing the old theology bowing before the final revelation, the\nwise men at Bethlehem knelt before Innocence: Wealth prostrated itself\nat the feet of Poverty.\n\nThey offered gold to Jesus: gold which He was to tread under foot. They\noffered it not because Mary in her poverty might need it for the\njourney, but in anticipation of the command, \u201cSell all that thou hast\nand give it to the poor.\u201d They offered Him frankincense, not to drown\nthe stench of the stable, but as a token that their own ritual was\nended; that their altars would need smoke and perfume no longer. They\noffered Him myrrh knowing that this boy would die young, and His mother,\nsmiling now, would need spices to embalm the dead body.\n\nKneeling in their pontifical robes upon the bedding of straw, they, the\nmighty, the learned, the soothsayers, offered themselves as pledges of\nthe obedience of the world.\n\nJesus now had received all His rightful investitures. The wise men had\nscarcely gone when persecutions were begun by those who were to hate Him\nto the day of His death.\n\n\n                           OCTAVIUS AUGUSTUS\n\n\nWhen Christ appeared upon the earth, criminals ruled the world\nunopposed. He was born subject to two sovereigns, the stronger far away\nat Rome, the weaker and wickeder close at hand in Judea.\n\nOne lucky adventurer after wholesale slaughter had seized the empire,\nanother had murdered his way to the throne of David and Solomon. Each\nrose to high position through trickery, through civil wars, betrayals,\ncruelty, massacres. They were born to understand one another, were, as a\nmatter of fact, friends and accomplices, as far as was possible between\na subordinate rascal and his rascal chief.\n\nSon of the usurer of Velletri, Augustus showed himself cowardly in war\nand vindictive in victory, false to his friends, cruel in reprisals. To\na condemned man who begged only for burial he answered, \u201cThat is the\nbusiness of the vultures.\u201d To the Perugians begging for mercy during the\nmassacre he cried, \u201cMoriendum esse!\u201d On a mere suspicion he wanted to\ntear out the eyes of the Praetor Quintus Gallius before ordering his\nthroat cut. Possessed of the empire, with his enemies crushed and\nscattered, with the power all in his own hands, he put on a mask of\nmildness and of his youthful vices kept only his lust. It was told of\nhim, that in his youth, he had sold his body twice, first to C\u00e6sar, and\nagain in Spain to Hirtius for 300,000 sestertia. Now he amused himself\nwith the wives of his friends, with almost public adulteries, and with\nposing as the restorer of morality.\n\nThis filthy, sickly man was sovereign of the western world when Jesus\nwas born, nor did he ever know that One had been born who would bring\nthe dissolution of all that he had founded. The facile philosophy of the\nplump little plagiarist Horace was enough for him, \u201cTo-day let us enjoy\nwine and love: hopeless death awaits us: there is not a day to be lost!\u201d\nIn vain Virgil, the man of the countryside, friend of woods, of quiet\nflocks and golden bees, he who had gone down with \u00c6neas to see the\nsufferers in Avernus and poured his restless melancholy into the music\nof poetry; in vain Virgil, the loving pious Virgil, had foretold a new\nera, a new order and a new race, a kingdom of heaven less spiritual,\nless brilliant than that which Jesus was to announce, but infinitely\nnobler and purer than the kingdom of Hell which was then making ready.\nIn vain, because Augustus saw in these words only a pastoral fancy and\nperhaps believed that he, the corrupt master of the corrupt, was the\nproclaimed Saviour and restorer of the reign of Saturn.\n\nBut his vassal of Judea, his great Oriental client, may have had a\npresentiment of the birth of Jesus, of the true King, who was coming to\nsupplant the king of evil.\n\n\n                            HEROD THE GREAT\n\n\nHerod was a monster, one of the most perfidious monsters of the many\nwhich have sprung from the burning deserts of the East. He was not a\nJew, nor a Greek, nor a Roman. He was an Idumean, a barbarian who\nprostrated himself before Rome, and aped the Greeks the better to secure\nhis dominion over the Jews. Son of a traitor, he had usurped the kingdom\nof his sovereign from the last unfortunate Hasmon\u00e6ans. To legalize his\ntreachery he married their niece, Mariamne. Afterwards, on a baseless\nsuspicion, he had her killed. It was not his first crime. He had had his\nbrother-in-law, Aristobulus, treacherously drowned. He had condemned his\nother brothers-in-law, Joseph and Hyrcanus the Second (last of the\nconquered dynasty). Not content with having killed Mariamne, he put her\nmother, Alexandra, to death as well, and finally, the sons of Baba,\nmerely because they were distant relatives of the Hasmon\u00e6ans. In the\nmeantime he amused himself with burning alive Juda of Sarafaus and\nMatthew of Margoloth with other heads of the Pharisees. Later, afraid\nthat the sons he had had by Mariamne would wish to avenge their mother,\nhe had them strangled. Himself at the point of death he gave the order\nto kill a third son, Archelaus. Voluptuous, suspicious, impious, greedy\nof gold and of glory, he never knew peace at home, in Judea or in his\nown heart. In order that he might bury the recollection of his\nassassinations he gave the Roman people a present of three hundred\ntalents to spend in festivals. He humiliated himself before Augustus to\nmake him the accomplice of his infamies and, dying, left him ten\nthousand drachmas and, in addition, a ship of gold and one of silver for\nLivia.\n\nThis half-civilized Arab attempted to conciliate the Greeks and the\nJews. He succeeded in bribing the degenerate posterity of Socrates so\nthat in Athens they put up a statue to him, but the Jews hated him to\nthe day of his death. It did him no good, in their eyes, to build up\nSamaria and restore the temple of Jerusalem. He was always, for them,\nthe heathen and the usurper.\n\nApprehensive like all ageing evil-doers, and like all new-made princes,\nhe shivered at every fluttering leaf, every shifting shadow.\nSuperstitious like all Orientals, credulous of presages and soothsayers,\nhe readily believed the three wise men when they said, that led by a\nstar, they had come from the interior of Chaldea towards the country\nwhich he had fraudulently stolen. Any pretender to the throne, even a\nfantastic one, could make him tremble, and when he knew from the wise\nmen that a King of Judea was born, his uneasy, barbarian\u2019s heart gave a\ngreat leap of fear. Seeing that the astrologers did not come back to\ntell him the place where the new nephew of David had appeared, he\nordered that all the boy babies of Bethlehem should be killed.\n\n\n                             THE INNOCENTS\n\n\nNobody ever knew how many children were sacrificed to the terror of\nHerod. It was not the first time in Judea that even nursing children had\nbeen put to the sword. This same Hebrew people had punished in the olden\ntimes cities of their enemies by the massacre of the old men, the wives,\nthe young men and the boys. They saved only the virgins to make them\nslaves and concubines. God Himself, the jealous Jehovah, had often given\nthe order for the slaughter, and now the Idumean applied to the people\nwho had accepted him, the Mosaic law of an eye for an eye and a tooth\nfor a tooth.\n\nWe do not know how many of the Innocents there were, but if we can\nbelieve Macrobius we know that among them was a little son of Herod who\nwas at nurse in Bethlehem. For the old King, wife-killer and son-killer,\nwho knows but that this was a form of retribution: who knows but that he\nsuffered when they brought him news of the mistake? A short time after\nthis he also was to die, suffering from loathsome disease. His body\nbegan to putrefy while still alive. Worms consumed his organs. Burnt up\nwith fevers, gasping, he could scarcely draw his tainted breath.\nDisgusting to himself, he tried to kill himself with a knife at table,\nand finally died, after having given Salome orders to have many young\nprisoners killed.\n\nThe massacre of the Innocents was the last act of the reeking, bloody\nold man. There is a prophetic meaning in this immolation of the\nInnocents around the cradle of an Innocent, this holocaust of blood for\na new-born child, a child destined to offer His blood for the pardon of\nthe guilty, this human sacrifice for One, who in His turn was to be\nsacrificed. After His death thousands and thousands were to die for the\nsole crime of having believed in His resurrection. He was born to die\nfor others and as if to expiate His birth, behold, here are thousands\nborn who die for Him.\n\nThere is a tremendous mystery in this blood-offering of the pure, in the\ndeath of so many of His contemporaries. They belonged to the generation\nwhich was to betray and crucify Him. But those who were killed by the\nsoldiers of Herod that day did not see Him, did not grow up to see their\nLord killed. They saved Him with their death, and saved themselves\nforever. They were innocent and they remained innocent for all eternity.\nTheir fathers and their surviving brothers avenged them later, but they\nwill be pardoned because \u201cthey know not what they do!\u201d\n\n\n                         THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT\n\n\nA Christian poet, an Italian, sang this lullaby to the new-born Jesus:\n\n            Sleep, baby, do not weep,\n            Sleep, heavenly babe.\n\n            Over your head, the tempests shall not dare to rage!\n\nBut the son of Mary did not make Himself man in order to sleep, and the\ntempests raged, but He was not afraid.\n\nBetter than Siddharta, He deserves the name of the Awakened one. How can\nHe sleep in the stable, where the donkey brays, precursor of all donkeys\nwho will bray against Him: where the ox lows, waiting until the other\noxen speak at His presence; where the shepherds question Him; where the\nwise men give Him their blessing? How can He sleep when the shuffling\nsteps of Herod\u2019s assassins draw near? How can He ever sleep up to that\nlast night when He will agonize under the olive trees, amid the sleeping\nbodies of the Eleven?\n\nAnd Mary cannot sleep. In the evening as soon as the houses of Bethlehem\ndisappear in the darkness and the first lamps are lighted, the mother\nsteals away like a fugitive. She is snatching a life away from the King,\nshe is saving a hope for the people as she presses upon her breast her\nman-child, her hope, her sorrow.\n\nShe goes towards the west, she crosses the old land of Canaan and comes\nby easy stages\u2014the days are short\u2014to the Nile, to that country of\nMizraim which had cost so many tears to her ancestors fourteen centuries\nbefore.\n\nJesus, who carried on the work of Moses and at the same time demolished\nthe work of Moses, goes back over the route taken by the first redeemer.\nWhen the Jews were under the whip of the Egyptian slaves, oppressed,\nmistreated, ill-used, the Shepherd of Median made himself the Shepherd\nof Israel, and led his hard-headed people across the desert till they\nwere in sight of the Jordan and of the miraculous vineyards. The people\nof Jesus left Chaldea with Abraham and came with Joseph into Egypt.\nMoses led them from Egypt toward Canaan. Now the greatest of the\nliberators, in danger of his life, went back to the banks of that river\nwhere the first Saviour had been saved from the water and had saved his\nbrothers.\n\nEgypt, the rich spawning-bed of all the infamies and all the\nmagnificences of the first epoch, that African India, where the waves of\nhistory broke and died, where but a few years before, Pompey and Antony\nhad finished the dream of Empire and of life, this prodigious country,\nborn of water, burned by the sun, covered with the blood of many\npeoples, inhabited by many animal-gods, this country, paradoxical and\nsupernatural, was by contrast the predestined asylum for the fugitive.\n\nThe wealth of Egypt was in mud, in the rich snake-breeding mud which the\nNile rolled out each year upon the desert. Death was the obsession of\nEgypt. The soft, prosperous people of Egypt would not accept death,\ndenied death, thought they could conquer death with graven images, with\nembalmings, with sculptured representation of flesh-and-blood bodies.\nThe rich, portly Egyptian, son of mud, adorer of the sacred bull, and\nthe dog-headed god, could not resign himself to dying. He manufactured\nfor his second life immense necropolises full of bandaged and perfumed\nmummies, of images of wood and marble, and raised up pyramids over his\ncorpses, as if stone and mortar might save them from decay.\n\nWhen Jesus could speak, He was to pronounce the verdict against Egypt:\nthe Egypt which is not only on the banks of the Nile, the Egypt which\nhas not yet disappeared from the face of the earth along with its kings,\nits sparrow-hawks and its serpents. Christ was to give the final and\neternal answer to the terror of the Egyptians. He was to condemn the\nwealth which comes from mud and returns to mud, and all the fetiches of\nthe pot-bellied river-dwellers of the Nile, and He was to conquer death\nwithout sculptured tombs, without mortuary kingdoms, without statues of\ngranite and basalt. His victory over death is won by teaching that sin\nis greedier than worms and that spiritual purity is the only aromatic\nwhich preserves from decay.\n\nThe worshipers of mud and of animals, the servants of riches and of the\nBeast, could not save themselves. Their tombs, high as mountains though\nthey be, decked out like queens\u2019 palaces, white and fair to see as those\nof the Pharisees, guard only ashes, dust returning again to dust, even\nas the dead bodies of animals. Death cannot be conquered by copying life\nin wood and stone. Stone crumbles away and turns to dust, wood rots and\nturns to dust, and both of them are mud\u2014eternal mud.\n\n\n                             THE LOST FOUND\n\n\nBut the exile in Egypt was short. Jesus was brought back, held in His\nmother\u2019s arms, rocked throughout the long journey by the patient step of\nthe ass, to His father\u2019s house in Nazareth, humble house and shop where\nthe hammer pounded and the rasp scraped until the setting of the sun.\n\nThe canonical gospels say nothing of these years: the Apocrypha give\nmany details but unworthy of belief. Luke, the wise doctor, is content\nto set down that the boy grew and was strong; that is, that he was not\nsickly and overworked. He was a boy developed as he should be: healthy,\na bearer of health, as was fitting in one who was to restore health to\nothers by the mere touch of His hand.\n\nEvery year, says Luke, the parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem for the\nfeast of unleavened bread in memory of the escape from Egypt. They went\nwith a crowd of neighbors, friends, and acquaintances to keep each other\ncompany on the journey. They were cheerful like people going to a\nfestival rather than to a service in memory of a solemn crisis: for the\nPassover had become at Jerusalem a great feast day, when all the Jews\nscattered about the Empire came together.\n\nOn the twelfth Passover after the birth of Jesus, as the group from\nNazareth was returning from the holy city, Mary found that her son was\nnot with them. All day long she sought for Him, asking every\nacquaintance, but in vain. The next morning the mother turned back,\nretraced her steps over the road and went up and down the streets and\nopen places of Jerusalem, fixing her dark eyes on every boy she met,\nasking the mothers standing in the open doors, begging her countrymen\nnot yet gone, to help her find her lost son. A mother who has lost her\nson does not rest until she has found him; she thinks no more of\nherself, she does not feel weariness, effort, hunger. She does not shake\nthe dust from her clothes nor arrange her hair. She cares not for the\ncurious glances of the passers-by. Her distracted eyes see nothing but\nthe image of him, who is no longer beside her.\n\nFinally on the third day she came to the Temple, looked about in the\ncourts, and saw at last in the shadow of a portico a group of old men\ntalking. She came up timidly, for those men with long cloaks and long\nbeards seemed people of importance who would pay no attention to a plain\nwoman from Galilee, and discovered in the center of the circle the\nwaving hair, the shining eyes, the tanned face, the fresh lips of her\nJesus. Those old men were talking with her son of the Law and the\nProphets. They were asking Him questions and He was answering; He put\nquestions to them in His turn and they marveled at Him, astonished that\na boy should know the words of the Lord so well. But He remembered the\nbooks which He had heard read out in the little Synagogue of Nazareth:\nand His memory had retained every syllable.\n\nMary remained for a few moments gazing at Him, hardly believing her\neyes. Her heart, a moment before beating fast with fear, was now beating\nfast with astonishment. But she could not restrain herself any more and\nsuddenly in a loud voice called Him by name. The old men took themselves\noff and the mother snatched her son to her breast and silently clasped\nHim to her, the tears which she had kept back till then raining down on\nHis face.\n\nShe clutched Him, took Him away, and then, certain that she had Him with\nher, that she had not lost Him, the happy mother remembered the\ndespairing mother, \u201cSon, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy\nfather and I have sought thee sorrowing.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my\nFather\u2019s business?\u201d\n\nWeighty words, especially when said by a twelve-year-old boy to a mother\nwho had sought Him for three long days.\n\nAnd, the Evangelist goes on, \u201cAnd they understood not the saying which\nhe spake unto them.\u201d But after so many centuries of Christian experience\nwe can understand those words, which seemed at first sight to be hard\nand proud.\n\nHow is it that ye sought me? Do you not know that I can never be lost,\nthat I can never be lost by any one, even those who will bury me under\nthe earth? I will be everywhere where any one believes in me, even if\nthey do not see me with their eyes. I cannot be lost from any man, by\nany man, provided that he hold me in his heart. I shall not be lost\nalone in the desert nor alone on the waters of the lake, nor alone in\nthe garden of olives, nor alone in the tomb.\n\n\u201cAnd who is this father of whom you speak to me? He is the legal father,\nthe human father, but my real Father is in heaven. He is the Father who\nspoke to the patriarchs face to face, who put words into the mouths of\nthe prophets. I know what He told them of me, His eternal wishes, the\nlaws He has given to His people, the covenant which He has signed with\nall men. If I am to do what He has commanded me, I must be busy about\nwhat is truly His. What is a legal, temporal tie confronted with a\nmystic, spiritual and eternal bond?\u201d\n\n\n                             THE WOODWORKER\n\n\nBut the hour for really leaving His home had not come for Jesus. The\nvoice of John had not yet been heard; and with His father and mother He\nonce more went along the road to Nazareth and returned to Joseph\u2019s shop\nto help him in his trade.\n\nJesus did not go to school to the Scribes nor to the Greeks. But He did\nnot lack for teachers. Three teachers He had, greater than all the\nlearned: work, nature and the Book.\n\nIt must never be forgotten that Jesus was a working man and the adopted\nson of a working man: that He was born poor, among people who worked\nwith their hands; before He gave out His gospel He earned His daily\nbread with the labor of His hands. Those hands which blest the\nsimple-hearted, which cured the lepers, which gave light to the blind,\nwhich brought the dead to life, those hands which were pierced with\nnails upon the cross, were hands which had been bathed with the sweat of\nlabor, hands which had known the numbness of work, hands which were\ncallous with work, hands which had held the tools of work, which had\ndriven nails into wood, the hands of a working man.\n\nBefore being a workman of the spirit, Jesus was a man who worked with\nmaterial things. He was poor before He summoned the poor to His table,\nto the festival of His Kingdom. He was not born into a wealthy family,\ninto the house of luxury on a bed covered with purple and fine linen.\nDescendant of kings, He lived in a woodworker\u2019s shop: Son of God He was\nborn in a stable. He did not belong to the caste of the great, to the\naristocracy of warriors, to the circles of the rich, to the Sanhedrim of\nthe priests. He was born into the lowest class of the people, the class\nwhich has below it only the vagabonds, the beggars, the fugitives, the\nslaves, the criminals, the prostitutes. When He became no longer a\nmanual worker, He went down lower yet in the eyes of respectable folk,\nand sought His friends in that miserable huddle which is even below the\ncommon people. But until that day when Jesus, before going down into the\nInferno of the dead, went down into the Inferno of the living, His\nposition was that of a poor working man and nothing more, in the\nhierarchy of castes which eternally separates men.\n\nJesus\u2019 trade is one of the four oldest and most sacred of men\u2019s\noccupations. The trades of the peasant, the mason, the smith, and the\ncarpenter are, among the manual arts, those most impregnated with the\nlife of man, the most innocent and the most religious. The warrior\ndegenerates into a bandit, the sailor into a pirate, the merchant into\nan adventurer, but the peasant, the mason, the smith, the carpenter do\nnot betray, cannot betray, do not become corrupt. They handle the most\nfamiliar materials, and their task is to transform them visibly into\nvisible, solid, concrete creations, useful to all men. The peasant\nbreaks the clod and takes from it the bread eaten by the saint in his\ngrotto and the murderer in his prison; the mason squares the stone and\nbuilds up the house of the poor man, the house of the king, the house of\nGod. The smith heats and fashions the iron to give a sword to the\nsoldier, a plowshare to the peasant, a hammer to the carpenter. The\ncarpenter saws and nails the wood to construct the door which protects\nthe house from the thieves, to make the bed on which thieves and\ninnocent people die.\n\nThese plain things, these common, ordinary, usual things, so usual,\ncommon and ordinary that they pass disregarded under our eyes used to\nmore complicated marvels, are the simplest creations of man, but more\nmiraculous and essential than any later inventions.\n\nJesus, the carpenter, lived in His youth in the midst of these things,\nmade them with His hands, and for the first time by means of these\nthings manufactured by Him, entered into communion with the daily life\nof men, with the most intimate and sacred life, home life. He made the\ntable around which it is so sweet to sit in the evening with one\u2019s\nfriends, even if one of them is a traitor; the bed whereon man draws his\nfirst and last breath; the chest where the country wife keeps her poor\nclothes, her aprons, her handkerchiefs for festivals, and the starched\nwhite shirts for great days. He made the kneading trough where the flour\nis put, and the leaven raises it until it is ready for the oven; and the\narm-chair where the old men sit around the fire of an evening to talk of\nnever-returning youth.\n\nOften while the thin, light shavings curled up under the steel of His\nplane and the sawdust rained down on the ground, Jesus must have thought\nof the promises of the Father, of the prophecies of old time, of what He\nwas to create, not with boards and rules, but with spirit and truth.\n\nHis trade taught Him that to live means to transform dead and useless\nthings into living and useful things: that the meanest material\nfashioned and shaped can become precious, friendly, useful to men: that\nthe only way to bring salvation is to transform; and that just as a\nchild\u2019s crib or a wife\u2019s bed can be made out of a log of olive wood,\ngnarled, knotty and earthy, so the filthy money-changer and the wretched\nprostitute can be transformed into true citizens of the Kingdom of\nHeaven.\n\n\n                               FATHERHOOD\n\n\nIn nature where the sun shines on the good and on the bad, where wheat\nripens and grows golden to give bread to Jew and heathen, where the\nstars shine on the shepherd\u2019s cabin and the murderer\u2019s prison; where\ngrape clusters turn purple and swell to give wine to the wedding banquet\nand to the orgies of assassins; where the birds of the air freely\nsinging find their food without fatigue, where thieving foxes also have\ntheir refuge and the lilies of the field are clad in more splendor than\nkings, Jesus found the earthly confirmation of His eternal certainty\nthat God is not a Master who punishes one day of enjoyment by a thousand\nyears of reproach, nor a fierce war-like Jehovah who commands the\nextermination of enemies, nor a kind of grand sultan who delights in\nbeing served by satraps of high lineage and keeps close watch that his\nservants execute to the last detail the rigorous ritualistic etiquette\nof that Regia Curia, which is the Temple.\n\nAs a Son, Christ knew that God is Father: Father of all mankind and not\nonly of the people of Abraham. The love of a husband is strong but\ncarnal and jealous. The love of a brother is often poisoned with envy;\nthat of a son stained with rebellion; that of a friend spotted with\ndeceit; that of a master swollen with condescending pride; only the love\nof a father towards his children is perfect love, pure, disinterested\nlove. The father does for his son what he would do for no one else. His\nson is his creation, flesh of his flesh and of his bone, grown up by his\nside day by day, a completion and a complement of his own being. The old\nman lives again in the young man. The past sees itself in the future. He\nwho has lived sacrifices himself for him who is to live. The father\nlives in the son, and feels himself exalted. This child was born to him\nin a moment of passion in the arms of the woman chosen from among all\nother women, born through the divine anguish of this woman, cared for\nand preserved by his own tears and sweat. He has seen him grow up at his\nfeet, he has warmed his cold little hands between his own, he has heard\nhis first words, eternal miracle ever new! He has seen his first\nwavering footsteps on the floor of his house. Little by little, he has\nseen a soul shine out in that body created by him, a new human soul,\nunique treasure beyond price! Little by little on that face he has seen\nhis own features and those of the child\u2019s mother, of that woman with\nwhom only in this common fruit is he corporeally identified. A human\ncouple who long to become one body through love, attain this unity only\nin a child. In the presence of this new being, his creation, he feels\nhimself a creator, beneficent, powerful, happy. Because the son looks to\nhis father for everything, and in his childhood has faith only in his\nfather, feels safe only near his father, his father knows that he must\nlive for him, suffer for him, work for him. A father is a God on earth\nfor a son, and a son is almost a God for the father.\n\nIn the love of a father there is no trace of a brother\u2019s perfunctory\nsense of duty, no trace of a friend\u2019s self-interest and rivalry, of a\nlover\u2019s lustful desire, a servant\u2019s pretense of faithfulness.\n\nThe love of a father is pure love, the only true love, the only love\nrightly to be called love. Purged of any elements foreign to its\nessence, it is the happiness of sacrificing oneself for the happiness of\nothers.\n\nThis idea of God as Father, which is one of the great new ideas of the\ngospel of Christ, this profoundly renovating idea that God is Father and\nloves us as a father loves his children, not as a king loves his slaves;\nand gives daily bread to all his children and has a loving welcome even\nfor those who sin if only they return to lean their heads upon his\nbreast: this idea which closes the epoch of the old covenant and marks\nthe beginning of the new covenant, Jesus found in nature. As Son of God\nand one with the Father, He had always been conscious of this paternity\nscarcely glimpsed by the most luminous of the prophets. But now sharing\nall human experience He saw it reflected and as it were revealed in the\nuniverse and He was to use the most beautiful images of the natural\nworld to transmit to men the first of His joyful messages.\n\n\n                              THE COUNTRY\n\n\nJesus, like all great souls, loved the country. The sinner craving\npurification, the saint moved to prayer, the poet eager to create, take\nrefuge on the mountains in green shadows, by the sound of the water, in\nthe midst of fields which perfume heaven, or on steep desert hills\nparched by the sun. Jesus took His language from the country: He hardly\never uses learned words, abstract conceptions, drab and generalizing\nterms. His talk blossoms with colors, is perfumed by odors of field and\nof orchard, is peopled by the figures of familiar animals. He saw in His\nGalilee the figs swelling and ripening under the great, dark leaves: He\nsaw the dry tendrils of the vine greened over with leaves, and from the\ntrellises the white and purple clusters hanging down for the joy of the\nvintage; He saw from the invisible seed, the mustard raise itself up\nwith its rich light branches, He heard in the night the mournful rustle\nof the reeds shaken by the wind along the ditches: He saw the seed of\ngrain buried in the earth and its resurrection in the form of a full\near; when the air first began to be warm, He saw the beautiful red,\nyellow and purple lilies in the midst of the tender green of the wheat:\nHe saw the fresh tufts of grass, luxuriant to-day and to-morrow dried\nand cast into the oven; He saw the peaceful animals and the harmful\nanimals, the dove a little vain of its brilliant neck, cooing of love on\nthe roof, the eagle swooping down with widespread wings upon its prey;\nthe swallows of the air which like kings cannot fall if it is not God\u2019s\nwish: the crows tearing flesh from carrion with their beaks; the loving\nmother-hen calling the chickens under her wings when the sky darkens and\nthunders; the treacherous fox, after its kill, slinking back into its\ndark lair; and the dogs under the table of their masters begging for\nscraps that fall to the ground. He saw the serpent writhing through the\ngrass and the dark viper hiding among the scattered stones of the tombs.\n\nBorn among the shepherds, He who was to become shepherd of men knew and\nloved the flocks; the ewes searching for the lost lamb, the lambs\nbleating weakly, and sucking, almost hidden under their mother\u2019s woolly\nbodies, the flocks sweltering on the thin hot pastures of their hills;\nHe loved with equal love the tiny seed which you can scarcely see on the\npalm of your hand and the ancient fig tree, casting its shade over the\npoor man\u2019s house; the birds of the air which sow not neither do they\nreap; the fish silvering the meshes of the nets to feed His faithful;\nand raising His eyes in the sultry evenings of gathering storm, He saw\nthe lightning flashing out of the east and shattering the darkness of\nthe night, even into the west.\n\nBut Jesus did not read only in the open many-colored book of the world.\nHe knew that God spoke to men through angels, patriarchs and prophets.\nHis words, His laws, His victories are written in the Book. Jesus knew\nthe magic black signs by which the dead pass on to those not yet born,\nthe thoughts and memories of olden times. Jesus read only the books\nwhere His ancestors had set down the story of His people, the will of\nthe Lord, the vision of the Prophets, but He knew them in the letter and\nspirit better than the scribes and the doctors: and that knowledge gave\nHim the right to leave off being scholar and to become teacher.\n\n\n                            THE OLD COVENANT\n\n\nAmong all peoples the Jew was the most happy and the most unhappy. His\nstory is a mystery which begins with the idyl in the Garden of Eden and\nends with the tragedy of the hill of Golgotha. His first parents were\nmolded by the luminous hands of God, were made masters of Paradise, the\ncountry of eternal, fertile summer, set in the midst of rivers, where\nthe rich Oriental fruits hung down ready to their hand, heavy with pulp\nin the shade of the new young leaves. The new-created sky, not yet\nsullied by clouds, not yet riven by lightning, or harassed by winds,\nwatched over the first two with all its stars.\n\nThe first couple had as their duty to love God and to love each other.\nThis was the First Covenant. Weariness unknown, grief unknown, unknown\ndeath and its terror! The first disobedience brought the first exile;\nthe man was condemned to work, the woman to bring forth her young in\npain. Work is painful, but it brings the reward of harvests; to give\nbirth means suffering, but it brings the consolation of children. And\nyet even these inferior and imperfect felicities passed away like leaves\ndevoured by worms. For the first time brother killed brother: human\nblood fallen on the earth became corrupt, gave forth an exhalation of\nsin: the daughters of men united themselves with demons and from them\nwere born giants, fierce hunters and slayers of men, who turned the\nworld into a bloody hell.\n\nThen God sent His second punishment: to purify the world in an\nexterminating baptism He drowned in the waters of the flood all men and\ntheir crimes. One only, a righteous man, was saved and with him God\nsigned the Second Covenant.\n\nWith Noah there began the happy days of antiquity, the epoch of the\npatriarchs, nomad shepherds, centenarians who wandered between Chaldea\nand Egypt searching for grazing lands, for wells, and for peace. They\nhad no fixed country, no houses, no cities. They brought along in\ncaravans, numerous as armies, their fruitful wives, their loving sons,\ntheir docile daughters-in-law, their innumerable descendants, obedient\nman-servants and maid-servants, goring, bellowing bulls, cows with\nhanging udders, playful calves, rams and strong smelling he-goats, mild\nsheep laden with wool, great earth-colored camels, mares with round\ncruppers, she-goats holding their heads high and stamping impatiently;\nand hidden in the saddle-bags, vases of gold and silver, domestic idols\nof stone and metal.\n\nArrived at their destination, they spread their tents near a cistern,\nand the patriarch sat out under the shade of the oaks and sycamores\ncontemplating the great camp from which rose up the smoke of the fires,\nthe sound of the bustling steps of the women and herdsmen, the mooings,\nthe brayings, the bleating of the animals. And the patriarch\u2019s heart was\nfilled with content to see all this progeny issued from his seed, all\nthese, his herds, the human increase and the animal increase multiplying\nyear by year.\n\nIn the evening, he raised his eyes to greet the first punctual star\nwhich shone like white fire on the summit of the hill; and sometimes his\ncurled white beard shone in the white light of the moon, which for more\nthan a century he was wont to see in the sky at night.\n\nSometimes an angel of the Lord came to visit him, and before giving the\nmessage with which he was charged, ate at his table. Or, in the heat of\nthe day, the Lord Himself, in the garb of a pilgrim, came and sat down\nwith the old man in the shadow of the tent where they talked with each\nother, face to face, like two old friends who come together to discuss\ntheir affairs. The head of the tribe, master of the servants, became a\nservant in his turn, listened to the commands and counsels and promises\nand prophecies of his divine master. And between Jehovah and Abraham was\nsigned the Third Covenant, more solemn than the other two.\n\nThe son of a patriarch, sold by his brothers as a slave, rises to power\nin Egypt, and calls his race to him. The Jews think that they have found\na fatherland and grow great in numbers and riches. But they allow\nthemselves to be seduced by the gods of Egypt, and Jehovah prepares the\nthird punishment. The envious Egyptians reduce them to abject slavery.\nThat the punishment may be longer, Jehovah hardens the heart of Pharaoh,\nbut finally raises up the second Saviour, who leads them forth from\ntheir sufferings and from the mud of Egypt.\n\nTheir trials are not yet finished: for forty years they wander in the\ndesert. A pillar of cloud guides them by day and a pillar of fire by\nnight. God has assured them a Land of Promise, with rich grazing lands,\nwell-watered, shaded by grape-vines and olives. But in the meantime they\nhave neither water to drink nor bread to eat, and they yearn for the\nflesh-pots of Egypt. God brings water gushing from a rock; and manna and\nquails fall from heaven; but tired and uneasy, the Jews betray their\nGod, make a calf of gold and worship it. Moses, saddened like all\nprophets, misunderstood like all saviours, followed unwillingly like all\ndiscoverers of new lands, falls back of the restive and rebellious crowd\nand begs God to let him lie down forever. But at any cost, Jehovah\ndesires to sign the Fourth Covenant with His people. Moses goes down\nfrom the smoke-capped thundering mountain, with the two tables of stone\nwhereon the very finger of God has written the Ten Commandments.\n\nMoses is not to see the Promised Land, the new Paradise to be\nreconquered in place of the lost Paradise. But the divine pledge is\nkept: Joshua and the other heroes cross the Jordan, enter into the land\nof Canaan, and conquer the people; the cities fall at the breath of\ntheir trumpets; Deborah can sing her song of triumph. The people carry\nwith them the God of battles, hidden behind the tents, on a cart drawn\nby oxen. But the enemies are numerous and have no mind to give way to\nthe newcomers. The Jews wander here and there, shepherds and brigands,\nvictorious when they maintain the covenants of the Law, defeated when\nthey forget them.\n\nA giant with unshorn hair kills, single-handed, thousands of Philistines\nand Amalekites, but a woman betrays him; enemies blind him and set him\nto turn a mill. Heroes alone are not enough. Kings are needed. A young\nman of the tribe of Benjamin, tall and well-grown, while looking for his\nfather\u2019s strayed asses, is met by a Prophet who anoints him with the\nsacred oil, and makes him king of all the people. Saul becomes a\npowerful warrior, overcomes the Ammonites and Amalekites and founds a\nmilitary kingdom, dreaded by neighboring tribes. But the same prophet\nwho made him king, now aroused against him, raises up a rival. David,\nthe boy shepherd, kills the king\u2019s giant foe, tempers with his harp the\nblack rages of the king, is loved by the king\u2019s oldest son, marries the\ndaughter of the king, is among the king\u2019s captains. But Saul, suspicious\nand unbalanced, wishes to kill him. David hides himself in the caves of\nthe mountains, becomes a robber chief. He goes into the service of the\nPhilistines, and when they conquer and kill Saul on the hills of Gilboa,\nhe becomes in his turn king of all Israel. The bold sheep-tender, great\nas poet and as king, yet cruel and lustful, founds his house in\nJerusalem, and with the aid of his gibborim, or body-guard, overcomes\nand subjugates the surrounding kingdoms. For the first time, the Jew is\nfeared: for centuries after this he was to long for the return of David,\nand to hope for a descendant of David to save him from his abject\nsubjugation.\n\nDavid is the King of the sword and of song. Solomon is the King of gold\nand of wisdom. Gold is brought to him as a tribute: he decks with gold\nthe first sumptuous house of Jehovah. He sends ships to faraway Ophir in\nsearch of gold; the Queen of Sheba lays down sacks of gold at his feet.\nBut all the splendor of gold and the wisdom of Solomon are not enough to\nsave the king from impurity and his kingdom from ruin. He takes strange\nwomen to wife and worships strange gods. The Lord pardons his old age,\nin memory of his youth, but at his death the kingdom is divided and the\ndark and shameful centuries of the decadence begin. Plots in the palace,\nmurders of kings, revolts of chiefs, wretched civil wars, periods of\nidol-worship followed by passing reforms, fill the period of the\nseparation. Prophets appear and admonish, but the kings turn a deaf ear\nor drive them away. The enemies of Israel grow more powerful. The\nPh\u0153nicians, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, one after\nanother, invade the two kingdoms, extort tribute and finally, about 600\nyears before the birth of Jesus, Jerusalem is destroyed, the temple of\nJehovah is demolished and the Jews are led as slaves to the rivers of\nBabylon. The cup of their infidelity and of their sins runs over and the\nsame God who liberated them from the slavery of the Egyptians gives them\nover as slaves to the Babylonians. This is the fourth punishment and the\nmost terrible of all because it is to have no end. From that time on,\nthe Jews were always to be dispersed among strangers and subject to\nforeigners. Some of them were to return to reconstruct Jerusalem and its\ntemple, but the country, invaded by the Scythians, tributary to the\nPersians, conquered by the Greeks, was after the last attempt of the\nMaccabeans finally given over to the hands of a dynasty of Arab\nbarbarians, subject to the Romans.\n\nThis race, which for so many years lived rich and free in the desert,\nand for a day was master of kingdoms and believed itself, under the\nprotection of its God, the first people of the earth, was now reduced in\nnumbers, spurned and commanded by foreigners, was the laughing-stock of\nthe nations, the Job among peoples. After the death of Jesus, its fate\nwas to be harder yet: Jerusalem destroyed for the second time: in the\ndevastated province only Greeks and Romans holding sway, and the last\nfragments of Israel scattered over the earth like dust of the street\ndriven before the sirocco.\n\nNever were people so loved nor so dreadfully chastised by their God.\nChosen to be the first, they were the servants of the last. Aspiring to\nhave a victorious country of their own, they were exiles and slaves in\nother men\u2019s lands.\n\nAlthough more pastoral than warlike, they never were at peace either\nwith themselves or with others. They fought with their neighbors, with\ntheir guests, with their leaders. They fought with their prophets and\nwith their God Himself.\n\nBreeding-ground of corruption, governed by men guilty of homicide,\ntreachery, adultery, incest, robbery, simony and idolatry, yet their\nwomen gave birth to the most perfect saints of the Orient, upright,\nadmonishing, solitary prophets; and finally from this race was born the\nFather of the new saints, He who had been awaited by all the Prophets.\n\nThis people which created no metaphysics nor science, nor music, nor\nsculpture, nor art, nor architecture of its own, wrote the grandest\npoetry of antiquity, glowing with sublimity in the Psalms and in the\nProphets, inimitably tender in the stories of Joseph and Ruth, burning\nwith voluptuous passion in the Song of Songs.\n\nGrown up in the midst of the cults of local rustic gods, they conceived\nthe love of God, the one universal Father. Rich in gold and lands, they\ncould boast in their prophets of the first defenders of the poor, and\nthey conceived of the negation of riches. The same people who had cut\nthe throat of human victims on their altars, and massacred whole cities\nof guiltless people, gave disciples to Him who preached love for our\nenemies. This people, jealous of their jealous God, always betrayed Him\nto run after other gods. Of their temple, three times built and three\ntimes destroyed, nothing remains but a piece of a wall, barely enough so\nthat a line of mourners may lean their heads against it to hide their\ntears.\n\nBut this perplexing and contradictory people, superhuman and wretched,\nthe first and the last of all, the happiest and the most unhappy of all,\nalthough it serves other nations, still dominates other nations with its\nmoney and with its Bible. Although without a country of its own for\ncenturies, it is among the owners of all countries. Although it\ncrucified its greatest Son with His blood, it divided the history of the\nworld into two parts: and the progeny of those god-killers has become\nthe most infamous but the most sacred of all the peoples.\n\n\n                              THE PROPHETS\n\n\nNever was a people so warned as were the Jews, from the beginning of the\ntemporal kingdom to its dismemberment: in the great days of the\nvictorious Kings, in the sorrowful days of exile, in the evil days of\nslavery, in the tragic days of the dispersion.\n\nIndia has its ascetics, who hide themselves in the wilderness to conquer\nthe body and drown the soul in the infinite. China had its familiar\nsages, peaceful grandfathers who taught civic morality to working people\nand emperors. Greece had her philosophers, who in their shady porticos\ncontrived harmonious systems and dialectic pitfalls. Rome had its\nlawgivers who recorded on bronze for the peoples and the centuries the\nrules of the highest justice attainable to those who command and\npossess. The Middle Ages had their preachers, who wore themselves out in\nthe effort to arouse drowsy Christianity to a remembrance of the Passion\nand the terror of Hell. The Jewish people had the Prophets.\n\nThe Prophets did not give forth their prophecies in caves, spitting out\nsaliva and words together from their tripods. They spoke of the future,\nbut not merely of the future. They foretold things not yet happened, but\nthey also brought to mind the past. They possessed time in its three\nphases; deciphering the past, illuminating the present and threatening\nthe future.\n\nThe Jewish Prophet is a voice speaking, or a hand writing, a voice\nspeaking in the palace of the King or in the caves of the mountains, on\nthe steps of the Temple and in the precincts of the capitol. He is a\nvoice that prays, a prayer that threatens, a threat that breaks out into\ndivine hope. His heart is afflicted, his mouth is full of bitterness,\nhis arm is raised, pointing out punishment to come; he suffers for his\npeople; because he loves his people, he vituperates them: he punishes\nthem that they may be purified; and after massacres and flames, he\nteaches the resurrection and the life, triumph and blessedness, the\nreign of the new David and the Covenant not to be broken.\n\nThe Prophet leads the idolater back to the true God, reminds the\nperjurer of his oath, recalls charity to the oppressor, purity to the\ncorrupt, mercy to the fierce, justice to kings, obedience to rebels,\npunishment to sinners, humbleness to the proud. He goes before the king\nand reproaches him, he goes down among the dregs of the people and\nscourges them: he greets priests with blame; presents himself to the\nrich and brings them to confusion. He announces consolation to the poor,\nrecompense to the afflicted, health to the sick, liberation to enslaved\npeoples, the coming of the conqueror to the humiliated nation.\n\nHe is not a king, nor a prince, nor a priest, nor a scribe: he is only a\nman, a poor, unarmed man, without investitures and without followers. He\nis a solitary voice, a lamenting voice grieving, a puissant voice\nhowling and calling down shame, a voice which calls to repentance and\npromises eternity.\n\nThe Prophet is not a philosopher; it matters little to him whether the\nworld be made of water or of fire, if water and fire cannot purify men\u2019s\nsouls.\n\nHe is a poet, but without will or consciousness that he is, when the\nfullness of his indignation and the splendor of his vision create\npowerful images which rhetoricians never could invent. He is not a\npriest, for he has never been anointed in the temple by the mercenary\nguardians of the Book; he is not a King, for he does not command armed\nmen, and as sword has only the Word which comes from on high; he is not\na soldier, but he is ready to die for his God and his people.\n\nThe prophet is a voice speaking in the name of God; a hand writing at\nGod\u2019s dictation; he is a messenger sent by God to warn those wandering\nfrom the right path, who have forgotten the Covenant. He is the\nsecretary, the interpreter, and the delegate of God, and thus superior\nto the King who does not obey God, superior to the priest who does not\nunderstand God, to the people who have deserted God to run after idols\nof wood and stone!\n\nThe Prophet is the man who sees with a troubled heart but with clear\neyes the evil which reigns to-day, the punishment which will come\nto-morrow, and the kingdom of happiness which will follow punishment and\nrepentance.\n\nHe speaks in the name of the mute, he is a hand for him who cannot\nwrite, a defender for the people scattered and oppressed, an advocate\nfor the poor, an avenger for the humble who cry out under the heel of\nthe powerful. He is not on the side of those who tyrannize, but of those\nwho are trodden under foot. He does not seek out the satiated and the\ngreedy, but the hungry and the wretched.\n\nA troublesome importunate and inopportune voice, hated by the great, out\nof favor with the crowd, not always understood even by his disciples.\nLike a hyena scenting from far the stench of carrion, like a raven\nalways croaking out the same cry, like a hungry wolf howling on the\nmountain top, the prophet goes up and down the streets of Israel\nfollowed by suspicion and malediction. Only the poor and the oppressed\nbless him; but the poor are weak and the oppressed can only listen in\nsilence. Like all loud truthtellers, who disturb the slumbering\nmajority, who unsettle the sordid peace of the masters, he is avoided\nlike a leper, persecuted like an enemy. Kings can barely tolerate him,\npriests regard him as an enemy, the rich detest him.\n\nElijah is forced to flee before the wrath of Jezebel, slayer of\nprophets; Amos is banished beyond Israel by Amaziah, priest of Bethel;\nIsaiah is killed by the order of Manesseh; Urijah cut down by King\nJehoiakim; Zacharias stoned between the temple and the altar; Jonah\nthrown into the sea; the sword is prepared for the neck of John, and the\ncross is ready from which Jesus will hang. The Prophet is an accuser,\nbut men are not willing to admit that they are guilty. He is an\nintercessor, but the blind are not willing to be guided by the\nenlightened. He is an announcer, but the deaf do not hear his promises.\nHe is a saviour, but men rotting in fatal diseases delight in their\nmaladies and refuse to be cured. Yet the word of the Prophets shall be\nthe eternal testimony in favor of this race which exterminated them but\nwas capable of generating them. And the death of a prophet, who is more\nthan all the prophets, shall suffice to expiate the crimes of all the\nother peoples who grub about in the dirt of the earth.\n\n\n                            HE WHO WILL COME\n\n\nIn the house at Nazareth Jesus meditates on the Commandments of the Law,\nand in the fiery laments of the Prophets He recognizes His destiny. The\npromises are insistent like knocking on obstinately closed doors. They\nare repeated, reiterated, never denied, always confirmed. Precise,\nminute with irrefutable testimony, they foretell the story. When Jesus\nat the beginning of His thirtieth year presents Himself to men as the\nSon of Man, He knows what awaits Him, even to the last: His life to come\nis already set down day by day in pages written before His earthly\nbirth.\n\nHe knows that God promised Moses a new prophet, \u201cI will raise them up a\nprophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words\nin his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command\nhim.\u201d God will make a new covenant with His people. \u201cNot according to\nthe covenant that I made with their fathers ... but I will put my law in\ntheir inward parts, and write it in their hearts.... I will forgive\ntheir iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.\u201d A covenant\ninscribed upon souls and not upon stone; a covenant of forgiveness and\nnot of punishment!\n\nThe Messiah will have a precursor to announce Him. \u201cBehold, I will send\nmy messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government\nshall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,\nCounsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of\nPeace.\u201d But the people will be blind to Him and will not listen to Him:\n\u201cMake the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut\ntheir eyes: lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and\nunderstand with their hearts, and convert, and be healed.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd he shall be a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both\nthe houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of\nJerusalem.\u201d\n\nHe will not magnify and flaunt Himself: He will not come in proud\ntriumph, \u201cRejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout O daughter of\nJerusalem, behold thy King cometh unto thee: he is just and having\nsalvation, lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an\nass.\u201d\n\nHe will bring justice and will lift up the unhappy; \u201c... because the\nLord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent\nme to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,\nand the opening of the prison to them that are bound; ... to comfort all\nthat mourn.\u201d \u201cThe meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and\nthe poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the\nterrible one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all\nthat watch for iniquity are cut off.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf\nshall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the\ntongue of the dumb sing.\u201d\n\n\u201cI, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness ... to open the blind\neyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in\ndarkness from the prison-house.\u201d\n\nBut He will be vilified and tortured by the very people He comes to\nsave: \u201che hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there\nis no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of\nmen; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were\nour faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not.\n\n\u201cSurely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows: yet we did\nesteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.\n\n\u201cBut he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our\niniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his\nstripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have\nturned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the\niniquity of us all.\n\n\u201cHe was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he\nis brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her\nshearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth ... for he was cut off out\nof the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he\nstricken.\n\n\u201cYet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when\nthou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he\nshall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in\nhis hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be\nsatisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for\nhe shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion\nwith the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because\nhe hath poured out his soul unto death; and he was numbered with the\ntransgressors; and he bare the sins of many, and made intercession for\nthe transgressors.\u201d\n\nHe will not draw back before the vilest insults. \u201cI gave my back to the\nsmiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my\nface from shame and spitting.\u201d\n\nAll will be against Him in the supreme moment. \u201cThey have spoken against\nme with a lying tongue. They compassed me about also with words of\nhatred; and fought against me without a cause. For my love they are my\nadversaries.\u201d\n\nThe son cries to the Father:\n\n\u201cThou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor: mine\nadversaries are all before thee.\n\n\u201cReproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked\nfor some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I\nfound none.\n\n\u201cThey gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me\nvinegar to drink.\u201d\n\nThey pierce Him with nails and divide His clothes among themselves.\n\n\u201cFor dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed\nme: they pierced my hands and my feet\n\n\u201c... they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and\ncast lots upon my vesture.\u201d\n\nToo late they will understand what they have done and will repent.\n\n\u201c... and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall\nmourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in\nbitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born.\u201d\n\n\u201cYea, all kings shall bow down before him: all nations shall serve him.\n\n\u201cFor he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him\nthat hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save\nthe souls of the needy.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee;\nand all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles\nof thy feet.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the\npeople: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen\nupon thee.\n\n\u201cAnd the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness\nof thy rising.\n\n\u201cLift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves\ntogether, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy\ndaughters shall be nursed at thy side.\u201d\n\n\u201cBehold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and\ncommander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou\nknowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run into thee because\nof the Lord thy God.\u201d\n\nThese and other words are remembered by Jesus in the vigil before His\ndeparture. He foresees it all and does not turn away from it. From now\non He knows His fate, the ingratitude of heart, the deafness of His\nfriends, the hatred of the powerful, the scourgings, the spittings,\ninsults, scoffings, obloquy, piercing of the hands and feet, tortures\nand death. He knows that the Jews, carnal-minded materialists embittered\nby humiliation, full of rancor and evil thoughts, are not awaiting a\npoor, gentle, despised Messiah. They all, except a few of clear and\nprophetic vision, are dreaming of a terrestrial Messiah, an armed King,\na second David, a warrior who will shed real blood, the red blood of\nenemies, who will rebuild more splendidly than ever the palace of\nSolomon and the Temple. All the kings will bring tribute to Him, not\ntribute of love and reverence, but of massy gold and silver coin. This\nearthly King will revenge Himself on the enemies of Israel, on those who\nmake Israel suffer, who hold the people of Israel in slavery. The slaves\nwill be masters and the masters slaves, and all the countries of the\nworld will have their capital at Jerusalem and crowned kings will kneel\nbefore the throne of the new king of Israel. The fields of Israel will\nbe more fertile than all the others, their pastures richer, their flocks\nwill multiply endlessly, wheat and barley will be harvested twice a\nyear, the ears of wheat will be heavier than in the past, and two men\nwill bend under the weight of a single bunch of grapes. There will not\nbe enough wine-skins to contain the vintage nor enough jars to hold all\nthe oil, and honey will be found in the hollows of the trees and in the\nhedges of the roads. The branches of the trees will break under the\nweight of the fruit, and the fruit will be pulpy and sweet as it never\nwas before.\n\nThis is the Messiah expected by the Jews who surround Jesus. He knows He\ncannot give them what they seek, that He cannot be the victorious\nwarrior and the proud king towering up among subject kings. He knows\nthat His kingdom is not of this earth and that He will be able to offer\nonly a little bread, all His blood and all His love. They will not\nbelieve in Him, will torture Him and will kill Him as a false pretender.\nHe knows all that. He knows it as if He had seen it with His eyes and\nendured it with His body and soul. But He knows that the seed of His\nword thrown into the earth among thistles and thorns, trampled under\nfoot by assassins, will start into life when spring comes. At first\nbeaten down by the wind, little by little it will grow, until finally it\nbecomes a tree stretching its branches up to the sky, covering the earth\nwith the boughs. And all men can sit round about it, remembering the\ndeath of Him who planted it.\n\n\n                          THE PROPHET OF FIRE\n\n\nWhile Jesus, in the poor little work-shop at Nazareth, was handling the\nax and the square, a voice was raised in the desert towards Jordan and\nthe Dead Sea. Last of the Prophets, John the Baptist called the Jews to\nrepent, announced the approach of the Kingdom of Heaven, predicted the\ncoming of the Messiah, reproved the sinners who came to him, and plunged\nthem into the water of the river, that this outer washing might be the\nbeginning of an inner purification.\n\nIn that dark age of the Herods, old Judea profaned by the Idumean\nusurpers, contaminated by Greek infiltration, scorned by the Roman\nsoldiery; without King, without unity, without glory; already half\ndispersed throughout the world; betrayed by their own priests; always\nremembering the grandeur of their earthly kingdom of a thousand years\nago; always obstinately hoping for a great vengeance, for a miraculous\nresurrection, for a return of victory in a triumph of its God, in the\ncoming of a Saviour, of a liberator, of an anointed one who should reign\nin a new Jerusalem stronger and more beautiful than that of Solomon, and\nfrom Jerusalem dominate all the peoples, overcome all other monarchs,\nconquer all empires and bring happiness to its nation and to all\nmen,\u2014old Judea hating its masters, robbed by the publicans, plagued by\nthe mercenary scribes and by the hypocritical Pharisees, old Judea\ndivided, humiliated, plundered and yet in spite of all its shame full of\nfaith for the future, willingly lent an ear to the voice of the desert,\nand hastened to the banks of the Jordan.\n\nJohn\u2019s figure was one to conquer the imagination. A child sprung by a\nmiracle from parents of great age, he was set apart from his birth to be\nNazir\u2014pure. He had never cut his hair, had never tasted wine or cider,\nhad never touched a woman nor known any love except that for God. While\nhe was still young, he had left his parents\u2019 home and buried himself in\nthe desert. There he lived for many years alone, without a house,\nwithout a tent, without servants, with nothing of his own except what he\nhad on his back. Wrapped in his camel\u2019s skin, his flanks girt by a\nleather belt, tall, bony, baked by the sun, his chest hairy, his hair\nhanging long on his shoulders, his long beard almost covering his face,\nhis piercing eyes flashed like lightning from under his busy eyebrows\nwhen from his mouth hidden by his beard burst out the tremendous words\nof his maledictions.\n\nThis hypnotic wild man, solitary as a Yogi, despising pleasure like a\nstoic, seemed to those whom he baptized the last hope of a despairing\npeople.\n\nJesus heard the people talk of those \u201cwashed ones\u201d who returned from\nJordan and took up their former lives, as in the morning a garment is\nresumed which was thrown away with relief the evening before; and He\nunderstood that His day grew near. He was now in His thirtieth year, the\nright and destined age. Before he is thirty, a man is only a sketch, an\napproximation, dominated by the common sentiments and common loves of\nall. He does not know men well, and hence cannot love them with that\nlove, sweet with compassion, with which they should be loved. And\nwithout knowing them or knowing how to love them, he cannot speak with\nauthority, cannot make himself heard, has not the power of saving them.\n\n\n                         THE FIRST ANNUNCIATION\n\n\nThe desert sun burned John\u2019s body and his fiery longing for the Kingdom\nburned like a flame in his soul. He was the foreteller of fire. He saw\nin the Messiah, soon to appear, the master of flame. The New King will\nbe a fierce husbandman. Every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit\nis hewn down and cast into the fire. He will thoroughly purge His floor\nand gather His wheat into the garner, but He will burn up the chaff with\nunquenchable fire. He will be a baptizer who will baptize with fire.\n\nRigid, wrathful, harsh, shaggy, quick to insult, impatient and\nimpetuous, John was not gentle with those who came to him. He took no\nsatisfaction in having drawn them to take this first step towards\nrepentance. When Pharisees and Sadducees, notable men, learned in the\nScriptures, esteemed by the crowd, of authority in the temple came to be\nbaptized, he shamed them more than the others. \u201cO generation of vipers,\nwho hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth\ntherefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within\nyourselves, We have Abraham for our father: for I say unto you, that God\nis able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.\u201d\n\nYou who lock yourselves up into houses of stone as vipers hide\nthemselves under the rocks, you Pharisees and Sadducees, are harder than\nstone: your minds are petrified in the letter and the rites of the law:\nyour selfish hearts are stony: to the hungry who ask bread of you, you\ngive a stone, and you throw the stone at him who has sinned less than\nyou. You Pharisees and Sadducees, you are haughty statues of stone which\nonly fire can conquer, since water poured over you is quickly dried up.\nBut God, who from a handful of earth made Adam, could make from stones\nfrom the shore, with rocks from the cliff, other men, other living\nbeings, other sons for Himself. He could change granite into flesh and\nsoul, while you have changed soul and flesh into granite. It is not\nenough therefore to bathe in the Jordan. That ablution is holy and\nsalutary. Change your life, do the opposite of what you have done until\nnow, if you do not wish to be burned up by Him, who will baptize by\nfire. \u201cAnd the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? He\nanswereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to\nhim that hath none, and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen came also publicans to be baptized and said unto him, Master, what\nshall we do? And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is\nappointed you.\n\n\u201cAnd the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we\ndo? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any\nfalsely; and be content with your wages.\u201d\n\nCompelling, almost superhuman when he announced the terrible separation\nof the good from the bad, John becomes commonplace when he descends to\nparticulars and falls, one might say, exactly into the Pharisean\ntradition. His only advice is to give alms, to give away the\nsuperfluous. From the publicans he asks only strict justice: let them\ntake what has been allotted and nothing more. To the fierce, thieving\ntribe of soldiers, he recommends only discretion! \u201cBe satisfied with\nyour pay and do not rob.\u201d This is nothing more or less than the Mosaic\nlaw. Long before him, Amos and Isaiah had gone further.\n\nNow is the time for the accuser of the Dead Sea to give way to the\nliberator of the Sea of Tiberias. The lot of precursors is hard: they\nknow, but are not permitted to see; they arrive on the banks of the\nJordan, but do not enjoy the promised land; they make plain the path for\nhim who comes after them, but will pass beyond them. They prepare the\nthrone and do not seat themselves on it. They are servants of the master\nwhom often they do not meet face to face. Perhaps the fierceness of John\nis justified by this consciousness of being an ambassador and nothing\nmore. A consciousness which is never envious, but which leaves a tinge\nof sadness, even in his humility. They came from Jerusalem to ask him\nwho he was, \u201cWhat then? Art thou Elias?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo. I am not.\u201d\n\n\u201cArt thou that Prophet?\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd he answered, No.\u201d\n\n\u201cArt thou the Christ?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo.... He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.... He\nit is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe\u2019s latchet\nI am not worthy to unloose.\u201d\n\nAt Nazareth, in the meantime, an unknown working man was lacing up His\nshoes with His own hands to go out to the wilderness, resounding with\nthe voice which three times had thundered, \u201cNo.\u201d\n\n\n                               THE VIGIL\n\n\nJohn called sinners to wash in the river before repenting. Jesus\npresented Himself to John to be baptized. Did He then acknowledge\nHimself a sinner?\n\nThe texts are explicit: the prophet preached the baptism of repentance\nin remission of sins. He who went to him acknowledged himself a sinner;\nhe who goes to wash, feels himself polluted.\n\nThe fact that we know nothing of the life of Jesus from His twelfth to\nHis thirtieth year, exactly the years of fallible adolescence, of\nhot-blooded youth, has given rise to the idea that He was in that\nperiod, or at least held Himself to have been, a sinner like other men.\nThe three remaining years of His life are the most brightly lighted by\nthe words of the four Gospels because in thinking of the dead, what we\nmost vividly remember are their words and deeds during the last days of\ntheir lives. Nothing of what we know of those three years gives any\nindication of this supposed existence of sin in Christ\u2019s life between\nthe innocence of its beginning and the glory of its ending.\n\nThere is not even the appearance of a conversion in Christ\u2019s life. His\nfirst words have the same accent as the last. The spring from which they\nrun is clear from the first day; there is no muddy sediment of evil. He\nbegins with frank absolute certainty, with the recognizable authority of\npurity. You can feel that He has left nothing turbid back of Him. His\nvoice is clear and limpid, a melodious song not roughened by the sour\nlees of voluptuous pleasure, or by the hoarseness of repentance. The\ntransparent serenity of His look, of His smile and of His thought is not\nthe calm which comes after the clouds of the tempest, or the uncertain\nwhiteness of the dawn which slowly conquers the malign shadow of the\nnight: it is the clearness of Him who was born only once, and remained a\nyouth even into His maturity: the limpidity, the transparency, the\ntranquillity, the peace of a day which ends in night, but is not\ndarkened until evening: eternal day, childhood intact and untarnished\nuntil death.\n\nHe goes about among the impure with the natural simplicity of the poor\namong sinners, with the natural strength of the sound man among the\nsick, with the natural boldness of health. On the other hand, the man\nwho has been converted is always at the back of his mind a little\ntroubled. A single drop of bitterness, a light shadow of impurity, a\nfleeting suggestion of temptation is enough to drive him back into\nanguish. He always feels a doubt that he may not have rid himself wholly\nof the old Adam, that he may not have wholly destroyed but only stunned\nthe Other, who lived in his body. He has paid so much for his salvation,\nand it seems to him so precious but so frail, that he is always afraid\nof putting it into jeopardy or of losing it. He does not shun sinners,\nbut he approaches them with an involuntary shudder, with a scarcely\nconfessed fear of fresh contagion, a dread lest the sight of the\nvileness where he also took delight will renew unbearably the\nrecollection of his shame, will drive him to despair of his ultimate\nsalvation. When a servant becomes a master he is never on familiar terms\nwith his servants. When a poor man becomes rich he is not generous with\nthe poor. A converted sinner is not always a friend of sinners. That\nremnant of pride which sticks fast in the hearts even of saints mingles\nwith his compassion. Why do sinners not do what he has done? The way is\nopen to all, even to the wickedest, the most hardened: the prize is\ngreat, why do they remain down there, plunged in black Hell?\n\nAnd when the converted sinner speaks to his brothers to convert them, he\ncannot refrain from dwelling on his own experience, his fall, his\nliberation. It may be only that he wishes to be helpful, rather than to\nvaunt himself, but in any case he is always eager to point to himself as\na living and present example of the sweetness of salvation.\n\nThe past can be renounced, but not destroyed. It reveals itself almost\nunconsciously in the very men who begin life with a second birth of\nrepentance. In the story of Jesus no sign of a different way of life\nbefore conversion ever shows itself in any allusion or in any implicit\nmeaning, is not recognizable in the smallest of His acts, in the most\nobscure of His words. His love for sinners has nothing of the feverish\nobstinacy of the proselytizing penitent. It is a natural love, not a\ndutiful love. It is brotherly love without any implications of reproach,\nspontaneous friendly fraternity needing to make no effort to overcome\nrepugnance. It is the attraction towards the impure of the pure who has\nno fear of being soiled and knows that He can cleanse\u2014disinterested\nlove\u2014love felt by the saints in the supreme moments of their\nholiness\u2014love beside which all other love seems vulgar\u2014such love as no\nman saw before Jesus! Love which is rarely found again, and only in\nmemory and in imitation of His love\u2014love which will always be called\nChristian, and by any other name\u2014never! Divine love\u2014Christ\u2019s love! Love!\n\nJesus came among the sinners, but He was no sinner. He came to bathe in\nthe water running before John, but He had no inner stain. The soul of\nJesus was that of a child, so childlike as to outdo sages in wisdom and\nsaints in sanctity.\n\nHe was no rigorous Puritan. He never felt the terror of the morally\nshipwrecked man barely saved from destruction. He was no overscrupulous\nPharisee. He knew what was sin and what was right and He did not lose\nthe spirit in the labyrinth of the letter. He knew life; He did not\nrefuse life which though not a good in itself is a prerequisite\ncondition of all good things. Eating and drinking are not wrong, nor\nlooking at people, nor sending a friendly look to the thief lurking in\nthe shade, nor to the woman who has colored her lips to hide the traces\nof unasked kisses.\n\n\n                              THE BAPTISM\n\n\nAnd yet Jesus came in the midst of a crowd of sinners to immerse Himself\nin the Jordan. The problem is not mysterious for him who sees something\nbeyond the most familiar meaning in the rite reinstituted by John. The\ncase of Jesus is unique. The baptism of Jesus is like others\nsuperficially, but is justified in other ways. Baptism is not only a\nwashing of the flesh as a symbol of the will to cleanse the soul, a\nremnant of the primitive analogy of water which washed away material\nstains and can wash away spiritual stains. This physical metaphor is\nuseful to the symbolism of the crowd, is a necessary ceremony for the\ncarnal eye of the many who need a material help to believe in the\nimmaterial. But it was not made for Jesus.\n\nHe went to John that the prophecy of the precursor might be fulfilled.\nHis kneeling down before the prophet of fire was a recognition of John\u2019s\nquality of true announcer, of his worth as a loyal ambassador who has\ndone his duty who can say now that his work is finished. Jesus\nsubmitting Himself to this symbolical investiture really invests John\nwith the legitimate title of precursor.\n\nJesus, about to begin a new epoch of His life, His true life, bore\nwitness by His immersion in water to His willingness to die, but at the\nsame time to His certainty that He would rise again. He did not go down\nto the Jordan to cleanse Himself, but to show that His second life was\nbeginning and that He will not die, but only seem to die, just as He\nonly seemed to be purified by the waters of the Jordan.\n\n\n                               THE DESERT\n\n\nAs soon as Jesus emerged from the water He went into the desert. From\nthe multitude to solitude! Until then He had lived among the waters and\nthe fields of Galilee and in the green meadows along the Jordan. Now He\nwent up on the rocky mountains whence no springs arise, where no seed\nsprouts, where the only living creatures are snakes. Until then He had\nlived among the working men of Nazareth, among John\u2019s penitents; now He\ngoes up on the solitary mountains where no human face is seen, where no\nhuman voice is heard. The New Man puts the desert between himself and\nhumanity.\n\nThe person who says, \u201cwoe to the solitary!\u201d only gives the measure of\nhis own cowardice. Society is a sacrifice, meritorious in proportion to\nits hardness. For those rich in soul, solitude is a prize and not an\nexpiation, a period of sure value, a time when inner beauty is created,\na reconciliation with the absent. Only in solitude do we live with our\npeers, with those solitary souls who think the great-hearted thoughts\nwhich console us in the absence of other consolations.\n\nThe people who cannot endure solitude are the mediocre and the mean.\nThey have nothing to offer, they are afraid of themselves, of their own\nemptiness. They are condemned to the eternal solitude of their own\nminds, a desolate inner desert where the poisonous plants of waste lands\nare the only things to grow. They are restless, unquiet, dejected when\nthey cannot forget themselves in others, deafen themselves with the\nwords of others. They delude themselves with the factitious life of\nothers who are in their turn deluded by it. They cannot live without\nmingling, a passive atom, in the streams which overflow every morning\nfrom the sewers of the cities.\n\nJesus lived among men and He was to return among men because He loved\nthem. But in the years to come He often hid Himself, to be alone, far\neven from His disciples. To love men, you need from time to time to\ndepart from them: far from them, we draw near to them. The small soul\nremembers only the evil they have done him. His night is restless with\nbitterness and his mouth poisoned with anger. The great soul remembers\nbenefits alone, and thankful for a few good deeds, forgets the great\nevils he has endured. Even those which were not pardoned at the moment\nare blotted out from his heart, and having renewed his original love for\nhis brothers, he goes back to men.\n\nFor Jesus these forty days of solitude are the last of His preparation.\nFor forty years the Jewish people (prophetic symbol of Christ) wandered\nin the desert before entering into the kingdom promised by God. For\nforty days Moses remained close to God to hear His laws; for forty days\nElijah wandered in the desert fleeing the vengeance of the wicked queen.\n\nSo also the time allotted to the new liberator before announcing the\npromised kingdom was forty days of close communion with God to receive\nthe supreme inspiration. But even in the desert He was not to be\nentirely alone: about Him throughout the vigil will be animals and\nangels; beings inferior to man and beings superior; those who pull man\ndown and those who lift him up; beings all matter, beings all spirit.\n\nBorn an animal, man struggles to become an angel. He is matter changing\nby slow transmutation into spirit. If the animal gets the upper hand,\nman descends below the level of the beasts because he puts the remnants\nof his intelligence at the service of bestiality: if the angel conquers,\nman becomes the equal of angels, and instead of being a mere soldier in\nthe army of God, partakes of divinity itself. But the fallen angel\ncondemned to wear the form of a beast is the astute and tenacious enemy\nof all men who wish to climb that height from which he was cast down.\nJesus is the enemy of the material world, of the bestial life of the\nmany. He was born into the world in order that beasts should become men,\nand men become angels. He was born to change the world and to conquer\nit, to fight with the king of the world, that enemy of God and of men,\nthe malign, the suborner, the seducer. He was born to drive Satan from\nthe earth as His father drove him from Heaven.\n\nTherefore at the end of the forty days, Satan came into the desert to\ntempt his enemy.\n\n\n                             THE ADVERSARY\n\n\nOur slavery to matter is branded on our lives by the daily need of our\nbodies for food, and Jesus wished to conquer our slavery to matter.\nWhenever He shared human lives, He consented to eat and drink, because\nHis friends did, because it is right to give to the flesh that which\nbelongs to the flesh, and finally as a visible protest against the\nhypocritical fasts of the Pharisees. The last act of His earthly mission\nwas a supper, but the first after His baptism was a fast. Alone where\nHis abstinence could not shame His simple-hearted companions, where it\ncould not be confused with ostentatious piety, He forgot to eat.\n\nBut after forty days He was hungry. Satan, tenacious and invisible, was\nwaiting for this moment of material need, and seized on it. The\nAdversary spoke: \u201cIf thou be the Son of God command this stone that it\nbe made bread.\u201d\n\nThe reproof was prompt: \u201cIt is written that man shall not live by bread\nalone, but by every word of God.\u201d\n\nSatan did not admit a defeat, and from the top of a mountain showed Him\nall the kingdoms of the earth: \u201cAll this power will I give thee, and the\nglory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I\ngive it. If thou therefore wilt adore me, all shall be thine.\u201d\n\nAnd Jesus answered, \u201cGet thee behind me, Satan: for it is written thou\nshalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.\u201d\n\nThen Satan took Him to Jerusalem and set Him on the pinnacle of the\nTemple, \u201cIf thou be the Son of God cast thyself down from hence.\u201d\n\nBut Jesus answered quickly: \u201cIt is written; thou shalt not tempt the\nLord thy God.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd when the Devil had completed every temptation,\u201d Luke goes on, \u201che\ndeparted from him for a season.\u201d We shall see his return and his last\neffort.\n\nThis dialogue seems at first sight only a bandying about of Scriptural\ntexts. Satan and Jesus do not use their own words, but compete by means\nof quotations from the Scriptures. We seem to be listening to a\ntheological dispute; but as a matter of fact it is the first Parable of\nthe Gospels acted out and not put into words.\n\nIt is not surprising that Satan should have come with the absurd hope of\ncausing Jesus to fall. It is not surprising that Jesus since He was a\nman should have undergone temptation. Satan only tempts the great and\npure. To the others he does not need even to murmur a word of\ninvitation. They are already his, from their childhood on. He need give\nhimself no trouble to win their allegiance, they are in his arms before\nhe summons them. And yet many of them do not know that he exists. He\nnever has presented himself to them because they obey him from a\ndistance. Thus, not having known him, they are ready to deny him. The\ndevil\u2019s cohorts do not believe in the devil. It was said of old that the\ndevil\u2019s shrewdest ruse was to spread abroad the rumor of his death. He\ntakes all forms, so beautiful sometimes that no one recognizes him. The\nGreeks, for instance, marvels of intelligence and elegance, had no place\nfor Satan in their mythology, because all their Gods, when closely\nexamined, show the horns of Satan under their crowns of laurel and grape\nleaves. Satanical is tyrannical and lustful Jove, adulterous Venus,\nApollo the flayer, murderous Mars, drunken Dionysius. They were so\nastute, the gods of Greece, that they gave the people love-potions and\ndistilled perfumes to keep them from detecting the stench of the evil\nthat consumes the world.\n\nBut if many do not know him and laugh at him as at a specter invented in\nchurch for the needs of penitents, there are some who cry out upon those\nwho know him but do not follow him. He seduced the innocence of the\nfirst two created beings, he suborned David the strong, corrupted\nSolomon the wise, accused Job the righteous before the throne of God.\nSatan tempts and always will tempt all the saints who hide themselves in\nthe desert, all those who love God. The more we go away from him the\ncloser he is; the higher we are, the more he rages to bring us low; he\ncan soil only that which is clean and he gives no care to the filth\nwhich spontaneously ferments under the hot breath of animality. To be\ntempted by Satan is a proof of purity, a sign of greatness, and shows a\nman that he is on the upward path. He who has known Satan and has seen\nhim face to face, may well have hope for himself. More than any other,\nJesus merited this consecration. Satan challenged Him twice and tempted\nHim once. He asked Him to transform dead matter into matter that gives\nlife and to cast Himself down from a height so that God by saving Him\nshould proclaim Him as His true son. He offered Him the possession and\nthe glory of earthly kingdoms on condition that instead of serving God\nJesus should promise to serve the Demon. He asks material bread and a\nmaterial miracle of Him and promises Him material power. Jesus does not\ntake up the challenge and refuses what is offered.\n\nHe is not the fleshly, temporal Messiah, desired by the Jewish crowd,\nthe material Messiah such as the Tempter in his baseness imagines Him.\nHe did not come to bring food to bodies but food to souls,\u2014truth, that\nliving food. When His brothers, far from home, lack bread enough for\ntheir hunger, He will break the few loaves which His disciples bring and\nall will have enough and they will fill baskets with the remnants. But\nexcept in cases of necessity He will not be the distributor of that\nbread which comes from the earth and returns to earth. If He should\nchange the stones of the street into bread, every one would follow Him\nthrough love of his own body and would pretend to believe everything He\nsaid. Even the dogs would come to His banquet. But this He does not\nwish. Those who follow Him must believe in His word in spite of hunger,\ngrief and poverty. Thus those who wish to follow Him must leave behind\nthem fertile fields, they must leave behind them money which can be\nchanged into bread. They must go with Him without knapsack or payment,\nwith one garment, and live like the birds of the air, husking ears of\ngrain in the fields, or begging alms at house doors. One can live\nwithout terrestrial bread: a fig left on the tree among the leaves, a\nfish drawn from the lake can take the place of bread. But no man can\nlive without heavenly bread, if he wishes to escape eternal death, which\nis the portion of those who have never tasted it. Man does not live by\nbread alone, but by love, fervor, and truth. Jesus is ready to transform\nthe Kingdom of Earth into the Kingdom of Heaven, furious bestiality into\nhappy sanctity, but He does not deign to transform stones into bread,\nmatter into other matter.\n\nFor similar reasons Jesus refused the other challenge. Men love the\nwonderful, the visibly wonderful, the prodigy, the physical\nimpossibility made possible before their eyes. They hunger and thirst\nafter portents. They are ready to prostrate themselves before the\nwonder-worker even if he is an evil man or a charlatan. From Jesus they\nall asked for a Sign, meaning by that, a gigantic juggling feat; but He\nalways refused. He did not wish to persuade by means of the miraculous.\nHe consented to cure the sick\u2014especially those sick in spirit and\nsinners\u2014but He often avoided the occasion even for these miracles, and\nHe begged those cured not to speak the name of their healer. And He\nnever used this power for His own safety, not even at Gethsemane when\nSatan tempted Him to put away the cup of death from His lips, nor when\nHe was nailed to the cross and Satan repeated his challenge by the mouth\nof the Jews. \u201cIf thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross and\nsave thyself.\u201d In the night of His vigil and in the high noon of His\ndeath, He resisted Satan and had recourse to no miracle to save Himself.\nMen must believe Him in spite of all contrary evidence, believe in His\ndivinity even when confronted with what seems His common humanity. It is\nno fit deed for Jesus needlessly to throw Himself down from the Temple;\nto bring an end to the pain of another with the sole purpose of\nconquering men, and fascinating them with wonder and terror; to put God\nto a test, to force Him as it were, to accomplish a rash and superfluous\nmiracle, only in order that Satan may not win the infamous wager founded\non sarcasm and on arrogance. Loving, it is to human hearts He wishes to\nspeak; sublime in character, He wishes to bring sublimity into human\nlives; a pure spirit, He wishes to purify other spirits; deep-hearted,\nto light the flame of love in others; a great spirit, to bring greatness\nto little, mean, neglected souls. Instead of throwing Himself like a\nvulgar magician from the precipice which is below the Temple, He will go\nup from the Temple upon the Mount to give out from on high the\nbeatitudes of the Kingdom of Heaven.\n\nThe offer of the Kingdoms of the Earth must have been horrible to Him,\nand still more the price that Satan asked. Satan has the right to offer\nwhat is his. The Kingdoms of the Earth are founded on force and\nmaintained with deceit. They are Satan\u2019s own country, they are his\nParadise regained. Satan sleeps every night on the pillows of the\npowerful. They pay material tribute to him, and give him daily offerings\nin thought and deed. But Jesus could have taken away their Kingdoms from\nthe Kings without bending knee to the Adversary. He had only to offer\nmen bread without work. If like a juggling mountebank He had opened a\npublic theater of popular miracles, the multitude would have acclaimed\nHim. Had He wished to seem the Messiah for whom the Jews had been\nlonging during their dreary slavery, He could have corrupted them with\nplenty and with marvels, He could have made of every land a country of\ngrace and enchantment and He could have occupied at once every seat of\nthe procurators of Satan.\n\nBut Jesus does not wish to be the restorer of the fallen kingdom, the\nconqueror of hostile empires. Authority is of little importance to Him\nand glory still less. The Kingdom which He announces and prepares has\nnothing in common with the Kingdoms of the Earth. His Kingdom is\ndestined rather to bring to naught the Kingdoms of the Earth. The\nKingdom of Heaven is in us. Any day when a soul has turned to\nrighteousness the Kingdom of Heaven is enlarged because it has acquired\na new citizen, snatched from the Kingdom of Earth. When every one is\ngood and righteous, when all love their brothers as fathers love their\nsons, when even enemies love one another (if there still are enemies),\nwhen no one thinks of amassing treasure, and instead of taking away from\nothers, every one gives bread to the hungry and clothing to those who\nare cold,\u2014where on that day will be the Kingdom of the Earth? Where will\nbe the need for soldiers when no one wishes to enlarge his own land by\nstealing that of his neighbor? What need will there be for Kings when\nevery one has his law in his conscience and when there are no armies to\ncommand nor judges to select? What need will there be for money and for\ntribute when every one is sure of his living and satisfied with it, and\nthere are no wages to be paid to soldiers and servants? When every one\u2019s\nsoul is transformed, those so-called foundations of life which are named\nSociety, Country and Justice will vanish like the hallucinations of a\nlong night. The word of Christ needs neither money nor armies. And if it\nreally becomes the universal life of the conscience, everything that\nbinds and blinds men, necessary unjust power, the criminal glory of\nbattles, will fall like morning mists before sunlight and wind. The\nKingdom of Heaven within is One and it will take the place of the\nKingdoms of Earth, which are many. The liberated spirit will scarcely\nremember despotic matter. Men will no longer be divided into Kings and\nsubjects, masters and slaves, rich and poor, the arrogantly virtuous,\nthe humble sinners, free and prisoners. The sun of God will shine on\nall, the citizens of the Kingdom will be one family of fathers and\nbrothers and the gates of Paradise will be open again to the sons of\nAdam become as gods.\n\nJesus conquered Satan in Himself and now came out of the desert to\nconquer him among men.\n\n\n                               THE RETURN\n\n\nAs soon as Jesus came again among men, He learned that the Tetrarch\n(second husband of Herodias) had imprisoned John in the fortress of\nMachaerus. The voice crying in the wilderness was stilled and pilgrims\nto the Jordan saw no more the long shadow of the wild Baptizer fall\nacross the water.\n\nHe had done his work and was now to give way to a more powerful voice.\nJohn waited in the blackness of the prison until his bloody head was\ncarried on a golden platter to the banquet\u2014almost the last dish served\nto that evil woman, betrayer of men.\n\nNow Jesus understands that His day is at hand, and crossing Samaria He\nreturns into Galilee to announce at once the coming of the Kingdom. He\ndoes not go to Jerusalem, the city of the great king, the capital. Jesus\ncomes to destroy that Jerusalem of stone and arrogance, proud on its\nthree hills, hard of heart like the stones. The men whom Jesus comes to\ncombat are precisely those who glory in great cities, in the capitals,\nin the Jerusalems of the world.\n\nAt Jerusalem live the powerful of the world, the Romans, masters of the\nworld and of Judea, with their soldiers in arms. Jerusalem is ruled by\nthe representatives of the C\u00e6sars; of Tiberius, the drunken assassin,\nthe perfidious heir of Augustus, the hypocritical voluptuary, and of\nJulius the adulterous spendthrift. At Jerusalem live the High Priests,\nthe old custodians of the Temple, the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, the\nLevites and their guards, the descendants of those who pursued and\nkilled the prophets, the petrifiers of the Law, the bigots of the\nletter, the haughty depositories of arid fanaticism. At Jerusalem are\nthe treasurers of God, the treasurers of C\u00e6sar, the guardians of the\ntreasure, the lovers of wealth; the Publicans with their excisemen and\nparasites, the rich with their servants and their concubines, the\nmerchants with their crowded shops; money bags clinking with shekels in\nthe warmth of the bosom above the heart.\n\nJesus comes to combat all these. He comes to conquer the masters of the\nearth\u2014the earth which belongs to all; to confound the masters of the\nword\u2014the word which should be spoken freely wherever God wishes; to\ncondemn the masters of gold, base, perishable and fatal element. He\ncomes to overthrow the kingdom of the soldiers of Rome who oppress\nbodies; the kingdom of the priests of the Temple who oppress souls; the\nkingdom of the heapers-up of money who oppress the poor. He comes to\nsave bodies, souls, the poor; He teaches liberty, in opposition to Rome;\nsetting at naught the doctrines of the Temple, He teaches love; He\nteaches poverty against all the ideals of the rich.\n\nHe does not wish to begin His message in Jerusalem where His enemies,\ngathered together, are the strongest. He wishes to surround the city,\ntake it from the outside, arrive there later with a following behind\nHim, when already the Kingdom of Heaven has begun slowly to lay siege to\nit. The Conquest of Jerusalem will be the last test, the supreme trial,\nthe great battle, the tremendous battle between the greater than the\nProphets and Jerusalem, slayer of Prophets. If He should go to Jerusalem\nnow (where He will enter presently as a king and whence He will be\nburied as a criminal) He would be taken prisoner at once and would not\nbe able to sow His word on less ungrateful, less stony soil.\n\nJerusalem like all capitals\u2014great sewers to which flow the refuse, the\noutcasts, the rubbish of the nations\u2014is inhabited by a mob of frivolous,\nelegant, idle, skeptical and indifferent people, by a ceremonious\npatrician class who have kept only the tradition of ritual and the\nsterile rancor of their decadence; by an aristocracy of property owners\nand speculators who belong to the herd of Mammon, and by a rebellious,\nrestless, ignorant crowd, controlled only by the superstition of the\nTemple and the fear of the foreigner\u2019s sword. Jerusalem was not fit soil\nfor the sowing of Jesus.\n\nA man from the provinces,\u2014therefore healthy and solitary\u2014He goes back to\nHis province. He wishes to carry the tidings of good news to those who\nwere to be the first to receive Him, to the poor and the humble because\nthe tidings are specially for them, because they have long been waiting\nfor them, and because more than any others, they will rejoice. Jesus\u2019\ncoming into the world is for the poor. Therefore leaving Jerusalem, He\narrives in Galilee, enters into the Synagogue and begins to teach.\n\n\n                            THE REIGN OF GOD\n\n\nThe first words of Jesus are few and simple, very much like those of\nJohn, \u201cThe time is accomplished; the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent\nand believe the Gospel.\u201d\n\nBare words, incomprehensible to moderns by their very sobriety. To\nunderstand them and to understand the difference between the message of\nJohn and the message of Jesus, they need to be translated into our\nlanguage, filled again with their eternally living meaning.\n\n\u201cThe time has come!\u201d The time for which men have been waiting, which\nthey have prophesied and announced. John said that a King would come\nready to found the new Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven. The King has come\nand announces that the doors of the Kingdom are open. He is the guide,\nthe path, the hand, before being King in all the splendor of His\ncelestial glory.\n\nWhen Jesus says \u201cThe time is accomplished,\u201d he does not refer to the\nexact date, to the fact that it was the fifteenth year of the reign of\nTiberius. The time of Jesus is now and always is eternity. The moment of\nHis appearance, the moment of His death, the moment of His return, the\nmoment of His perfect triumph, has not yet arrived, not even yet! And\nyet, at every moment the time is accomplished, every hour is the\nfullness of time, on condition that the workers are ready. Every day is\nHis; His era is not written down in numbers: there is no chronology in\neternity. Every time a man tries to enter into the Kingdom, confirms the\nKingdom by believing, enriches the Kingdom, consolidates, defends,\nproclaims its perpetual sanctity and its perpetual rightness in\nopposition to all the inferior kingdoms (inferior because they are\nhuman, not divine, earthly not heavenly) then always the time is\naccomplished. This time is called the epoch of Jesus, the Christian era,\nthe New Covenant. Not quite two thousand years divides us from that\ntime; not quite two days, because for God, and for men of understanding,\na thousand years are as a day. The time is ripe; even to-day we are in\nthe fullness of time. Jesus calls us even now. The second day has not\nyet expired, the foundations of the Kingdom are scarcely begun. We who\nlive to-day, this year, in this century (and we shall not always be\nalive, and we shall perhaps not see the end of this year, and certainly\nwe shall not see the end of this century), we, I say, the living, can\ntake part in this Kingdom, enter into it, live in it, enjoy it. The\nKingdom is not the worn-out fancy of a poor Jew nearly twenty centuries\nago; it is not an archaism, a dead memory, a bygone frenzy. The Kingdom\nis of to-day, of to-morrow, of always; a reality of the future always\njust-realized, alive, actual, ours; a work started a short time ago, a\nwork to which every one is free to put his hand to take it up, to carry\nit on. The word seems old, the message dim with antiquity repeated by\nthe echoes of two thousand years, but the Kingdom\u2014as a fact, true,\naccomplished\u2014is new, young, born yesterday, still to grow, to flower, to\nprosper. Jesus threw the seed into the earth, but the seed has scarcely\ngerminated in two thousand years passed like a stormy winter, in the\nspace of sixty human generations. Is it perhaps possible that our own\ntime after the flood of blood is the divine and longed-for period?\n\nWhat this Kingdom is, we shall learn page by page in the words of Jesus;\nbut we must not imagine it as a new Paradise of Delight, as a wearisome\nArcady of beatitude, as an immense choir singing Hosannahs with their\nfeet on the clouds and their heads among the stars.\n\nChrist describes the Kingdom of God as opposed to the Kingdom of Satan,\nas the antithesis of the Kingdom of Earth. The Kingdom of Satan is the\nKingdom of evil, of deceit, of cruelty, of pride, the Kingdom of\nbaseness. Therefore the Kingdom of God means the Kingdom of good, of\nsincerity, of love, of humility, the Kingdom of the lofty.\n\nThe Kingdom of Earth is the Kingdom of matter and of flesh, the Kingdom\nof gold, hatred, avarice, sensuality, the Kingdom of all things loved by\nevil and distraught men. The Kingdom of Heaven is to be the opposite of\nthis: the Kingdom of the spirit and of the soul, the Kingdom of\nrenunciation and of purity; the Kingdom of all things valued by men who\nknow the worthlessness of everything else in comparison. God is Father\nand Goodness; Heaven is above the earth, hence it is the spirit. Heaven\nis God\u2019s home. The spirit is the dominion of goodness. All that crawls\non the earth, grubs in the earth, takes pleasure in matter\u2014that is\nbestiality; all that lives with upraised eyes, desiring Heaven, wishing\nto live forever in Heaven\u2014that is Holiness. Most men are beasts. It is\nChrist\u2019s will that these beasts become saints. This is the simple and\never-living meaning of the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of Heaven.\n\nThe Kingdom of God is of men and for men. The Kingdom of Heaven is in\nus. Begin at once: it is our work, for our happiness in this life on\nthis earth. It depends on our will, on our response given or withheld.\nBecome perfect and the Kingdom will extend even on earth. The Kingdom of\nGod will be founded among men.\n\nIt is true that Jesus added \u201crepent,\u201d but the old word has been\ndistorted from its true and magnificent meaning. The word of\nMark\u2014\u03bc\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03b5\u03b9\u03c4\u03b5\u2014should not be translated \u201crepent\u201d; \u03bc\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9\u03b1 means rather\nthe changing of the mind, the transformation of the soul. Metamorphosis\nis a change of form; \u201cmetanoia,\u201d a changing of the spirit. It ought\nrather to be translated \u201cconversion,\u201d that is, the renewing of the inner\nlife of man. The idea of \u201crepentance\u201d is only an illustration of\nChrist\u2019s command.\n\nAs one of the conditions of the arrival of the Kingdom and at the same\ntime as the very substance of the new order, Jesus demands complete\nconversion, a revolution of life and of the common values of life, a\ntransmutation of feelings, of opinions, of intentions. This He called,\nspeaking to Nicodemus, \u201cthe second birth.\u201d Little by little He was to\nexplain in what way this total transformation of the ordinary human soul\nis to be effected. All His life was devoted to this teaching and to\nsetting the example. But in the meantime, He contented Himself with\nadding one conclusion, \u201cBelieve in the Gospel.\u201d\n\nBy \u201cGospel\u201d men nowadays mean usually the book where the quadruple story\nof Jesus is printed; but Jesus neither wrote books nor thought of\nvolumes. By \u201cGospel\u201d He meant, according to the plain and sweet meaning\nof the word, \u201cgood tidings.\u201d Jesus is a messenger (in Greek \u201cangel\u201d) who\nbrings good tidings: He brings the cheerful message that the sick will\nbe cured, that the blind will see, the poor will be enriched with\nimperishable riches, that the sad will rejoice, that sinners will be\npardoned, the unclean purified, that the imperfect can become perfect,\nthat animals can become saints, and saints become angels, like unto God.\n\nIf this Kingdom is to come, if everybody is to prepare himself for its\ncoming, we must believe in the message, believe that the Kingdom is\npossible and near. If there is no faith in this promise, no one will do\nwhat must be done to fulfill the promise. Only the certainty of the\ntruth of this good tidings, only the conviction that the Kingdom is not\nthe lie of an adventurer or the hallucination of an obsessed zealot;\nonly the certainty of the sincerity and validity of the message can\narouse men to put their hands to the great work of its foundation.\n\nWith those few words, obscure to the majority of men, Jesus began His\nteaching. The fullness of time, the need to begin at once! The coming of\nthe Kingdom, victory of spirit over matter; of good over bad, of the\nsaint over the beast. \u201cMetanoia\u201d\u2014the total transformation of the soul.\nThe Gospel\u2014the cheerful assurance that all this is true and eternally\npossible.\n\n\n                               CAPERNAUM\n\n\nJesus taught His Galileans on the threshold of their shabby little white\nhouses, on the small shady open places of their cities or the shore of\nthe lake, leaning against a beached boat, His feet on the stones,\ntowards evening when the sun sank red in the west, summoning men to\nrest.\n\nMany listened to Him and followed Him because, says Luke: \u201cHis word was\nwith authority.\u201d The words were not wholly new, but the man was new, and\nnew was the warmth of His voice, and the good done by that voice,\noverflowing from His heart and going straight to the hearts of others.\nThe accent of those words was new, and new the sense that they took in\nthat mouth, lighted by His look.\n\nHere was no prophet of the mountains shouting in waste places, far from\nmen, solitary, distant, forcing others to come to him if they wished to\nhear him. Here was a prophet living like a man among other men, a friend\nof all, friendly to the unfriended, an easy-going and companionable\ncomrade, searching out His brothers where they work in the houses, in\nthe busy streets, eating their bread and drinking wine at their tables,\nlending a hand with the fisherman\u2019s nets, with a good word for every\nman, for the sad, for the sick, for the beggar.\n\nThe simple-hearted, like animals and children, know instinctively who\nloves them, they believe him, are happy when he comes (their very faces\nsuddenly transfigured) and are sad when he goes. Sometimes they cannot\nbring themselves to leave him and follow him to the death.\n\nJesus spent His time with them walking from one region to another, or\ntalking, seated among His friends. Always dear to Him was the sunny\nshore of the lake, along the curve of quiet clear water scarcely ruffled\nby the wind from the desert, dotted with a few boats silently tacking\nback and forth. The western coast of the lake was His real Kingdom;\nthere He found His first listeners, His first converts, His first\ndisciples.\n\nIf He returned to Nazareth, He stayed there but a short time. He was to\ngo back later, accompanied by the Twelve and preceded by the renown of\nHis miracles, and they were to treat Him as all the cities of the\nworld,\u2014even the most renowned for amenity, Athens and Florence, have\ntreated those of their citizens who made them great above others. After\nridiculing Him (they had seen Him as a child, it is out of the question\nthat He can have become a great prophet) they tried to cast Him down\nfrom the precipice.\n\nIn no city did He make a long stay. Jesus was a wanderer, such a man as\nis called a vagabond by the pot-bellied and sedentary citizen rooted to\nhis threshold. His life is an eternal journey. Before that other Jew who\nwas condemned to immortality by one condemned to death, He is the true\nWandering Jew. He was born on a journey. Still a baby at the breast, He\nwas carried along the sun-parched road to Egypt; from Egypt He came back\nto the waters and greenness of Galilee. From Nazareth He often went to\nJerusalem for the Passover. The voice of John called Him to the Jordan:\nan inner voice drove Him out into the desert; and after the forty days\nof hunger and the Temptation, He began His restless vagabond life from\ncity to city, from village to village, from mountain to mountain, across\nPalestine. Most often we find Him in Galilee, in Capernaum, Chorazin, in\nCana, in Magdala, in Tiberias, but often He crosses Samaria to sit down\nnear the well of Sychar. We find Him from time to time in the Tetrarchy\nof Philip at Bethsaida, at Gadara, at C\u00e6sarea, also at Gerasa in the\nPerea of Herod Antipas. In Judah He often stops at Bethany, a few miles\naway from Jerusalem, or at Jericho, but He did not shrink from\njourneying outside the limits of the old kingdom and from going down\namong the Gentiles. We find Him in Ph\u0153nicia, in the regions of Tyre and\nSidon, and in Syria, if the transfiguration took place on the summit of\nMt. Hermon. After the resurrection He appears in Emmaus, on the banks of\nHis lake of Tiberias and finally at Bethany near Lazarus\u2019 house, where\nHe leaves His friends forever.\n\nHe is the traveler without rest, the wanderer with no home, the wayfarer\nfor love\u2019s sake, the voluntary exile in His own country; He says Himself\nthat He has not a stone on which to lay His head, and it is true that He\nhas no bed where He may lie down at night, nor a room that He can call\nHis own. His real home is the road which takes Him along with His first\nfriends in search of new friends. His bed is the furrow in a field, the\nbench of a boat, the shadow of an olive tree. Sometimes He sleeps in the\nhouses of those who love Him, but only for short periods.\n\nIn the early days we find Him most often at Capernaum, His journeys\nbegan there and ended there. Matthew calls it \u201cHis city.\u201d Situated on\nthe caravan route which from Damascus crosses Iturea and goes towards\nthe sea, Capernaum had become little by little a commercial center of\nsome importance. Artisans, bargainers, brokers, and shopkeepers had come\nthere to stay. Men of finance\u2014as flies swarm on rotten pears\u2014had come\nthere; publicans, excise men and other fiscal tools. The little\nsettlement, half-rustic, half a fishing village, had become a mixed and\ncomposite city where the society of the times\u2014even to soldiers and\nprostitutes\u2014was fully represented. And yet Capernaum, lying along the\nlake, freshened by the air from the near-by hills and by the breeze from\nthe water, was not a prey to stagnation and decay like the Syrian cities\nand Jerusalem. There were still peasants who went out to their fields\nevery day, and fishermen who every day went forth to their boats. Good,\npoor, simple, warm-hearted people who talked of other matters than money\nand gear. Among them a man could draw his breath freely.\n\nOn the Sabbath Jesus went to the Synagogue. Everybody had the right to\nenter there, to read aloud and also to expound what had been read. It\nwas a plain house, a bare room where people went with their friends and\nbrothers to reason together and dream of God.\n\nJesus stood up, had some one give Him one of the scrolls of the\nScriptures (more often the Prophets than the Law) and recited in a\ntranquil voice two, three, four or more verses. Then He commenced to\nspeak with a bold and forceful eloquence which put the Pharisees to\nconfusion, touched sinners, won the poor, and enchanted women.\n\nSuddenly the old text was transfigured, became transparent, belonged to\ntheir own times; it seemed a new truth, a discovery they had made, a\ndiscourse heard for the first time; the words withered by antiquity,\ndried up by repetition, took on life and color; a new sun gilded them\none by one, syllable by syllable; fresh words coined at that moment,\nshining before their eyes like an unexpected revelation.\n\n\n                              POOR PEOPLE\n\n\nNobody in Capernaum could remember having heard such a Rabbi. The\nSabbaths when Jesus spoke, the Synagogue was full, the crowd overflowed\nout on the street, everybody was there who could come. The gardener\ncomes, who for that day had left his spade, and no longer turned his\nwater wheel to irrigate the green rows of his garden, and the smith, the\ngood country smith, black with smoke and dust every day, but on the\nSabbath washed, neatly dressed, his face still a little dusky, although\nscrubbed and rinsed in many waters like his hands, with his beard combed\nand anointed with cheap ointment (but still perfumed like a rich man\u2019s\nbeard), the smith all whose days are spent before the fire, sweaty and\ndirty except this day which is the Sabbath, when he comes to the\nSynagogue to hear the ancient word of the Ancient of Days, the God of\nhis fathers. He comes devoutly, but he comes too because his family, his\nfriends, his neighbors come there, and he finds them all together, and\nhe comes also because the day is long (all that long holiday without any\nwork, without any hammer in his hand, without the pincers) and in\nCapernaum there is nothing to do on Sabbaths except go to the Synagogue.\nThe mason comes, he who has worked on this little house of the Synagogue\nand made it small because the Elders\u2014good, God-fearing people, but\ninclined to be stingy\u2014did not wish to spend too much. The mason still\nfeels his arms a little numb and lame from his six days\u2019 labor, no\nlonger keeps track of the stones which he has laid in courses and the\ntrowels full of mortar which he has thrown between the stones during the\nweek. The mason puts on his new clothes to-day and sits down on the\nground, he who on all other days stands upright, active, watchful so\nthat the work may go well, and the employer be satisfied; the good mason\ntoo has come to the house which seems to him partly his own.\n\nThe fishermen have come too, the young and the old, both of them with\nfaces tanned by the sun and with eyes half-shut from the constant glare\nof sunlight reflected by the water. (The old man is handsomer because of\nthe contrast of his white hair and white beard with his weather-beaten\nand wrinkled face.) The fishermen have turned over their boats on the\nsand, have left them tied to a stake, have spread the nets on the roof\nand have come to the Synagogue, although they are not used to being\nwithin walls and perhaps continue to hear a confused murmur of water\nlapping about the bow.\n\nThe peasants of the neighboring countryside are here too, prosperous\nfarmers who have put on a tunic as good as anybody\u2019s, who are satisfied\nwith the harvest almost ready for the scythe. They do not mean to forget\nGod who brings the grain to a head and makes the grape-vine to blossom.\nThere are shepherds come in to town that morning, shepherds and\ngoat-herds with the smell of their flocks still on them, shepherds who\nlive all the week in the mountain-pastures without seeing a soul,\nwithout exchanging a word, alone with their quiet animals peacefully\ngrazing on the new grass.\n\nThe smaller property owners, the small business men, the gentry of\nCapernaum, all have come. They are men of weight and piety. They stand\nin the front row, serious, their eyes cast down, satisfied with the\nbusiness of the last few days and satisfied with their conscience\nbecause they have observed the law without failing and are not\ncontaminated. The line of their well-clad backs can be seen, bowed backs\nbut broad and masterful, employers\u2019 backs, backs of people in harmony\nwith the world, and with God, backs full of authority and of religion.\nThere are also transient foreigners, merchants going towards Syria or\nreturning to Tiberias. They have come from condescension or from habit,\nperhaps to try to pick up a customer, and they stare into everybody\u2019s\nface with the arrogance which money gives to poverty-stricken souls.\n\nAt the back of the room (for the Synagogue is only a long white-washed\nroom a little larger than a school, than an inn, than a kitchen) the\npoor of the countryside are huddled together like dogs near a door, like\nthose who always stand in fear of being sent away. The poorest of all,\nthose who live by odd jobs, by ungracious charity and also\u2014oh,\npoverty!\u2014by some discreet theft, the ragged, the vermin-ridden, the\ntimid, the wretched; old widows whose children are far away, young\norphans not yet able to earn a living, hump-backed old men with no\nacquaintances, strengthless invalids, those who are incurably sick,\nthose whose wits no longer rightly serve them, who have no\nunderstanding, who cannot work. The weak in mind, the weak in body, the\nbankrupt, the rejected, the abandoned, those who one day eat and the\nnext day do not, who never have enough to satisfy their hunger, those\nwho pick up what others throw away, the pieces of dry bread, fish-heads,\nfruit-cores and skins; and sleep now here and now there, and suffer from\nthe winter cold and every year wait for summer, paradise of the poor,\nfor then there are fruits to be plucked along the roads. They too, the\nbeggars, the wretched, the ragamuffins, the sickly and the weaklings,\nwhen the Sabbath comes, go to the Synagogue to hear the stories of the\nBible. They cannot be sent away: they have as much right to be there as\nany one, they are sons of the same Father and servants of the same Lord.\nOn that day they feel a little comforted in their poverty because they\ncan hear the same words heard by the rich and the strong. Here they are\nnot served with another sort of food, poorer and coarser, as happens in\nthe houses where the owner eats the best and the beggar on the threshold\nmust content himself with scraps. Here the fare is the same for the man\nof possessions and him who has nothing. The words of Moses are the same,\neverlastingly the same for him who owns the fattest flock and for him\nwho has not even a quarter of lamb on Passover day. But the words of the\nProphets are sweeter to them than those of Moses, harder on the great of\nthe world, but kinder for the humble. The poverty-stricken throng at the\nback of the Synagogue waits every Sabbath for somebody to read a chapter\nfrom Amos or from Isaiah because the Prophets take the part of the poor,\nand announce the punishment and the new world. \u201cAnd he who was clothed\nwith purple shall be made to handle dung.\u201d\n\nAnd behold on that Sabbath there was One who came expressly for them,\nwho talked for them, who had come back from the desert to announce good\ntidings for the poor and the sick. No one had ever spoken of them as He\ndid, no one had shown so much love for them. Like the old prophets, He\nhad for them a special affection which offended more fortunate men, but\nwhich filled their hearts with comfort and hope.\n\nWhen Jesus had finished speaking they observed that the elders, the\nbourgeois, the masters, lords, Pharisees, men who knew how to read and\nmake money, shook their heads forebodingly, and got up, making wry faces\nand nodding among themselves, half contemptuous, half scandalized; and\nas soon as they were outside, muttered a grumbling of prudent\ndisapprobation through their great black and silver beards. But no one\nlaughed.\n\nThe merchants followed them, erect, already thinking of the next day;\nthere remained behind the working men, the poor, the shepherds, the\npeasants, the gardeners, the smiths, the fishermen, and all the herd of\nbeggars, orphans without inheritance, old men without health, homeless\noutcasts, friendless unfortunates, penniless men, the diseased, the\nmaimed, the worn-out, the rejected. They could not take their eyes from\nJesus, they would have liked Him to go on speaking, to reveal the day of\nthe New Kingdom when they too would have their return for all this\nmisery, and see with their own eyes the day of reckoning. The words of\nJesus had made their bruised and weary hearts beat faster. A gleam of\nlight, a glimpse of the sky and of glory, the hallucination of\nprosperity, of banquets, of repose and abundance, sprang up from those\ngreat words in the rich souls of the poor. Perhaps they scarcely\nunderstood what the Master meant to say, and perhaps the Kingdom\nglimpsed by them had some resemblance to a materialistic Land of\nCockaigne. But no one loved Him as they did. No one will ever love Him\nlike the poor of Galilee, hungering after peace and truth. Even those\nwho were less destitute, the day-laborers, the fishermen, the working\nmen, though less hungry for bread, loved Him for the love of those poor.\n\nAnd when He came out from the Synagogue all those stood waiting in the\nstreet to see Him again. They followed Him timidly as if in a dream;\nwhen He entered into the house of a friend to eat they were almost\njealous and some waited outside the door until He reappeared; then,\ngrown more bold, they accosted Him and went along together beside the\nshores of the lake. Others joined them on the way, and now one and now\nanother (they were braver under the open sky and outside the Synagogue)\nbegan asking questions. And Jesus paused and answered this obscure crowd\nwith words never to be forgotten.\n\n\n                             THE FIRST FOUR\n\n\nAmong the fishermen of Capernaum, Jesus found His first disciples.\nAlmost every day He was on the beach of the lake; sometimes the boats\nwere going out, sometimes they were coming in, the sails swelling in the\nbreeze; and from the barks the barefooted men climbed down, wading\nknee-deep in water, carrying the baskets filled with the wet silver of\ndead fish piled together, good and bad, and with the old dripping nets.\n\nThey put out sometimes at nightfall when there was a moon, and came back\nearly in the morning just after the setting of the moon and before\nsunrise. Often Jesus was waiting for them on the strand and was the\nfirst to greet them. But the fishing was not always good, sometimes they\ncame back empty-handed, tired and depressed. Jesus greeted them with\nwords which cheered them, and the disappointed men, although they had\nnot slept, listened to Him willingly. One morning two boats came back\ntowards Capernaum while Jesus standing by the lake was talking to the\npeople who had gathered around Him. The fishermen disembarked and began\nto arrange the nets; then Jesus entered into one of the boats and asked\nthem to put it out a little from the land so that He might not be\npressed upon by the crowd. Upright near the rudder He taught those who\nhad remained on the land, and when He had left speaking He said to\nSimon, \u201cLaunch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.\u201d\n\nAnd Simon, son of Jona, owner of the boat, answered, \u201cMaster, we have\ntoiled all the night and have taken nothing, nevertheless at thy word, I\nwill let down the net.\u201d\n\nWhen they were only a short distance from the bank, Simon and Andrew,\nhis brother, threw out into the water a large net. And when they drew it\nback it was so full of fish that the meshes were almost breaking. Then\nthe two brothers called their partners in the other boat, that they\nshould come to help them, and they threw out the net again and drew it\nup again full. Simon, Andrew and the others cried out \u201ca miracle!\u201d and\nthanked Jesus, who had brought them this good luck. Simon, impulsive by\nnature, threw himself at the knees of their guest crying, \u201cDepart from\nme; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.\u201d\n\nBut Jesus, smiling, said, \u201cFollow me, and I will make you fishers of\nmen.\u201d\n\nWhen they went back to the shore they pulled the boat up on the land,\nand leaving their nets, the two brothers followed Him. And a few days\nafter this, Jesus saw the other two brothers, James and John, sons of\nZebedee, who were partners of Simon and Andrew, and he called them,\nwhile they were mending the broken nets; and they too said farewell to\ntheir father, who was in the boat with the sailors, and leaving the\nbroken nets half-mended, followed Him. Jesus was no longer alone: four\nmen, two pairs of brothers more deeply brothers in this common faith,\nwere ready to accompany Him wherever He wished to go, to break bread\nwith Him, to repeat His words, to obey Him as a father, and more than a\nfather. Four poor fishermen, four plain men of the lake, men who did not\nknow how to read, nor indeed how to speak correctly, four humble men\nwhom no one else would have been able to distinguish from others, were\ncalled by Jesus to found with Him a kingdom which was to occupy all the\nearth. For Him they left their faithful boats which they had put out\ninto the water so many times, and so many times tied up to the wharf;\nthey left the old fish nets which had drawn from the water thousands of\nfish; they left their father, their family, their home. They left all\nthat to follow this man who did not promise money or lands and spoke\nonly of love, of poverty and perfection. Thus if their spirit always\nremained too low to understand their master, always a little rustic and\ncommon, and if sometimes they doubted and were uncertain and did not\nunderstand His truths and His parables, and at the end abandoned Him,\nall will be pardoned to them for the candid, unquestioning promptness\nwith which they followed Him at the first call.\n\nWho among us to-day, among all those now living, would be capable of\nimitating those four poor men of Capernaum? If a prophet should come and\nsay to the merchant, \u201cLeave your bank and your counter\u201d; and to the\nProfessor, \u201cCome down from your chair and throw away your books\u201d; and to\nthe statesman, \u201cGive up your portfolios and your lies which are only\nnets for catching men\u201d; and to the working man, \u201cPut away your tools for\nI will give you other work\u201d; and to the farmer, \u201cStop in the middle of\nthe furrow and leave your plow among the clods, for I promise you a more\nwonderful harvest\u201d; and to the factory hand, \u201cStop your machine and come\nwith me, for spirit is more precious than metal\u201d; and to the rich, \u201cGive\naway all your goods, for you will acquire with me an inestimable\ntreasure\u201d; ... if a prophet should speak thus to us, men of the present\nday, how many would follow him with the simple-hearted spontaneity of\nthose fishermen of old? But Jesus made no sign to the merchants who\nstood trafficking in the open places, and in the shops, nor to those who\nobserved the tiniest commands of the law and could recite by heart\nverses from the Bible, nor to the farmers rooted to their land and their\nlive-stock, and certainly not to the affluent, surfeited, satisfied, who\ncare nothing about any other kingdoms because their kingdom has long\nsince been realized.\n\nNot by chance did Jesus select His first companions from among\nfishermen. The fisherman who lives a great part of his days in the pure\nsolitude of the water is the man who knows how to wait. He is the\npatient, unhurried man who lets down his nets and leaves the rest to\nGod. The water has its caprices, the lake its fantasies, no day is like\nanother day; he does not know when he goes away if he will come back\nwith his boat full or without a single fish to cook for his dinner. He\ncommends himself into the hands of God, who sends abundance and famine.\nHe consoles himself for bad days by thinking of the good days which have\nbeen and which will come. He does not desire sudden riches, and is glad\nif he can exchange the results of his fishing for a little bread and\nwine. He is pure in soul and body. He washes his hands in water and his\nspirit in solitude.\n\nOf these fishermen who would have died in the obscurity of Capernaum\nwithout any one except their neighbors being aware of them, Jesus made\nsaints whom men even to-day remember and invoke. A great man creates\ngreat men; from a somnolent people he raises up prophets; from a\ndebilitated people, warriors; from an ignorant race, teachers. In any\nweather fires are lighted if there is a hand capable of kindling them.\nWhen David appears he finds at once his gibborim; an Agamemnon finds his\nheroes, an Arthur his knights, Charlemagne his paladins, Napoleon his\nMarshals. Jesus found among the men of the people of Galilee, His\napostles.\n\nJesus did not seek armed warriors, men who would lay their enemies low,\nconquerors of provinces. His apostles were to fight, but the good fight\nof perfection against corruption, holiness against sin, health against\nsickness, spirit against matter, the happy future against the past,\nhenceforth sterile. They were to aid Him in bringing His joyous message\nto the heavy-hearted. They were to speak in His name in places where He\ncould not go, and in His name to carry on His work after His death.\n\n\n                               THE MOUNT\n\n\nThe Sermon on the Mount is the greatest proof of the right of men to\nexist in the infinite universe. It is our sufficient justification, the\npatent of our soul\u2019s worthiness, the pledge that we can lift ourselves\nabove ourselves to be more than men, the promise of that supreme\npossibility, the hope of our rising above the beast.\n\nIf an angel come down to us from the world above should ask us what our\nmost precious possession is, the master-work of the Spirit at the height\nof its power, we would not show him the great wonderful oiled machines\nof which we foolishly boast, although they are but matter in the service\nof material and superfluous needs; but we would offer him the Sermon on\nthe Mount, and afterwards, only afterwards, a few hundred pages taken\nfrom the poets of all the peoples. But the Sermon would be always the\none refulgent diamond dimming with the clear splendor of its pure light\nthe colored poverty of emeralds and sapphires.\n\nAnd if men were called before a superhuman tribunal and had to give an\naccount to the judges of all the inexplicable mistakes and of the\nancient infamies every day renewed, and of the massacres which last for\na thousand years, and of all the bloodshed between brothers, and of all\nthe tears shed by the children of men, and of our hardness of heart and\nof our perfidy only equaled perhaps by our stupidity; we should not\nbring before this tribunal the reasonings of the philosophers, however\nlearned and fine-spun; not the sciences, ephemeral systems of symbols\nand recipes; nor our laws, short-sighted compromises between ferocity\nand fear. The only thing we should have to show as restitution for so\nmuch evil, as atonement for our stubborn tardiness in paying our debts,\nas apology for sixty centuries of hideous history, as the one and\nsupreme attenuation of all those accusations, is the Sermon on the\nMount. Who has read it, even once, and has not felt at least in that\nbrief moment while he read, a thrill of grateful tenderness, and an ache\nin his throat, a passion of love and remorse, a confused but urgent\nlonging to act\u2014so that those words shall not be words alone, nor this\nsermon mere sounds and signs, but so that they shall be imminent hope,\nlife, alive in all those who live, present truth for always and for\nevery one? He who has read it, if only once, and has not felt all this,\nhe deserves our love beyond all other men, because all the love of men\ncan never make up to him for what he has lost.\n\nThe Mount on which Jesus sat the day of the sermon was certainly not so\nhigh as that from which Satan had shown Him the Kingdoms of the earth.\nFrom it you could see only the plain, calm under the loving sunset\nlight; on one side the silver-green oval of the lake, and on the other\nthe long crest of Carmel where Elijah overcame the scullions of Baal.\nBut from this humble mount which only the hyperbole of the chroniclers\ncalled mountain, from this little rocky hill scarcely rising above the\nlevel earth, Jesus disclosed that Kingdom which has no confines or\nboundaries, and wrote not on tablets of stone like Jehovah, but on\nflesh-and-blood hearts, the song of the new man, the hymn of\nglorification.\n\n\u201cHow beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good\ntidings, that publisheth peace!\u201d Isaiah was never more a prophet than at\nthe moment when these words poured from his soul.\n\n\n                          BLESSED ARE THE POOR\n\n\nJesus sat on a little hill in the midst of the first apostles surrounded\nby hundreds of eyes that were watching His eyes; and some one asked Him\nto whom would be allotted this Kingdom of Heaven, of which He so often\nspoke. Jesus answered with the nine beatitudes.\n\nThe beatitudes, so often spelled out even nowadays by people who have\nlost their meaning, are almost always misunderstood, mutilated,\ndeformed, cheapened, distorted. And yet they epitomize the first day of\nChrist\u2019s teaching, that glorious day!\n\n\u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d\nLuke leaves out the words \u201cin spirit,\u201d seeming to mean the \u201cpoor\u201d and\nnothing else; and many people after him (some modern and malicious) have\nunderstood him to mean the simple-minded, the silly. They see in the\nwords only a choice between the bankrupt and the imbecile.\n\nWhen He spoke, Jesus was not thinking either of the first or the second.\nJesus had no friendship for the rich and detested with all His soul the\ngreedy desire for riches, the greatest obstacle to the true enrichment\nof the soul; Jesus was friendly to the poor and comforted them because\nthey had less comfort than other people; He kept them near Him because\nof their greater need to be fed by loving words. But He was not so\nfoolish as to think that to be poor, materially poor in the worldly\nsense of the word, is a sufficient title to enjoy the Kingdom, without\nany other qualifications.\n\nJesus never gave any sign of admiring that intelligence which is solely\nthe intelligence of abstraction and the memory for phrases. Purely\nsystematic philosophers, and metaphysical sophists, gropers in nature,\ndevourers of books, would never have found grace in His eyes. But\nintelligence, the power of understanding the signs of the future and the\nmeaning of symbols\u2014enlightened and prophetic intelligence, the loving\nmastery of the truth\u2014was a gift in His eyes also, and many times He\ngrieved that His listeners and His disciples showed so little of it. For\nHim supreme intelligence consisted in realizing that the intelligence\nalone is not enough, that all the soul must be changed to obtain\nhappiness, since happiness is not an absurd dream but eternally possible\nand within reach. But he fully understood that intelligence ought to aid\nus in this total transmutation. He could not therefore call to the\nfullness of the Kingdom of God the dull and the imbecile. Poor in spirit\nare those who are fully and painfully aware of their own spiritual\npoverty, of the faultiness of their own souls, of the smallness of the\ngood that is in us all, of the moral indigence of most men. Only the\npoor who realize that they are really poor suffer from their poverty,\nand because they suffer from it try to escape from it. Very different\nthese from men apparently rich, from those blind arrogant self-satisfied\npeople who believe themselves fulfilled and perfected, in good standing\nwith God and man, who feel no eagerness to climb upward because they\ndelude themselves with thinking they are already on high, who will never\nenrich themselves because they do not realize their own fathomless\npoverty.\n\nThose therefore who confess themselves poor and undergo suffering to\nacquire that veritable wealth named perfection, will become holy as God\nis holy, and theirs shall be the Kingdom of Heaven; those complacent\npeople on the other hand who drape themselves in self-satisfaction,\ntaking no heed of the foulness accumulated and hidden under their\nvainglory, will not enter into the Kingdom.\n\n\n         BLESSED ARE THE MEEK: FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH\n\n\nThe earth here promised is not the literal field of clods, nor\nmonarchies with built-up cities. In the language of the Messiah, \u201cto\ninherit the earth\u201d means to partake of the New Kingdom. The soldier who\nfights for the earthly earth needs to be fierce; but he who fights\nwithin himself for the conquest of the new earth and the new heaven must\nnot abandon himself to anger, the counselor of evil, nor to cruelty, the\nnegation of love. The meek are those who endure close contact with evil\nmen and with themselves\u2014often harder to bear\u2014who do not break out into\nbrutish rage when things go badly, but conquer their inner enemies with\nthat quiet perseverance which more than sudden sterile furies shows the\nforce of the soul. They are like water which is not hard to the touch,\nwhich seems to give way before other substances, but slowly rises,\nsilently attacks, and calmly consumes, with the patience of the years,\nthe hardest granites.\n\n\n                      BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN\n\n\nBlessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. The afflicted,\nthe weeping, those who feel disgust for themselves and pity for the\nworld, who do not live in the supine stupidity of everyday life, who\nmourn over their own unhappiness and that of their brothers, who grieve\nover failures, over the blindness which delays the victory of\nlight\u2014because light for men cannot come from the sky if their own eyes\ndo not reflect it\u2014who grieve over the remoteness of that righteousness\ndreamed-of again and again, promised a thousand times, and yet always\nfurther away through our fault and every one\u2019s fault; those who mourn\nover an offense received instead of increasing the wrong by revenge, and\nwho weep over the wrong they have done and over the good they might have\ndone and did not; those who care little about the loss of a visible\ntreasure but strain after the invisible treasure; those who mourn,\nhasten with their tears the day of grace, and it is right that they\nshall some day be comforted.\n\n\nBLESSED ARE THEY THAT HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER JUSTICE: FOR THEY SHALL BE\n                                 FILLED\n\n\nThe justice which Jesus means is not the justice of men, obedience to\nhuman law, conformity to codes, respect for usage and for the\nestablished transactions of men. In the language of the psalmists, the\nprophets, the saints, the just man is he who lives according to the will\nof God, because God is the supreme type of all perfection. Not according\nto the law written by the Scribes set down in the Bible, diluted by\nTalmudic casuistries, obscured by the subtleties of the Pharisees; but\naccording to the one simple Law which Jesus reduces to one commandment,\n\u201cLove all men near and far, your fellow countrymen and foreigners,\nstrangers and enemies.\u201d Those who hunger and thirst after this justice\nshall be filled in the Kingdom of Heaven. Even if they do not succeed in\nbeing perfect in all things, much will be pardoned for their endurance\nof the long vigil.\n\n\n         BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL: FOR THEY SHALL OBTAIN MERCY\n\n\nHe who loves shall be loved, he who gives help shall find help. The law\nof retaliation is nullified for evil but remains valid for good. We\nconstantly commit sins against the spirit and those sins will be\nforgiven us only as we forgive those committed against us. Christ is in\nall men and what we do to others will be done to us. \u201cInasmuch as ye\nhave done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it\nunto me.\u201d If we have pity on others we may have pity for ourselves; God\ncan pardon the evil which we do to ourselves only if we pardon the evil\nwhich others do to us.\n\n\n         BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART: FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD\n\n\nThe Pure of Heart are those who have no other wish than for perfection,\nno other joy than victory over the evil which hunts us down on every\nside. He who has his heart crammed with furious desires, with earthly\nambitions, with carnal pride and with all the lusts which convulse this\nant-heap of the earth, can never see God face to face, will never know\nthe sweetness of His magnificent felicity.\n\n\n BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS: FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED THE SONS OF GOD\n\n\nThese peacemakers are not the meek of the second beatitude. The meek\nrefrain from answering evil with evil; the peacemakers do more, they\nreturn good for evil, they bring peace where wars are flaring up. When\nJesus said He had come to bring war and not peace, He meant war to evil,\nto Satan, to the world, to evil which is wrong, to Satan who is Death,\nto the world which is an eternal battle. He means, in short, war against\nwar. The peacemakers are those who wage war upon war, those who placate,\nthose who bring about concord. The origin of every war is self-love,\nlove which becomes love of riches, pride of possession, envy of those\nmore wealthy, hatred for rivals; and the new law comes to teach hatred\nfor oneself, contempt for measurable goods, love for all creatures, even\nfor those who hate us. The peacemakers who teach and practice this love\ncut at the root of all war. When every man loves his brothers more than\nhimself there will be no more wars, neither great nor small, neither\ncivil nor imperial, neither of words nor of blows, between man and man,\nbetween class and class, between people and people. The peacemakers will\nhave conquered the earth and they will be called the true sons of God,\nand they will enter among the first into His Kingdom.\n\n\nBLESSED ARE THEY WHO HAVE BEEN PERSECUTED FOR JUSTICE\u2019 SAKE: FOR THEIRS\n                        IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN\n\n\nI send you out to found this Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven, of that\nhigher justice which is love, of that fatherly goodness whose name is\nGod; I send you out therefore to fight against those who uphold\ninjustice, the servants of materialism, the proselytes of the Adversary.\nThey will defend themselves when attacked, and to defend themselves they\nwill attack you. You will be tortured in body, crucified in soul,\ndeprived of liberty and perhaps of life; but if you accept this\nsuffering cheerfully to carry to others that justice which makes you\nsuffer, this persecution will be for you an incontestable title to enter\ninto the Kingdom which you have founded as far as was in your power.\n\n\nBLESSED ARE YE WHEN MEN SHALL REPROACH YOU AND PERSECUTE YOU AND SAY ALL\nMANNER OF EVIL AGAINST YOU FALSELY FOR MY SAKE. REJOICE AND BE EXCEEDING\n  GLAD: FOR GREAT IS YOUR REWARD IN HEAVEN: FOR SO PERSECUTED THEY THE\n                     PROPHETS WHICH WERE BEFORE YOU\n\n\nPersecution is a material attack through physical, legal and political\nmeans. The persecutors can take away your bread, and the clear light of\nthe sun, and divine liberty; they may break your bones, but you must\nendure more than mere persecution. You must expect insult and calumny.\nThey will condemn you because you wish to change bestial men into\nsaints. Wallowing in the foulness of their bestiality, they detest the\nidea of leaving their filth. But they will not be satisfied to strike\nonly at your body, they will strike also at your soul. They will accuse\nyou of all crimes, they will stone you with slander and contumely. Hogs\nwill say that you are filthy, asses will swear that you are ignorant,\nravens will accuse you of eating carrion, rams will drive you away as\nill-smelling, the dissolute will cry out upon the scandal of your\ncorruptness and thieves will denounce you for theft. But you must always\nrejoice because the insult of evil men is the consecration of your own\ngoodness, and the mud thrown at you by the impure is the pledge of your\npurity. This is, as St. Francis says, \u201cthe perfect joy.\u201d Beyond all the\ngraces which Christ gives to His friends is the grace of conquering\noneself and willingly enduring injury, opprobrium, pains, discomforts.\nAll the other gifts of God are not ours to glory in, because they come\nnot from us, but from God; but in tribulation and in affliction we can\nglory because that is ours. All the prophets who have ever spoken upon\nthe earth were insulted by men, and men will insult those who are to\ncome. We can recognize prophets by this, that smeared with mud and\ncovered with shame, they pass among men, bright-faced, speaking out what\nis in their hearts. No mud can close the lips of those who must speak.\nEven if the obstinate prophet is killed, they cannot silence him. His\nvoice multiplied by the echoes of his death will be heard in all\nlanguages and through all the centuries.\n\nThis promise brings the beatitudes to their end.\n\nBy means of the beatitudes, Christ fully explains who are fit to be the\ncitizens of His new Kingdom. Those citizens are henceforth found and\nsealed; every one can recognize them. The unwilling are warned, the\nuncertain are reassured. The rich, the proud, the satisfied, the\nviolent, the unjust, the warlike, those who mock, those who do not\nhunger after perfection, those who persecute and outrage, can never\nenter into the Kingdom of Heaven. They cannot enter there until they are\naltogether conquered and changed, and have become the opposite of what\nthey are now. Those who live happily according to the world, those whom\nthe world envies, imitates and admires, are infinitely further from true\nhappiness than those others whom the world scorns and hates. In this\nexulting beginning Jesus has turned upside down the human hierarchy; now\nas He goes on He will turn upside down the values of life, and no other\nrevaluation will ever be so divinely paradoxical as His.\n\n\n                           THE DIVINE PARADOX\n\n\nEmasculated Gymnosophists and the cowardly sect of the Saturnists,\u2014these\nare serious-minded men who can understand plain facts but cannot\ninterpret those facts but merely repeat and spoil them\u2014have always\nlooked with unfriendly eyes on what is called the paradoxical. To save\nthemselves the trouble of distinguishing between sacred paradoxes and\nthose which are only a fatuous amusement, they make haste to pass\njudgment on all paradox as nothing else than the overturning of\nrecognized old truths; hence, false and\u2014they add, to clip the wings of\nvanity\u2014as easy as possible to invent. One would suppose it seems to them\nmore difficult to walk along the road already laid out, and to spell\nover line by line what was written before they were born by men who\ncertainly had not their cowardly temperament.\n\nBut if these priests of the already-said would consider the few master\nideas on which modern thought is living, or rather on which it is dying,\nthey would discover that they are almost all overturnings, that is to\nsay, paradoxes. When Rousseau says that men are born good but that\nsociety makes them bad, he turns inside out the accepted doctrine of\noriginal sin; when the disciples of progress affirm that from the worse\ncomes the better; when the evolutionist affirms that the complex springs\nout of the simple; and the monist that all diversities are but\nmanifestations of the One; and the Marxist that economic history is the\nbasis of spiritual development; when the modern mathematical\nphilosophers affirm that man is not as he has always been believed, the\ncenter of the universe, but a minute animal species on one of an\ninfinite number of spheres scattered in the infinite; when the\nProtestants cry, \u201cThe Pope is of no account but only the Scriptures\u201d;\nwhen the French Revolutionists say, \u201cThe Third Estate is nothing and\nshould be everything\u201d\u2014what are all these people doing except overturning\nold and commonly held opinions?\n\nBut Jesus is the greatest overturner, the supreme maker of paradoxes,\nradical and without fear. This is His greatness, His eternal freshness\nand youth, the secret of the turning sooner or later of every great\nheart toward His Gospel.\n\nHe became incarnate to recreate men sunk in error and evil; He found\nerror and evil in the world; how could He fail to overturn the maxims of\nthe world? Read over again the words of the Sermon on the Mount. At\nevery step it proclaims the desire of Jesus that what is low shall be\nrecognized as lofty; that the last shall be first; that the overlooked\nshall be the preferred; that the scorned shall be reverenced, and\nfinally, that the old truth shall be considered as error, and ordinary\nlife as death and corruption. He has said to the past, benumbed in its\ndeath agony, to Nature, too easily followed, to universal and common\nopinion of mankind, the most decisive \u201cNO\u201d in the history of the world.\n\nIn this He is faithful to the spirit of His race which in its very\ndownfall always found reasons for greater hope. The most enslaved people\ndreamed of dominating other peoples with the help of the Son of David.\nThe most despised race felt that glory was promised them, the people\nmost punished by God believed itself the most loved; the most sinful was\ncertain that it alone was to be saved. This absurd reaction of the\nHebrew conscience became in Christ a revision of values, became, because\nof His superhuman origin, a divine renovation of all the principles\nfollowed and respected by humanity.\n\nChrist\u2019s first discovery is like that of Buddha, \u201cMen are unhappy, all\nmen\u2014even those who seem happy.\u201d Siddharta to put an end to pain\ncounseled the suppression of life itself. Jesus had another hope, more\nsublime in that it appears absurd. He taught that men are unhappy\nbecause they have not found true life. Let them become the opposite of\nwhat they are, let them do the contrary of what they do, and the\nfestival of happiness on earth will begin.\n\nUntil now they have followed Nature, they have let themselves be guided\nby their instincts, they have accepted and that only superficially a\nprovisional and insufficient law, they have worshiped lying gods, they\nhave thought they could find happiness in wine, in flesh, in gold, in\nauthority, in cruelty, in art, in learning; and the only result has been\nthat their suffering has become more intense. The explanation is that\nthey have lost the path, that they must turn straight around, renounce\nwhat seemed good, pick up what was thrown away, worship what was burned,\nand burn what was worshiped, conquer the animal instincts instead of\nsatisfying them, struggle with their nature instead of justifying it,\nmake a new law and live by it, faithfully, in the spirit. If until now\nthey have not obtained what they looked for, the only possible cure is\nto turn their present life upside down, that is, to transform their\nsouls.\n\nOur permanent unhappiness is a proof that the experiment of the old\nworld has failed, that Nature is hostile, that the past is wrong, that\nto live like animals according to the elementary instinct of animals,\nonly slightly furbished up and varnished with humanity, results in\nwretchedness and despair.\n\nThose who have laughed at or wept over the infinite wretchedness of man\nhave seen clearly. The pessimists are right. Those who denounce our\nboasting, those who scorn our strengthlessness, those who despise our\nignominy, how can they be refuted?\n\nWhoever is not born to wriggle contentedly in the worm heap, eating his\nparticle of earth, he who has not only a stomach and two hands, but a\nsoul and a heart; he whose soul is of finer temper because it has been\nso beaten upon, is bound to feel a horror of mankind. For hard, arid\nnatures this horror changes into repugnance and hate; for others richer\nand more generous it turns to pity and love.\n\nWhen we read Leopardi and consider how he lost (perhaps because of the\nimperfect Christians surrounding him) his youthful love of Christ and,\neating his heart out in reasoning despair, ended with the despairing\nlines, \u201cTiresome and bitter is life, never aught but that\u201d; who of us\nwill have the insight to reply, \u201cBe quiet, unfortunate man! If you taste\nnothing but bitterness, it comes from the wormwood you are eating; if\nyou find life tiresome the fault is yours; you yourself have used the\ninfernal stone of barren reasoning to cauterize those feelings which\nwould have made your life cheerful or at least endurable\u201d?\n\nNo, Leopardi was not mistaken, for when you see men as they are and have\nno hope of saving them, or changing them, and you cannot live like them\nbecause you are too different from them, and cannot succeed in loving\nthem because you believe them condemned to eternal unhappiness and\nwickedness, when you feel that the brutes will always be brutes and the\ncowards always cowards and the foul always more sunk in their foulness,\nwhat else can you do but counsel your heart to silence, and hope for\ndeath? There is but one question: are men unchangeable, not to be\ntransformed, not capable of becoming better? Or, on the other hand, can\nman rise above himself and make himself holy? The answer is of terrible\nimportance. All our destiny is in that question. Among superior men many\nhave not been fully conscious of this dilemma. Many have believed and\nstill believe that the form of life can be changed, but not the essence;\nand that to man everything will be given except to change the nature of\nhis spirit; that man can become yet more master of the world, richer and\nmore learned, but he cannot change his moral structure. His feelings,\nhis primary instincts will always remain as they were in the wild\noccupants of the caves, in the constructors of the lake cities, in the\nfirst barbarians and in the peoples of the most ancient kingdoms.\n\nOthers feel an equal horror of man as he has been and as he is, but\nbefore they sink into the despair of moral nihilism they look at man as\nhe could be. They have a firm faith in his perfectibility of soul and\nfind happiness in the divine but terrible task of preparing the\nhappiness of their brothers.\n\nFor men who are truly men there is no other choice: either the blackest\nanguish or the boldest faith; either death or salvation. The past is\nhorrible, the present is repellent; let us give all our life, let us\noffer all our power of loving and understanding in order that to-morrow\nmay be better, that the future may be happy. If up to now we have erred,\nand the irrefutable proof is the black past from which we have come, let\nus work for the birth of a new man and a new life. There are but two\npossibilities: either happiness will never be given to men or, and this\nJesus believed firmly, if happiness could be our ordinary and eternal\npossession there is no other price for attaining it but to change our\ncourse, transform our souls, create new values, deny the old, answer the\n\u201cNo\u201d of holiness to the false \u201cYes\u201d of the world. If Christ _was_\nmistaken, nothing remains but absolute and universal negation, resolute\nfaith in nothing. Either complete and rigorous atheism, not the maimed\nhypocritical atheism of the cowardly sects of to-day; or active faith in\nChrist who saves and resurrects us by His love.\n\n\n                             YE HAVE HEARD\n\n\nThe first prophets, the earliest legislators, the leaders of young\nnations, the Kings, founders of cities and institutors of justice, the\nwise masters, the saints, began the domination of the beast. With spoken\nand sculptured word they tamed wolfish men, domesticated the men of the\nwoods, held barbarians in restraint, taught those bearded children,\nsoftened the violent, the vengeful, the inhuman. With the gentleness of\nthe word or the terror of punishment (Orpheus or Draco), by promises or\nby threats, in the name of the gods of high heavens or the gods under\nthe earth, they trimmed the nails, which immediately grew long again;\nput muzzles over the sharp-fanged mouths; protected the defenseless, the\nvictims, pilgrims, women. The old law that is found with only a few\nvariations in the Manava Dharmasastra, in the Pentateuch, in the Ta-Hio,\nin the Avesta, in the traditions of Solon and of Numa, in the\nsententious maxims of Hesiod and the Seven Wise Men, is the first\nattempt, rough, imperfect and inadequate, to mold animality into a\nsketch, a beginning, a simulacrum of humanity.\n\nThis law reduced itself to a few elementary rules; not to steal, not to\nkill, not to perjure, not to fornicate, not to tyrannize over the weak,\nnot to mistreat strangers and slaves any more than was necessary. These\nare the social virtues, strictly necessary for a common life, useful to\nall. The legislator contented himself with naming the most ordinary\nsins, asked for a minimum of inhibition. His ideal rarely surpassed a\nsort of approximate justice. But the law took for granted the\npredominance of evil, the sovereignty of instinct, earlier than the law\nand still existing. Every precept implies its infraction, every rule the\npractice of the opposite. For this reason the old law, the law of the\nfirst peoples, is only an insufficient channeling of the brute force\neternal and triumphant. It is a collection of compromises and\nhalf-measures between custom and justice, between nature and reason,\nbetween the rebellious beast and the divine model.\n\nMen of ancient time, carnal, physical, hearty, lusty, muscular,\nsanguine, sturdy, solid, hairy men with ruddy faces, eaters of raw meat,\nravishers, cattle-stealers, mutilators of their enemies, fit to be\ncalled, like Hector the Trojan, \u201ckillers of men,\u201d strong, zestful\nwarriors who, having dragged by the feet their slaughtered antagonists,\nrefreshed themselves with fat haunches of oxen and of mutton, emptying\nenormous cups of wine; these men ill-tamed, ill-subdued to the law such\nas we see them in the Mahabharata, and in the Iliad, in the poem of\nIzdubar, and in the book of the wars of Jehovah, such men without the\nfear of punishment and of God would have been still more unrestrained\nand ferocious. In times when a head was asked for an eye, an arm for a\nfinger, and a hundred lives for a life, a law of retaliation which asked\nonly an eye for an eye and a life for a life was a notable victory of\ngenerosity, appalling though it seems after the teaching of Jesus.\n\nBut the law was more often disobeyed than observed; the strong endured\nit against their will, the powerful who ought to have protected it,\nevaded it; the bad violated it openly; the weak cheated it. And even if\nit had been entirely obeyed by every man every day it would not have\nbeen enough to conquer the evil perpetually boiling up, held down only\nfor a moment, rendered harder to enact but not impossible, condemned but\nnot abolished. It was a reduction of innate fierceness, not its total\nextirpation. Men, shackled but reluctant, had learned to pretend\nobedience, did a little good where every one could see them in order to\nbe more free to do wrong secretly, exaggerated the observance of\nexternal precepts that they might the better betray the foundation and\nspirit of the law.\n\nThey had come to this point when Jesus spoke on the Mount. He understood\nthat the old law was doomed, drowned in the stagnant swamps of\nformalism; the endless work of the education of the human race was to\nbegin over again, the ashes must be brushed away, the flame of original\nenthusiasm must be blown into it, it must be carried through to its\noriginal destination which is always metanoia, the changing of the soul.\nAnd for this it was necessary to terminate the old law, the dried and\nburnt-out old law.\n\nWith Jesus therefore begins the new law: the old is abrogated and\ndeclared insufficient.\n\nHe begins at every example with the words\u2014\u201cYe have heard it said\u201d ...\nand at once He substitutes for the old command, which He purifies by\nparadox or actually overthrows, the new command, \u201cBut I say unto\nyou....\u201d\n\nWith these \u201cbuts\u201d a new phase of the human education begins. It is not\nthe fault of Jesus if we are still groping along in the twilight of very\nearly dawn.\n\n\n                           BUT I SAY UNTO YOU\n\n\n\u201cYe have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill\n... but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother ...\nshall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his\nbrother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall\nsay, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.\u201d Jesus goes straight to\nthe extreme. He does not even consider the possibility of striking a\nbrother, much less of killing him. He does not conceive even the\nintention, the wish to kill. A single moment of anger, a single abusive\nword, a single offensive phrase, are for him the equivalent of\nassassination. Unimaginative, mediocre people cry out, \u201cExaggeration.\u201d\nThere can be no grandeur where there is no passion and passion is\nexaggeration. Jesus has His own logic and makes no mistake. Murder is\nonly the final carrying out of a feeling. From anger follow evil words,\nfrom evil words, evil deeds; from blows, murder. It is not enough\ntherefore to forbid the final act, the material and external act. That\nis only the result of an interior process which has made it inevitable.\nThe right thing to do is to cut at the root of the evil to destroy the\nevil plant of hate which bears the poisonous fruit.\n\nAchilles, son of Peleus, that same Achilles who was wrathful because\nthey took away his concubine, and who begged the Gods to let him become\na cannibal so that he could set his teeth in his dead enemies\u2019 flesh,\nAchilles of the silver-footed mother said: \u201cWhether they come from Gods\nor from men, ill-omened are quarrels and the anger which drives even a\nwise man to wrath, wrath which sweeter than honey in the mouth grows\ngreater in men\u2019s hearts.\u201d Achilles, after the massacre of his\ncompanions, after the death of his dearest friend, discovers finally\nwhat a thing is wrath, which kindles and burns and not even a river of\nblood can quench it. The wrathful hero knows what an evil thing is\nwrath, but he is not converted. And he foregoes his wrath against the\nking of men only to vent the fury of his vengeance upon the murdered\nbody of Hector.\n\nAnger is like fire: it can be smothered only at the first spark;\nafterwards it is too late. Jesus uttered the profoundest truth when He\ndecreed the same penalty for the first hot words as for murder. When all\nmen learn to conquer at the very start their outbreaks of resentment and\nto curb their imprecations, quarrels of words or of deeds will flame up\nno longer between man and his brother man, and homicide will become only\na black memory of our wild-beast past.\n\n\u201cYe have heard that it was said of them of old time, thou shalt not\ncommit adultery, but I say unto you that whoever looketh upon a woman to\nlust after her hath committed adultery already in his heart.\u201d Even here\nJesus does not stop with the material fact which seems of importance to\ngross men. He always soars from the body to the soul, from flesh to\nwill, from the visible to the invisible. The tree is judged by its\nfruit, but the seed is judged by the tree. Evil visible to all is seen\ntoo late. In its maturity it can no longer be prevented. Sin is the\npustule which suddenly appears, but which would not have appeared if the\nblood had been purged from its malignant humors in time. When a man and\nanother man\u2019s wife desire each other, the betrayal is complete, they\nhave committed adultery whether or not they are guilty in deed. A man\nmarries not only the body of his wife, but her soul. If her soul is lost\nto him he has lost the greater part. To lose also the lesser part may be\nunendurably painful, but it is not vital. A woman overcome and forced\nwithout her consent by a stranger not loved by her, does not commit\nadultery. What counts is the intention, the feeling. He who wishes to\nmaintain himself pure must abstain also from the mere silent passing\nlook of desire, because the look of desire if not repressed is repeated\nand a look passes into a word, into a kiss, and into love which spares\nno lover. To think of, to imagine, to desire a betrayal is already a\nbetrayal. He alone who cuts the first thread can save himself from the\ngreat net of perversity which, starting from a glance, grows until not\neven death can break it. And Jesus advises expressly to pluck out the\neye and cast it away if evil comes from the eye, and to cut off the hand\nand throw it away if evil comes from the hand,\u2014advice which dismays the\ncowardly and even the strong. Yet even the most cowardly, when\nthreatened by cancer, have their arms or legs cut off, and if a tumor\ngrows in the bowels, are ready to have their bodies cut open to save\ntheir lives. Men are concerned to save the body, but grudge any\nsacrifice necessary to keep in health the soul, without which the body\nis only an insensate machine of flesh and blood.\n\n\u201cAgain, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou\nshalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:\n\n\u201cBut I say unto you, Swear not at all, neither by heaven; for it is\nGod\u2019s throne:\n\n\u201cNor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it\nis the city of the great King.\n\n\u201cNeither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one\nhair white or black.\n\n\u201cBut let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is\nmore than these cometh of evil.\u201d\n\nHe who swears to the truth is afraid, he who swears to the false is a\ntraitor. The first believes that the power invoked could punish him, the\nother is an impostor who profits by the faith of others the more readily\nto deceive them. In both cases swearing is wrong. For us impotent men to\ncall on a superior power to bear witness or to be a judge in our\nmiserable quarrels of opposed interest, to swear by our heads or by our\nsons\u2019 heads when we cannot change the appearance of the smallest part of\nour body, is an absurd challenge, a blasphemy. He who always speaks the\ntruth not through dread of penalties, but through natural desire of his\nsoul, needs no oaths. Oaths can almost always be called in question, and\nnever serve to give perfect security even to those who seem to be\nsatisfied with them. In the history of the world there are more stories\nof broken oaths than of oaths kept, and he who uses most words to swear\nis precisely the man who is already thinking of breaking his oath.\n\n\u201cYe have heard it said, Honor thy father and thy mother, but I say unto\nyou, he that loveth his father and mother more than me is not worthy of\nme.\u201d And also, \u201cIf any man come to me, and hate not his father, and\nmother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his\nown life also, he cannot be my disciple.\u201d Here also the old precept\nwhich ties the new order to the old order with the tether of reverence\nis brusquely reversed.\n\nJesus does not condemn filial love, but He puts it in its right place,\nwhich is not first of all, as the people of antiquity thought. For Him\nthe greatest love, the purest is paternal love. The father loves in the\nson the future, what is new; the son loves in the father, the past, the\nold. But Jesus comes to change the past, to destroy the old. Homage paid\nto parents, shutting oneself up in tradition and in the family, is a\nbarrier to the renovation of the world. Love of all men is a greater\nthing than love for those who gave us life. Salvation for all men is\ninfinitely preferable to the service of the few who make up a family. To\nhave the greater, one must needs abandon the less. It would be more\nconvenient to love only those of our family and to make this love (often\nforced and simulated) an excuse for not being friendly to any one else.\nBut he who is devoting his life to something which transcends him has a\ngreat undertaking which takes all his strength and every moment of his\nevery hour until the last. He who wishes to serve the universe with a\nbroad spirit must give up, and if that is not enough, deny the common\naffections. He who wishes to be Father in the divine sense of the word,\neven without physical paternity, cannot be merely a son. \u201cLet the dead\nbury their dead.\u201d In the old law, and more than ever in the learned\ntraditions, there were hundreds of precepts for the purification of the\nbody, minute, tiresome, complicated precepts without any true earthly or\nheavenly foundation. The Pharisees made the best part of religion\nconsist in the observance of these traditions because it is much less\ntrouble to wash a cup than your own soul. For a dead thing like a cup a\nlittle water and a towel are enough; for the soul there must be tears of\nlove and the fire of desire. \u201cNot that which goeth into the mouth\ndefileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a\nman. Do ye not understand that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth\ninto the belly and is cast out into the draught? But those things which\nproceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the\nman. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,\nfornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things\nwhich defile a man; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.\u201d\n\nThe bath with water from the well or from the fountain, the bodily and\nritual bath, does not take the place of the essential inner\npurification, and it is better to eat with hands soiled with sweat than\nto repel a hungry brother with hands washed in three waters. Filth\nissues from the body, disappears into the vaults and enriches orchards\nand fields. But there are many finely dressed gentlemen so full to the\nthroat with another sort of filth that the stench of it comes out with\nthe words from their mouths, vainly washed and rinsed. And this filth\ndoes not disappear into underground vaults, but soils every one\u2019s life,\npoisons the air, befouls even the innocent. From these excremental men\nwe should stand far away, even if they are washed twelve times a day;\nthe soaping of the skin is not enough if the heart sends up noisome\nthoughts. The sewer-cleaner, if he thinks no evil, is certainly cleaner\nthan the rich man who, while splashing in the perfumed water of his\nmarble bath tub, is meditating some new fornication or fraud.\n\n\n                             NONRESISTANCE\n\n\nBut Jesus had not yet arrived at the most stupefying of His\nrevolutionary teachings. \u201cYe have heard that it hath been said, An eye\nfor an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist\nnot evil: But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him\nthe other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away\nthy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee\nto go a mile, go with him twain.\u201d\n\nThere could be no more definite repudiation of the old law of\nretaliation. The greater part of those who call themselves Christians\nnot only have never observed this new Commandment, but have never been\nwilling to pretend to approve of it. For an infinite number of believers\nthis principle of not resisting evil has been the unendurable and\ninacceptable scandal of Christianity.\n\nThere are three answers which men can make to violence: revenge, flight,\nturning the other cheek. The first is the barbarous principle of\nretaliation, now smoothed over and emasculated in the legal codes, but\nnevertheless prevailing in usage: evil is returned for evil, either in\none\u2019s own person or by the means of intermediaries, representatives of\nour tribal lack of civilization, called judges or executioners. To the\nevil committed by the first offender are added the evils committed by\nthe officers of justice. Often the punishment turns on the punisher and\nthe terrible chain of violence from one revenge to another stretches out\ninterminably. Wrong is two-edged; it fails even if inflicted with the\ndesire of doing good, in nations, or families or individuals. A first\ncrime brings after it a train of expiations and punishments which are\ndistributed with sinister impartiality between offenders and offended.\nThe law of retaliation can give a bestial relief to him who is first\nstruck, but instead of lessening evil it multiplies it.\n\nFlight is no better than retaliation. He who hides himself redoubles his\nenemies\u2019 courage. Fear of retaliation can on rare occasions hold back\nthe violent hand, but the man who takes flight invites pursuit. He who\nhides invites his adversary to make an end of him. His weakness becomes\nthe accomplice of the ferocity of others. Here also evil begets evil.\n\nIn spite of its apparent absurdity the only way is that commanded by\nJesus. If a man gives you a blow and you return another blow, he will\nanswer with his fists, you in turn with kicks, weapons will be drawn and\none of you may lose your life, often for a trivial reason. If you fly,\nyour adversary will follow you and emboldened by his first experience\nwill knock you down. Turning the other cheek means not receiving the\nsecond blow. It means cutting the chain of the inevitable wrongs at the\nfirst link. Your adversary who expected resistance or flight is\nhumiliated before you and before himself. He was ready for anything but\nthis. He is thrown into confusion, a confusion which is almost shame. He\nhas the time to come to himself; your immobility cools his anger, gives\nhim time to reflect. He cannot accuse you of fear because you are ready\nto receive the second blow, and you yourself show him the place to\nstrike. Every man has an obscure respect for courage in others,\nespecially if it is moral courage, the rarest and most difficult sort of\nbravery. An injured man who feels no resentment and who does not run\naway shows more strength of soul, more mastery of himself, more true\nheroism than he who in the blindness of rage rushes upon the offender to\nrender back to him twice the evil received. Quietness, when it is not\nstupidity, gentleness, when it is not cowardice, astound common souls as\ndo all marvelous things. They make the very brute understand that this\nman is more than a man. The brute himself when not incited to follow by\na hot answer or by cowardly flight, remains paralyzed, feels almost\nafraid of this new, unknown puzzling force, the more so because among\nthe greatest exciting factors for the man who strikes, is his\nanticipated pleasure in the angry blow, in the resistance, in the\nensuing struggle. Man is a fighting animal; but with no resistance\noffered, the pleasure disappears; there is no zest left. There is no\nlonger an adversary, but a superior who says quietly, \u201cIs that not\nenough? Here is the other cheek; strike as long as you wish. It is\nbetter that my face should suffer than my soul. You can hurt me as much\nas you wish, but you cannot force me to follow you into a mad, brutal\nrage. The fact that some one has wronged me cannot force me to act\nwrongly.\u201d\n\nLiterally to follow this command of Jesus demands a mastery possessed by\nfew, of the blood, of the nerves, and of all the instincts of the baser\npart of our being. It is a bitter and repellent command; but Jesus never\nsaid it would be easy to follow Him. He never said it would be possible\nto obey Him without harsh renunciations, without stern and continuous\ninner battles; without the denial of the old Adam and the birth of the\nnew man. And yet the results of non-resistance, even if they are not\nalways perfect, are certainly superior to those of resistance or flight.\nThe example of so extraordinary a spiritual mastery, so impossible and\nunthinkable for common men, the almost superhuman fascination of conduct\nso contrary to usual customs, traditions and passions; this example,\nthis spectacle of power, this puzzling miracle, unexpected like all\nmiracles, difficult to understand like all prodigies, this example of a\nstrong, sane man who looks like other men, and yet who acts almost like\na God, like a being above other beings, above the motives which move\nother men\u2014this example if repeated more than once, if it cannot be laid\nto supine stupidity, if it is accompanied by proofs of physical courage\nwhen physical courage is necessary to enjoy and not to harm\u2014this example\nhas an effectiveness which we can imagine, soaked though we are in the\nideas of revenge and reprisals. We imagine it with difficulty; we cannot\nprove it because we have had too few of such examples to be able to cite\neven partial experiments as proofs of our intuition.\n\nBut if this command of Jesus has never been obeyed or too rarely obeyed,\nthere is no proof that it cannot be followed, still less that it ought\nto be rejected. It is repugnant to human nature, but all real moral\nconquests are repugnant to our nature. They are salutary amputations of\na part of our soul\u2014for some of us the most living part of the soul\u2014and\nit is natural that the threat of mutilation should make us shudder. But\nwhether it pleases us or not, only by accepting this command of Christ\ncan we solve the problem of violence. It is the only course which does\nnot add evil to evil, which does not multiply evil a hundredfold, which\nprevents the infection of the wound, which cuts out the malignant growth\nwhen it is only a tiny pustule. To answer blows with blows, evil deeds\nwith evil deeds, is to meet the attacker on his own ground, to proclaim\noneself as low as he. To answer with flight is to humiliate oneself\nbefore him, and incite him to continue. To answer a furiously angry man\nwith reasonable words is useless effort. But to answer with a simple\ngesture of acceptance, to endure for three days the bore who inflicts\nhimself on you for an hour, to offer your breast to the man who has\nstruck you on the shoulder, to give a thousand to the man who has stolen\na hundred from you, these are acts of heroic excellence, supine though\nthey may appear, so extraordinary that they overcome the brutal bully\nwith the irresistible majesty of the divine. Only he who has conquered\nhimself can conquer his enemies. Only the saints can charm wolves to\nmildness. Only he who has transformed his own soul can transform the\nsouls of his brothers, and transform the world into a less grievous\nplace for all.\n\n\n                             AGAINST NATURE\n\n\nNonresistance to evil is profoundly repugnant to our nature, but to obey\nthe teachings of Christ means that our nature will come to feel disgust\nfor what now pleases us, and find happiness in what now fills us with\nhorror. His every word takes for granted this total renovation of the\nhuman spirit: He fearlessly contradicts our most ordinary inclinations\nand the deepest of our instincts. He praises what every one avoids. He\ncondemns what all men seek. He not only gives the lie to what men teach\n(often very different from what they really think and do), but He\ncontradicts what they actually think and do every day.\n\nJesus does not believe in the perfection of the natural soul, of the\noriginal soul. He believes in its future perfection, only to be reached\nby a complete overturning of its present nature. His task is the reform\nof man; more than that, the making-over of man. With Him begins the new\nrace; He is the model, the arch-type, the Adam of humanity remodeled and\nrecast. Socrates tried to reform the mind, Moses the law, others went no\nfurther than altering a ritual, a code, a system, a science; but Jesus\ndid not aim at changing one part of man but the whole man from top to\nbottom, changing the inner man who is the motive-power and origin of all\nthe facts and the words of the world. Therefore we need not expect Him\nto compromise or to wheedle. He will make no concessions to evil and\nimperfect nature; He will not find specious reasons to justify it as the\nphilosophers do. You cannot serve Jesus and Nature. He who stands with\nJesus is against the old animal nature and is working for the higher\nnature which must conquer it. Everything else is idle talk, dust and\nashes.\n\nNothing is more common among men than the thirst for riches. To heap up\nmoney by any means, even the most infamous, has always seemed the\nsweetest and most respectable of occupations. But he who wishes to come\nwith me, said Jesus, must go and sell that which he has and give it to\nthe poor and he shall have treasures in Heaven. Poverty is the first\nrequisite for the citizenship of the Kingdom.\n\nAll men anxiously take thought for the morrow. They are always afraid\nlest the ground give way under their feet, lest there may not be enough\nbread to last to the next harvest. They fear that they will not have\nenough clothes to cover their bodies and the bodies of their children.\nBut Jesus teaches us, \u201cTake therefore no thought for the morrow:\nsufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.\u201d\n\nEvery man would like to stand first even among his equals. He wishes to\nbe superior to those who surround him, to command, to dominate, to seem\ngreater, richer, handsomer, wiser. The whole history of men is only the\nterror of standing second; but Jesus teaches us, \u201cAnd whosoever of you\nwill be the chiefest shall be servant of all.\u201d The greatest is the\nsmallest, the most powerful shall serve the weakest, he who exalts\nhimself shall be humbled, he who humbles himself shall be exalted.\n\nVanity is another universal curse of men. It poisons even their good\nactions, because nearly always they perform those insignificant good\nactions so that they may be seen. They do evil secretly and good openly.\nJesus commands us to do just the opposite. \u201cBut when thou doest alms,\nlet not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth;... And when thou\nprayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray\nstanding in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they\nmay be seen of men.... But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy\ncloset.... Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad\ncountenance: for they disguise their faces, that they may appear to\nfast.... But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy\nface.\u201d\n\nThe instinct of self-preservation is the strongest of all those which\ndominate us. No infamy, cruelty or cowardice is too much for us to pay\nfor the safety of this handful of animated dust. But Jesus tells us:\n\u201cFor whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose\nhis life for my sake the same shall save it.\u201d For what we _call_ life is\nnot true life and he who gives up his soul ruins also the flesh which\nhouses it.\n\nEvery one of us has a hankering to judge his fellows. To sit in judgment\nmakes us feel that we are above those judged, better, more righteous,\ninnocent. To accuse others is like saying, \u201c_We_ are not thus.\u201d As a\nmatter of fact it is always the hunchbacks who first cry out on those\nwhose shoulders are a little bent. But Jesus says, \u201cJudge not that ye be\nnot judged, condemn not and ye shall not be condemned, forgive and ye\nshall be forgiven.\u201d\n\nEvery man boasts of being really manly, that is, a grave, mature, wise,\nsubstantial, worthy person, who understands the nature of things and who\ncan reason and have an opinion on all subjects. A speech that is too\nsincere is said to be childish; a simple person is scornfully called\nchildish. But when the disciples asked Him who is the greatest in the\nKingdom of Heaven, Jesus answered, \u201cVerily I say unto you, Whosoever\nshall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise\nenter therein.\u201d\n\nThe serious-minded man, the devout, the pure, the Pharisee, avoids if\npossible the company of sinners, of the fallen, of the defiled, and\nreceives as equals at his table only the righteous. But Jesus tirelessly\nannounces that He has come to seek for sinners and not for the\nrighteous, the bad and not the good, and He feels no shame in sitting\ndown to dinner in the house of the publican, where a prostitute anoints\nhis feet. The truly pure man cannot be corrupted by the corrupt, and\ndoes not feel that for fear of soiling his garments he needs leave them\nto die in their own vileness.\n\nThe avarice of men is so great that every one tries to take as much as\nhe can from others and to give back as little. Every one seeks to\npossess; praises of generosity are only an attempt to cover professional\nbeggary with a decent mask; but Jesus affirms, \u201cIt is better to give\nthan to receive.\u201d\n\nAll of us hate most of the people we know. We hate them because they\nhave more than we, because they will not give us all we would like to\nhave, because they do not pay enough attention to us, because they are\ndifferent from us; in a word, because they exist. We even go so far as\nto hate our friends, even our benefactors. And Jesus commands us to love\nmen, to love them all, to love even those who hate us.\n\nNo one who disobeys this command can call himself a Christian; though he\nis on the point of death if he does not love his slayer, he has no right\nto call himself a Christian.\n\nLove for ourselves, the origin of our hatred for others includes all\nother tendencies and passions. He who conquers self-love, and the hatred\ntoward others, is already entirely transformed; the rest flows from this\nas a natural consequence. Hatred toward oneself and love for enemies is\nthe beginning and end of Christianity. The greatest victory over the\nfierce, blind, brutal man of antiquity is this and nothing else. Men\ncannot be born again into the happiness of peace until they love those\nwho have offended against them. To love your enemies is the only way to\nleave not an enemy on earth.\n\n\n                              BEFORE LOVE\n\n\nThose who refuse Christ have many easily understandable reasons for not\naccepting Him: they would need to renounce their old personalities and\nthey cannot see that they would gain much by this renunciation; and they\nare afraid of losing the dusty rubbish which seems magnificence to them.\nPeople who deny Christ as an excuse for not following His teachings have\njustified themselves of late by another reason, a learned reason: they\nclaim that He said nothing new. His words can be found in the Orient and\nin the Occident centuries earlier. Either He stole them, or plagiarized\nunconsciously. If He said nothing new, He is not great; if He is not\ngreat, there is no need to listen to Him. Let the ignorant admire Him,\nthe stupid obey Him, the foolish respect Him!\n\nHowever, these experts in the genealogy of ideas do not say whether the\nideals of Jesus, let them be new or old, should be accepted or rejected;\nthey do not dare to pretend that Christ did nothing of value when He\nconsecrated by His death a great truth, a forgotten, unused truth. They\ndo not look carefully to see whether there is a real identity of sense\nand of spirit between the ideas of Jesus and those other older ideas, or\nwhether there is merely a simple assonance and a distant verbal\nresemblance. And in the meantime, in order to avoid being misled in that\nmatter, they reject Christ\u2019s law and that of the philosophers who, they\npretend, were Christ\u2019s teachers, and they continue tranquilly to lead\ntheir filthy lives as if the Gospels had not been addressed to them as\nto other men.\n\nAfter the promulgation of the old Law there was amity between blood kin;\nand the citizens of the same city bore with each other and did one\nanother no harm; but for strangers, if they were not guests, there was\nonly hatred and extermination. Inside the family a little love; inside\nthe city an approximate justice; outside the walls and the frontiers\ninextinguishable hatred. Centuries later voices were heard which asked a\nlittle love also for the neighbor, for those who were not of the same\nhousehold but of the same nation, which asked for a little justice even\nfor strangers, even for enemies. This would have been a wonderful step\nforward; but these voices\u2014they were so few, so weak, so distant\u2014were not\nheard, or, if heard, were not heeded.\n\nFour centuries before Christ a wise man of China, M\u2019-Ti, wrote a whole\nbook, the Kie-Siang-Ngai, to say that men should love each other. He\nwrote, \u201cThe wise man who wants to improve the world can improve it only\nif he knows with certainty the origin of disorders; if he does not know\nthat, he cannot improve it.... Whence come disorders? They spring up\nbecause men do not love each other. Workmen and children have no filial\nfeeling for their employers and parents. Children love themselves but do\nnot love their parents; they cheat their parents for their own purposes.\nYounger brothers love themselves but do not love their older brothers;\nsubjects love themselves but do not love their princes; the father has\nno indulgence for the son, the older brother for the younger brother,\nthe prince for his subjects. The father loves himself and does not love\nhis son; he wrongs his son to his own advantage ... thus, everywhere\nbrigands love their own homes and not their neighbors\u2019 homes, and for\nthis they sack other men\u2019s houses to fill their own. Thieves love their\nown bodies and do not love men, wherefore they steal from men for the\ngood of their own bodies. If thieves considered the bodies of other men\nas they do their own, who would rob? The thieves would stay their\nhands.... If universal mutual love should come, countries would not\nresort to blows, families would not be troubled, thieves would hold\ntheir hands, princes, subjects, fathers and sons would be respectful and\nindulgent and the world would be better.\u201d\n\nFor M\u2019-Ti, love, or, to translate it more exactly, benevolence composed\nof respect and indulgence, is the mortar to hold citizens and the state\nmore closely united. It is a remedy against the evils of life-in-common,\na social panacea.\n\n\u201cAnswer insults with courtesy,\u201d suggests timidly the mysterious Lao-Tse;\nbut courtesy is prudence or mildness, not love. His contemporary, old\nConfucius, according to his disciple Thseng-Tse, taught a doctrine which\nconsisted in uprightness of heart, and in loving one\u2019s neighbor as\noneself (neighbor and not the distant one, the stranger, the enemy) as\nmuch as ourselves and not more than ourselves! Confucius preached filial\nlove and general benevolence, necessary to the good ordering of\nkingdoms, but he did not dream of condemning hate. In the same Lun-Yu,\nwhere the words of Thseng-Tse are read, we find these other words, taken\nfrom the oldest Confucian text, the Ta-Hio: \u201cOnly the just and human man\nis capable of justly loving and hating men.\u201d\n\nHis contemporary Gautama recommends love for men, for all men, even the\nmost wretched and despised. And the same love is to be felt for animals,\nfor the smallest among animals, for all living beings. In Buddhism love\nof man for man is only a salutary exercise for the total eradication of\nself-love, first and strongest prop of life. Buddha wishes to suppress\nsuffering; and to suppress suffering he sees no other way than to drown\npersonal souls and universal souls in Nirvana,\u2014in nothingness. The\nBuddhist does not love his brother out of love for his brother, but out\nof self-love,\u2014that is, to avoid suffering, to overcome egotism, to\napproach absorption in the stream of life. His universal love is cold\nand self-seeking, egotistical, a form of indifference, stoical in grief\nas in joy.\n\nIn Egypt every dead body took with it into the tomb a copy of the book\nof the dead, an anticipatory apology of the soul before the tribunal of\nOsiris. The dead praises himself: he has been righteous and has given to\nthe needy, \u201cI have starved no one! I have made no one weep! I have not\nkilled! I have not commanded treacherous murder! I have defrauded no\none! I have given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to\nthe naked, a boat to the traveler halted on his journey, sacrifices to\nthe gods, funeral banquets to the dead.\u201d This is righteousness and these\nare works of mercy (had they really as a matter of fact done all that\nthey claimed?) but we find no love here, much less love for enemies. If\nwe wish to know how the Egyptians treated their enemies let us read an\ninscription of the great king, Phiops I Miriri: \u201cThis army went in\npeace; it entered as it pleased into the country of the Hirushaitu. This\narmy went in peace; it laid waste the country of the Hirushaitu. This\narmy went in peace; they cut down all their fig trees and their grape\nvines. This army went in peace; they set on fire all their houses. This\narmy went in peace; it massacred their soldiers by myriads. This army\nwent in peace; it carried away their men, women and children in great\nnumbers, and for this, more than for any other thing, did his Holiness\nrejoice.\u201d\n\nZarathushtra also leaves a law for the Iranians. This law commands the\nfaithful of Ahura Mazd\u00e2 to be kind to their companions in the faith.\nThey are to give clothes to the naked and they are not to refuse bread\nto the hungry working man. We are still concerned with material charity\ntowards those who belong to us, who serve us, who are our neighbors.\nThere is no talk of love.\n\nIt has been said that Jesus added nothing to the Mosaic law, and only\nrepeated the old Commandments. \u201cEye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for\nhand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for\nstripe.\u201d Thus speaks Moses in Deuteronomy, \u201cAnd thou shalt consume all\nthe people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shalt\nhave no pity upon them.\u201d Thus it is written in Deuteronomy: a step\nfurther and we have reached Love, \u201cAlso thou shalt not oppress a\nstranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers\nin the land of Egypt.\u201d This is a beginning: do no wrong to strangers in\nmemory of the time when you also were a stranger; but the stranger who\nlives with us is not an enemy, and to refrain from wronging him, does\nnot mean to do good to him. Exodus commands not to wrong him. Leviticus\nis more generous, \u201cAnd if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land ye\nshalt not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto\nyou as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself....\u201d\nAlways the foreigner who lives with you and has become your\nfellow-citizen, hence like one of your friends. In the same book we\nread, \u201cThou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children\nof thy people.\u201d This is another step forward. Do no harm to him who\noffends you, provided that he is of your own nation. We have come, if\nnot to pardon, to generous forgetfulness, although only for neighbors.\n\n\u201cThou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.\u201d Neighbor, fellow-citizen, the\nman who is your racial brother, who can help you. But your enemy? There\nis also an admonition about the treatment of your enemy: \u201cIf thou meet\nthine enemy\u2019s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it\nback to him again. If you see the ass of him that hateth thee lying\nunder his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely\nhelp with him.\u201d Oh, great kindness of Jewish antiquity! It would be so\nsweet to drive the ass further, so that his master would have more\ntrouble in finding him: and when you see the ass fallen down under his\npack-saddle, how amusing it would be to smile in your beard and pass on;\nbut the heart of the old Jew was not hardened to this degree: an ass was\ntoo precious in those times and those conditions: no one could live\nwithout at least one ass in the stable, and every one had an ass. To-day\nyours has escaped and to-morrow mine may run away. Do not let us avenge\nourselves on our animals even if the master is a brute. Because if I am\nthat man\u2019s enemy he is my enemy. Let us set him a good example, an\nexample by which we hope he will profit; let us lend him a hand to\nreadjust the pack-saddle of his ass; let us do to others what we hope\nothers will do to us, and above the crupper and the ears of the ass let\nus, as merciful men, lay aside every evil thought.\n\nThis is rather too little: the old Jew has already made a tremendous\neffort in caring for the animals of his enemy, but the Psalms, to make\nup for it, resound at every step with outcries against enemies and with\nviolent demands to the Lord to persecute and destroy them. \u201cAs for the\nhead of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips\ncover them; let burning coals fall upon them ... let them be cast into\nthe fire; into deep pits, that they rise not up again. Let destruction\ncome upon him unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself;\ninto that very destruction let him fall. And my soul shall be joyful in\nthe Lord!\u201d\n\nIn such a world it is natural that Saul should be astounded that he was\nnot killed by his enemy David, and that Job should boast of not having\nexulted in the misfortunes of an enemy. Only in the later proverbs do we\nfind words which forecast Jesus\u2019 saying, \u201cSay not thou, I will\nrecompense evil; but wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee.\u201d The\nenemy is to be punished, but by hands more powerful than thine. Then the\nanonymous moralist of the Old Testament comes finally to charity, \u201cIf\nthine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give\nhim water to drink.\u201d This is progress: pity does not stop with the ox,\nbut extends itself also to the owner. But the marvels of love of the\nSermon on the Mount cannot have sprung from these timid maxims hidden\naway in a corner of the Scriptures.\n\nBut there is, they say, Hillel, the Rabbi Hillel, the great Hillel,\nmaster of Gamaliel, Hillel Hababli or the Babylonian. This celebrated\nPharisee lived a little before Jesus and taught, they say, the same\nthings which Jesus afterwards taught. He was a liberal Judean, a\nrational Pharisee, an intelligent rabbi; but was he therefore a\nChristian? It is true that he said these words, \u201cDo not do unto others\nwhat is displeasing to you; this is the whole Law, the rest is only\nexplanation of it.\u201d These are fine words for a master of the old law,\nbut how far away they are from those of the overturner of the ancient\nlaw! This is a negative command, \u201cDo not do.\u201d He does not say, \u201cDo good\nto those who wrong you,\u201d but \u201cDo not do to others (and these others are\ncertainly companions, fellow-citizens, members of the family and\nfriends) what you feel to be evil.\u201d He mildly forbids harmfulness; he\ngives no absolute command to love. As a matter of fact, the descendants\nof Hillel were those Talmudists who mired the law in the great swamp of\ncasuistry. The descendants of Jesus were the martyrs who blessed their\ntorturers.\n\nAnd Philo, the Alexandrian Jew, the Platonizing metaphysician, some\ntwenty years older than Jesus, left a treatise on the love of men; but\nPhilo, with all his talents and with all his mystical and Messianic\nspeculations, is, like Hillel, a theorist, a man of pens and ink-pots,\nof learning, of books, of systems, of abstractions, of classifications.\nHis dialectic strategy brings into the field thousands of words in\nparade formation, but he is never inspired to pronounce the one word\nthat burns up in an instant all the past, the one word which brings\nhearts together. He has talked of love more than Christ, but he could\nnever have said, and he would not have been able to understand, what\nChrist said to his ignorant friends on the Mount.\n\n\n                           ACHILLES AND PRIAM\n\n\nIs it possible that in Greece, that well-spring from whence all have\ndrunk, there was no love for enemies? Would-be modern pagans, enemies of\nthe \u201cPalestine superstition,\u201d claim that Greek thought has everything in\nit. In the spiritual life of the Occident, Greece is like China to the\nEast, mother of all invention.\n\nIn the Ajax of Sophocles, famous Odysseus is moved to pity at the sight\nof a fallen enemy reduced to misery. In vain Athena herself, Hellenic\nwisdom personified in the sacred owl, reminds him that \u201cthe most\ndelightful mirth is to laugh at one\u2019s enemies.\u201d Ulysses is not\nconvinced. \u201cI pity him, although he is my enemy, because I see him so\nunfortunate, bound to an evil destiny; and looking at him, I think of\nmyself. Because I see we are not other than ghosts, and unsubstantial\nshadows, all we who live.... It is not right to do evil to a dying man\neven if you hate him.\u201d It seems to me that we are here still very far\naway from love. Wily Ulysses is not wily enough to conceal the motive of\nhis unnatural softening. He pities his enemy because he thinks of\nhimself, remembers that evil could happen also to him, and he pardons\nhis enemy only because he sees him dying and unfortunate.\n\nA wiser man than Ulysses, the son of Sophroniscus, the stone cutter,\nasked himself, among many other questions, how the righteous man ought\nto treat his enemies. But reading the texts, we discover with\nastonishment two Socrates, of different opinions. The Socrates of the\nMemorabilia frankly accepts the common feeling. Friends are to be\ntreated well and enemies ill, and thus it is better to anticipate one\u2019s\nenemies in doing ill: \u201cThe man most greatly to be praised,\u201d he says to\nCherocrate, \u201cis he who anticipates his enemies in hurtfulness and his\nfriends in helpfulness.\u201d But Plato\u2019s Socrates does not accept the common\nopinion. He says to Crito, \u201cInjustice should be rendered to no one in\nreturn for injustice; nor evil for evil whatever has been the injury\nthat thou hast received.\u201d And he affirms the same principle in the\nRepublic, adding in support that the bad are not bettered by revenge.\nBut the ruling idea in Socrates\u2019 head is the thought of justice, not the\nfeeling of love. In no case should the righteous man do evil, out of\nself-respect (notice this), not out of affection towards his enemy. The\nbad man must punish himself, otherwise the judges in the lower world\nwill punish him after death. Aristotle, the disciple of Plato, turns\ntranquilly back to the old idea: \u201cNot to resent offenses,\u201d he says in\nthe Ethics to Nicomachus, \u201cis the mark of a base and slavish man.\u201d\n\nIn Greece, therefore, there is little to the purpose for those who are\nlooking for precedents for Christianity.\n\nBut in order to make us believe that Christianity existed before Christ,\nthose who deny Jesus, have found a rival to Jesus even in Rome, in the\nvery palace of the C\u00e6sars. Seneca, the director of conscience to young\ngentlemen, leader of the fashionable cult of reformed stoicism; the\nabstract aristocrat never moved by the troubles of the poor; the\nproprietor who despises riches, and clutches them tightly, who affirms\nthe equality between free and slave, and owns slaves; the talented\nanatomist of scruples, of evils, of active vices, and complacent\nvirtues; he who canalized the old doctrine of Chrisippus, dull but\nclear, towards the estuary of preciosity; moral Seneca they claim was a\nChristian without knowing it during Christ\u2019s very lifetime. Thumbing\nover his works (many were written after the death of Christ, for Seneca\nwaited till he was sixty-five years old before committing suicide), they\nhave found that \u201cthe wise man does not avenge but forgets affronts,\u201d and\nthat \u201cto imitate the Gods we should do good also to the ungrateful\nbecause the sun shines equally on the wicked and the seas bear up the\npirate ship,\u201d and finally that \u201cWe must succor our enemies with a\nfriendly hand.\u201d But the \u201cforgetting\u201d of the philosopher is not\n\u201cforgiveness\u201d; and \u201csuccor\u201d can be philanthropy but is not love. The\nimperious, the stoic, the Pharisee; the philosopher proud of his\nphilosophy, the righteous man complacent over his righteousness, can\ndespise the affronts of the small, the pricks of enemies, and through\npride of magnanimity and to win admiration can deign to give a loaf to a\nhungry enemy in order to humiliate him more harshly from the heights of\nperfection. But that bread was prepared with the leaven of vanity and\nthat would-be friendly hand could never have dried a tear or dressed a\nwound.\n\nThe world of antiquity did not know love. It knew passion for a woman,\nfriendship for a friend, justice for the citizen, hospitality for the\nforeigner; but it did not know love. Zeus protected pilgrims and\nstrangers; he who knocked at the Grecian door was not denied meat, a cup\nof wine, and a bed. The poor were to be covered, the weak helped, the\nmourning consoled with fair words; but the men of antiquity did not know\nlove, love that suffers, that shares another\u2019s sorrow, love for all who\nsuffer and are neglected, love for the poor, the lowly, the outlawed,\nthe maligned, the downtrodden, the abandoned; love for all, love which\nknows no difference between fellow-citizens and strangers, between fair\nand foul, between criminal and philosopher, between brother and enemy.\n\nIn the last canto of the Iliad we see an old man, a mourner, a father\nwho kisses the hand of his most terrible enemy, of the man who has\nkilled his sons, who has just killed his most loved son. Priam, the old\nking, head of the rich, ruined city, father of fifty sons, kneels at the\nfeet of Achilles, the greatest hero, and the most unhappy among the\nGreeks, son of the Sea-Goddess, avenger of Patroclus, slayer of Hector.\nThe white head of the kneeling old man is bowed before the proud youth\nof the victor, and Priam mourns for the slain, strongest, fairest, most\nloved of all his fifty sons, and kisses the hand of the slayer! \u201cThou\nalso,\u201d he says, \u201chast a grey-haired, failing, defenseless, far-distant\nfather. In the name of thy father\u2019s love, give me back at least the dead\nbody of my son.\u201d\n\nAchilles, the fierce, the wild, the slaughterer, puts the suppliant\ngently on one side and begins to weep; and both of them, the two\nenemies, the conqueror and the conquered, the father bereft of his son\nand the son who will never see his father again, the white-haired old\nman and the golden-haired youth both weep, drawn together for the first\ntime by sorrow. The others round about gaze at them silent and\nastounded: we ourselves after thirty centuries are shaken by their\ngrief.\n\nBut in the kiss of Priam there is no pardon, there is no love. This king\nhumbles himself to obtain a difficult and unusual favor. If a God had\nnot inspired him he would not have stirred from Ilium; and Achilles does\nnot weep for dead Hector, for weeping Priam, for the powerful man who is\nbrought to humble himself, for the enemy who is brought to kiss the hand\nof the slayer. He weeps over his lost friend; over Patrocles, dearer to\nhim than all other men; over Peleus, left at Phthia; over his father,\nwhom he will never more embrace, for he knows that his young days are\nnumbered. And he gives back to the father the dead body of his son\u2014that\nbody which he has dragged for so many days in the dust\u2014because it is the\nwill of Zeus, not because his hunger of vengeance is stilled. Both of\nthem weep for themselves; the kiss of Priam is a harsh necessity, the\nrestitution of Achilles is obedience to the Gods. In the noblest heroic\nworld of antiquity there is no place for that love which destroys hate\nand takes the place of hate, for love stronger than the strength of\nhate, more ardent, more implacable, more faithful, for love which is not\nforgetfulness of wrong, but love of wrong, because wrong is a misfortune\nfor him who commits it rather than for him who suffers. There is no\nplace for love for enemies in the world of antiquity.\n\nJesus was the first to speak of such love, to conceive of such love.\nThis love was not known till the Sermon on the Mount. This is the\ngreatest and the most original of Jesus\u2019 conceptions. Of all His\nteachings this was the newest to men, this is still His greatest\ninnovation. It is new even to us, new because it is not understood, not\nimitated, not obeyed; infinitely eternal like truth.\n\n\n                            THOU SHALT LOVE\n\n\n\u201cYe have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and\nhate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that\ncurse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which\ndespitefully use you and persecute you; That ye may be the children of\nyour Father which is in Heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the\nevil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.\nFor if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the\npublicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more\nthan others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even\nas your Father which is in Heaven is perfect.\u201d A few bare, plain words!\nBut they are the Magna Charta of the new race, of the third race, of men\nnot yet born. The first race was that of the animal without law, and its\nname was War; the second were barbarians tamed by the Law, whose highest\nperfection was justice. This is the race living now, and justice has not\nyet conquered War, and the Law has not yet supplanted animality. The\nthird is to be the race of real men, not only upright but holy, not like\nbeasts but like God.\n\nJesus had just one aim: to transform men from beasts to saints by means\nof love. Circe, the enchantress, the Satanic consort of the old\nmythologies, converted heroes into beasts by means of animal pleasures.\nJesus is the anti-Satan, the anti-Circe, He who saves from animality by\na force more powerful than pleasure. This undertaking, which seems\nhopeless to all animals barely risen above animality and to beings just\nentering upon real humanity, must be based on the imitation of God. To\napproximate sanctity one must look toward divinity: \u201cBe holy because God\nis holy. Be perfect because God is perfect.\u201d\n\nThis is not the first time that this appeal has been made to the heart\nof man. Satan said in the Garden: \u201cYou will be as gods.\u201d Jehovah said to\nHis judges: \u201cBe gods, be just as God is just.\u201d But now there is no\nquestion of being wise like God, nor is it even enough to be just, like\nGod. God is now more than wisdom and justice. With Jesus, He becomes our\nFather, becomes love. His earth gives bread and flowers even to the\nhomicide; he who takes His name in vain sees the glorious sun every\nmorning, the same sun which warms the clasped hands of the laborer\npraying in the field. A true father loves the son who turns from him as\nhe loves the son who seeks him out; a father cherishes the child who\nobeys him in his house, or who vomits him out with his wine. A father\ncan be saddened, can suffer, can mourn, but no sinning man is capable of\nmaking a father become like to himself. No one can induce a father to\ntake revenge.\n\nAnd we who are so much lower than God, poor finite creatures, who are\nscarcely capable of remembering yesterday, who do not know to-morrow, we\nunfortunate, inferior creatures, have we not many more motives to feel\nfor our brothers in wretchedness what God feels for us? God is the\nsupreme substance of our ideal. To draw away from Him, not to be as we\npray that He may be with us, is this not to draw away from our unique\ndestination, to keep perpetually and despairingly out of our reach that\nhappiness for which we are created, which we believe to be the aim of\nour lives, imagined by us, dreamed of by us, longed-for, invoked and\nfollowed in vain through all the false felicities which are not of God?\n\u201cLet us be Gods,\u201d cries Bossuet. \u201cLet us be Gods. He permits it, that we\nmay imitate His holiness.\u201d\n\nWho will refuse to be like God? Dii estis. Divinity is in us; animality\nhampers and constricts it, stunting our growth. Who would not wish to be\nGod? Oh, men, are you in very truth content to be only men? Men as you\nare to-day, half-men, half-beasts? Centaurs without robustness, sirens\nwithout sweetness, demons with fauns\u2019 muzzles and goats\u2019 feet? Are you\nso satisfied with your bastard and imperfect humanity, with your\nanimality scarcely held in leash, taking no step to win holiness save to\ndesire it? Does it seem to you that the life of men as it has been in\nthe past, as it is to-day, is so dear, so happy, so contented that there\nshould be no effort to make it otherwise, entirely different, the\nopposite of what it is, more like that which for thousands of years we\nhave imagined in the future and in Heaven? Is it not possible to make\nanother life out of this life, to change this world to a world more\ndivine, at last to bring down Heaven and the laws of Heaven upon earth?\n\nThis new life, this earthly but celestial world is the Kingdom of\nHeaven, and to bring about the Kingdom we must transfigure and deify\nourselves; become like God, imitate God. The secret of the imitation of\nGod is love, the certain way of the transfiguration is love, love of man\nfor man, love for friend and enemy. If this love is impossible, our\nsalvation is impossible. If it is repugnant, it is a sign that happiness\nis repugnant to us. If it is absurd, our hopes of redemption are only\nabsurdity. Common sense tells us that to love our enemies is insanity,\nand to count such love as a prerequisite of our salvation seems simple\nmadness. Love for enemies is like hatred for ourselves; hence it follows\nthat we can only earn beatitude by hating ourselves.\n\nThis conclusion should alarm no one, for it has been proved; all the\nexperiments have been tried. It is not true that there has been no time\nto test it. For thousands of years we have been proving and proving it,\nover and over. We have tried the experiment of fierceness; and blood\nanswered blood. We have tried the experiment of lust; and lust has left\nin the mouth the odor of corruption and a fiercer fever. We have forced\nthe body into the most refined and perverse pleasures and found\nourselves worn out and heavy-hearted, lying upon filth. We have tried\nthe experiment of the Law, and we have not obeyed the Law; we have\nchanged it and disobeyed it again, and Justice has not satisfied our\nhearts. We have tried the experiment of intellectualism, we have taken\nthe census of creation, numbered the stars, described the plants, the\ndead things and the living things, we have bound them together with the\nthin threads of abstract ideas, we have transfigured them in the magic\nclouds of metaphysics; and at the end of all this, things have remained\nthe same, eternally the same; they were not enough for us, they could\nnot be renewed; their names and their numbers did not quiet our hunger,\nand the most learned men ended with weary confessions of ignorance. We\nhave tried the experiment of art and our feebleness has brought the\nstrongest to despair, because the Absolute cannot be fixed in any form;\nthe Many overflow from the One; the carefully wrought work of art cannot\narrest the ephemeral. We have tried the experiment of wealth and have\nfound ourselves poorer; the experiment of force and have come to\nourselves, weaker. In no thing has our soul found quiet. We have found\nno welcoming shade, where our bodies can lie down and be at rest; and\nour hearts, always seeking, always disappointed, are older, weaker, and\nemptier because in nothing have they found peace, because no pleasure\nhas brought them joy, no conquest, happiness.\n\n\n                          THE LAST EXPERIMENT\n\n\nJesus proposes His experiment, the only remaining possibility, the\nexperiment of love, that experiment which no one has made, which few\nhave even attempted (and that for only a few moments of their lives),\nthe most arduous, the most contrary to our instincts but the only one\nwhich can give what it promises.\n\nAs he comes from the hand of Nature, Man thinks only of himself, loves\nnothing but himself. Little by little, with tremendous but slow efforts,\nhe succeeds in loving for a while his woman, and his children, in\ntolerating his accomplices in the hunt, in assassination and in war.\nVery rarely is he able to love a friend; more easily he hates the man\nwho loves him. He does not dream of loving the man who hates him.\n\nAll this explains why Jesus commands us to love our enemies. To make\nover the entire man, to create a new man, the most tenacious center of\nthe old man must be destroyed. From self-love come all the misfortunes,\nmassacres and miseries of the world. To tame the old Adam self-love must\nbe torn out of him, and in its place must be put the love most opposed\nto his present nature, love for his enemies. The total transformation of\nman is such a sublime paradox that it can be reached only by fantastic\nmeans. It is an extraordinary undertaking, wild and unnatural, to be\naccomplished only with an extraordinary exaltation, opposed to Nature.\n\nUntil now man has loved himself and hated those who hate him; the man of\nthe future, the inhabitant of the Kingdom, must hate himself and love\nthose who hate him. To love one\u2019s neighbor as one\u2019s self is an\ninsufficient formula, a concession to universal egotism. For he who\nloves himself cannot perfectly love others, and finds himself perforce\nin conflict with others. Only hatred for ourselves is sufficient. If we\nlove ourselves, we admire ourselves, we flatter ourselves too much. To\novercome this blind love, we need to see our nothingness, our baseness,\nour infamy. Hatred of ourselves is humility, is the beginning of\nimprovement, of perfection. And only the humble shall enter into the\nKingdom of Heaven because they alone feel how far they are from it. We\nare angered at others because our dear ego feels undeservedly offended,\nnot sufficiently served by others; we kill our brother because he seems\nan obstacle to _our_ good; we steal for the love of _our_ body, we\nfornicate to give pleasure to our body; envy, mother of rivalry and of\nwars, is merely sorrow because another has more than we, or has what we\nhave not; pride is the expression of our certainty of being of more\naccount than others, of possessing more than others, of knowing more\nthan others. All the things which religions, morals, and laws call sins,\nvices, and crimes begin in self-love, in the hatred for others which\nsprings out of that one solitary, disordered love.\n\nWhat right have we to hate our enemies, when we ourselves have been\nguilty of the same fault for which we think we have the right to hate\nthem; when we ourselves have been guilty of hatred? What right have we\nto hate them, even if they have done wrong, even if we believe them\nwicked, when we ourselves nearly always have done the same wrong\nactions, have been defiled with the same pitch? What right have we to\nhate them if nearly always we are responsible for their hate? We, who\nwith the endless errors of our monstrous self-love, have forced them to\nhate us? And he who hates is unhappy, is the first to suffer. We ought\nto respond with love to that hatred, with gentleness to that harshness\nas reparation for the suffering of which we are often the real cause,\nimmediate or distant.\n\nOur enemy is also our savior. We ought every day to be grateful to our\nenemies; they alone see clearly and state openly what is ignoble in us;\nthey make us conscious of our moral poverty, the realization of which is\nthe only beginning for the second birth. For this service we owe them\nlove. For our enemy needs love, and needs our love. He who loves us\nalready has his joy and reward in himself. He needs no reward from us.\nBut he who hates is unhappy; hates because he is unhappy. His hatred is\nthe bitter outlet for his sufferings. We are partly guilty for this\nsuffering, and even if, over-confident in our innocence, we do not feel\nthat we are responsible, we ought nevertheless to comfort with love the\nunhappiness of the man who hates, to calm him, make him better, convert\nhim also to the beatitudes of loving. We will know him better if we love\nhim, and knowing him better, we will love him more. We only love\nheartily what we know well. If we love our enemy, his soul will be\ntransparent to us, and as we penetrate further into it, we will discover\nmuch more to call forth our pity and our love; because every enemy is an\nunrecognized brother; we often hate in him what resembles our own\nnatures. Something of ourselves, unknown perhaps to us, is in our enemy\nand is often the cause of our hostility. When we love our enemies we\npurify our spirit by understanding and lift his spirit upward. Hatred,\ninstead of driving men apart, may thus engender a light that liberates\nmen\u2019s souls. The worst of evil may bring about the highest good.\n\nThis is the reason why Jesus commands us to reverse the ordinary and\ncustomary relations of men. When man loves what he now hates, and hates\nwhat he now loves, he will be the opposite of what he is to-day. And if\nlife now is made up of evils and despair, the new, changed life being\nthe opposite of what we now have, will be all goodness and consolation.\nFor the first time we shall know happiness; the Kingdom of Heaven will\nbegin on earth. We will find that eternal Paradise, lost because the\nfirst men wished to learn the difference between good and evil. But for\nabsolute love like the love of God the Father, there is neither good nor\nevil. Evil is overwhelmed by the good. Paradise was love, love between\nman and God, between man and woman. The new earthly paradise, the\nparadise regained, will be the love of every man for all men. Christ is\nHe who leads Adam back to the gates of the garden, teaches him how he\ncan enter and live there always.\n\nThe descendants of Adam have not believed Christ; they have repeated His\nwords but have not obeyed them, and because their hearts are stubborn,\nmen are still groaning in an earthly Hell, which century by century goes\non becoming more infernal. When the torments finally become unendurable,\nthen the damned themselves will suddenly learn to hate hatred, the dying\nrebels in the extremity of their despair will learn to love their\nexecutioners. Then, at last, from the depths of sorrowful gloom will\nshine out the pure splendor of a miraculous spring.\n\n\n                               OUR FATHER\n\n\nThe apostles asked Jesus for a prayer. He had told them to pray briefly\nand secretly, but they were not satisfied with any prayers recommended\nby the lukewarm, bookish priests of the Temple. They wanted a prayer of\ntheir own which would be like a countersign among the fraternity of\nChrist. Jesus on the Mount taught for the first time the Pater-noster,\nthe only prayer which He ever taught. It is one of the simplest prayers\nin the world, the most profound which goes up from human homes to God, a\nprayer neither literary nor theological\u2014neither bold nor servile\u2014the\nmost beautiful of all prayers. But though the Lord\u2019s Prayer is simple,\nit is not always understood. The century-old, mechanical reiteration of\ntongues and lips, the formal ritual repetition, have made it almost a\nstring of syllables from which the original meaning has been lost.\nReading it over word for word to-day like a new text, which we read for\nthe first time, it loses its ritual banality, and freshens into its\nfirst meaning.\n\n\u201cOur Father\u201d; for we have sprung from Thee and love Thee as sons; from\nThee we shall receive no wrong.\n\n\u201cWhich art in heaven\u201d\u2014in that which is opposed to the earth, in the\nopposite sphere from matter, in spirit and in that small but eternal\npart of the spirit which is our soul.\n\n\u201cHallowed be Thy name\u201d; let us not only adore Thee with words but be\nworthy of Thee, drawing nearer to Thee with greater love, because Thou\nart no longer the avenger, the Lord of Battles, but the Father who\nteaches the joyfulness of peace.\n\n\u201cThy Kingdom come\u201d\u2014the Kingdom of Heaven, of the spirit of love, that of\nthe Gospel.\n\n\u201cThy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven\u201d\u2014may Thy law of goodness\nand of perfection rule both spirit and matter, both the visible and\ninvisible universe.\n\n\u201cGive us this day our daily bread\u201d; because our material body, necessary\nsupport of the spirit, needs every day a little material food to\nmaintain it. We do not ask of Thee riches, dangerous burden, but only\nthat small amount which permits us to live, to become more worthy of the\npromised life. Man does not live by bread alone, and yet without a\nmorsel of bread the soul, living in the body, could not nourish itself\non other things more precious than bread.\n\n\u201cForgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.\u201d Pardon us because we\npardon others. Thou art our eternal and infinite creditor. We can never\npay our debt to Thee, but remember that because of our weakness, it is\nmore of an effort for us to forgive one single debt of a single one of\nour debtors than it is for Thee to sweep away the record of all that we\nowe Thee.\n\n\u201cLead us not into temptation.\u201d We are weak, still snared in fleshliness\nin this world which at times seems so beautiful and calls us to all the\ndelights of faithlessness. Help us that our struggling transformation\nmay not be too difficult, and that our entry into the Kingdom may not be\ntoo long delayed.\n\n\u201cDeliver us from evil\u201d\u2014Thou who art in Heaven, who art spirit, who hast\npower over evil, over stubborn and hostile matter which surrounds us\neverywhere, and from which it is hard to free ourselves, Thou enemy of\nSatan, negation of matter, help us! Our true greatness lies in this\nvictory over evil, over evil which springs up constantly because it will\nnot be truly conquered until all have conquered it. But this decisive\nvictory will be less distant if Thou helpest us with Thy alliance.\n\nWith this appeal for aid, the Lord\u2019s Prayer ends. In it are none of the\ntiresome blandishments of Oriental prayers, rigmaroles of adulation and\nhyperbole which seem invented by a dog, adoring his master with his\ndog\u2019s soul, because his master permits him to exist and to eat. There\nare none of the querulous, complaining supplications of the Psalmist who\nasks God for every variety of aid, more often temporal than spiritual,\nlaments if the harvest has not been good, if his fellow-citizens do not\nrespect him, and calls down wounds and arrows on the enemies whom he\ncannot conquer himself. In the Lord\u2019s Prayer the only word of praise is\nthe word \u201cFather\u201d; and that praise is a pledge, a testimony of love.\nFrom this father we ask only for a little bread, and we ask in addition\nthe same pardon that we give our enemies; and at the last a valid\nprotection in our fight with evil, the enemy of all, the great wall\nwhich hinders our entry into the Kingdom.\n\nHe who says \u201cOur Father\u201d is not proud but neither is he humbled; he\nspeaks to his Father with the intimate quiet accent of confidence almost\nas from one equal to another. He is sure of his love and he knows that\nhis father needs no long speeches to know his desires. \u201cYour Father,\u201d\nsays Jesus, \u201cknoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him.\u201d\nThus the most beautiful of all the prayers is a daily calling to mind of\nall that we need if we are to become like God.\n\n\n                             POWERFUL DEEDS\n\n\nAfter He had given out the new law of the imitation of God, Jesus came\ndown from the Mount.\n\nOne cannot always remain on the heights. The moment we arrive on the\nsummit of a mountain we are fated to descend. Every ascent is a pledge\nof descent, a promise to come down again. He who has something to say\nmust make himself heard; if he always speaks on the summits, few will\nstay with him; it is cold on the summits for those who are not all on\nfire; and his voice will reach few. He who has come to give, cannot ask\nmen, weak lungs, tired hearts, nerveless legs, to follow him upward,\nhobbling along to the heights. He must follow them down to the plain,\ninto their houses; he must stoop to them if he is to lift them up.\n\nJesus knew that exalted teaching on the heights would not suffice to\nspread the good news to all. He knew that men need less abstract words,\npicture-making words, narrated words, words almost as tangible as facts.\nAnd He knew that even these words would not be enough.\n\nThe simple, rustic, coarse, humble people who followed Jesus were men\nwhose lives were based on material things, men who could only understand\nspiritual things slowly, with great effort, through material proofs,\nsigns and material symbols. They could not understand a spiritual truth\nwithout its material incarnation; without evidence simple enough for\nthem to weigh, evidence stated in the terms of the everyday world. An\nillustrative fable can lead men to moral revelation; a prodigy is to\nthem confirmation of a new truth, of a contested mission. Preaching,\nmade up of abstract axioms and aphorisms, left these imaginative\nOrientals unsatisfied. Jesus had recourse to the marvelous and to\npoetry: he performed miracles and spoke in parables. For many moderns\nthe miracles recounted by the Evangelists are a compelling reason for\nturning away from Jesus and the Bible. Their shriveled brains cannot\ntake in the miraculous; therefore, they reason the Gospel lies, and if\nit lies in so many places none of it can be believed. It is out of the\nquestion that Jesus can ever have raised the dead: therefore, His words\nhave no value.\n\nThe people who reason in this way reason ill. They give to miracles a\nweight and a meaning much greater than that which Jesus gave them. If\nthey had read the four Gospels they would have seen that Jesus is always\nreluctant to perform miracles, that He does not feel this divine power\nof His is of supreme importance. Every time that He finds a fair reason\nfor refusing, He refuses; if He yields, it is to reward the faith of the\nsorrowing man or woman who calls on Him; but the Gospels show that for\nHimself, for His own salvation, He never performs miracles. He performs\nno miracles in the wilderness with Satan, none at Nazareth when they\nwish to kill Him, none at Gethsemane when they come to arrest Him, nor\non the cross when they challenge Him to save Himself. His power is only\nfor others, to benefit His mortal brothers.\n\nThere are many who ask for a sign, a sign from Heaven, a sign to\npersuade the unbelievers that His word is the true word: \u201cAn evil and\nadulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be\ngiven to it, but the sign of the Prophet Jonas.\u201d What is this sign? The\nwriters of the gospel who wrote after the resurrection thought that\nJonah emerging the third day from the whale symbolizes Jesus emerging\nthe third day from the tomb, but the rest of what Jesus says shows that\nHe meant something else. \u201cThe men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with\nthis generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the\nteaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.\u201d Nineveh\ndid not ask for prodigies: it was converted by the word alone. Men whom\nJesus cannot convert by truths infinitely greater than those announced\nby Jonah, are below the level of the men of Nineveh, idolaters,\nbarbarians. Faith must not rest on marvels alone, nevertheless let us\nremember that faith\u2014though it is higher and more perfect when achieved\nwithout miracles\u2014can by its very fervor accomplish miracles. Hardened\nhearts, locked shut against truth, are not converted even by the\ngreatest miracles. \u201cIf they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither\nwill they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.\u201d He was neglected\nand rejected by the cities which were the scenes of the greatest\nprodigies. \u201cWoe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if\nthe mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon,\nthey would have repented long ago, in sack-cloth and ashes.\u201d\n\nJesus never held that miracles were His exclusive privilege. When they\ncame to tell Him that some man was driving out Demons in His name, He\nanswered, \u201cForbid him not.\u201d This power was not denied to the disciples.\n\u201cHeal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils:\nfreely ye have received, freely give.\u201d\n\nEven charlatanical wizards could perform prodigies which seemed\nmiracles. In His time a certain Simon was doing miracles in Samaria;\neven the disciples of the Pharisees performed miracles. But miracles are\nnot enough to enter into the Kingdom. \u201cMany shall say to Me in that day,\nLord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Thy name and in Thy name cast out\ndevils, and in Thy name do many mighty works? And then will I profess\nunto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, all ye workers of\niniquity.\u201d It is not enough to cast out devils, if thou has not cast out\nthe devil in thee, the devil of pride and cupidity.\n\nEven after His death men will see others perform miracles. \u201cFor there\nshall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great\nsigns and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall\ndeceive the very elect.\u201d I have put you on your guard: do not believe in\nthese signs and these wonders until thou shalt see the Son of Man. The\nmiracles of false prophets do not prove the truth of what they say.\n\nFor all these reasons, Jesus abstained, as often as possible, from\nworking miracles, but He could not always resist the pleadings of the\nsorrowful, and often His pity did not wait for the request. For a\nmiracle is an attribute of faith, and His faith is infinite, and that of\nthe believers very great. But often, as soon as the healing was\ncomplete, He asked the ones He had healed to keep it secret. \u201cSee thou\ntell no man; Go thy way.\u201d Those who do not listen to the truth of\nChrist, because they are troubled by the miracles, should remember the\nprofound saying which was addressed to Thomas, \u201cBlessed are they that\nhave not seen and yet have believed.\u201d\n\n\n                             THE BLIND SEE\n\n\nMen cannot live without three things, bread, health and hope. Deprived\nof everything else men can\u2014raging and cursing\u2014go on living. But if they\nhave not at least these three, they hasten to summon Death, because\nwithout them life is like Death. It is death with suffering added, an\naggravated, embittered, envenomed death, without even the an\u00e6sthetic of\ninsensibility. Hunger is the wasting away of the body; pain makes the\nbody hateful; despair\u2014not to expect anything better, a relief, an\nalleviation\u2014takes the savor out of everything, takes away every reason\nto be, and every reason to act. There are men who do not kill themselves\nbecause suicide is an action.\n\nHe who wishes to draw men to him must give them bread, health and hope.\nHe must feed them, heal them and give them faith in a more beautiful\nlife.\n\nJesus gives this faith. To those who followed Him into the wilderness\nand upon the mountains, He distributed material and spiritual bread. He\nwas not willing to transform stones into loaves, but He made the real\nloaves of bread sufficient for thousands. And the stones which men carry\nin their breasts He changed into loving hearts.\n\nAnd He did not reject the sick. Jesus is no self-tormentor, no\nflagellant. He does not believe that pain is necessary to conquer evil.\nEvil is evil and must be driven away, but pain also is evil. Sorrow of\nthe soul is enough for salvation: why should the body suffer also,\nneedlessly? The old Jews thought of sickness as a punishment: Christians\nbelieve it above all as an aid to conversion.\n\nBut Jesus does not believe in vengeance taken on the innocent, and does\nnot expect that true salvation can be won by ulcers or by hair shirts.\nRender unto the body that which is the body\u2019s due, and unto the soul\nthat which is the soul\u2019s. He likes the friendly supper-table; He does\nnot refuse good old wine; and He does not send away women who pour\nperfumes on His head and on His feet. Jesus can fast many days; He can\nbe satisfied with a bit of bread, with half of a broiled fish; and He\ncan sleep on the ground with His head on a stone; but till it is\nunavoidable He does not seek out want, hunger and suffering. Health\nseems to Him a good thing and the innocent pleasure of dining with\nfriends; a cup of wine drunk in good company, the fragrance of a vase of\nnard, seem good and acceptable to Him also when such things cause no\nsuffering to others.\n\nIf a sick man accosts Him, He cures him. Jesus comes not to deny life,\nbut to affirm it, to institute a happier and more perfect life. He does\nnot purposely seek out the sick. His mission is to drive away spiritual\nsuffering, to bring spiritual joy. But if, by the way, it happens to Him\nto drive out also suffering of the flesh, to quiet pain, to restore,\nalong with the health of the soul, the health also of the body, He\ncannot refuse to do it. He shows Himself adverse to it, for the most\npart, because His aim is higher; and He would not wish to appear in the\neyes of the people like a vagabond wizard, or like the worldly Messiah\nwhom most men were expecting. But since He wishes to conquer evil, and\nthere are men who know Him capable of conquering all evils, His love is\nforced to drive out also those of the body.\n\nWhen, on the road trodden by men of health, there come towards Him\ngroups of lepers, repellent, disfigured, horrible lepers, and when He\nsees that swollen lividness, the scaly skin showing through the torn\nclothes, that scabby, spotted, cracked skin, the withered, wrinkled skin\nwhich deforms the mouth, half-closes the eyes, and puffs up the hands;\nwretched, suffering ghosts, shunned by every one, separated from every\none, disgusting to every one, who are thankful if they have a little\nbread, a saucer for their water, the roof of an old shed for a\nhiding-place; when painfully bringing out the words through their\nswollen, ulcerated lips they beg Him, whom they know to be powerful in\nword and deed, beg Him, their only hope in their despair, for health,\nfor a cure, for a miracle, how could Jesus shun them, as other men did,\nand ignore their prayer?\n\nAnd the epileptics, who writhe in the dust, their faces twisted in a set\nspasm, the froth on their lips; those possessed of devils who howl among\nthe ruined tombs, evil dogs of the night, disconsolate; the paralytics,\ntrunks which have just enough feeling left to suffer, dead bodies\ninhabited by an imprisoned and suppliant soul; and the blind, the awful\nblind, shut up from their birth in the night\u2014foretaste of the blackness\nof the tomb\u2014stumbling in the midst of the fortunate men who go their way\nfreely, the terrified blind, who walk with their heads held high, their\neyes staring, as if the light could reach them from the depths of the\ninfinite, the blind, for whom the world is only a series of more or less\nharsh surfaces, among which they grope; the blind, eternally alone, who\nknow the sun only by its warmth, by the heat on their bodies! How could\nJesus answer \u201cNo\u201d to such wretchedness?\n\n\n                           THE ANSWER TO JOHN\n\n\nJesus heals the sick, but He is in no way like a wizard or an exorcist.\nHe has no recourse to incantation, to amulets, to smoke, veils and\nmystery. He does not call to His aid the powers of Heaven or Hell. For\nHim a word is enough, a strong cry, a gentle accent, a caress. His will\nis enough, and the faith of the petitioner. To them all He puts the\nquestion, \u201cDost thou believe I can do this?\u201d and when the cure is\naccomplished, \u201cGo, thy faith hath made thee whole.\u201d For Jesus the\nmiracle is the union of two wills for good, the living contact between\nthe faith of the healer and the faith of the one healed. \u201cVerily I say\nunto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto\nthis mountain, Remove hence, to yonder place; and it shall remove; and\nnothing shall be impossible unto you. If ye had faith as a grain of\nmustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up\nby the root and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.\u201d\nThose who have no faith, not even as much as the thousandth part of a\ngrain of mustard seed, swear that no man has this power, and that Jesus\nis an impostor.\n\nIn the Gospels the miracles are called by three names:\n\u201cDunameis\u201d\u2014forces; \u201cTerata\u201d\u2014marvels; \u201cSemeis\u201d\u2014signs. They are signs for\nthose who remember the prophecies of the Messiah; they are \u201cmarvels\u201d for\nthose who look for proofs that Christ is the Messiah; but for Jesus and\nin Jesus there are only \u201cDunameis,\u201d mighty works, victorious\nlightning-flashes from a superhuman power. The healings of Jesus are\ntwo-fold; they are healings not only of bodies but of souls, and it is\nsoul-sickness which Jesus wishes especially to heal, so that the Kingdom\nof Heaven may be founded also on the earth.\n\nMost sickness is two-fold, mental and physical, and lends itself with\nsingular exactitude to metaphors and allegory. Jesus cured the maimed,\nthe halt, the fevered, a man with the dropsy, a woman with an issue of\nblood. He healed also a sword-wound\u2014Malchus\u2019 ear struck off by Peter on\nthe night of Gethsemane\u2014this only in order that His law ... \u201cdo good to\nthose who wrong you\u201d ... might be observed to the very last. But Jesus\nhealed more often those possessed by devils, the paralytics, the lepers,\nthe blind, the deaf-mutes. The old name for mental diseases is\npossession by devils; even Professor Aristotle believed in possession by\ndevils. It was believed that lunatics, epileptics, hysterical patients,\nwere invaded by malign spirits. The contradictory and often merely\nverbal explanations of the moderns does not invalidate the fact that\ndemoniacs, in many cases, are such in the real sense of the word. This\nlearned and popular explanation lent itself admirably to that\nallegorical and figurative teaching of which Jesus was so fond. He\nwished to found the Kingdom of God and supplant that of Satan. It was\npart of His mission to drive out demons. The difference between bodily\ndisorders and actual malign obsessions was of no importance: between\nbodily infirmities and spiritual infirmities there is a parallelism of\nnomenclature, based on real affinity. There is a likeness between the\nmaniac and the epileptic, between the paralytic and the slothful, the\nvile and the leprous, the blind and he who cannot see the truth, the\ndeaf and he who will not listen to the truth, the cured and the\nresurrected.\n\nWhen John, shut up in prison, sent two disciples to ask Jesus if He were\nthe awaited prophet, or whether they should await another, Jesus\nanswered them, \u201cGo your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and\nheard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,\nthe deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.\u201d\nJesus did not separate the gospel from miraculous cures. They are\nsimilar deeds; by that answer he meant that he had cured bodies in order\nthat the souls might be better disposed to receive the gospel.\n\nThose who did not see the light of the sun can now see the light of\ntruth; those who did not hear even the words of men can now hear the\nwords of God; those who were possessed of Satan are freed from Satan;\nthose who were foul and ulcerated are clean as children; those who could\nnot move, who were strengthless and shrunken, now follow my footsteps;\nthose who were dead to the life of the soul have risen at a word from me\n... and the poor, after the Good News, are richer than the wealthy.\nThese are my credentials, my letters proving my legitimacy.\n\nJesus, Healer and Liberator, is not what the bad faith of His modern\nenemies wish to imagine Him, in order to gild once more their\ncomfortable paganism and to protect it against asceticism. \u201cHe is the\nGod,\u201d they say, \u201cof the sick, the weak, the dirty, the wretched, the\nstrengthless, the servants.\u201d But all that Christ does is to give health,\nstrength, purity, wealth, and liberty. He draws near to the sick\nprecisely in order to drive away their sickness; to the weak to lift\nthem out of their weakness; to the dirty in order to cleanse them; to\nslaves in order to free them. He does not love the sick only because\nthey are sick: He loves health, just as the men of antiquity did, and He\nloves it so greatly that He longs to give it back to those who have lost\nit. Jesus is the prophet of happiness, the promiser of life, of life\nthat is worthier to be lived. The miracles are only pledges of His\npromise.\n\n\n                              TALITHA QUMI\n\n\n\u201cThe dead shall arise!\u201d This is one of the signs which are to suffice\nfor John the Baptist in prison. To the good sister, to the hard-working\nMartha, Jesus said, \u201cI am the resurrection and the life: he that\nbelieveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever\nliveth, and believeth in me, shall never die.\u201d The resurrection is a\nrebirth in faith, immortality is the permanent affirmation of this\nfaith.\n\nThe Evangelists know three resurrections, historical events narrated\nwith a sober but explicit statement of the evidence. Jesus raised up\nthree who were dead: a young lad, a little girl, and a friend.\n\nHe was entering Nain, \u201cthe beautiful\u201d set on a little hill some miles\nfrom Nazareth, and met a funeral procession. They were carrying to the\ngrave the young son of a widow. She had lost her husband a short time\nbefore; this son alone had been left to her; now they were carrying away\nthe son in turn for burial. Jesus saw the mother walking among the\nwomen, weeping with the amazed and smothered grief of mothers which is\nso profoundly moving. She had only two men in all the world who loved\nher; the first one was dead, the second was now dead; one after the\nother, both of them disappeared. She was left alone, a woman alone\nwithout a man. Without a husband, without a son, without a help, a prop,\na comfort. Gone the love that was a memory of youth, gone the love that\nwas hope for declining years. Gone both those poor, simple loves. A\nhusband can console his wife for the loss of their son; a son can make\nup for the loss of a husband. If only one had been left! Now her lips\nwere never to know another kiss.\n\nJesus had compassion on this mother; her grief was like an accusation.\n\u201cWeep not,\u201d he said.\n\nHe went to the side of the cataleptic and touched him. The boy was lying\nthere stretched out, wrapped in his shroud, but with his face uncovered,\nset in the stern paleness of the dead. The bearers halted; all were\nsilent; even the mother, startled, was quiet.\n\n\u201cYoung man, I say unto thee, Arise.\u201d And he that was dead sat up, and\nbegan to speak. And He delivered him to his mother. He \u201cdelivered\u201d him\nbecause he was now hers. Jesus had taken him from the land of death to\ngive him back to her who could not live without him, that a mother might\ncease from weeping.\n\nAnother day as he was returning from Gadara, a father fell at His feet.\nHis only little daughter lay at the point of death. The man\u2019s name was\nJairus, and although he was a leader at the Synagogue he believed in\nJesus. They went along together. When they were half-way, a servant met\nthem, saying, \u201cThy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.\u201d But when\nJesus heard it, He answered him, saying, \u201cFear not: believe only, and\nshe shall be made whole.\u201d And when He came into the house He suffered no\nman to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the\nmother of the maiden. And all wept, and bewailed her: but He said, \u201cWeep\nnot; she is not dead, but sleepeth.\u201d And they laughed Him to scorn,\nknowing that she was dead. And He put them all out, and took her by the\nhand, and called, saying, \u201cMaid, arise.\u201d And her spirit came again, and\nshe arose straightway: and He commanded to give her meat. She was not a\nvisible spirit, a ghost, but a living body, awakened a little weak,\nready for a new day after feverish dreams.\n\n\n                            LAZARUS AWAKENED\n\n\nLazarus and Jesus loved each other. More than once Jesus had eaten in\nhis house at Bethany with him and his sisters. Now one day Lazarus fell\nill, and sent word of it to Jesus. And Jesus answered, \u201cThis sickness is\nnot unto death.\u201d Two days went by. But on the third day He said to His\ndisciples, \u201cOur friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him\nout of sleep.\u201d He was near to Bethany when Martha came to meet Him as if\nto reproach Him.\n\n\u201cLord, if Thou hadst been here my brother had not died.\u201d And a little\nlater Mary too said, \u201cLord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not\ndied.\u201d Their repeated reproach touched Jesus, not because He feared He\nhad come too late, but because He was always saddened by the lack of\nfaith even of those dearest to Him.\n\n\u201cAnd he said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and\nsee.... Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave.\nIt was a cave and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the\nstone.\u201d\n\nMartha, the housekeeper, the practical, concrete character, interrupted,\n\u201cLord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.\u201d But\nJesus did not heed her, \u201cTake away the stone.\u201d And the stone was rolled\naway. Jesus made a short prayer, His face lifted towards the sky, drew\nnear to the hole and called His friend in a loud voice, \u201cLazarus, come\nforth.\u201d\n\nAnd Lazarus came forth, stumbling, for his hands and feet were shrouded\nand his face covered with a napkin.\n\n\u201cLoose him, and let him go.\u201d\n\nAnd all four, followed by the Twelve and by a throng of thunderstruck\nJews, returned to the house. Lazarus\u2019 eyes grew wonted again to the\nlight. He walked on his feet, although with pain, and used his hands.\nMartha, moving rapidly, got together the best dinner she could in the\nconfusion after four days of demoralized sorrow\u2014and the man come back to\nlife after death ate with his sister and his friends. Mary could\nscarcely swallow a mouthful of food, nor take her eyes from the\nconqueror of death, who, having wiped the tears from His eyes, broke His\nbread and drank His wine as if this day were like any other day.\n\nThese are the resurrections narrated by the Evangelists, and from their\naccount we can draw some observations which will allow us to dispense\nwith learned, that is to say with unsuitable, commentaries. In all His\nlife, Jesus raised from the dead only three persons, and this He did,\nnot to make a show of His power and to strike the imagination of the\npeople, but only because He was touched by the sorrow of those who loved\nthe dead, to console a mother, a father, two sisters. Two of these\nresurrections were public; one, that of the daughter of Jairus, was\naccomplished in the presence of very few, and Jesus asked those few to\nsay nothing about it.\n\nAnother point, and the most important; in all these three cases Jesus\nspoke to the dead person as if he were not dead but only asleep. He had\nno time to say anything about the condition of the son of the widow,\nbecause that decision was taken too rapidly, but even to him, He said,\nas to a child, idly oversleeping, \u201cYoung man, I say unto thee, arise.\u201d\nWhen they told Him that the daughter of Jairus was dead, He answered,\n\u201cWeep not, she is not dead but sleepeth.\u201d When they confirmed the news\nof the death of Lazarus, He insisted, \u201cHe is not dead but sleepeth.\u201d He\nmade no claim to bring back from the dead, only to awaken. Death for Him\nwas only a sleep, a deeper sleep than the common sleep of everyday, a\nsleep only to be broken by a superhuman love. This love was for the\nsurvivors more than for the dead; it was the love of one whose tears\nflow at the sight of others\u2019 tears.\n\n\n                          THE MARRIAGE AT CANA\n\n\nJesus liked to go to weddings. For the man of the people who very seldom\ngives way to lavishness and gayety, who never eats and drinks as much as\nhe would like, the day of his wedding is the most remarkable of all his\nlife, a rich passage of generous gayety in his long, drab, commonplace\nexistence. Wealthy people who can have banquets every evening, moderns\nwho gulp down in a day what would have sufficed for a week to the poor\nman of olden times, no longer feel the solemn joyfulness of that day.\nBut the poor man in the old days, the workingman, the countryman, the\nOriental who lived all the year round on barley-bread, dried figs and a\nfew fish and eggs, and only on great days killed a lamb or a kid, the\nman accustomed to stint himself, to calculate closely, to dispense with\nmany things, to be satisfied with what is strictly necessary, saw in\nweddings the truest and greatest festival of his life. The other\nfestivals, those of the people and those of the Church, were the same\nfor everybody, and they are repeated every twelfth month; but a wedding\nwas his very own festival and only came once for him in all the cycle of\nhis years.\n\nThen all the delights and splendors of the world were centered around\nthe bride and groom, to make the day unforgettable for them. Torches\nwent at night to meet the groom with singers, dancers and musicians. The\nhouse was filled with abundance, all sorts of meats cooked in all sorts\nof ways; wine-skins of wine leaning against the walls, vases of unguents\nfor the friends; light, music, perfumes, gayety, dancing; nothing was\nlacking for the gratification of the senses. On that one day all the\nthings which are the daily privilege of princes and rich men triumphed\nin the poor man\u2019s house.\n\nJesus was pleased by this innocent joy, and touched by the exultation of\nthose simple souls, snatched for those few hours from the gloomy,\nniggardly poverty of their everyday life. In weddings He saw more than a\nmere festival. Marriage is the supreme effort of the youth of man to\nconquer Fate with love, with the union of two affections, with the\njoining of two loving youths. It is the affirmation of a double faith in\nlife, in the continuity and stability of life. The man who marries is a\nhostage in the hands of human society. Making himself the head of a new\nsociety and father of a new generation, he frees himself while he\nprofesses to bind himself. Marriage is a promise of happiness, and an\nacceptance of suffering. Illusion and conscience have their part in it.\nIn the shadow of tragedy, which sends over the future a trembling hope\nof joy, is the heroic and holy greatness of marriage, which cannot be\ndispensed with, and yet, in the light of selfish reason, should not be\naccepted. Who has ever seen, except in this case, a condemnation so\neagerly longed for?\n\nFor Jesus marriage has a still deeper meaning: it is the beginning of\nsomething eternal. Whom God hath joined, man cannot put asunder. When\nhearts have been united and bodies joined, no law nor sword can sever\nthem. In this our human life, changeable, ephemeral, evasive, failing,\nfrail, there is only one thing that ought to last forever till death and\nbeyond death,\u2014marriage, the only link of eternity in the perishable\nchain.\n\nJesus often speaks of weddings and banquets. Among the most beautiful\nparables is that of the King who sent out invitations to the wedding of\nhis son, that other of the Virgins who wait by night for the arrival of\nthe bridegroom\u2019s friend; and that of the Lord who prepared a banquet.\nChrist compares Himself to a bridegroom feasted by His friends when He\nanswers those who are scandalized because His disciples eat and drink.\n\nHe did not despise wine, and when with His Twelve, He drinks that wine\nwhich is His blood, He thinks of the new wine of the Kingdom. It is not\nsurprising therefore that He should have accepted the invitation to the\nwedding at Cana. Every one knows the miracle He wrought that day. Six\njars of water were changed by Jesus into wine, and into wine better than\nthat which had been drunk. Old rationalists say that this was a present\nof wine kept hidden until then, a surprise of Jesus at the end of the\nmeal, in honor of the bride and groom. And six hundred quarts of wine,\nthey add, are a fine present, showing the liberality of the Master.\n\nThese Voltairian vermin have not noticed that only John, the man of\nallegories, the philosophizer, tells of the Marriage at Cana. It was not\na sleight-of-hand trick, but a true transmutation, performed with the\npower of Spirit over matter, and at the same time it is one of those\nParables in fact, instead of in words, a Parable told by actual deeds.\n\nBut whoever does not stop at the literal meaning of the story, sees that\nthe water turned into wine symbolizes the new epoch which begins with\nthe Gospel. Before the Annunciation and the vigil in the desert, water\nwas enough; the world was left to sorrow. But now the joyful tidings are\ncome, the Kingdom is at hand, happiness is near. Men are about to pass\nfrom sadness to joy, from the widowhood of the old law to the new\nmarriage with the new law. The Bridegroom is with us. Now is no time for\nsadness, but for enthusiasm. There will be no more fasting but\nrejoicings; no more water but wine.\n\nRemember the words of the steward to the Bridegroom, \u201cEvery man at the\nbeginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then\nthat which is worse: but Thou hast kept the good wine until now.\u201d Such\nwas the old usage, the usage of the Jews of old times and of the\nheathen. But Jesus meant to overturn this old amphictyonic usage also.\nThe men of old gave the good and then the poor; He, after the good wine,\ngives better. Sour, unripened wine, the poor quality which was drunk at\nthe beginning, symbolizes the wine of the old law, the wine that has\nturned sour and can no longer be drunk. Christ\u2019s wine, finer and\nstronger, which cheers the heart and warms the blood, is the new wine of\nthe Kingdom, wine intended for the marriage of Heaven and earth, wine\nwhich gives that divine intoxication which will be called later, \u201cthe\nfoolishness of God.\u201d\n\nThe marriage of Cana, which in John is the first miracle, is an allegory\nof the evangelical revolution.\n\n\n                         THE ACCURSED FIG-TREE\n\n\nAnother parable expressed in the form of a miracle is that of the\nwithered fig-tree. One morning towards Easter, returning from Bethany to\nJerusalem, Jesus was hungry. He came up to a fig-tree and found only\nleaves. It was too early to expect fruit, even from the earliest\nspecies. Yet Jesus, according to Matthew and Mark, was angry at the poor\ntree and cursed it.\n\nAccording to Matthew, \u201cLet no fruit grow on thee hence-forward forever.\u201d\nAnd presently the fig-tree withered away.\n\nAccording to Mark, \u201cNo man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever.... And\nin the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig-tree dried up from\nthe roots.\u201d\n\nIn the Evangelists the account of the curse is followed by a return to\nthe thought many times expressed by Jesus, that anything can be obtained\nif asked for with powerful faith.\n\nOthers instead see here a metaphorical lament which many times returned\nto Jesus\u2019 lips. The fig-tree is Israel, the old Judaic religion, which\nfrom now on will bear only unnourishing leaves of rites and ceremonies,\nleaves fated to shrivel without nourishing men. Jesus, hungry for\njustice, hungry for love, sought among the leaves for sustaining fruits\nof mercy and holiness. He did not find them. Israel did not feed His\nhunger nor fulfill His hope. From now on nothing can be expected from\nthe old trunk, leafy but sterile. May it be dead to all eternity! Other\nraces will henceforth be fruitful.\n\nThe miracle of the cursed fig-tree is at bottom nothing more than a very\napparent gloss of the parable of the sterile fig-tree in Luke. \u201cA\ncertain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and\nsought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of\nhis vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this\nfig-tree and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?\u201d\n\nAnd he answering said unto him, \u201cLord, let it alone this year also, till\nI shall dig about it and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well: and if\nnot, then after that thou shalt cut it down.\u201d\n\nThe tree was not condemned at first, but after three years of sterility,\nand even then by the intercession of the workman, was given a year\u2019s\nrespite, and in that year the plant was handled and treated with loving\ncare. That was to be the final test: only if all care was unavailing was\nit to be hewn down and burned.\n\nFor three years Jesus had preached to the Jews, and He was thinking of\ngiving them up, and announcing the Kingdom to others. But one of His\nworkers, a disciple still attached to his people, asked for mercy; one\nrespite more. We shall see whether even great love could convert this\nadulterous and bastard generation. But when they were on the road from\nBethany, Judaism had been put to the test, Christ had only His Cross to\nexpect. The evil fig-tree of Judaism deserved to be burned and from that\ntime on no one will eat its tardy, withered fruit.\n\n\n                            BREAD AND FISHES\n\n\nOn two occasions there was a multiplication of bread, alike in all\ndetails except the proportions of the quantities involved,\u2014that is, in\nexactly what give them their real spiritual meaning.\n\nThousands of poor people had followed Jesus into a place in the\nwilderness, far from any settlements. For three days they had not eaten,\nso hungry were they for the bread of life which is His word. But on the\nthird day, Jesus took pity on them\u2014there were women and children among\nthem\u2014and ordered His disciples to feed the multitude. But they had only\na little bread and a few fishes, and there were thousands of mouths.\nThen Jesus had them all sit down on the ground on the green grass, in\ncircles of fifty to a hundred, He blessed the small amount of food they\nhad; all were satisfied, and baskets of the broken pieces were left.\n\nThe less there is of the true bread, the bread of truth, the more it\nsatisfies. The old law is abundant, copious, divided into innumerable\nsections. There are hundreds of precepts written in the books and\nthousands more invented by the Scribes and Pharisees. At first sight it\nseems a gigantic table where a whole race could be satisfied. But all\nthese precepts, these rules and formulas are only dry leaves, shavings,\ntrash. No one can live on such fare. The more numerous they are, the\nless they satisfy. Humble and simple people cannot satisfy their hunger\nfor justice with these innumerable but inedible viands. Instead, one\nWord alone sums up all the words and transcends the petrified bigotry\nbeloved by the complacent and satiated; one Word which fills the soul,\nwhich reconciles hearts, which calms the hunger for justice; the\nmultitudes will be satisfied and there will be enough to eat also for\nthose who were not present on that day. Spiritual bread is in itself\nmiraculous. A loaf of wheat bread is only enough for a very few, and\nwhen they have finished it, there is no more for any one! But the bread\nof truth, that mystic bread of Joy is never finished, can never be\nfinished. Give it out to thousands and it is always there; distribute it\nto millions, and it is always intact. Every one has taken his part as\nthe men and women in the wilderness did, and as much as was given out,\nso much the more remains for those who are to come.\n\nAnother day when the disciples found themselves without bread, Jesus\nadmonished them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.\nAnd the disciples, almost always slow to understand Him, said among\nthemselves, \u201cIt is because we have taken no bread.\u201d Which when Jesus\nperceived he said unto them, \u201cO ye of little faith, why reason ye among\nyourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand\nneither remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many\nbaskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand and\nhow many baskets ye took up? How is it that ye do not understand that I\nspake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the\nleaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?\u201d That is, of the blind\nguardians of the degenerate law.\n\nThey are the Twelve, the chosen, the blest, the faithful, and yet they\ncannot understand at once, do not sufficiently believe.\n\nAgain in the boat, the night of the tempest, Jesus was obliged to\nreprove them. The Master had gone to sleep in the stern, His head on the\npillow of one of the rowers. Suddenly the wind rose, a storm came down\non the lake, the waves beat against the boat and it seemed from one\nmoment to the next that they would be wrecked. The disciples, alarmed,\nawakened Jesus, \u201cMaster, carest thou not that we perish?\u201d And he arose,\nand rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, \u201cPeace, be still.\u201d And the\nwind ceased and there was a great calm. And He said unto them, \u201cWhy are\nye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?\u201d And they feared\nexceedingly, and said one to another, \u201cWhat manner of man is this, that\neven the wind and the sea obey him?\u201d\n\nThere is one, Simon Peter, who has no fear. Not only does his nature\ntranscend the human, but great is his faith, great his love, great his\npower of will. Nothing animate nor inanimate can resist these three\ngreat qualities. A man who possesses them has renounced all that is\ntemporal and is victorious over time. He has renounced the good things\nof the flesh, and for this reason can save the flesh; he has renounced\nmaterial things and so is master of matter. Every one can partake of\nthis power. Faith is sufficient, but it must not be faith only in\noneself.\n\nA few years before Christ, a great Italian, captain in many wars,\ncorrupt but a fitting ruler over the putrefaction of the Republic, was\non the sea, on a real sea, in a boat with a few rowers, in search of an\narmy which had not come up in time to win the victory for him. The wind\nbegan to blow, the tempest bore down on the boat and the pilot wished to\nturn back to the harbor. But C\u00e6sar, taking the hand of the pilot, said\nto him, \u201cGo forward, fear not, C\u00e6sar is with thee and his fortune sails\nwith you.\u201d These words of haughty self-confidence heartened the crew;\nevery one, as if a little of C\u00e6sar\u2019s strength had entered into his soul,\ndid his best to overcome the opposition of the sea. But notwithstanding\nthe efforts of the seamen the ship was nearly sunk and was obliged to\nturn back. C\u00e6sar\u2019s faith was only pride and ambition, faith in himself:\nChrist\u2019s faith was all love, love for the Father, love for men.\n\nWith this love He could walk to meet the boat of the disciples tacking\nagainst a contrary wind, and could step upon the water as on the grass\nof a meadow. They thought in the darkness that it was a specter, and\nonce again He was obliged to reassure them, \u201cBe of good cheer: it is I;\nbe not afraid.\u201d As soon as He was in the boat, the wind fell and in a\nfew minutes they reached the shore. Once again they were astounded\nbecause, says the honest Mark, \u201cFor they considered not the miracle of\nthe loaves: for their heart was hardened.\u201d\n\nThis comparison may seem ingenuous, but it is revealing, for the miracle\nof the loaves is the foundation of all the others. Every parable spoken\nin poetic words or expressed with visible prodigies was as bread\nprepared in different manners, so that His own followers, at least His\nvery own, should understand the one needful truth that the Spirit is the\nonly fare worthy of man, and that the man who is nourished on that fare\nis master of the world.\n\n\n                         NOT SECRETIVE: A POET\n\n\nJesus seems at first sight secretive. He orders those affected by\nmiracles to say to no man who has cured them; He wishes prayers and\ncharity to be done secretly; when the disciples recognize that He is the\nChrist, He charges them not to repeat it; after the Transfiguration He\nbids the three keep silence, and when He teaches He uses parables which\nall men are not capable of understanding.\n\nOn further thought, on really considering the matter, it is apparent\nthat Jesus has nothing of the esoteric. He has no secret doctrine to\nimpart to a few acolytes. His words are public and open. He always\nspeaks in the public squares of cities, on the beaches of lakes, in the\nSynagogue, in the midst of the people. He forbids speaking of His\nmiracles in order that He may not be confused with wizards and\nexorcists; He commands to do good secretly in order to keep vainglory\nfrom destroying merit; He does not wish the Twelve to proclaim Him the\nChrist before His entry into Jerusalem, the public inauguration of His\nMessiahship; and He speaks in parables to be better understood by the\nsimple who listen more willingly to a story than to a sermon, and\nremember a narration better than an argument.\n\nThree of the Evangelists report a speech of Jesus, which seems to\ncontradict this view. \u201cUnto you,\u201d He is speaking to the disciples, \u201cit\nis given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but to others it\nis not given; therefore I speak to them in parables that seeing they\nmight not see, and hearing they might not understand.\u201d\n\nBut Jesus means only to say this, \u201cYou understand these mysteries, but\nthe many do not understand them, although they have ears and spirits\nlike yours. And to them that they may understand I speak in\nparables,\u2014that is, in a figurative language of facts because it is\neasier and more familiar.\u201d You teach children with fables and the simple\nwith stories, and \u201cthe many\u201d have remained like the simple and the\nchildish. To overcome the slowness of their minds I use words adapted to\ntheir nature. They are all fancy, and little intellect; and the parables\nare an appeal to the imagination more than to the reasoning powers. I do\nnot employ them therefore to hide the truth, but the better to reveal it\nto those who could not see it in a purely rational form. For if then\nthey do not understand, it is the fault of their obstinacy, which often\ncloses the eyes and ears of the soul.\n\nJesus had no mysteries to dissemble. It was His wish that all, even the\nmost humble and ignorant, should understand Him. The parables were not\nmade to hide His teaching from the profane, but to make it more explicit\nand understandable to every one. That sometimes even the intelligence of\nthe Twelve is inferior to this task is a melancholy conclusion by no\nmeans unknown to Jesus.\n\nThe marvelous content of His message has cast into the shade His poetic\noriginality, not less marvelous. Jesus never wrote\u2014once only He wrote on\nthe sand, and the wind destroyed forever His handwriting\u2014but in the\nmidst of a people of powerful imagination, of the people who wrote the\nPsalter, the story of Ruth, the book of Job, the Song of Songs, He would\nhave been one of the greatest poets of all times. His victorious\nyouthfulness of spirit, the racy, popular language of the country where\nHe grew up, the books He had read, few but among the richest of all\npoetry\u2014His loving communion with the life of the fields and of animals\nand above all His divine and passionate yearning to give light to those\nwho suffer in the dark, to save those who are being lost forever, to\ncarry supreme happiness to the most unhappy (because true poetry does\nnot catch its fire from the light of the lantern but at the light of the\nstars and of the sun, is not found in the writings left behind by\ngreat-grandfathers, but in love, in sorrow in the deeply moved soul);\nthese things combined made of Jesus a poet, an inventor of living and\neternal images with which he achieved a miracle on which the Evangelists\nmake no comment,\u2014the miracle of communicating the highest truth by the\nmeans of stories so simple, familiar, full of grace that after twenty\ncenturies they shine with that unique youth which is eternity. Some of\nthese stories are only idyllic or epic restatements of revelations which\nat other times He expounded in abstract words; but there are some which\nexpress things never said in any other form in His teaching. The\nparables are the imaginative comments on the Sermon on the Mount, such\nas could be made only by a poet who merits the title of divine more\ntruly than any other poet ever born.\n\n\n                                 YEAST\n\n\nCity ladies do not make their own bread, but old countrywomen and\nhousewives know what yeast is. A handful of dough from the last baking\nas big as a child\u2019s hand, wet with warm water and put into the new\ndough, raises even as much as three measures of flour.\n\nAmong the seeds of plants that of the mustard is among the smallest; it\ncan hardly be seen, but from this tiny little seed, if it is put into\ngood earth, springs up a fine shrub, and the fowls of the air lodge in\nthe branches of it. The grain of wheat is not large, the farmer throws\nit into the ground and then goes on about his other affairs; he sleeps,\nhe goes away from home and comes back. Days pass and nights pass, no\nthought is given to the seed, but underneath there in the moist, plowed\nfield the seed has germinated. There comes out a blade of green and at\nthe top of this blade an ear, at first green and graceful, then little\nby little becoming golden grain. Now the field is ready for the mowing\nand the farmer can commence his harvesting.\n\nLikewise with the Kingdom of Heaven and the first news of it. A word\nseems nothing. What is a word? Syllables, sounds, which come from the\nlips, enter with difficulty into the ears and only when they come from\nthe heart find other hearts; it is a little thing, small, a breath, a\nsigh, a sound which comes and goes and the wind carries it away. And yet\nthe word of the Kingdom is like yeast. If it goes into good flour, clean\nhonest flour not adulterated with other grains, it ferments and grows.\nIt is like the seed of the fields which germinates deep under the\nground, patient as the earth which hides it, which, when Spring comes,\ngrows green and strong and with the beginning of summer, lo, the harvest\nis ready!\n\nThe gospel is made up of few words, \u201cThe Kingdom is at hand, change your\nsouls!\u201d but if it falls into the heart of men ready for it, of simple\nmen who wish to become great, of righteous men who wish to become holy,\nof sinners who seek in good for that happiness which they have vainly\nsought in evil, then those words take root in the depths, put out buds\nand shoots, flourish up in clusters and ears, and luxuriate in a summer\nnever to be followed by the decay of Autumn.\n\nOnly a few men of those living about Christ believed in the Kingdom and\nprepared themselves for the great day. Only a few, insignificant men,\nscattered like tiny particles of yeast in the midst of the divided\nnations and the immense Empires, but these few dozen insignificant men\ngathered together in the midst of a predestined people were to become,\nthrough the contagion of their example, thousands upon thousands, and\nonly three hundred years after them, in the place of Tiberius, ruled a\nman who bowed the knee before the heirs of the Apostles.\n\nBut men must renounce everything else if they are to enjoy the promised\nKingdom. Worldly-minded men do the same in their temporal affairs. If a\nman working in another\u2019s field discovers a treasure-store, he quickly\nhides it again and hurries to sell all that he has to buy that field. If\na merchant looking for marvelous jewels worthy to be offered to\nmonarchs, finds a pearl larger and purer than any he has ever seen, he\ngoes and sells everything that he has, even the other pearls of less\nprice, to buy this unique and wonderful pearl.\n\nIf the workman and the merchant, material-minded men, who are satisfied\nwith frail acquisitions, are thus ready to sell all their goods to\nacquire a treasure which seems to them more precious than anything they\npossess, even though it is only a material and perishable treasure, how\nmuch more reason there is for men to renounce what they hold most dear,\nin order to achieve the Kingdom of God. If the laboring-man and the\nmerchant for a money gain, likely to be stolen or destroyed, thus\nconsent to a provisional sacrifice which will give them a hundred per\ncent profit, ought not we for an infinitely greater, infinitely higher\nprofit, throw away the best we have, even if it has seemed until now of\ninestimable price?\n\nBut before we make this renunciation we must take thought and be sure\nthat what remains to us will be enough to take us to the end of this new\nundertaking. We must measure the forces of our soul, that it may not\nhappen to us as to the man who wished to build up a tower, a beautiful\ntower which would soar up to the sky like that of Jerusalem. He took no\naccount of the cost but called the diggers, had the foundations\nexcavated; called the masons and had the four walls of the foundations\nbegun; but when the tower had scarcely been raised above the level of\nthe earth, and was not yet as high as the roof of a house, he was\nobliged to stop because he had no more money to pay for the mortar, the\nstones, the bricks and the working men; and the tower remained thus, low\nand unsightly, in memory of his presumption: and his neighbors mocked at\nhim.\n\nA king who wants to make war on another king first takes account of his\nsoldiers, and if he can count only on ten thousand and the other has\ntwenty thousand, he puts off any idea of war, and sends an embassy of\npeace before his enemy can take the first hostile step. He who is not\nsure of himself, of being able to conquer to the last, does not follow\nChrist. For the foundation of the Kingdom is infinitely harder work than\nthe building of a tower, and the creation of the new man is war not less\nharsh than external war, although silent and inner.\n\n\n                              THE BANQUET\n\n\nOnly the clean of heart can enter into the Kingdom. The Kingdom is an\neternal feast, and only those dressed for a feast can go there. There\nwas a King who celebrated his son\u2019s wedding, and those whom he invited\ndid not come. Then the King called in the common people, the passers-by,\nthe beggars, every one; but when the King came into the banqueting hall\nand saw one of the guests all filthy with grease and mud, he had him\ncast outside the door, to gnash his teeth in the coldness of night.\n\nAt the banquet of the Kingdom if the first called do not come, all are\naccepted; even the wretched and the sinners. The King had invited first\nthe chosen people; but one had bought a piece of ground, another five\nyoke of oxen, a third had taken a wife that day. They were all deep in\ntheir affairs, and some did not even trouble to send an excuse. Then the\nKing sent his servants to pick up out of the streets the blind, the\npoor, the maimed and the halt, the lowest of the rabble; and still there\nwas room. Then he commanded that those who passed in front of his palace\nshould be forced to come in, whoever they might be; and the banquet\nbegan. It was a royal banquet, a rich and magnificent feast; but after\nall, it consisted in enjoying lamb and fish, in getting drunk on wine\nand cider. At the break of day the bonfire was burned out, the tables\nwere cleared, every one had to return to his home and to his poverty. If\nsome of those whom the King first invited preferred another material\npleasure to this material pleasure it was pardonable.\n\nBut the invitation to the banquet of the Kingdom is a promise of\nspiritual happiness, absolute, satisfying, perpetual. Something else\nthan the passing amusements of terrestrial life: nauseating drunkenness,\nfood that distends the stomach, sensual pleasures that leave a man\nbone-weary and defiled. And yet the men whom Jesus chose among all other\nmen, and called first of all to the divine feast of the reborn, did not\nrespond. They made wry faces, complained, slipped away and continued\ntheir habitual low actions. They preferred the rubbish of carnal goods\nto the splendor of high hope which is the only reasonable reason for\nliving.\n\nThen all the others were called in their place: beggars instead of the\nrich, sinners instead of Pharisees, women of the streets instead of fine\nladies, the sick and sorrowing instead of the strong and happy.\n\nEven the latest arrivals if they come in time will be admitted to the\nfeast. The master of the vineyard saw in the marketplace certain\nlaborers who were waiting for work, sent them out to prune his vines,\nand agreed on their wages. Later at noon-day he saw others without work\nand sent also those; and still later more again, and he sent them all.\nAnd they all worked, some at pruning and some at hoeing, and when the\nevening came the master gave the same pay to all. But those who had\nbegun in the morning early, murmured, \u201cWhy do those who have worked less\nthan we receive the same payment?\u201d But the master answered one of them\nand said, \u201cDidst not thou agree with me for a penny; why then dost thou\nlament? If it is my pleasure to give the same to the working men of the\nlast hour, is that robbing you others?\u201d\n\nThe apparent injustice of the master is only a more generous justice. To\nall he gives what he has promised, and he who arrived last but works\nwith equal hope has the same right as the others to enjoy that Kingdom\nfor which he has labored until the night.\n\nWoe to him who comes too late! No one knows the exact day, but after\nthat hour he who has not gone in will knock at the door, and it will not\nbe opened to him, and he will mourn in outer darkness.\n\nThe master has gone to the wedding and the servants do not know when he\nwill come back. Fortunate are those who have waited for him and whom he\nwill find awake. The master himself will seat them at the table and will\nserve them. But if he find them sleeping, if no one is ready to receive\nhim, if they make him knock at the door before opening it, if they come\nto meet him disheveled, tousled, half-clad, and if he finds in the house\nno lamp lighted, no water warmed, he will take the servants by the arm\nand drive them out without pity.\n\nEvery one should be ready because the Son of Man is like a thief in the\nnight who sends no word beforehand when he will come. Or like a\nbridegroom who has been detained by some one in the street. In the house\nof the bride there are ten virgins who are waiting to go to meet him\nwith the light of the procession. Five, the wise virgins, take oil for\ntheir lamps, and wait to hear the voices and the steps of the\napproaching bridegroom. The other five, the foolish, do not think of the\noil, and, tired of waiting, fall asleep. And suddenly there is the sound\nof the nuptial procession arriving. The five wise virgins light their\nlamps and run out into the street joyfully to welcome the bridegroom.\nThe other five wake up with a start and ask their companions to give\nthem a little oil. But the others say, \u201cWhy did you not provide for that\nsooner? Go and buy some.\u201d And the foolish run from one house to another\nto get a little oil; but everybody is asleep, and nobody answers them,\nand the shops are closed and the roaming dogs bark at their heels. They\ngo back to the house of the wedding, but now the door is closed. The\nfive wise virgins are already there and feasting with the bridegroom.\nThe five foolish virgins knock and beg and cry out, but no one comes to\nopen for them. Through the cracks in the window casings they see the\nglowing lights of the supper. They hear the clatter of the dishes, the\nclinking of the cups, the songs of the young men, the sound of the\nmusical instruments, but they cannot enter. They must stay there until\nmorning, in the dark, and the wind. Shut out from the pleasures of the\nevening festival, they tremble and shake in terror.\n\n\n                            THE NARROW GATE\n\n\n\u201cEnter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the\nway, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:\nBecause strait is the gate, narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,\nand few there be that find it.\u201d Those who will try to enter will fail,\nbecause the master of the house, when he has shut his door, will no\nlonger recognize any one.\n\nUntil the great day, until it is too late, \u201cAsk and it shall be given to\nyou; seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.\u201d\nEven hard, slothful, obstinate men give way to persistent entreaty. If\neven men are not always insensible to pleadings how much surer will be\nthe response from a Father who loves us?\n\nA man at midnight knocks at the door of a friend and wakens him. Through\nthe door he says to him, \u201cFriend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of\nmine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before\nhim.\u201d But the other, still half asleep, replies, \u201cTrouble me not: for I\nam tired, and I do not wish to arise. And here in my bed I have my\nchildren who are asleep and if I get up I will wake them and chill\nthem.\u201d But the other will not give up, and knocks again on the door and\nraises his voice and begs with clasped hands that the other one will do\nhim this service, for he has no other friends near, and the hour is late\nand his guest hungry and waiting for him. And he storms so at the door\nthat his friend gets out of bed and lets him come in and gives him as\nmany loaves as he needs. The friend was weak, but good-hearted. And even\nthe bad-hearted do as he does. There was in a certain city a judge who\ncared for no one, a morose and scornful man who wanted to do everything\nas it suited him best. A widow went every day before him and asked for\njustice, and although her cause was just the judge always sent her away\nand would not do what she wished. But the widow patiently endured all\nhis repulses and did not weary in her importunity. And finally the judge\nto get rid of this woman who wore him out with her supplications,\npleadings, and prayers, gave the sentence and sent her in peace.\n\nBut no more must be asked than can be expected. He who has accomplished\nhis task will eat and drink but will not have any special place of\nhonor, nor will he be better served than his brother, and certainly not\nso well as his superior. When the servant, having been in the field\nsowing or pasturing the cattle, comes back to the house, the master does\nnot call him to eat at his own table, but first is served himself and\nafterwards gives the servant the meal which is due him. This is a\nParable which Jesus meant for His Apostles, who were already disputing\nabout who would have the highest place in the Kingdom. \u201cDoth he thank\nthat servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow\nnot. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which were\ncommanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants: we have done that\nwhich was our duty to do.\u201d\n\nThe only thing which counts is the actual doing. There are those who say\n\u201cyes\u201d to orders but who after this do nothing. Such men shall be\ncondemned more severely than those who refused openly and then\nafterwards, repentant, obeyed. A father had two sons and said to the\nolder, \u201cSon, go work to-day in my vineyard.\u201d And the son answered, \u201cI\ngo, sir,\u201d but instead of going to work in the vineyard he lay down in\nthe shade to sleep. And the father said to the second, \u201cGo too and work\nwith your brother.\u201d But the son answered, \u201cNo, to-day I wish to rest\nbecause I am not well.\u201d But later, thinking of the old man who could not\ndo the work himself any longer, he took back his refusal, overcame his\nindolence and went to the vineyard and worked with a will till evening.\n\nTo listen to the word of the Kingdom is not enough. To consent verbally\nand to live just as before, without effort to change the heart, is less\nthan nothing. \u201cWhosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth\nthem, I will show you to whom he is like; He is like a man which built\nan house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock, and when\nthe flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could\nnot shake it, for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth and\ndoeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon\nthe earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately\nit fell; and the ruin of that house was great.\u201d\n\nThe same teaching is in the Parable of the Sowing, \u201cA sower went out to\nsow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was\ntrodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it, and some fell upon a\nrock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it\nlacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up\nwith it and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up and\nbare fruit an hundredfold.\u201d This is the Parable which the Twelve were\nincapable of understanding. Jesus was obliged to explain it Himself. The\nseed is the Word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear, then\ncometh Satan and taketh the Word out of their hearts lest they should\nbelieve and be saved. They on the rock are they which when they hear\nreceive the Word with joy, and these have no root which for a while\nbelieve and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among\nthorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choked with\ncares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to\nperfection. But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and\ngood heart having heard the Word keep it and bring forth fruit with\npatience. But it is not enough to hear it merely, to understand it, to\npractice it. He who has received it should not keep it to himself. Who\nis the man who having a lamp hides it under the bed or covers it with a\nvessel? The light should stand high in the center of the room that they\nwhich enter in may see it and be lighted.\n\nA Lord traveling into a far country left to each of his servants ten\ntalents with the understanding that they should use the money to good\npurpose. And when he came back he reckoned with them. And the first\ndelivered to him twenty talents, because with the first ten he had\nearned ten other talents. And the Lord made him steward over all his\ngoods. And the second delivered him fifteen talents, for he had not been\nable to earn more than five more. But the third presented himself\ntimorously and showed him, wrapped up in a napkin, the ten talents which\nhe had received. \u201cLord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping\nwhere thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: And\nI was afraid, and went and hid thy talents in the earth.\u201d And the Lord\nanswered, \u201cThou wicked and slothful servant, I will judge thee by thine\nown words. Take the talents and give them to him who has twenty.\u201d But he\nhas already plenty. \u201cI say unto you,\u201d answered the Lord, \u201cFor unto every\none that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him\nthat hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.\u201d And the\nunprofitable servant was cast into outer darkness, where there was\nweeping and gnashing of teeth. He who has received the Word ought to\ndouble his wealth. He has received so great a treasure that if he leaves\nit useless, he deserves to have it taken away from him. From him who\ndoes not add to it shall be taken away even that which he has, and unto\nhim who has doubled his treasures shall be given even more. Those who do\nnot use the treasure of the Word are not poverty-stricken men who need\ngifts because they are destitute, but faithless and slothful husbandmen,\nto whom was entrusted the most fruitful field in all the universe. Happy\nthe steward whom the Master shall find attentive to act justly and to\ngive to all their rightful part of the harvest. But if the steward\nbegins to oppress the serving men and women and thinks only of eating\nand getting drunk he will be scourged and punished when the Master\nreturns, just punishment for the faithless!\n\nThe servant who does not know what the Master wishes done, and so, not\nknowing, does not carry out His wishes, shall be less punished than he\nwho knew, and still does the contrary, for he shall be driven out of the\nhouse where he gave orders. The bearers of the Word have no excuse if\nthey are not the first to obey God\u2019s wishes. From him to whom much was\ngiven, much shall be required.\n\n\n                            THE PRODIGAL SON\n\n\nA man had two sons. His wife was dead, but he still had these two sons,\nonly two. But two are always better than one. If the first is away from\nhome, the second is still there; if the younger fall ill, the older\nworks for two; if one should die ... even children die, even the young\ndie, and sometimes before the old ... if one of the two should die,\nthere is at least one left who will care for the poor father.\n\nThis man loved his sons, not only because they were of his blood but\nbecause he had a loving heart. He loved them both, the older and the\nyounger; perhaps the younger a little more than the older, but so little\nthat he did not realize it himself. Fathers and mothers often have a\nweakness for the youngest because he is the smallest, he is the\nsweetest, he is the last baby, and after his birth there was never\nanother one, so that his boyhood, still so recent, so prolonged,\nstretches out to the sill of his young manhood like a lingering halo of\ntenderness. It seems only yesterday that he was a baby at the breast,\nthat he took his first stumbling steps, that he sprang up to embrace his\nfather, or sat astride his knees.\n\nBut this man was not partial. He loved his sons like his two eyes and\nhis two hands, equally dear, one at the left, one at the right, and he\nsaw to it that both were happy. Nothing lacked for either one.\n\nAnd yet, even in the case of sons of one father, it almost never happens\nthat two brothers have the same tastes or even similar tastes. The older\nwas a serious-minded young man, sedate, settled, who seemed already\ngrown up and mature, a husband, the head of a family. He respected his\nfather, but more as master than as father, without any impulsive show of\naffection. He worked faithfully, but he was hard and captious with the\nservants; he went through all the religious forms, but did not let the\npoor come about him. Although the house was full of all possible good\nthings, yet for them there was never anything. He pretended to love his\nbrother, but his heart was full of the poison of envy. When people say\n\u201cto love like a brother\u201d they say the contrary of what ought to be said.\nBrothers very rarely love each other. Jewish history, not to speak of\nany other, begins with Cain, goes on with Jacob\u2019s cheating Esau, with\nJoseph sold by his brothers, with Absalom, who killed Amon, with Solomon\nwho had Adonijah killed: a long bloody road of jealousy, opposition and\nbetrayal. It would be more correct to say \u201ca father\u2019s love,\u201d rather than\na brother\u2019s.\n\nThe second son seemed of another race. He was younger and was not\nashamed to be young. He splashed about and made merry in his youth as in\na warm lake. He had all the desires, the graces, and the defects of his\nage. He was fitful with his father. One day he hurt him, the next, put\nhim into the seventh heaven; he was capable of not saying a word for\nweeks together and then suddenly throwing himself on his father\u2019s neck\nin the highest spirits. Good times with his friends were more to his\ntaste than work. He refused no invitations to drink, stared at women and\ndressed better than other people. But he was warmhearted; he gave money\nto the needy, was charitable without boasting of it, never sent away any\none disconsolate. He was seldom seen at the synagogue, and for this and\nfor other reasons the middle-class people of the neighborhood, timid,\ncolorless people, religious and self-seeking, did not think well of him\nand advised their sons to have nothing to do with him. So much the more\nbecause the young man wanted to spend more than his father\u2019s resources\nallowed him\u2014a good man, they said, but weak and blinded\u2014and because he\ntalked recklessly and said things which were not fitting for the son of\na good family brought up as he ought to be. The little life of that\nlittle country hole was repugnant to him; he said it was better to look\nfor adventure in rich countries, populous, far away, beyond the\nmountains and the sea, where the big, luxurious cities are, with marble\nbuildings and the best wines and shops full of silk and silver, and\nwomen dressed in fine clothes like queens fresh from aromatic baths who\nlightly give themselves for a piece of gold.\n\nThere in the country you had to obey orders and work hard, and there was\nno outlet for gypsy-like and nomadic tastes. His father, although he was\nrich, although he was good, measured out the drachma as if they were\ntalents. His brother was vexed if he bought a new tunic or came home a\nlittle tipsy; in the family all they knew was the field, the furrow, the\npasture, the stock; a life that was not a life but one long effort.\n\nAnd one day (he had thought of it many times before, but had never had\nthe courage to say it) he hardened his heart and his face and said to\nhis father, \u201cFather, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me,\nand I will ask nothing more of thee.\u201d\n\nWhen the old man heard this, he was deeply hurt, but he made no answer,\nand went away into his room that his tears should not be seen, and for a\nwhile neither of them spoke any more of this matter. But the son\nsuffered, was sullen, and lost all his ardor and animation even to the\nfresh color of his face. And the father, seeing his son suffer, suffered\nhimself, and yet suffered more at the thought of losing him. But finally\npaternal love conquered self-love. The estimations and valuations of the\nproperty were made, and the father gave to both his sons their rightful\npart and kept the rest for himself. The young man lost no time, he sold\nwhat he could not carry away, gathered together a goodly sum, and one\nevening, without saying anything to any one, mounted his fine horse and\nwent away. The older brother was rather pleased by his departure; the\nyounger would never have the courage to come back; so now he was the\nonly son, first in command, and no one would take away the rest of his\ninheritance from him.\n\nBut the father secretly wept many tears, all the tears of his old\nwrinkled eyelids. Every line of his old face was washed with tears, his\naged cheeks were soaked with his grieving. His son was gone and he\nneeded all the love of the remaining son to make up for the sorrow of\nthe separation.\n\nBut he had an intuition that perhaps he had not lost his son forever,\nhis second-born, that before his death he would have the happiness to\nkiss him again; and this idea helped him to endure the loneliness.\n\nIn the meantime the young man drew rapidly near to the rich city of\nrevels where he meant to live. At every turning of the road he felt of\nthe money-bags which hung at either side of his saddle. He soon arrived\nat the city of his desire and began his feasting. It seemed to him that\nthose thousands of coins would last forever. He rented a fine house,\nbought five or six slaves, dressed like a prince, and soon had men and\nwomen friends who were guests at his table, and who drank his wine till\ntheir stomachs could hold no more. He did not economize with women and\nchose the most beautiful the city contained, those who knew how to dance\nand sing and dress with magnificence, and undress with grace. No\npresents seemed too fine or too rich to please those bodies which\nabandoned themselves with such voluptuous softness, and which gave him\nthe wildest, most torturing pleasure. The little provincial lord from\nthe dull country, repressed in the most sensual period of his life, now\nvented his voluptuousness, his love of luxury, in this dangerous life.\n\nSuch a life could not go on forever: the money bags of the prodigal son\nwere not bottomless\u2014no money bags are\u2014and there came a day when there\nwas neither gold nor silver, and not even copper, but only empty bags of\ncanvas and leather lying limp and flabby on the brick floor of his room.\nHis friends disappeared, the women disappeared, slaves, beds and\ndining-tables were sold. With the proceeds he had enough to buy food,\nbut only for a short time. To complete his misfortune, a famine came on\nthe country and the prodigal son found himself hungering in the midst of\na famine-stricken people. The women had gone off to other cities where\nthe situation was better; the friends of his drunken night-revels had\nhard work to look out for themselves.\n\nThe unfortunate man, stripped and destitute, left the city, traveling\nwith a lord who was going to the country where he had a fine estate. He\nbegged him for work, till the lord hired him as swine-herd because he\nwas young and strong and hardly any one was willing to be a swine-herd.\nFor a Jew nothing could be a greater affliction than this. Even in\nEgypt, although animals were adored there, the only people forbidden to\nenter the temples were swine-herds. No father would have given his\ndaughter to wife to a swine-herd and no man for all the gold in the\nworld would have married the daughter of a swine-herd.\n\nBut the prodigal son had no choice and was forced to lead the herd of\nswine out to the pasture. He was given no pay and very little to eat,\nbecause there was only a little for any one; but there was no famine for\nthe hogs, because they could eat anything. There were plenty of carob\nbeans and they gorged themselves on those. Their hungry attendant\nenviously watched the pink and black animals rooting in the earth,\nchewing beans and roots, and longed to fill his stomach with the same\nstuff and wept, remembering the abundance of his own home and his\nfestivals in the great city. Sometimes overcome with hunger he took one\nof the black bean-husks, from under the grunting snouts of the pigs,\ntempering the bitterness of his suffering with that insipid and woody\nfood. And woe to him if his employer had seen him!\n\nHis dress was a dirty slave\u2019s smock which smelt of manure, his foot-gear\na pair of worn-out sandals scarcely held together with rushes; on his\nhead a faded hood. His fair young face, tanned by the sun of the hills,\nwas thin and long, and had taken a sickly color between gray and brown.\n\nWho was wearing now the spotless home-spun clothes, which he had left in\nhis brother\u2019s chests? Where now were the fair silken tunics dyed purple\nwhich he had sold for so little? His father\u2019s hired servants were better\ndressed than he, and they fared better than he.\n\nReturned to his senses, he said to himself, \u201cHow many hired servants of\nmy father\u2019s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!\u201d\nUntil now he had brushed away the idea of going home as soon as it had\nappeared. How could he bear to go back in this condition and give in to\nhis brother after having despised his home, after having made his father\nweep? To return without a garment, unshod, without a penny, without the\nring\u2014the sign of liberty\u2014uncomely, disfigured by this famished slavery,\nstinking and contaminated by this abominable trade, to show that the\nwise old neighbors were right, that his serious-minded brother was\nright, to bow himself at the knee of the old man whom he had left\nwithout a greeting, to return with opprobrium as a ragged fellow to the\nspot from which he had departed as a king! To come back to the\nsoup-plate into which he had spit\u2014into a house which contained nothing\nof his!\n\nNo, there was something of his always in his home, his father! If he\nbelonged to his father, his father belonged also to him. He was his\ncreation, made of his flesh, issued from his seed in a moment of love.\nThough hurt, his father would never drive away his own flesh and blood.\nIf he would not take him back as son, at least he would take him back as\na hired servant, as he would any stranger, like a man born of another\nfather. \u201cI will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him,\nFather, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, And am no more\nworthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.\u201d I do\nnot come back as son but as servant, a worker, and I do not ask love\nfrom you, for I have no more right to that, but only a little bread from\nyour kitchen.\n\nAnd the young man gave back the hogs to his master, and went towards his\nown land. He begged a piece of bread from the country people, and wept\nsalt tears as he ate this bread of pity and charity in the shadow of the\nsycamores. His sore and blistered feet could scarcely carry him. He was\nbarefoot now, but his faith in forgiveness led him homeward step by\nstep.\n\nAnd finally one day at noon he arrived in sight of his father\u2019s house;\nbut he did not dare to knock, nor to call any one, nor to go in. He hung\naround outside to see if any one would come out. And behold, his father\nappeared on the threshold. His son was no longer the same, was changed,\nbut the eyes of a father even dimmed by weeping could not fail to\nrecognize him. He ran towards him and caught him to his breast, and\nkissed him and kissed him again, and could not stop from pressing his\npale, old lips on that ravaged face, on those eyes whose expression was\naltered but still beautiful, on that hair, dusty but still waving and\nsoft, on that flesh that was his own.\n\nThe son, covered with confusion and deeply moved, did not know how to\nrespond to these kisses, and as soon as he could free himself from his\nfather\u2019s arms he threw himself on the ground and repeated tremulously\nthe speech he had prepared. \u201cFather, I have sinned against heaven and\nbefore thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son.\u201d\n\nBut if the young man had brought himself to the point of refusing the\nname of son, the old man never felt himself more father than at this\nmoment; he seemed to become a father for a second time, and without even\nanswering, with his eyes still clouded and soft, but with the ringing\nvoice of his best days, he called to the servants:\n\n\u201cBring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his\nhand, and shoes on his feet.\u201d\n\nThe son of the master should not return home wretchedly dressed like a\nbeggar. The finest garment should be given him, new shoes, a ring on his\nfinger, and the servants must wait on him because he, too, is a master.\n\n\u201cAnd bring hither the fatted calf; and kill it, and let us eat and be\nmerry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is\nfound.\u201d\n\nThe fatted calf was kept in reserve for great feast days: but what\nfestival can be greater for me than this one? I had wept for my son as\ndead and here he is alive with me. I had lost him in the world and the\nworld has delivered him back to me. He was far away and now is with me,\nhe was a beggar at the doors of strange houses, and now is master in his\nown house; he was famished and now he shall be served with a banquet at\nhis own table.\n\nAnd the servants obeyed him and the calf was killed, skinned, cut up and\nput to cook. The oldest wine was taken from the wine-cellar, and the\nfinest room was prepared for the dinner in celebration of the return.\nServants went to call his father\u2019s friends and others went to summon\nmusicians, that there should be music. And when everything was ready,\nwhen the son had been bathed, and his father had kissed him many times\nmore\u2014almost as if to assure himself with his lips that his true son was\nthere with him and it was not the vision of a dream\u2014they commenced the\nbanquet, the wines were mixed and the musicians accompanied the songs of\njoy.\n\nThe older son was in the field, working, and in the evening when he came\nback and was near to the house he heard shouts and stampings and\nclapping of hands, and the footsteps of dancers. And he could not\nunderstand. \u201cWhatever can have happened? Perhaps my father has gone\ncrazy or perhaps a wedding procession has arrived unexpectedly at our\nhouse.\u201d\n\nDisliking noise and new faces, he would not enter and see for himself\nwhat it was. But he called to a boy coming out of the house and asked\nhim what all that clatter was.\n\n\u201cThy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf,\nbecause he hath received him safe and sound.\u201d\n\nThese words were like a thrust at his heart. He turned pale, not with\npleasure, but with rage and jealousy. The old envy boiled up inside. It\nseemed to him that he had all the right on his side, and he would not go\ninto the house, but stayed outside, angry.\n\nThen his father went out and entreated him: \u201cCome, for your brother has\ncome back and has asked after you, and will be glad to see you, and we\nwill feast together.\u201d\n\nBut the serious-minded young man could not contain himself, and for the\nfirst time in his life ventured to reprove his father to his face.\n\n\u201cLo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any\ntime thy commandment; yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make\nmerry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath\ndevoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted\ncalf.\u201d\n\nWith these few words he discloses all the ignominy of his soul hidden\nuntil then under the Pharisaical cloak of good behavior. He reproaches\nhis father with his own obedience, he reproaches him with his avarice.\n\u201cYou have never given me even a kid\u201d\u2014and he reproaches him, he, a\nloveless son, for being a too-loving father. \u201cThis thy son.\u201d He does not\nsay \u201cbrother.\u201d His father may recognize him as son, but he will not\nrecognize him as brother. \u201cHe hath devoured thy living with harlots.\nMoney that was not his, with women that were not his; while I stayed\nwith thee sweating on thy fields with no recompense.\u201d\n\nBut his father pardoned this son, as he did the other son. \u201cSon, thou\nart ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we\nshould make merry, and be glad; for this thy brother was dead, and is\nalive again; and was lost, and is found.\u201d\n\nThe father is sure that these words will be enough to silence the other.\n\u201cHe was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. What other\nreasons can be needed, and what other reasons can be better than\nthese\u2014grant that he has done what he has done, that he has spent my\nmoney on women; he has dissipated as much as he could; he left me\nwithout a greeting; he left me to weep. He could have done worse than\nthat and still would have been my son. He could have stolen on the\nstreets, could have murdered the guiltless, he could have offended me\neven more, but I never could forget that he is my son, my own blood. He\nwas gone and has returned, was disappeared and has reappeared, was lost\nand is found, was dead and is alive again. This is enough for me and to\ncelebrate this miracle a fatted calf seems little to me. Thou hast never\nleft me, I always enjoyed thee, all my kids are thine if thou asketh for\nthem; thou hast eaten every day at my table; but he was gone for so many\ndays and weeks and months! I saw him only in my dreams; he has not eaten\na single piece of bread with me in all that time. Have I not the right\nto triumph at least this day?\u201d\n\nJesus stopped here, He did not go on with His story. There was no need\nof that, the meaning of the parable is clear with no additions. But no\nstory\u2014after that of Joseph\u2014that ever came from human lips is more\nbeautiful than this one or ever touched more deeply the hearts of men.\nInterpreters are free to comment and explain, that the prodigal son is\nthe new man purified by the experience of grief, and the older son, the\nPharisee who observes the old law but does not know love. Or else that\nthe older son is the Jewish people who do not understand the love of the\nFather welcoming the pagan, although he had wallowed in the foul loves\nof paganism and had lived in the company of swine.\n\nJesus was no maker of riddles. He Himself says expressly that the\nmeaning of this and similar parables is: \u201cMore joy shall be in Heaven\nover one sinner who repents than over all the righteous\u201d who vaunt\nthemselves in their false righteousness; than for all the pure who are\nproud of their external purity; than for all the zealots who hide the\naridity of their hearts by their apparent respect for the law.\n\nThe truly righteous will be received in the Kingdom, but no one ever\ndoubted them, they have made no one tremble and suffer and there is no\nneed to rejoice; but for him who has been near perdition, who has gone\nthrough deep sufferings to make himself a new soul, to overcome his\nbestiality, who merits his place in the Kingdom the more because he has\nhad to deny all his past to obtain it, for him songs of triumph shall\narise.\n\n\u201cWhat man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth\nnot leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which\nis lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on\nhis shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together\nhis friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have\nfound my sheep which was lost.\u201d\n\nEither what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece,\ndoth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till\nshe find it? And when she hath found it she calleth her friends and her\nneighbors together, saying, \u201cRejoice with me; for I have found the piece\nwhich I had lost.\u201d\n\nAnd what is a sheep compared to a son returned to life, to a man saved?\nAnd of what value is a piece of silver compared to one astray, who finds\nholiness again?\n\n\n                          THE PARABLES OF SIN\n\n\nBut forgiveness creates an obligation for which there are no exceptions\nallowed. Love is a fire which goes out if it does not kindle others.\nThou hast burned with joy; kindle him who comes near you if thou wilt\nnot become like stone, smoky but cold. He who has received must give; it\nis better to give much, but it is essential to give a part at least.\n\nA king one day wanted a reckoning with his servants and one by one he\ncalled them before him. Among the first was one who owed him ten\nthousand talents, but as he had not anything to pay this, the king\ncommanded that he should be sold and his wife and his children and all\nthat he had, in payment of a part of the debt. The servant in despair\nthrew himself at the feet of the king. He seemed a mere bundle of\ngarments crying out sobs and promises. \u201cHave patience with me, wait a\nlittle longer and I will pay you all, but do not have my wife and my\nchildren separated from me, sent away like cattle, no one knows where.\u201d\n\nThe king was moved with compassion\u2014he also had little children\u2014and he\nsent him away free and forgave him that great debt. The servant went out\nand seemed another man; but his heart, even after so much mercy shown to\nhim, was the same as before. And he met one of his fellow-servants who\nowed him a hundred pence, a small thing compared with ten thousand\ntalents, and he sprang on him and took him by the throat. \u201cPay me what\nthou owest and at once, or I will have thee bound by the guards.\u201d The\nunlucky man assaulted in this way did what his persecutor had done a\nlittle while before in the presence of the king. He fell down at his\nfeet and besought him and wept and swore that he would pay him in a few\ndays and kissed the hem of his garment, and recalled to him their old\ncomradeship and begged him to wait in the name of the children who were\nwaiting for him in his home.\n\nBut the oaf, who was a servant and not a king, had no compassion. He\ntook his debtor by the arm and had him cast into prison. The news spread\nabroad among the other servants of the palace. They were full of\ncompassion, and it came quickly to the ears of the king, who called that\npitiless man and delivered him to the tormentors: \u201cI forgave you that\ngreat debt, shouldst thou not have had compassion on thy brother, for\nhis debt was so much smaller? I had pity on thee, oughtest thou not to\nhave had pity on him?\u201d\n\nSinners when they recognize the evil which is in their hearts and abjure\nit with true humility are nearer to the Kingdom than pious men who daub\nthemselves with the praise of their own piety.\n\nTwo men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, the other a\nPublican. The Pharisee, with his phylacteries hanging upon his forehead\nand on his left arm, with the long, glittering fringes on his cloak,\nerect like a man who feels himself in his own house, prayed thus: \u201cGod,\nI thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust,\nadulterers, or even as this Publican. I fast twice in the week, I give\ntithes of all that I possess.\u201d\n\nBut the Publican did not have the courage even to lift his eyes and\nseemed ashamed to appear before his Lord. He sighed and smote on his\nbreast and said only these words: \u201cGod be merciful to me a sinner.\u201d\n\n\u201cI tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the\nother: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that\nhumbleth himself shall be exalted.\u201d\n\nA lawyer asked Jesus who is one\u2019s neighbor, and Jesus told this story:\n\u201cA man, a Jew, went down from Jerusalem to Jericho through the mountain\npasses. Thieves fell upon him, and after they had wounded him and taken\naway his clothes, they left him upon the road half dead. A priest passed\nthat way, one of those who go to all the feasts and meetings, and boast\nthat they know the will of God from beginning to end. He saw the\nunfortunate man stretched out but he did not stop, and to avoid touching\nsomething unclean he passed by on the other side of the road. A little\nafter came a Levite. He also was among the most accredited of the\nzealots, knew every detail of all the holy ceremonies, and seemed more\nthan a sacristan, seemed one of the masters of the Temple. He looked at\nthe bloody body and went on his way. And finally came a Samaritan. To\nthe Jews the Samaritans were faithless, traitors, only slightly less\ndetestable than the Gentiles, because they would not sacrifice at\nJerusalem and accept the reform of Nehemiah. The Samaritan, however, did\nnot wait to see if the unfortunate man thrown among the stones of the\nstreet were circumcized or uncircumcized, were a Jew or a Samaritan. He\ncame up close to him, and seeing him in such an evil pass, he was\nquickly moved to pity, took down his flasks from his saddle and poured\nupon his wounds a little oil, a little wine, bound them up as well as he\ncould with a handkerchief, put the stranger across his ass and brought\nhim to an inn, had him put to bed, tried to restore him, giving him\nsomething hot to drink, and did not leave him until he saw him come to\nhimself and able to speak and eat. The next day he called the host apart\nand gave him two pence: \u2018Take care of him, do the best thou canst and\nwhatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe neighbor, then, is he who suffers, he who needs help, whoever he\nis, of whatever nation or religion he may be; even thine enemy, if he\nneeds thee, even if he does not ask help, is the first of \u2018thy\nneighbors.\u2019\u201d\n\nCharity is the most valid title for admission to the Kingdom. The\nwealthy glutton knew this, he who was clothed in purple and fine linen\nand fared sumptuously every day. At the gate of his palace there was\nLazarus, a poor man, hungry, covered with sores, who would have been\nglad to have the crumbs and the bones which fell from the rich man\u2019s\ntable. The dogs took pity on Lazarus and on his wretchedness, and did\nfor him all they could, which was to lick his sores. And he caressed\nthese gentle, loving animals with his thin hands. But the rich man had\nno pity on Lazarus. It never once came into his head to call him to his\ntable, and he never sent him a piece of bread or the leavings of the\nkitchen destined for the refuse heap, which even the scullions refused\nto eat. It happened that both of them, the poor man and the rich man,\ndied, and the poor man was welcomed into Abraham\u2019s bosom, and the rich\nman was cast into the fire to suffer. From afar off he saw Lazarus, who\nwas banqueting with the patriarchs, and from the midst of the fire he\ncried: \u201cFather Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may\ndip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am\ntormented in this flame.\u201d\n\nHe had not given Lazarus even a tiny morsel of food when he was alive,\nand now he did not ask to be let out of the fire, nor a cup of water,\nnor even a draught, nor even a drop, but he was content with a little\ndampness which would cling on the tip of a finger, of the smallest\nfinger of the poor man. But Abraham answered: \u201cSon, remember that thou\nin thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil\nthings; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.\u201d If thou hadst\ngiven the smallest part of thy dinner to him, when thou knewest he was\nhungered and was crouched at thy door in worse plight than a dog, and\neven the dogs had more pity than thou, if thou hadst given him a\nmouthful of bread only once, thou wouldst not need now to ask the tip of\nhis finger dipped in water.\n\nThe rich man delights in his property and it grieves him to have to give\naway even the smallest part of it because he thinks that this life will\nnever end and that the future will be like the past. But death comes to\nhim also, and when he expects it least. There was once a landed\nproprietor who had an especially profitable year in all his possessions.\nHe had fantastic imaginings about his new riches, and he said: \u201cI will\npull down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all my\nfruits and my goods, the wheat, the barley and the other grains, and I\nwill make other barns for the hay and the straw and other stables for\nthe oxen that I will buy, and still another stable where I can put all\nmy sheep and goats, and I will say to my soul: Thou hast much goods laid\nup for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.\u201d\n\nAnd the idea did not come to him even for a moment that from this\nlargesse of the earth he could have put aside a portion to comfort the\npoor of his country. But on that very night when he had imagined so many\nimprovements in his property, the rich man died, and the day after, he\nwas buried naked and alone, under the earth, and there was no one to\nintercede for him in Heaven.\n\nHe who does not make friends among the poor, who does not use wealth to\ncomfort poverty, must not think of entering into the Kingdom. Sometimes\nthe children of this world are in their generation wiser than the\nchildren of light, understand the management of their earthly affairs\nbetter than the children of light understand their heavenly life. Like\nthat steward who was out of favor with his master and was obliged to\nleave his position. He called one by one his lord\u2019s debtors to him, and\ncanceled a part of the debt of every one, so that when he was sent away\nhe had made here and there with his fraudulent stratagem so many friends\nthat they did not let him die of hunger. He had benefited himself and\nthe others by cheating and robbing his master. He was a thief, but a\nshrewd thief. If men would use for the salvation of the spirit the\nshrewdness which this man used for his bodily comfort, how many more\nwould be converted to faith in the Kingdom!\n\nHe who is not converted in time will be cut down like the unfruitful\nfig-tree. And the conversion must be final, for falling from grace\ninjures a man\u2019s soul a great deal more than repentance helps him. A man\nhad an unclean spirit in him and succeeded in driving it away. The demon\nwalked through dry places seeking rest; and finding none, he said: \u201cI\nwill return into my house whence I came out.\u201d It happens that this\nhouse, the soul of that man, is empty, swept and garnished so that it is\nhard to recognize it. Then the demon takes to him seven other spirits\nmore wicked than himself and at the head of the band he enters into his\nhouse so that the last state of that man was worse than the first.\n\nIn the day of triumph laments and excuses will count less than the\nwhispering of the wind among the rushes. Then will be made the last and\nirrevocable choice, like that of the fisherman who, after having pulled\nup from the sea his net full of fish, sits down on the beach and puts\nthose fit for food into his baskets and throws away the others. A long\ntruce is given to sinners, that they may have all the time necessary to\nchange their hearts, but when that day has come he who has not arrived\nat the door, or is not worthy, will remain eternally outside.\n\nA good husbandman sowed good seed in his field, but while men slept, his\nenemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat. When the blade was\nsprung up, the servants of the household saw the tares and came and told\ntheir master of it.\n\n\u201cWilt thou then that we go and gather them up?\u201d But he said, \u201cNay; lest\nwhile ye gather up the tares ye root up also the wheat with them. Let\nboth grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will\nsay to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in\nbundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.\u201d\n\nThus like a good husbandman Jesus waits for the day of the harvest. One\nday an immense multitude was about Him to listen to Him, and seeing all\nthese men and these women who were hungering after righteousness and\nthirsting after love, He was moved with compassion and said to His\ndisciples: \u201cThe harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few;\nPray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth\nlaborers into this harvest.\u201d\n\nHis voice does not carry everywhere, not even the Twelve are enough:\nothers are necessary to proclaim the good news, that it may be carried\nto all those who suffer and who await it.\n\n\n                               THE TWELVE\n\n\nFate knows no better way to punish the great for their greatness than by\nsending them disciples. Every disciple, just because he is a disciple,\ncannot understand all that his master says, but at very best only half,\nand that according to the kind of mind he has. Thus without wishing to\nfalsify the teaching of his master, he deforms it, vulgarizes it,\nbelittles it, corrupts it.\n\nThe disciple nearly always has companions and is jealous of them; he\nwould like to be at least first among those who are second; and\naccordingly he maligns and plots against his fellows; and each one\nbelieves that he is, or at least wishes others to believe that he is,\nthe only perfect interpreter of the master.\n\nThe disciple knows that he is a disciple and sometimes it shames him to\nbe one who eats at another\u2019s table. Then he twists and turns the\nmaster\u2019s thought to make it seem that he has a thought of his own,\ndifferent and original. Or else, and this is the most graceless and\nservile manner of being a disciple, he teaches exactly the opposite of\nwhat he was taught.\n\nIn every disciple, even in those who seem most loyal, there is the seed\nof a Judas. A disciple is a parasite, a middleman who robs the seller\nand tricks the buyer; a dependent who, invited to dine, nibbles at the\nhors d\u2019\u0153uvres, licks the sauces, picks at the fruit, but does not attack\nthe bones because he has no teeth, or only milk teeth, to crack them and\nsuck out the meaty marrow. The disciple paraphrases sentences, obscures\nmysteries, complicates what is clear, multiplies difficulties, comments\non syllables, travesties principles, clouds evidence, magnifies\nnon-essentials, weakens the essential, dilutes the strong wine, and\nretails this hodge-podge as elixir distilled and quintessence. Instead\nof a torch which gives light and fire, he is a smoky wick giving no\nlight even to himself.\n\nAnd yet no one has been able to dispense with these pupils and\nfollowers, nor even to wish to. For the great man is so foreign to the\nmultitude, so distant, so alone, that he needs to feel some one near\nhim. He cannot teach without the illusion that some one understands his\nwords, receives his ideas, transmits them to others far away before his\ndeath and after his death. This wanderer who has no home of his own\nneeds a friendly hearth. To this uprooted man who cannot have a family\nof his own flesh and blood, the children of his spirit are dear. The\nprophet is a captain whose soldiers spring up only after his blood has\nsoaked into the ground, and yet he longs to feel a little army about him\nduring his life-time. Here is one of the most tragic elements in all\ngreatness: disciples are repugnant and dangerous, but disciples, even\nfalse ones, cannot be dispensed with. Prophets suffer if they do not\nfind them; they suffer, perhaps more, when they have found them.\n\nA man\u2019s thought is bound with a thousand threads to his soul even more\nclosely than a child to a parent\u2019s heart. It is infinitely precious,\ndelicate, fragile, and the newer it is, the harder it is for other men\nto understand. It is a tremendous responsibility, a continued torture\nand suffering to confide it to another, to graft it on another\u2019s\nthought, to give it into the hands of the man incapable of respecting\nit, this gift so rare, a thought new in human life. And yet every great\nman longs to share with all men what he has received; and to achieve\nthis sharing with humanity is more than he can do single-handed. Then,\ntoo, vanity insinuates itself even in noble breasts: and vanity needs\ncaressing words, needs praise, even offensive praise, needs assent, even\nverbal, consecration even from the mediocre, victories even if they are\nonly apparent.\n\nChrist has none of this smallness of the great, and yet in order to\nshare all the burdens of mankind, He accepted with the other trials of\nearthly life the burden of disciples. Before being tormented by His\nenemies, He gave himself over to be tormented by His friends. The\npriests killed him, once and once only; the disciples made Him suffer\nevery day of their life with Him. The anguish of His passion would not\nhave been completely intolerable if it had not included the desertion of\nthe Apostles in addition to the Sadducees, the guards, the Romans, the\ncrowd.\n\nWe know who the Apostles were. A Galilean, He chose them from among the\nGalileans. A poor man, He chose them from among the poor; a simple man,\nbut of a divine simplicity transcending all philosophies, He called\nsimple men whose simplicity kept them like clods. He did not wish to\nchoose them from among the rich, because He had come to combat the rich;\nnor among the scribes and doctors, because He had come to overturn their\nlaw; nor among the philosophers, because there were no philosophers\nliving in Palestine, and had there been, they would have tried to\nextinguish His supernatural mysticism under the dialectic bushel.\n\nHe knew that these souls were rough but had integrity, were ignorant but\nardent, and that He could in the end mold them according to His desire,\nbring them up to His level, fashion them like clay from the river, which\nis only mud, and yet when modeled and baked in the kiln, becomes eternal\nbeauty. But flame from the Holy Ghost was needed for that\ntransformation; until the day of the Pentecost their imperfect nature\nhad too often the upper hand. To the Twelve much should be pardoned\nbecause almost always they had faith in Him; because they tried to love\nHim as He wished to be loved; and, above all, because after having\ndeserted Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, they never forgot Him and left\nto all eternity the memory of His word and of His life.\n\nAnd yet our hearts ache if we look at them closely in the Gospels, those\ndisciples of whom we have some knowledge. They were not always worthy of\ntheir unique and supreme felicity, those men who were so inestimably\nfortunate as to live with Christ, to walk, to eat with Him, to sleep in\nthe same room, to look into His face, to touch His hand, to kiss Him, to\nhear His words from His very mouth; those twelve fortunate men, whom\nthroughout the centuries millions of souls have secretly envied.\n\nWe see them, hard of head and of heart, not able to understand the\nclearest parables of the Master; not always capable of understanding,\neven after His death, who Jesus had been and what sort of a new Kingdom\nwas proclaimed by Him; often lacking in faith, in love, in brotherly\naffection; eager for pay; envying each other; impatient for the revenge\nwhich would repay them for their long wait; intolerant of those who were\nnot one with them; vindictive towards those who would not receive them,\nsomnolent, doubtful, materialistic, avaricious, cowardly.\n\nOne of them denies Him three times; one of them delays giving Him due\nreverence until He is in the sepulcher; one does not believe in His\nmission because He comes from Nazareth; one is not willing to admit His\nresurrection; one sells Him to His enemies, and gives Him over with His\nlast kiss to those who come to arrest Him. Others, when Christ\u2019s\nteachings were on a too-lofty level, \u201cwent back and walked no more with\nHim.\u201d\n\nMany times Jesus was forced to reprove them for their slowness of mind.\nHe told them the parable of the sower, and they did not understand its\nmeaning. \u201cKnow ye not this parable, and how then will ye know all\nparables?\u201d He warns them against the leaven of the Pharisees and the\nSadducees, and they think that He is speaking of material bread. \u201cWhy\nreason ye because ye have no bread, perceive ye not yet, neither\nunderstand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes see ye not, and\nhaving ears hear ye not?\u201d Like the common people they constantly feel\nthat Jesus should be the worldly Messiah, political, warlike, come to\nrestore the temporal throne of David. Even when He is about to ascend\ninto Heaven they continue to ask Him: \u201cLord, wilt thou at this time\nrestore again the Kingdom to Israel?\u201d And after the resurrection, the\ntwo disciples of Emmaus say: \u201cBut we trusted that it had been he which\nshould have redeemed Israel.\u201d\n\nThey disputed among themselves to know who should have the chief place\nin the new Kingdom and Jesus reproved them: \u201cWhat was it that ye\ndisputed among yourselves by the way?\u201d But they held their peace, for by\nthe way they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest.\nAnd He sat down and called the Twelve and saith unto them: \u201cIf any man\ndesires to be first, the same shall be last of all and the servant of\nall.\u201d Jealous of their privileges they denounced to Jesus one who was\ncasting out devils in His name: \u201cForbid him not,\u201d answered Jesus, \u201cfor\nthere is no man which shall do a miracle in my name that can lightly\nspeak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part.\u201d After a\ntalk at Capernaum many murmured at his words and said: \u201cThis is an hard\nsaying; who can hear it?\u201d and they left Him.\n\nAnd yet Jesus spared no warnings to those who wished to follow Him. A\nScribe said to Him that he would follow Him everywhere. \u201cAnd Jesus saith\nunto him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but\nthe Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.\u201d Another who was a\ndisciple wished first to bury his father, \u201cBut Jesus said unto him,\nFollow me; and let the dead bury their dead.\u201d And still another, \u201cLord,\nI will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell which are at\nhome at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand\nto the plough, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.\u201d\n\nA rich young man came to Him who observed all the Commandments. \u201cThen\nJesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou\nlackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor,\nand thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come take up the cross, and\nfollow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he\nhad great possessions.\u201d\n\nTo be with Him, a man must needs leave his home, his dead, his family,\nhis money,\u2014all the ordinary loves, all the ordinary good things of life.\nWhat is given in exchange is so great that it will repay every\nrenunciation. But few are capable of this renunciation, and some after\nthey have believed, falter.\n\nRenunciation was easier for the Twelve, almost all poor men, yet even\nthey did not always succeed in being as Jesus wished them.\n\n\u201cSimon, Simon,\u201d He said one day to Peter, \u201cbehold, Satan hath desired to\nhave you, that he may sift you as wheat.\u201d In spite of the winnowing of\nChrist, some evil seeds remained among his grain.\n\n\n                         SIMON, CALLED THE ROCK\n\n\nPeter before the Resurrection is like a body beside a spirit, like a\nmaterial voice which accompanies the sublimation of the soul. He is the\nearth which believes in Heaven but remains earthy. In his rough man\u2019s\nimagination the Kingdom of Heaven still resembles rather too closely the\nKingdom of the Prophets\u2019 Messiah.\n\nWhen Jesus pronounced the famous words: \u201cIt is easier for a camel to go\nthrough the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the\nkingdom of God,\u201d Peter thought this sweeping condemnation of wealth very\nharsh. \u201cThen answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken\nall, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?\u201d He acts like a\nmoney lender inquiring what interest he can expect. And Jesus, to\nconsole him, promises him that he will sit upon a throne to judge one of\nthe tribes of Israel, that the other eleven will judge the other eleven\ntribes, and adds that every one shall have a hundred times what he has\ngiven up.\n\nAgain Peter does not understand what Christ means when He asserts that\nonly what comes from man himself can defile men. \u201cPeter then answered\nand said unto him: Declare unto us this parable, and Jesus said: Are ye\nalso without understanding? Do ye not yet understand?\u201d Among the\ndisciples so slow to understand, Peter is one of the slowest. His\nsurname \u201cCefa,\u201d stone, piece of rock, was not given him only for the\nfirmness of his faith, but for the hardness of his head.\n\nHe was not an alert spirit in either the literal or the figurative\nmeaning of the word. He easily fell asleep even at supreme moments. He\nfell asleep on the Mount of the Transfiguration. He fell asleep on the\nnight at Gethsemane, after the last supper, where Jesus had uttered the\nsaying which would have kept even a Scribe everlastingly from sleep. And\nyet his boldness was great. When Jesus that last evening announced that\nHe was to suffer and die, Peter burst out: \u201cLord, I am ready to go with\nthee both, into prison, and to death. Although all shall be offended,\nyet will not I. If I should die with thee, I will not deny Thee in any\nwise.\u201d Jesus answered him: \u201cVerily I say unto thee that this night\nbefore the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.\u201d\n\nJesus knew him better than Peter knew himself. When he stood in the\ncourtyard of Caiaphas, warming himself at the brazier while the priests\nwere questioning and insulting his God, he denied three times that he\nwas one of His followers.\n\nAt the moment of the arrest he had made, against the teaching of Jesus,\nan appearance of resistance: he had cut off the ear of Malchus. He had\nnot yet understood after years of daily comradeship with Christ that any\nform of material violence was repellent to Jesus. He had not understood\nthat if Jesus had wished to save Himself, He could have hidden in the\nwilderness unknown to all, or escaped out of the hands of the soldiers\nas He had done that first time at Nazareth. So little did Jesus value\nthis act, contrary to His teaching, that he healed the wound at once and\nreproved His untimely avenger.\n\nThat was not the first time that Peter showed himself unequal to great\nevents. He had like all crude personalities a tendency to see the\nmaterial dross in spiritual manifestations, the low in the lofty, the\ncommonplace in the tragic. On the mountain of the transfiguration, when\nhe was awakened and saw Jesus refulgent with white light, speaking with\ntwo others, with two spirits, with two prophets, the first thought which\ncame to him, instead of worshiping and keeping silence, was to build a\ntabernacle for these great personages. \u201cLord, it is good for us to be\nhere: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee,\nand one for Moses, and one for Elias.\u201d Luke, the wise man, adds to\nexcuse him, \u201cnot knowing what he said.\u201d\n\nWhen he saw Jesus walking in all security on the lake, the idea came to\nhim to do the same thing. \u201cAnd when Peter was come down out of the ship,\nhe walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind\nboisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying,\nLord, save me\u201d And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and\ncaught him, and said unto him, \u201cO thou of little faith, wherefore didst\nthou doubt?\u201d Because he was familiar with the lake and with Jesus, the\ngood fisherman thought he could do as his master did, and did not know\nthat the storm could be mastered only by a soul infinitely greater, a\nfaith infinitely more potent than his.\n\nHis great love for Christ, which makes up for all his weakness, led him\none day almost to rebuke Him. Jesus had told His disciples how He must\nsuffer and be killed. \u201cThen Peter took him and began to rebuke him,\nsaying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he\nturned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an\noffence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but\nthose that be of men.\u201d No one ever pronounced such a terrible judgment\non Simon, called Peter. He was called to work for the Kingdom of God,\nand he _thought as men do_. His mind, still occupied with the vulgar\nidea of the triumphant Messiah, refused to conceive of a persecuted\nMessiah condemned and executed. His soul had not yet kindled to the idea\nof divine expiation, the idea that salvation cannot be secured without\nan offering of suffering and blood, and that the great should sacrifice\nHis body to the ferocity of mean men in order that the mean, after being\nenlightened by that life, may be saved from that death. He loved Jesus,\nbut although his love was warm and potent, it still had something earthy\nin it, and he grew angry at the thought that his king should be reviled,\nthat his God should die. And yet he was the first to recognize Jesus as\nthe Christ; and this primacy is so great that nothing has been able to\ncancel it.\n\n\n                            SONS OF THUNDER\n\n\nThe two fishermen, the brothers James and John, who had left their boat\nand their nets on the shore at Capernaum in order to go with Jesus, form\ntogether with Peter a sort of favorite triumvirate. They are the only\nones who accompany Jesus into the house of Jairus, and on the Mount of\nTransfiguration, and they are the ones whom He takes with Him on the\nnight of Gethsemane. But in spite of their long intimacy with the\nMaster, they never acquired sufficient humility. Jesus gave them the\nsurname of \u201cBoanerges\u2014Sons of Thunder,\u201d an ironic surname, alluding\nperhaps to their fiery, irascible character.\n\nWhen they all started together towards Jerusalem, Jesus sent some of\nthem ahead to make ready for Him. They were crossing Samaria and were\nbadly received in a village. \u201cAnd they did not receive him, because his\nface was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples,\nJames and John, saw this, they said: Lord, wilt thou that we command\nfire to come down from heaven and consume them? But he turned, and\nrebuked them.\u201d For them, Galileans, faithful to Jerusalem, the\nSamaritans were always enemies. In vain had they heard the Sermon on the\nMount: \u201cDo good to them that hate you, and pray for them which\ndespitefully use you, and persecute you.\u201d In vain had they received\ninstructions for their mission among the peoples: \u201cAnd whosoever shall\nnot receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house\nor city, shake off the dust from your feet.\u201d Angry at an affront to\nJesus they presumed to be able to command fire from Heaven. It seemed to\nthem a work of righteous justice to reduce to ashes the village guilty\nof inhospitality. And yet far as they were from that loving rebirth of\nthe soul which alone constitutes the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven,\nthese men had the pretension to claim the first places on the day of\ntriumph.\n\n\u201cAnd James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came unto him, saying: Master,\nwe would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we should desire. And\nhe said unto them: What would ye that I should do for you? They said\nunto him: Grant unto us that we may sit one on thy right hand and one on\nthy left hand in thy glory. But Jesus said unto them: Ye know not what\nye ask. And when the ten heard it they began to be much displeased with\nJames and John. But Jesus called them to Him and saith unto them:\nWhosoever will be great among you let him be your minister; and\nwhosoever will be the chief among you, let him be your servant, for even\nthe Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister.\u201d\n\nChrist, the overturner of the old order, took this occasion to repeat\nthe master word to which all magnanimous souls respond. Only the\nuseless, the petty, the parasites, wish to be served, even by their\ninferiors (if any one in the absolute meaning of the word can be\ninferior to them), but any superior being is always at the service of\nlesser souls precisely because he is superior.\n\nThis miraculous paradox is the proof of the fire of genius. It is\nrepugnant to the egotism of the self-centered, to the pretensions of\nwould-be supermen, and to the poverty of the avaricious because the\nlittle that they have is not even enough for themselves. He who cannot\nor will not serve shows that he has nothing to give, is a weakling,\nimpotent, imperfect, empty. But the genius is no true genius if he does\nnot exuberantly benefit his inferiors. To serve is not always the same\nas to obey. A people can be served better sometimes by a man who puts\nhimself at their head to force them to be saved even if they do not wish\nit. There is nothing servile in serving.\n\nJames and John understood this stimulating saying of Jesus. We find one\nof them, John, among the nearest and most loving of the disciples. At\nthe Last Supper he leans his head on Jesus\u2019 breast; and from the height\nof the cross Jesus, crucified, confides the Virgin to him, that he\nshould be a son to her.\n\n\n                               THE OTHERS\n\n\nThomas owes his popularity to the quality which should be his shame.\nThomas, the twin, is the guardian of modernity, as Thomas Aquinas is the\noracle of medieval life. He is the true patron saint of Spinoza and of\nall the other deniers of the resurrection, the man who is not satisfied\neven with the testimony of his eyes, but wishes that of his hands as\nwell. And yet his love for Jesus makes him pardonable. When they came to\nthe Master to say that Lazarus was dead, and the disciples hesitated\nbefore going into Judea among their enemies, it was Thomas alone who\nsaid: \u201cLet us also go, that we may die with him.\u201d The martyrdom which he\ndid not find then came to him in India, after Christ\u2019s death.\n\nMatthew is the dearest of all the Twelve. He was a tax-gatherer, a sort\nof under-publican, and probably had more education than his companions.\nHe followed Jesus as readily as the fishermen. \u201cAnd after these things\nhe went forth, and saw a publican named Levi, sitting at the receipt of\ncustom: and he said unto him, follow me. And he left all, rose up, and\nfollowed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his own house.\u201d It was\nnot a heap of torn nets which Matthew left, but a position, a stipend,\nsecure and increasing earnings. Giving up riches is easy for a man who\nhas almost nothing. Among the Twelve Matthew was certainly the richest\nbefore his conversion. Of no other is it told that he could offer a\ngreat feast, and this means that he made a greater and more meritorious\nsacrifice by his rising at the first call from the seat where he was\naccumulating money.\n\nMatthew and Judas were perhaps the only ones of the Disciples who knew\nhow to write, and to Matthew we owe the first collection of Logia or\nmemorable sayings of Jesus, if the testimony of Papia is true. In the\nGospel which is called by his name, we find the most complete text of\nthe Sermon on the Mount. Our debt to the poor excise-man is heavy:\nwithout him many words of Jesus, and the most beautiful, might have been\nlost. This handler of drachma, shekels and talents, whom his despised\ntrade must have predisposed to avarice, has laid up for us a treasure\nworth more than all the money coined on the earth before and after his\ntime.\n\nPhilip of Bethsaida also knew how to reckon. When the famished multitude\npressed about Him, Jesus turned to him to ask what it would cost to buy\nbread for all those people. Philip answered Him: \u201cTwo hundred pennyworth\nof bread is not sufficient for them.\u201d He was later to become a\nproclaimer of his Master\u2019s fame. He it was who announced to Nathaniel\nthe coming of Jesus, and it was to him that the Greeks of Jerusalem\nturned when they wished to speak to the new Prophet.\n\nNathaniel answered Philip\u2019s announcement with sarcasm: \u201cCan there any\ngood thing come out of Nazareth?\u201d But Philip succeeded in bringing him\nto Jesus, who as soon as He saw him, exclaimed, \u201cBehold an Israelite\nindeed, in whom is no guile! Nathaniel saith unto him, Whence knowest\nthou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called\nthee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel answered\nand saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of\nIsrael. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I\nsaw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater\nthings than these.\u201d\n\nLess enthusiastic and inflammable was Nicodemus, who, as a matter of\nfact, never wished to be known as a disciple of Jesus. Nicodemus was\nold, had been to school to the Rabbis, was a friend of the Jerusalem\nSanhedrin, but the stories of the miracles had shaken him, and he went\nby night to Jesus to tell Him that he believed that He was sent by God.\nJesus answered him, \u201cVerily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be\nborn again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.\u201d Nicodemus did not\nunderstand these words, or perhaps they startled him. He had come to see\na miracle worker and had found a Sybil, and with the homely good sense\nof the man who wishes to avoid being taken in by a fraud he said, \u201cHow\ncan a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his\nmother\u2019s womb and be born?\u201d Jesus answers with words of profound\nmeaning, \u201cExcept a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot\nenter into the kingdom of God.\u201d\n\nBut Nicodemus still did not understand. \u201cHow can these things be?\u201d Jesus\nanswered, \u201cArt thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things?\u201d\n\nNicodemus always respected the young Galilean, but his sympathy was as\ncircumspect as his visit. Once when the leaders of the priests and the\nPharisees were meditating how to capture Jesus, Nicodemus ventured a\ndefense: \u201cDoth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what\nhe doeth?\u201d He took his stand on a point of law. He spoke in the name of\n\u201cour\u201d law, not at all in the name of the new man. Nicodemus is always\nthe old man, law-respecting, the prudent friend of the letter of the\nlaw. A few words of reproof were enough to silence him. \u201cThey answered\nand said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look: for out of\nGalilee ariseth no prophet!\u201d He belonged by right to the Sanhedrin, but\nthere is no record that he raised his voice in favor of the accused when\nHe was conducted to Caiaphas. The trial was at night and probably to\navoid the contempt of his colleagues and his own remorse for the legal\nassassination, Nicodemus remained in his bed. When he awoke Jesus was\ndead, and then, forgetting his avarice, he bought a hundred pounds of\nmyrrh and aloes to embalm the body. He who brought others to life was\ndead, but Nicodemus, although not literally dead, would never know that\nsecond birth in which he could not believe.\n\nNicodemus is the eternal type of the luke-warm who will be spewed out of\nthe mouth of God on the day of wrath. He is the half-way soul who would\nlike to say \u201cYes\u201d with his spirit, but his flesh suggests to him the\n\u201cNo\u201d of cowardice. He is the man of books, the nocturnal disciple who\nwould like to be a follower of the Master, but not to appear as one; who\nwould not mind being born again, but who does not know how to break the\nwithered bark of his ageing trunk; the man of inhibitions and\nprecautions. When the man of his admiration was martyred and killed and\nHis enemies were satisfied, and there was no more danger of being\ncompromised, then he comes with balsams to pour into those wounds which\nwere inflicted partly by his cowardice.\n\nBut the church to reward his posthumous piety has chosen him to become\none of her saints. And there is an old tradition that he was baptized by\nPeter and put to death for having believed, too late, in Him whom he did\nnot save from death.\n\n\n                       LAMBS, SERPENTS, AND DOVES\n\n\nThose whom Jesus sent out to the conquest of souls were rustic\ncountrymen, but they could be mild as sheep, wary as serpents, simple as\ndoves\u2014sheep without cowardice, serpents without poison, doves without\nlustfulness.\n\nTo be stripped of everything was the first duty of such soldiers.\nSeeking the poor, they should be poorer than the poor. And yet not\nbeggars, for the laborer is worthy of his hire; the bread of life which\nthey were to distribute to those hungering for justice deserved wheat\nbread in return. The laborers should set out on their wonderful work\ndestitute of possessions, taking nothing for their journey save a staff\nonly, no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse. They should be shod\nwith sandals, clad in a single garment. The metals are a burden which\nweighs down the soul. The sheen of gold makes men forget the sun\u2019s\nsplendor; the sheen of silver makes them forget the splendor of the\nstars; the sheen of copper makes them forget the splendor of fire. He\nwho deals with metals weds himself to the earth and is bound fast to the\nearth. He does not know Heaven, and Heaven does not recognize him.\n\nIt is not enough to preach love of poverty to the poor, or to talk to\nthem about the sumptuous beauty of poverty. The poor do not believe the\nwords of the rich until the rich willingly become poor. The Disciples\ndestined to preach the beauty of poverty to both poor and rich were to\nset an example of happy poverty to every man in every house on every\nday. They were to carry nothing with them except the clothes on their\nbacks and the sandals on their feet. They were to accept nothing; only\nthe small piece of daily bread which they would find on the tables of\ntheir hosts. The wandering priests of the goddess Siria and of other\nOriental divinities carried with them, along with the sacred images, the\nwallet for offerings, the bag for alms, because common people do not\nvalue things which cost them nothing. The apostles of Jesus, on the\ncontrary, were to refuse any gift or payment, \u201cFreely ye have received,\nfreely give.\u201d And as one of the disguises of wealth is merchandise, the\nmessengers of the Kingdom were to renounce even a change of garments,\nsandals and staff; were to dispense with everything except the barest\nessentials.\n\nThey were to enter into the houses, open to all in a country where the\nlocks and bolts of fear were not yet known, and which preserved some\nremembrance of nomad hospitality\u2014they were to speak to the men and the\nwomen who lived there. Their duty was to announce that the Kingdom of\nHeaven was at hand, to explain in what way the kingdom of earth could\nbecome the Kingdom of Heaven, and to explain the one condition for this\nhappy fulfilling of all the prophecies,\u2014repentance, conversion,\ntransformation of the soul. As a proof that they were sent by One who\nhad the authority to demand this change, they had power to heal the\nsick, to drive away with their words unclean spirits,\u2014that is, the\ndemons, and the vices which make men like demons.\n\nThey commanded men to renew their souls and at once with all the power\nwhich had been given them they aided them to commence this renovation.\nThey did not leave them alone with this command, so difficult to\nexecute. After the prophetic word, \u201cThe Kingdom is at hand,\u201d they began\ntheir labors; they worked to restore, to cleanse, to make over these\nsouls which had been abandoned by their rightful shepherds. They\nexplained what it was necessary to do to be worthy of the new Heaven on\nearth and they lent a hand at once to the work. In short, to complete\nthe paradox they assassinated and brought to life. They killed the old\nAdam in every convert, but their words were the baptism of the second\nbirth. Pilgrims without purses or bundles, they carried with them truth\nand life,\u2014peace.\n\n\u201cAnd when ye come into an house salute it,\u201d and this was the salutation,\n\u201cPeace be with you.\u201d Those who received them gained peace, those who\nrejected them continued their bitter warfare. Coming away from the house\nor from the city which had not received them, they were to shake the\ndust from their feet, not because the dust of the houses and of the\ncities of those who were not willing to hear them was contaminated, but\nbecause shaking it from their feet is a symbolic answer to their\ndeafness and niggardliness of soul. You have refused all, and we will\nnot accept anything from you, not even the dust which clings to our\nsandals. Because you, made of dust and fated to return to dust as you\nare, will not give a moment of your time, nor a piece of your bread, we\nleave behind us the dust of your streets, down to the least grain.\n\n\n                           SPEAK YE IN LIGHT\n\n\nIn their faithfulness to the sublime paradox of Him who sends them, the\napostles bring peace and at the same time war! All men are not capable\nof conversion. In the same family, in the same house, there are some who\nwill believe and others who will not. And there will spring up between\nthem division and warfare, the hard price with which absolute and stable\npeace can be secured. If all men should listen at the same moment to the\nvoice, if all could be transformed on the same day, the Kingdom of\nHeaven would be founded in a twinkling of an eye, with no bloody preface\nof battles.\n\nFurthermore those who do not wish to change themselves, because they do\nnot understand the news, or believe themselves already perfect, will\nattack the converters and accuse them before tribunals. Representatives\nof wealth and of the old law will be cruel to the poor who are teaching\nthe new law to the poor. The rich are not willing to concede that their\nwealth is dangerous poverty; the scribes are not willing to admit that\ntheir learning is only deadly ignorance.... \u201cThey will scourge you in\ntheir synagogues.... But when they deliver you up, take no thought of\nhow or what ye shall speak.\u201d Jesus is sure that the poor fishermen,\nthough they have never studied in the schools of eloquence, will find\nfor themselves great words in their hour of accusation. One thought,\nwhen it is a great thought and profoundly fixed in the heart, engenders\nof itself all the derivatory and accessory thoughts, and with them\nperfect form in which to express them. The arid-hearted man who has\nnothing in himself, who has faith in nothing, who does not feel, burn,\nand suffer, though he may have studied long with the sophists of Athens\nand the rhetoricians of Rome, is incapable of improvising one of those\npowerful and illuminating answers which trouble the conscience of the\nhardest judges.\n\nThey are to speak therefore without fear and without hiding anything of\nwhat has been taught them. \u201cWhat I tell you in darkness that seek ye in\nlight, and what ye hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops.\u201d With\nthese words Jesus does not ask his Disciples to be more daring than he\nhas been. He has spoken in the darkness, that is obscurity; He has\nspoken to them, to His first faithful followers, but what He has said to\nthem along deserted roads and in solitary rooms they are to repeat as He\nHimself has given them the example, on open squares of cities before\ncrowds of people. He has whispered the truth into their ears, because\nthe truth at first might alarm those not prepared for it, and because\nthere were so few of the Disciples that there was no need to cry aloud.\nBut this truth must be cried out now from the heights, in order that all\nmay hear it, in order that there may be no one to say on that Day that\nhe has not heard it.\n\nMen can kill the body of the man who spreads the truth abroad, but they\ncannot kill his soul; from the death of a single body thousands of new\nsouls will be born into life. But not even your body will die, because\nthere is One who protects it. \u201cAre not two sparrows sold for a farthing?\nand one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But\nthe very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye\nare of more value than many sparrows.\u201d The birds of the air who do not\nsow, do not die of hunger; you who do not carry even a staff shall not\ndie at the hands of your enemies.\n\nThey have with them a secret so precious that the flesh which contains\nit will not be allowed to perish. Jesus is always with them, even though\nfrom afar. What is done to them is done to Him. A mystic identity is\ncreated for all eternity between Him who sends them out and those\ndisciples who are sent. \u201cAnd whosoever shall give to drink unto one of\nthese little ones, a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple,\nverily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward.\u201d\n\nJesus is the fountain of living water destined to quench the thirst of\nall the weary, and yet He will take account also of the cup of water\nwhich shall have quenched the thirst of the least among His friends.\nThose who carry with them the water of truth, which purifies and saves,\nmay need some day a cup of the stagnant water buried at the bottom of\nvillage wells. Any person who will give them a little of this ordinary,\nmaterial water will have in exchange a well-spring which intoxicates the\nsoul more than the strongest wine.\n\nThe apostles who go about with one garment, with a single pair of\nsandals, without belts or wallets, poor as poverty, bare as truth,\nsimple as joy, are, in spite of their apparent poverty, diverse forms of\na king who has come to found a kingdom greater and happier than all\nkingdoms, to bring to poor people wealth which is worth more than all\nmeasurable riches, to offer to the unhappy a joy more profound than any\nfleshly pleasures. It suits this new King, as it did the kings of the\nOrient, to show Himself under many forms, to appear to men in diverse\ngarments. But the disguises which He prefers even to-day are these\nthree: Poet, Poor Man, and Apostle.\n\n\n                                 MAMMON\n\n\nJesus is the poor man, infinitely and rigorously poor. Poor with an\nabsolute poverty! The prince of poverty! The Lord of perfect\ndestitution! The poor man who lives with the poor, who has come for the\npoor, who speaks to the poor, who gives to the poor, who works for the\npoor! Poor among the poor, destitute among the destitute, beggar among\nthe beggars! The poor man of a great and eternal poverty! The happy and\nrich poor man, who accepts poverty, who desires poverty, who weds\nhimself to poverty, who chants of poverty! The beggar who gives alms!\nThe naked man who covers the naked! The hungry man who feeds others, the\nmiraculous and supernatural, who changes the men owning false riches\ninto poor men, and poor men into those with real wealth.\n\nThere are poor men who are poor because they were never capable of\nacquiring wealth. There are other poor men who are poor because they\ngive away every evening what they earned that day; and the more they\ngive the more they have. Their wealth, the wealth of this second class\nof poor men, grows greater in proportion as it is given away. It is a\npile which becomes greater as more is taken away from it.\n\nJesus was one of these poor men. Compared to one of them, men materially\nrich, rich as the world esteems wealth, rich with their chests of\ntalents, mina, rupees, florins, shekels, crowns, francs, marks, and\ndollars, are only lamentable beggars. The money-changers of the forum,\nthe great feasters of Jerusalem, the bankers of Florence and Frankfort,\nthe lords of London, the multi-millionaires of New York, compared to\nthese poor men are only unfortunate beggars, despoiled and needy; unpaid\nservants of a fierce master; condemned every day to assassinate their\nown souls. The wretchedness of such indigence is so terrible that they\nare reduced to pick up the stones that are found in the mud of the\nearth, and grope about in filth. Theirs is a poverty so repugnant that\nnot even the poor succeed in bestowing on them the charity of a smile.\n\nRichness is a curse like work, but a harder and more shameful curse. He\nwho is marked with the sign of wealth has committed, perhaps\nunconsciously, an infamous crime, one of those mysterious and\nunimaginable crimes which are nameless in human language. The rich man\nis either under the burden of the vengeance of God, or God wishes to put\nhim to the test to see if he can succeed in climbing up to divine\npoverty. For the rich man has committed the greatest sin, the most\nabominable and unpardonable. The rich man is the man who has fallen\nbecause of an exchange: he could have had Heaven and he chose Earth. He\ncould have lived in Paradise and he has chosen Hell. He could have kept\nhis soul and he has exchanged it for material things. He could have\nloved and he has preferred to be hated. He could have had happiness and\nhe has desired power. No one can save him. Wealth in his hands is a\nmetal which buries him alive under its icy mass; it is the tumor which\nconsumes him still alive in his corruption; it is the fire which burns\nhim and reduces him to a terrible, black mummy, a blind paralytic, black\nmummy, a ghostly carrion which everlastingly holds out its empty hand in\nthe cemeteries of the centuries, begging in vain for the alms of\ncharitable remembrance.\n\nFor him there is only one salvation: to become a poor man, a true and\nhumble poor man; to throw away the horrible destitution of wealth in\norder to enter again into poverty. But this resolution is the hardest\nthat the rich man can take. The rich man by the very fact that he is\nsickened by wealth cannot even imagine that the entire renunciation of\nwealth would be the beginning of redemption, and because he cannot\nimagine such an abdication, he cannot even deliberate on it, cannot\nweigh the alternatives. He is a prisoner in the impregnable prison of\nhimself. To liberate himself he must first be free.\n\nThe rich man does not belong to himself, but belongs to inanimate\nthings. He has not the time to think, to choose. Wealth is a pitiless\nmaster who allows no other masters near him. The rich man cannot think\nof his soul, bowed as he is under the care of his riches, under his\nthirst to increase his riches, under the fear of losing his riches,\nunder the material joys which are offered to him by those pieces of\nmatter which are called wealth. He cannot even imagine that his sick,\nsuffocating, mutilated, worm-eaten soul needs to be cured. He has taken\nup his abode in that part of the world which, according to contracts and\nlaws, he has the right to call _his_, and often he has not even the\ntime, the wish, or the power to enjoy it. He must serve it and take care\nof it,\u2014he cannot serve or take care of his own soul. All his power of\nlove is absorbed by these material things, which order him about, which\nhave taken the place of his soul, which have robbed him of all his\nliberty. The horrible fate of the rich man lies in this double\nabsurdity: in order to have the power to command men he has become the\nslave of dead things; in order to acquire a part (and such a very small\npart!) he has lost the whole.\n\nNothing is ours as long as it is ours alone. Outside of himself man can\npossess, actually own, nothing. The absolute secret of owning other\nthings is to renounce them. Everything is given to him who has refused\neverything. But he who wishes to grasp for himself, for himself alone, a\npart of the goods of this world, loses both what he has acquired and\neverything else. And at the same moment he is incapable of knowing\nhimself, or possessing himself, making himself greater. He has nothing\nmore, not even the things which in appearance belong to him, but to\nwhich in reality he belongs; and he has never had his own soul, the one\npiece of property which is worth possessing. He is the most destitute\nand despoiled beggar of all the universe. He has nothing. How then can\nhe love others, give to others himself and that which belongs to\nhimself, exercise that loving charity which would conduct him so soon to\nthe Kingdom? He is nothing and he has nothing. He who does not exist\ncannot change. He who does not possess cannot give. How then can the\nrich man, who is no longer his own, who has no longer a soul, transform\na soul, the only possession of mankind, into something nobler and more\nprecious?\n\n\u201cFor what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and\nlose his own soul?\u201d This question of Christ\u2019s, simple like all\nrevelations, expresses the exact meaning of the prophetic threat. The\nrich man not only loses eternity, but, pulled down by his wealth, loses\nhis life here below, his present soul, the happiness of his present\nearthly life.\n\n\u201cYe cannot serve God and mammon.\u201d The Spirit and Gold are two masters\nwho will not tolerate any division or sharing. They are jealous; they\ninsist on having the whole man. And even if he wishes, the man cannot\ndivide himself in two. He must be all here, or all beyond worldly\nthings. For the faithful servant of the spirit, gold is nothing; for him\nwho serves gold, \u201cspirit\u201d is a word without meaning. He who chooses the\nspirit throws away gold and all the things bought by gold; he who\ndesires gold puts an end to the spirit and renounces all the benefits of\nthe spirit: peace, holiness, love, perfect joy. The first is a poor man\nwho can never use up his infinite wealth; the other is a rich man who\ncan never escape out of his infinite poverty. By the mysterious law of\nrenunciation the poor man possesses even that which is not his\u2014the\nentire universe; through the hard law of perpetual desire, the rich man\ndoes not even possess that little which he believes to be his. God gives\nimmensely more than the immensity which He has promised. Mammon takes\naway even that very little which he promises. He who renounces\neverything has everything given him; he who wishes a part for himself\nalone, finds himself at the end with nothing.\n\nWhen the horrible mystery of wealth is deeply probed, it is easy to see\nwhy the masters of men have considered wealth the kingdom of the Demon\nhimself. A thing which costs less than everything else is bought by\neverything else. A thing which is nothing, the actual value of which is\nnothing, is bought by giving up everything, is secured by exchanging for\nit the whole of the soul, the whole of life. The most precious thing is\nexchanged for the most worthless.\n\nAnd yet even this infernal absurdity has its reason for being, in the\neconomy of the spirit. Man is so universally and naturally drawn by that\nnothingness called wealth that he could only be dissuaded from his\ninsensate search for it by putting a price so great, so high, so out of\nall proportion that the very fact of paying it would be a valid proof of\ninsanity and crime. But not even the conditions of the bargain, the\neternal exchanged for the ephemeral, power for servitude, sanctity for\ndamnation, are enough to keep men away from the absurd bargain with the\npowers of evil. Poor people do not rejoice that they are poor. Their\nonly regret is that they cannot be rich; their souls are contaminated\nand in peril like those of the wealthy. Almost all of them are\ninvoluntarily poor men, who have not known how to make money and yet\nhave lost the spirit; they are only poverty-stricken rich people who\nhave not as yet any cash.\n\nFor poverty, voluntarily accepted, joyfully desired, is the only poverty\nwhich gives true wealth, spiritual wealth. Absolute poverty frees men\nfor the conquest of the absolute. The Kingdom of Heaven does not promise\npoor people that they shall become rich, it promises rich people that\nthey shall enter into it when they become freely poor.\n\n\n                            SELL EVERYTHING\n\n\nThe tragic paradox implied in wealth justifies the advice given by Jesus\nto those who wish to follow Him.\n\nThey all should give whatever they have beyond their needs to those in\nwant. But the rich man should give everything. To the young man who\ncomes up to ask Him what he ought to do to be among His followers, Jesus\nanswers: \u201cIf thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give\nto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.\u201d Giving away wealth\nis not a loss or a sacrifice. Instead of this, Jesus knows and all those\nknow who understand mankind and wealth that it is a magnificently\nprofitable transaction, an incommensurable gain. \u201cSell whatsoever thou\nhast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven where\nneither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break\nthrough nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be\nalso. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow from\nthee, turn not thou away, for it is more blessed to give than to\nreceive.\u201d\n\nMen must give and give without sparing, light-heartedly and without\ncalculation. He who gives in order to get something back is not perfect.\nHe who gives in order to exchange with others, or for other material\nthings, acquires nothing. The recompense is elsewhere, it is in us.\nThings are not to be given away that they may be paid for by other\nthings, but by purity and contentment alone. \u201cWhen thou makest a dinner\nor a supper call not thy friends nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen\nnor thy rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense\nbe made thee. But when thou makest a feast call the poor, the maimed,\nthe lame, the blind; and thou shalt be blest, for they cannot recompense\nthee, for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.\u201d\n\nEven before Jesus\u2019 time men had been advised to renounce wealth. Jesus\nwas not the first to find in poverty one of the steps to perfection. The\ngreat Vaddhamana, the Jain, or triumpher, added to the commandments of\nParswa, founder of the Freed, the doctrine of the renunciation of all\npossessions. Buddha, his contemporary, exhorted his disciples to a\nsimilar renunciation. The Cynics stripped themselves of all material\ngoods to be independent of work and of men, and to be able to consecrate\ntheir freed souls to truth. Crates, the Theban nobleman, disciple of\nDiogenes, distributed his wealth to his fellow-citizens and turned\nbeggar. Plato wished the warriors in his Republic to have no\npossessions. Dressed in purple and seated at tables inlaid with rare\nstones, the Stoics pronounced eloquent eulogies on poverty. Aristophanes\nputs blind Pluto on the stage distributing wealth to rascals alone,\nalmost as though wealth were a punishment.\n\nBut in Jesus the love of poverty is not an ascetic rule, nor a proud\ndisguise for ostentation. Timon of Athens, who was reduced to poverty\nafter having fed a crowd of parasites with indiscriminate generosity,\nwas not a poor man as Christ would have men poor. Timon was poor through\nthe fault of his vainglory, to feed his own desire to be called\nmagnanimous and liberal. He gave to everybody, even to those who were\nnot needy. Crates, who stripped himself of all his property to imitate\nDiogenes, was the slave of pride: he wished to do something different\nfrom others, to acquire the name of philosopher and sage. The\nprofessional beggary of the Cynics is a picturesque form of pride. The\npoverty of Plato\u2019s warriors is a measure of political prudence. The\nfirst republics conquered and flourished as long as the citizens\ncontented themselves, as in old Sparta and old Rome, with strict\npoverty, and they fell as soon as they valued gold more than sober and\nmodest living. But men of antiquity did not despise wealth in itself.\nThey held it dangerous when it accumulated in the hands of the few, they\nconsidered it unjust when it was not spent with judicious liberality.\nBut Plato, who desires for his citizens a condition half-way between\nneed and abundance, puts riches among the good things of human life. He\nputs it last of all, but he does not forget it. And Aristophanes would\nkneel before Pluto if the blind God should acquire his sight again and\ngive riches to worthy people.\n\nIn the Gospel, poverty is not a philosophical ornament nor a mystic\nmode. To be poor is not enough to entitle one to citizenship in the\nKingdom. Poverty of the body is a preliminary requisite, like humility\nof the spirit. He who is not convinced that his estate is low never\nthinks of climbing high; no one can feel a zest for true treasures if he\nis not freed from all material property,\u2014from that winding-sheet which\nblinds the eyes and binds down the wings.\n\nWhen he does not suffer from his poverty, when he glories in his poverty\ninstead of tormenting himself to convert it into wealth, the poor man is\ncertainly much nearer to moral perfection than the rich man. But the\nrich man who has despoiled himself in favor of the poor and has chosen\nto live side by side with his new brothers is still nearer perfection\nthan the man who was born and reared in poverty. That he has been\ntouched by a grace so rare and prodigious gives him the right to hope\nfor the greatest blessedness. To renounce what you have never had may be\nmeritorious, because imagination magnifies absent things; but it is the\nsign of supreme perfectibility to renounce everything that you actually\ndid possess, possessions that were envied by every one.\n\nThe poor man who is sober, chaste, simple and contented because he lacks\nmeans and occasions for anything else, is inclined to look for a\nrecompense in pleasures which do not cost money, and as it were for a\nrevenge in a spiritual superiority where prosperous people cannot\ncompete with him. But often his virtues come from his impotence or from\nhis ignorance; he does not turn from the right course\u2014he cannot afford\nto do so\u2014he does not pile up treasure because he possesses only the\nstrictly necessary; he is not drunken and licentious because\nwine-sellers and women of the streets give no credit. His life, often\nhard, servile, dark, redeems his faults. And his suffering forces him to\nlift his eyes towards Heaven in search of consolation. We do so little\nfor the poor that we have no right to judge them. As they are, abandoned\nby their brothers, kept far from those who could speak to their hearts,\navoided by those who shrink from the proximity of their sweaty bodies,\nexcluded from those worlds of intelligence and the arts which might make\ntheir poverty more endurable, the poor are, in the universal\nwretchedness of mankind, the least impure. If they were more loved, they\nwould be better men. How can those who have left them alone in their\npoverty have the heart to condemn them?\n\nJesus loved the poor; He loved them for the compassion which He felt for\nthem; He loved them because He felt them nearer to His soul, more\nprepared to understand Him than other men. He loved them because they\nconstantly gave Him the happiness of service, of giving bread to the\nhungry, strength to the weak, hope to the unhappy. Jesus loved the poor\nbecause He saw that if they were justly treated they would be the most\nlegitimate inhabitants of the Kingdom. He loved the poor because they\nrendered the renunciation of the rich easier by the stimulus of charity;\nbut most of all He loved the poor men who had been rich and who for the\nlove of the Kingdom had become poor. Their renunciation was the greatest\nact of faith in His promise. They had given that which considered\nabsolutely is nothing, but in the eyes of the world is everything, for\nthe certainty of sharing in a more perfect life. They had been obliged\nto conquer in themselves one of the most profoundly rooted instincts of\nman. Jesus, born a poor man among the poor, for the poor, never left his\nbrothers. He gave to them the fructifying abundance of His divine\nproperty. But in His heart He sought the poor man who had not always\nbeen poor, the rich man ready to strip himself for His love. He sought\nhim, perhaps He never found him. But He felt this longed-for, unknown\nbrother man tenderly nearer to his heart than all the docile seekers who\ncrowded about Him.\n\n\n                            THE DEVIL\u2019S DUNG\n\n\nNote well, you men who are yet to be born! Jesus was never willing to\ntouch a coin with His hand. Those hands of His which molded the clay of\nthe earth as a cure for blind eyes, those hands which touched the\ncontaminated flesh of lepers and of the dead, those hands which clasped\nthe body of Judas, so much more contaminated than clay, than leprosy,\nthan putrefaction, those white pure healing hands which nothing could\nsully, never suffered themselves to be touched by one of those metal\ndisks which carry in relief the profiles of the proprietors of the\nworld. Jesus could mention money in His parables; He could see it in the\nhands of others, but touch it\u2014no! To Him who scorned nothing, money was\ndisgusting. It was repugnant to Him with a repugnance that was like\nhorror. All His nature was in revolt at the thought of a contact with\nthose filthy symbols of wealth.\n\nBut one day even Jesus was constrained to look at a piece of money. They\nasked Him if it was permitted to the true Israelite to pay the tribute,\nand He answered at once, \u201cShow me the tribute money.\u201d They showed it to\nHim, but He would not take it. It was a Roman coin stamped with the\nhypocritical face of Augustus. But He wished to seem not to know whose\nface it was. He asked, \u201cWhose is this image and superscription?\u201d They\nanswered, \u201cC\u00e6sar\u2019s.\u201d Then He threw into the faces of the wily\ninterrogators the answer which silenced them, \u201cRender therefore unto\nC\u00e6sar the things which are C\u00e6sar\u2019s; and unto God the things that are\nGod\u2019s.\u201d\n\nGive back that which is not yours, money does not belong to us. It is\nmanufactured by the powerful for the needs of power. It is the property\nof kings and of the kingdom, of that other kingdom which is not ours.\nThe king represents force and is the protector of wealth; but we have\nnothing to do with violence and reject riches. Our Kingdom has no\npotentates and has no rich men; the King of our Heaven does not coin\nmoney. Money is a means for the exchange of earthly goods, but we do not\nseek for earthly goods. What little is necessary for us, a little\nsunshine, a little air, a little water, a piece of bread, a cloak, will\nbe given freely to us by God and by God\u2019s friends. Tire yourselves out,\nyou other people, all your lives to gather together a great pile of\nthose round minted tokens. We have no use for them. For us they are\ndefinitely superfluous. Therefore we give them back; we give them back\nto him who has had them coined, to him who has had his portrait put on\nthem, so that all should know that they are his.\n\nJesus never needed to give back any money because He never possessed\nany. He gave the order to His disciples not to carry bags for offerings\non their journeys. He made one single exception, and that a fearful one.\nThe Gospel tells us that one apostle kept the common purse. This\ndisciple was Judas, and even Judas felt himself forced to give back the\npayment for his betrayal before disappearing in death. Judas is the\nmysterious victim sacrificed to the curse of money. Money carries with\nit, together with the filth of the hands which have clutched and handled\nit, the inexorable contagion of crime. Among the unclean things which\nmen have manufactured to defile the earth and defile themselves, money\nis perhaps the most unclean. These counters of coined metal which pass\nand repass every day among hands still soiled with sweat or blood, worn\nby the rapacious fingers of thieves, of merchants, of misers; this round\nand viscid sputum of the Mint, desired by all, sought for, stolen,\nenvied, loved more than love and often more than life; these ugly pieces\nof stamped matter, which the assassin gives to the cut-throat, the\nusurer to the hungry, the enemy to the traitor, the swindler to his\npartner, the simonist to the barterer in religious offices, the lustful\nto the woman bought and sold, these foul vehicles of evil which persuade\nthe son to kill his father, the wife to betray her husband, the brother\nto defraud his brother, the wicked poor man to stab the wicked rich man,\nthe servant to cheat his master, the highwayman to despoil the traveler;\nthis money, these material emblems of matter, are the most terrifying\nobjects manufactured by man. Money which has been the death of so many\nbodies is every day the death of thousands of souls. More contagious\nthan the rags of a man with the pest, than the pus of an ulcer, than the\nfilth of a sewer, it enters into every house, shines on the counters of\nthe money-changers, settles down in money-chests, profanes the pillow of\nsleep, hides itself in the fetid darkness of squalid back-rooms, sullies\nthe innocent hands of children, tempts virgins, pays the hangman for his\nwork, goes about on the face of the earth to stir up hatred, to set\ncupidity on fire, to hasten corruption and death.\n\nBread, already holy on the family board, becomes on the table of the\nChurch the everlasting body of Christ. Money too is the visible sign of\na transubstantiation. It is the infamous Host of the Demon. He who loves\nmoney and receives it with joy is in visible communion with the Demon.\nHe who touches money with pleasure touches without knowing it the filth\nof the Demon. The pure cannot touch it, the holy man cannot endure it.\nThey know with unshakable certainty its ugly essence, and they have for\nmoney the same horror that the rich man has for poverty.\n\n\n                        THE KINGS OF THE NATIONS\n\n\n\u201cWhose is this image?\u201d asks Jesus when they put the Roman money before\nhis eyes. He knows that face, He knows, as they all do, that Octavius by\na sequence of extraordinary good luck became the monarch of the world\nwith the adulatory surname of Augustus. He knows that falsely youthful\nprofile, that head of clustering curls, the great nose that juts forward\nas if to hide the cruelty of the small mouth, the lips rigorously\nclosed. It is a head, like those of all kings, cut off from the body,\ncut off below the neck; sinister image of a voluntary and eternal\ndecapitation. C\u00e6sar is the king of the past, the head of the armies, the\ncoiner of silver and gold, fallible administrator of insufficient\njustice. Jesus is the King of the future, the liberator of servants, the\nabdicator of wealth, the master of love. There is nothing in common\nbetween them. Jesus has come to overthrow the domination of C\u00e6sar, to\nundo the Roman Empire and every earthly empire, but not to put Himself\nin C\u00e6sar\u2019s place. If men will listen to Him there will never be any\nC\u00e6sar again. Jesus is not the heir who conspires against the sovereign\nto take his place. He has come peaceably to remove all rulers. C\u00e6sar is\nthe strongest and most famous of His rivals, but also the most remote,\nbecause his force lies in the slothfulness of men, in the weakness of\npeoples. But One has come who will awaken the sleeping, open the eyes of\nthe blind, give back strength to the weak. When everything is fulfilled\nand the Kingdom is founded\u2014a Kingdom which needs no soldiers nor judges\nnor slaves nor money, but only renewed and living souls\u2014C\u00e6sar\u2019s empire\nwill vanish like a pile of ashes under the victorious breath of the\nwind.\n\nAs long as C\u00e6sar is there, we can give back to him what is his. For the\nnew man, money is nothing. We give back to C\u00e6sar, vowed to eternal\nnothingness, that silver nothingness which is none of ours. Jesus is\nalways looking forward with passionate longing to the arrival of the\nsecond earthly Paradise and He takes no heed of governors because the\nnew land which He announces will not need governors. A people of holy\nmen who love each other would have no use for Kings, law-courts and\narmies. On one occasion only does He speak of kings, and then only to\noverturn the common established idea. \u201cThe Kings of the Gentiles,\u201d He\nsays to His disciples, \u201cexercise lordship over them, and they that\nexercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be\nso, but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he\nthat is chief, as he that doth serve.\u201d It is the theory of perfect\nequality in human relationship. The great is small, the master is\nservant, the King is slave. Since, according to Christ\u2019s teachings, he\nwho governs must become like him who serves, the opposite is true, and\nhe who serves has the same rights and honors as he who governs. Among\nthe righteous, there may be some more ardent than others; there may be\nsaints who were sinners up to the last day; there may be other innocent\nones who were citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven from their birth.\nDifferent planes of spiritual greatness may exist as variations of the\nperfection common to all; but to the end of time every category of\nsuperior and inferior, of master and subordinate, shall be abolished.\nAuthority presupposes, even if it is badly wielded, a flock to lead, a\nminority to punish, bestiality to shackle; but when all men are holy,\nthere will be no more need for commands and obedience, for laws and\npunishments. The Kingdom of Heaven can dispense with the commands of\nForce.\n\nIn the Kingdom of Heaven men will not hate each other and will no longer\ndesire riches; every reason and need for government will disappear\nimmediately after these two great changes. The name of the path which\nconducts to perfect liberty is not Destruction but Holiness. And it is\nnot found in the sophistries of Godwin, or of Stirner, or Proudhon, or\nof Kropotkin, but only in the gospel of Jesus Christ.\n\n\n                             SWORD AND FIRE\n\n\nEvery time that the sycophants of the powerful have desired to sanctify\nthe ambition of the ambitious, the violence of the violent, the\nfierceness of the fierce, the pugnacity of the pugnacious, the conquests\nof the conquerors, every time that the paid sophists or frenzied orators\nhave tried to reconcile pagan ferocity with Christian gentleness, to use\nthe Cross as the hilt of the sword, to justify blood spilt through\nhatred by the blood which flowed on Calvary to teach love; every time,\nin short, that people wish to use the doctrine of peace to legitimatize\nwar, and make Christ surety for Genghis Khan or for Bonaparte or even\nthrough refinement of infamy, the outrider of Mahomet, you will see them\nquote, with the inexorable punctuality of all commonplaces, the\ncelebrated gospel text, which everybody knows by heart and very few have\never understood.\n\n\u201cThink not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send\npeace, but a sword.\u201d Some more learned add, \u201cI am come to send fire on\nthe earth.\u201d Others rush forward to present the decisive verse, \u201cThe\nkingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.\u201d\n\nWhat angel of eloquence, what supernatural enlightener, can ever reveal\nto these hardened quoters the true meaning of the words which they\nrepeat with such light frivolity? They do not look at the words which\ncome before and after; they pay no attention to the occasion on which\nthey were spoken. They do not imagine for a moment that they can have\nanother meaning from the common one.\n\nWhen Jesus says that He has come to bring a sword,\u2014or as it is written\nin the parallel passage of Luke, \u201cDiscord,\u201d He is speaking to His\nDisciples who are on the point of departing to announce the coming of\nthe Kingdom. And immediately after having spoken of the sword, He\nexplains with familiar examples what He meant to say: \u201cFor I am come to\nset a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her\nmother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man\u2019s\nfoes shall be they of his own household. For from henceforth there shall\nbe five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.\u201d\nThe sword therefore does not mean war; it is a figure of speech which\ndignifies division. The sword is what divides, cuts in two, disunites;\nand the preaching of the gospel shall divide men of the same family.\nBecause among men there are those deaf and those who hear, those who are\nslow and those who are quick, those who deny and those who believe.\nUntil all are converted and \u201cbrothers in the Word,\u201d discord will reign\non earth. But discord is not war, is not massacre. Those who have heard\nand believe\u2014the Christians\u2014will not assault those who do not hear and do\nnot believe. They will, it is true, take up arms against their\nrefractory and stubborn brothers, but these arms will be preaching,\nexample, pardon, love. Those who are not converted perhaps will begin\nreal warfare, the warfare of violence and blood, but they will begin it\nexactly because they are not converted, precisely because they are not\nyet Christians. The triumph of the Gospel is the end of all wars, of\nwars between man and man, between family and family, between caste and\ncaste, between people and people. If the Gospel at first is the cause of\nseparations and discord the fault is not in the truths taught in the\nGospel but in the fact that these truths are not yet practiced by all.\n\nWhen Jesus proclaims that he comes to bring fire, only a literal-minded\nbarbarian can think of murderous and destructive fire, worthy auxiliary\nof human warfare. \u201cWhat will I if it be already kindled!\u201d The fire\ndesired by the Son of Man is the fire of purification, of enthusiasm,\nthe ardor of sacrifice, the refulgent flame of love. Until all souls are\nburning and consumed in that fire, the word of the Gospel will be but\nuseless sound, and the Kingdom still far away. To renew the contaminated\nand hateful family of men, a wonderful outburst of grief and of passion\nis needed. The complacent must suffer, the cold must burn, the\ninsensible must cry out, the tepid must flame like torches in the night.\nAll the filth accumulated in the secret life of men, all the sediments\nof sin which make of every soul an offensive sewer, all the corruption\nwhich shuts the ears and suffocates the hearts, must be burned up in\nthis miraculous spiritual fire, which Jesus came to kindle in our\nhearts.\n\nBut to pass beyond this wall of flame there is need for strength of soul\nand a boldness not possessed by all, possessed only by the valorous; and\nthus Jesus can say, \u201cThe Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the\nviolent take it by force.\u201d The word violent has as a matter of fact in\nthe text the evident meaning of \u201cstrong,\u201d of men who know how to take\ndoors by assault without hesitating or trembling. \u201cSword,\u201d \u201cfire,\u201d\n\u201cviolence,\u201d are words which are not to be taken in the literal sense, so\npleasing to the advocates of massacres. They are figurative words which\nwe are forced to use to reach the torpid imagination of the crowds. The\nsword is the symbol of the divisions between those first persuaded and\nthose who are last in believing; fire is purifying love; violence is the\nstrength necessary to make oneself over and to arrive on the threshold\nof the Kingdom. Any one who understands this passage in any other way\neither does not know how to read, or is determined to misread.\n\nJesus is the man of Peace. He has come to bring Peace. The Gospels are\nnothing but proclamations and instructions for Peace. The very night of\nHis birth celestial voices sang in the sky the prophetic augury: \u201cPeace\non Earth to men of good will.\u201d On the Mount one of the first promises\nwhich flowed from the heart and from the lips of Christ is that directed\nto the peacemakers, \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be\ncalled the children of God.\u201d When the apostles are ready to depart on\ntheir mission He commands them to wish peace to all the houses where\nthey enter. To the disciples, to His friends, He counsels, \u201cHave peace\none with another.\u201d Drawing near to Jerusalem, He looks at it pityingly\nand exclaims, \u201cIf thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day,\nthe things which belong unto thy peace!\u201d and the terrible night on the\nMount of Olives, while the mercenaries armed with swords are binding\nHim, He pronounces the supreme condemnation of violence, \u201cFor all they\nthat take the sword shall perish with the sword.\u201d He understands the\nevils of discord, \u201cEvery kingdom divided against itself is brought to\ndesolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not\nstand.\u201d And in His talk on the last things, in the grand apocalyptic\nprophecy, He announces among the terrible signs of the end together with\nfamine, earthquakes and tribulation, also wars. \u201cAnd ye shall hear of\nwars and rumours of wars.... For nation shall rise against nation, and\nkingdom against kingdom.\u201d\n\nFor Jesus discord is an evil; war is a crime. His God is not the old\nLord of Battles. The apologists for great massacres confuse the Old and\nthe New Testament. But the New is new exactly because it transforms the\nOld.\n\nOnly when considered as a punishment can war be thought of as divine.\nWar is the terrible retribution of men who have recourse to war; it is\nthe cruelest manifestation of the hatred which broods and boils in human\nhearts, the hatred which drives men to take up arms to destroy one\nanother. War is at the same time a crime and its own punishment.\n\nBut when hate is abolished in every heart, war will be incomprehensible:\nour most terrible punishment will disappear together with our greatest\nsin. Then at last will arrive the day longed for by Isaiah when, \u201cthey\nshall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into\npruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither\nshall they learn war any more.\u201d\n\nThat day announced by Isaiah is the day on which the Sermon on the Mount\nshall become the only law recognized on earth.\n\n\n                             ONE FLESH ONLY\n\n\nJesus sanctions the union of man and woman even in the flesh. As long as\nkings remain, we are to give back to them the coins stamped with their\nnames; as long as men are not like angels the human race must perpetuate\nitself.\n\nThe Family and the State, imperfect expedients compared with heavenly\nbeatitude, are necessary during our terrestrial probation; and since\nthey are necessary they should at least become less impure and less\nimperfect. As long as rulers exist, at least the man who rules should\nfeel himself the equal of the man who serves. As long as marriage\nexists, the union between man and woman should be eternal and faithful.\n\nIn marriage Jesus sees first of all the joining of two bodies. On this\npoint He ratifies the metaphor of the Old Law, \u201cSo then they are no more\ntwain, but one flesh.\u201d Husband and wife are one body, inseparable. This\nman shall never have another woman; this woman shall never know another\nman until death divides them. The mating of male and female, when it is\nnot the expression of careless wantonness, or furtive fornication, when\nit is the meeting of two healthy virginities, when it is preceded by\nfree choice, by a chaste passion, by a public and consecrated covenant,\nhas an almost mystic character which nothing can cancel. The choice is\nirrevocable, the passion is confirmed, the compact is for eternity.\nWithin the two bodies clinging to each other with bodily desire, there\nare two souls which recognize each other and find each other in love.\nTheir flesh becomes one flesh; their two souls become one soul.\n\nThe two have been fused into one, and from this communion will be born a\nnew creature formed of the essence of both, which will be the visible\nform of their union. Love makes them like God, creators of a new and\nmiraculous creation.\n\nBut this Duality of the flesh and of the spirit\u2014the most perfect among\nimperfect human relations\u2014should never be disturbed or interrupted.\nAdultery corrupts it, divorce destroys it. Adultery treacherously\ncorrodes the union; divorce repudiates it definitely. Adultery is a\nsecret divorce founded upon untruth and betrayal; divorce followed by\nanother marriage is sanctioned adultery.\n\nJesus always condemns adultery and divorce in the most solemn and\nabsolute manner. His whole nature holds unfaithfulness in horror. There\nwill come a day, he warns people, in speaking of heavenly life, in which\nmen and women will not marry; but up to that day marriage should have at\nleast all the perfections possible to its imperfection. And Jesus who\nalways goes below the surface of things does not call adulterer only the\nman who robs his brother of his wife, but also the man who looks at her\nin the street with lustful eyes. The man who has underhand relations\nwith another man\u2019s wife is an adulterer, but no less an adulterer is he\nwho, having put aside his own wife, marries another. On one occasion\nalone, He seems to admit the possibility of divorce to the husband of an\nadulteress; but the crime of the repudiated wife could never justify the\ncrime which the betrayed man would commit in taking another wife.\n\nConfronted with a law so absolute and so rigorous, even the Disciples\ntook alarm. \u201cIf the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good\nto marry. But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying,\nsave they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so\nborn from their mother\u2019s womb: and there are some eunuchs which were\nmade eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves\neunuchs for the kingdom of heaven\u2019s sake. He that is able to receive it,\nlet him receive it.\u201d\n\nMarriage is a concession to human nature, and to the propagation of\nlife. \u201cAll men cannot receive this saying,\u201d are not capable of remaining\nchaste, virgin, and alone, but only \u201cthey to whom it is given.\u201d Perfect\ncelibacy is a grace, a reward of the victory of the spirit over the\nbody.\n\nAny man who wishes to give all his love to a great undertaking must\ncondemn himself to chastity. He cannot serve both humanity and the\nindividual. The man who has a difficult mission to carry out, demanding\nall his strength up to the last of his days, cannot tie himself to a\nwoman. Marriage means abandoning oneself to another being\u2014but the\nSaviour must abandon himself to all other beings. The union of two souls\nis not enough for him\u2014and it would make more difficult, perhaps\nimpossible, union with all other souls. The responsibilities which come\nwith the choice of a mate, the birth of children, the creation of a\nlittle community in the midst of the great community of the human race,\nare so heavy that they would be a daily hindrance to undertakings\ninfinitely more serious. The man who wishes to lead other men, to\ntransform them, cannot bind himself for all his life to one being alone.\nHe would need to be faithless to his wife or to his mission. He loves\nall his brothers too much to love one only of his sisters. The Hero is\nsolitary. Solitude is his penalty and his greatness. He renounces the\npleasures of marital love, but the love which is in his heart, when\ncommunicated to all men, is multiplied into a sublimation of sacrifice\nsurpassing all earthly joys. The man with no mate is alone, but is free;\nhis soul, unhampered by common and material thoughts, can rise to the\nheights. He does not beget children of his own flesh, but he brings to a\nsecond birth the children of his spirit.\n\nIt is not given to every one, however, to resist and abstain. \u201cHe that\nis able to receive it, let him receive it.\u201d The foundation of the\nKingdom needs all men who will give all their souls to it; the lusts of\nthe flesh, even when confined to legitimate marriage, are weakening for\nhim who should give all his attention to the things of the spirit.\n\nThose who will know the resurrection of the great day of triumph will\nhave no further temptations. In the Kingdom of Heaven the joining of man\nand woman, even sanctified as it is by the permanence of marriage, will\nexist no more. Its real end is the creation of new human beings, but in\nthat day Death will be conquered and the everlasting renewing of the\ngenerations will no longer be necessary. \u201cFor when they shall rise from\nthe dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the\nangels which are in heaven.\u201d\n\nWith this attainment of eternal and angelic life\u2014the two promises and\nthe two certainties of Christ\u2014what has seemed endurable will become\nunthinkable, that which seemed pure will become vile, that which was\nholy will become imperfect. In that supreme and happy world all the\ntrials of the human race will be over. A hasty mating with a stolen\nwoman was enough for the primitive bestial man. Man rose to the higher\nlevel of marriage, to union with one woman alone; the saint rose higher\nyet, to voluntary chastity. But the man who has become an angel in\nHeaven, who is all spirit and love, will have conquered the flesh even\nin memory. In a world where there will be no poor, sick, unhappy or\nenemies, his love will be transfigured into a superhuman contemplation.\n\nThe cycle of births will then be closed. The Fourth Kingdom will be\nforever established. The citizens of the Kingdom will be eternally the\nsame, themselves and no other through all the centuries. Woman will no\nlonger bring forth her young with suffering. The sentence of exile will\nbe revoked, the Serpent will be conquered; the Father will joyfully\nwelcome his wandering son. Paradise will be found again and will never\nmore be lost.\n\n\n                            FATHERS AND SONS\n\n\nJesus was speaking in a house, perhaps at Capernaum, and men and women,\nall hungering for life and justice, all needing comfort and consolation,\nhad filled the house, had pressed close around Him, and were looking at\nHim as they would look at their Father returned to them, their Brother\nhealing them, their Benefactor saving them. They were so hungry for His\nwords, these men and women, that Jesus and His friends had not stopped\nto take a mouthful of food. He had spoken for a long time, and yet they\nwould have liked Him to go on speaking till nightfall, without ever\nstopping for an instant. They had been waiting for Him for so long!\nTheir fathers and their mothers had waited for Him in wretchedness and\ndumb resignation for thousands of years. They themselves had waited for\nHim, year after year, in dull wretchedness. Night after night they had\nlonged for a ray of light, a promise of happiness, a loving word. And\nnow before them was He who was the reward of their long vigil. Now they\ncould wait no longer. These men and these women crowded about Jesus like\nprivileged and impatient creditors who finally have before them the\nDivine Debtor, for whom they have been eternally waiting; and they\nclaimed their share down to the last penny. He certainly should be able\nto get along without eating bread just this one time\u2014for centuries and\ncenturies their fathers had been forced to go without the Bread of\nTruth; for years and years they themselves had not been able to satisfy\ntheir hunger for the Bread of Hope.\n\nJesus therefore went on talking to the people who had filled the house.\nHe repeated the most touching figures of His inspiration, told the most\npersuasive stories of the Kingdom, looked at them with those luminous\neyes which shone down into the soul as the morning sun penetrates the\nshut-in darkness of a house.\n\nAny one of us would give what remains of his life to be looked at by\nthose eyes, to gaze for a moment into those eyes shining with infinite\ntenderness; to listen for a moment only to that thrilling voice,\nchanging the Semitic vernacular into melodious music. Those men and\nwomen who are now dead, those poor men, those poor women, those wretched\npeople who to-day are dust in the air of the desert, or clay under the\nhoofs of the camels, those men and those women whom in their lifetime no\none envied, and whom we the living are forced to envy after their remote\nand obscure death; those men and those women heard that voice, saw those\neyes.\n\nBut there came a stir and voices were heard at the door of the house:\nsome one wished to come in. One of those present told Jesus, \u201cBehold,\nthy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee.\u201d But Jesus did not\nstir, \u201cWho is my mother or my brethren?\u201d And he looked round about on\nthem which sat about him, and said, \u201cBehold my mother and my brethren!\nFor whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my\nsister, and mother.\u201d\n\nMy family is all here and I have no other family. The ties of blood do\nnot count unless they are confirmed in the spirit. My father is the\nFather who made me like unto Him in the perfection of righteousness; my\nbrothers are the poor who weep; my sisters are the women who have left\ntheir loves for Love. He did not mean with these words to deny the\nVirgin of Sorrows, of whose womb He was the fruit; He meant to say that\nfrom the day of His voluntary exile He belonged no more to the little\nfamily of Nazareth, but only to His mission as Saviour, to the great\nfamily of mankind.\n\nIn the new organization of salvation, spiritual affiliations surpass the\nsimple relationships of the flesh. \u201cIf any come to me, and hate not his\nfather, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters,\nyea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.\u201d Individual love\nmust disappear in universal love. We must choose between the old\naffections of the old mankind and the unique love of the New Man.\n\nThe family will disappear when men, in the celestial life, shall be\nbetter than men. In the world as it is, the family is an impediment for\nhim who helps others to rise to higher things. \u201cAnd call no man your\nfather upon the earth: for one is your Father which is in heaven.\u201d He\nwho leaves his family shall be infinitely rewarded. \u201cAnd he said unto\nthem, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or\nparents, or brethren, or wife, or children for the kingdom of God\u2019s\nsake, Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in\nthe world to come life everlasting.\u201d\n\nYour Heavenly Father will never forsake you, your brothers in the\nKingdom will never betray you; but the fathers and the brothers of\nearthly life might become your assassins. \u201cAnd ye shall be betrayed both\nby parents and brethren and kinsfolks and friends; and some of you shall\nthey cause to be put to death.\u201d\n\nAnd yet fathers at least should be faithful, because, according to\nJesus, fathers have more duties toward their sons than sons toward their\nfathers. The Old Law recognizes only the first. \u201cHonor thy father and\nthy mother,\u201d said Moses. But he does not add, \u201cProtect and love thy\nchildren.\u201d Children seemed to Moses to be the property of those who had\nbegotten them. Life in those times seemed so fair and precious that\nchildren were always thought to be in debt to their parents. They were\nto remain servants forever, everlastingly submissive. They should live\nonly for old age, by the orders of old age.\n\nHere also the divine genius of the Overthrower sees what is lacking in\nthe old ideals and insists upon righting the balance. Fathers should\ngive without sparing and without rest; even if the children are\nungrateful, even if they abandon their father, even if they are unworthy\nin the eyes of the platitudinous sagacity of the world. The Paternoster\nis a prayer of sons to a Father. It is the prayer which every child\nmight address to his father. He asks for daily bread; the remission of\nsins, pardon for his failings, and daily protection against evil.\n\nAnd yet fathers, even when they give everything, are sometimes forsaken.\nIf their sons leave them to throw themselves into evil ways, they must\nbe forgiven as soon as they come back, as the Prodigal Son in the\nparable was forgiven. If they leave their fathers to seek out a higher\nand more perfect life\u2014like those who are converted to the Kingdom\u2014they\nwill be rewarded a thousand times in this life and the next.\n\nBut from every point of view, fathers are debtors. The tremendous\nresponsibility which they have accepted in giving life to a new human\nbeing must be met. Like the Heavenly Father, they must give to those of\ntheir children who ask and to those who keep silence, to the worthy and\nthe unworthy, to those who sit about the family board and to those who\nare wanderers over the earth, to the good and to the bad, to the first\nand to the last. They must never become weary, not even with the\nchildren who flee from them, with those who offend against them, with\nthose who deny them.\n\n\u201cOr what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give\nhim a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?\u201d Who will\nrefuse to a son who departs asking nothing, the supreme gift of a love\nwhich asks no requital?\n\n\n                            LITTLE CHILDREN\n\n\nAll men are children of the Son of Man, but no one could call Him father\nin the flesh. Among the disappointing joys of men perhaps the only joy\nwhich does not disappoint is to hold in one\u2019s arms or on one\u2019s knees a\nchild whose face is rosy with blood which is also yours, who laughs at\nyou with the dawning splendor of his eyes, who stammers out your name,\nwho uncovers the springs of the lost tenderness of your childhood; to\nfeel against your adult flesh, hardened by winds and the sun, this fresh\nsmooth young flesh where the blood seems still to have kept some of the\nsweetness of milk, flesh that seems made of warm, living petals. To feel\nthat this flesh is yours, shaped in the flesh of your mate, nourished\nwith the milk of her breasts; to watch the birth and slow flowering of\nthe soul in this flesh; to be the sole father of this unique creature,\nof this flower opening in the light of the world; to recognize your own\naspect in his childish eyes, to hear your own voice through his fresh\nlips; to grow young again through this child in order to be worthy of\nhim; to be nearer to him; to make yourself younger, better, purer; to\nforget all the years which bring us silently nearer to death, to forget\nthe pride of manhood, the vanity of wisdom, the first wrinkles on the\nface, the expiations, the ignominies of life and to become a virgin\nagain beside this virginity, calm beside this calmness, good with a\ngoodness never known before; to be in short the father of a child of\nyour own, this is certainly the highest human pleasure given to a man\nwho has a soul within his clay.\n\nJesus, whom no one called Father, was drawn to children as to sinners.\nLover of the absolute, He loved only extremes. Complete innocence and\ncomplete downfall were for Him pledges of salvation. Innocence because\nit does not need to be cleansed; abject degradation because it feels\nmore keenly the need to be cleansed. The people in danger are those\nmidway; men half depraved and half intact; men who are foul within and\nwish to seem upright and just; those who have lost with their childhood\ntheir native purity and do not yet recognize the filthiness of their\ninner depravity.\n\nJesus loved children with tenderness and sinners with compassion; the\npure and those who stood in dire need of purification. His hand\nwillingly caressed the floating hair of the newly weaned child and did\nnot draw back from the perfumed tresses of the prostitute. He drew near\nto sinners because they often had not the strength to come to Him; but\nHe called children to Him because children know by instinct who loves\nthem, and run willingly to him. Mothers brought their children to Him to\nhave Him touch them. The Disciples, with their habitual roughness, cried\nout on them\u2014and Jesus once more was obliged to reprove them, \u201cSuffer\nlittle children, and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the\nkingdom of heaven.\u201d \u201cVerily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive\nthe kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.\u201d\n\nThe Disciples, bearded men, proud of their authority as mature men and\nas lieutenants of their future Lord, could not understand why their\nMaster consented to waste time with children who could not yet speak\nplainly and could not understand the meaning of grown people\u2019s words.\nBut Jesus set in their midst one of these children and said: \u201cVerily I\nsay unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye\nshall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall\nhumble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom\nof heaven.... And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name\nreceiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which\nbelieve in me, it were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged\nabout his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.\u201d\n\nHere, too, the transposition of values is complete. In the Old Law, the\nchild was to respect the grown man, to revere and imitate the old man.\nThe little child was to take the grown person as his model. Perfection\nwas supposed to lie in years of maturity, or, better yet, in old age.\nThe child was respected only as containing the hope for future manhood.\nJesus reversed these ideas; grown people were to take their example from\nlittle children, elders were to try to become like infants, fathers were\nto imitate their sons. In the world as it was, as it is, controlled by\nforce, where the only valued art is the art of acquiring riches and\novercoming others, children are at the most only human larv\u00e6. In the New\nWorld announced by Christ, which will be governed by fearless purity and\ninnocent love, children are the arch-types of happy citizens. The child\nwho seems an imperfect man is thus more perfect than the grown man. The\nman who imagines that he has come into the fullness of his time and of\nhis soul is to turn back, despoil himself of his complacent complexities\nand return to his first youth. From having been imitated he becomes an\nimitator, from his position as first he becomes last.\n\nJesus reaffirms His own likeness to a child, and declares with no\nhesitation that He is identical with the children who seek Him out, \u201cAnd\nwhoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.\u201d The\nsaint, the poor man, the poet, present themselves under this new form\nwhich sums them all up: the child, pure and candid as the saint, bare\nand needy as the poor man, marveling and loving like the poet.\n\nJesus loves children not only as unconscious models for those who wish\nto attain the perfection of the Kingdom, but as the actual mediums of\ntruth. Their ignorance is more illumined than the doctrines of learned\nmen; their ingenuousness is more powerful than the intellect which shows\nitself in reasoning words. Only a clear and untarnished mirror can\nreflect the images of the revelation.\n\n\u201cI thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid\nthese things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto\nbabes.\u201d Their own wisdom stands in the way of the wise, because they\nthink they understand everything. Their own intelligence is an\nimpediment for the intelligent, because they are not capable of\nunderstanding any other light than that of the intellect. Only the\nsimple can understand simplicity, the innocent, innocence, the loving,\nlove. The revelation of Jesus, open only to virginal souls, is all\nhumility, purification and love. But man, as he grows older, becomes\nmore complicated, more corrupt, prouder, and learns the horrible\npleasure of hatred. Every day he goes further from Paradise, becomes\nless capable of finding it. He takes pleasure in his steady downfall and\nglories in the useless learning which hides from him the only needful\ntruth.\n\nTo find the new Paradise, the Kingdom of innocence and love, it is\nneedful to become like children who have already what others must strive\nand struggle to regain.\n\nJesus seeks out the company of sinners, of men and women, but He feels\nHimself with his true brothers only when He lays His hands on the heads\nof the children whom the Galilean mothers bring to Him as an offering.\n\n\n                            MARTHA AND MARY\n\n\nWomen also loved Jesus. He who had the form and flesh of a man, who left\nHis mother and never had a wife, was surrounded all His life and after\nHis death by the warmth of feminine tenderness. The chaste wanderer was\nloved by women as no man was ever loved, or ever can be loved again. The\nchaste man, who condemned adultery and fornication, had over women the\ninestimable prestige of innocence.\n\nAll women, who are not mere females, kneel before him who does not bow\nbefore them. The husband with all his legal love and authority, the\nsatyr with all his mistresses, the eloquent adulterer, the bold\nravisher, have not so much power over the spirit of women as he who\nloves them without touching them, he who saves them without asking for\neven a kiss as reward. Woman, slave of her body, of her weakness, her\ndesire and of the desire of the male, is drawn to him who frees her, to\nhim who cures her, to him who loves her and asks no more from her than a\ncup of water, a smile, a little silent attention.\n\nWomen loved Jesus. They stopped when they saw Him pass, they followed\nHim when they saw Him speaking to His friends, they drew near to the\nhouse where He had gone in, they brought their children to Him, they\nblessed Him loudly, they touched His garment to be cured of their ills,\nthey were happy when they could serve Him. All of them might have cried\nout to Him, like the woman who raised her voice in the midst of the\nmultitude: \u201cBlessed is the womb that bare ye, and the paps which thou\nhast sucked.\u201d\n\nMany followed Him to death. Salome, mother of the Sons of Thunder; Mary,\nmother of James the less; Martha and Mary of Bethany.\n\nThey would have liked to be His sisters, His servants, His slaves; to\nserve Him, to set bread before Him, to pour Him wine, to wash His\ngarments, to anoint His tired feet and His flowing hair. Some of them\nwere fortunate enough to be allowed to follow Him, and knew the still\ngreater good fortune of helping Him with their money ... \u201cand the twelve\nwere with him, And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits\nand infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils,\nAnd Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod\u2019s steward, and Susanna, and many\nothers, which ministered unto him of their substance.\u201d Women, in whom\npiety is a native gift of the heart before it is acquired through desire\nfor perfection, were, as they have always been, more generous than men.\n\nWhen He appears in the house of Lazarus, two women, the two sisters of\nthe man brought back from death, seem distracted with joy. Martha rushes\ntowards Him to see what He needs, if He wishes to wash, if He wishes to\neat at once, and, bringing Him into the house, she leads Him to the\ncouch that He may lie down, puts over Him a blanket lest He be cold, and\nruns with a pitcher to get fresh cool water. Then, on her return, she\nsets to work to prepare for the pilgrim a fine meal, much more abundant\nthan the ordinary dinner of the family. With all haste she lights a\ngreat fire, goes to get fresh fish, new-laid eggs, figs and olives; she\nborrows from one neighbor a piece of new-killed lamb, from another a\ncostly perfume, from another richer than she, a flowered dish. She pulls\nout from the linen-chest the newest table-cloth, and brings up from the\nwine-cellar the oldest wine. And while the wood snaps and sparkles in\nthe fire and the water in the kettle begins to simmer, poor Martha,\nbustling, flushed, hurrying, sets the table, runs between the\nkneading-trough and the fire, glances at the waiting Master, at the\nstreet to see if her brother is coming home, and at her sister, who is\ndoing nothing at all.\n\nFor when Jesus passed the sill of their house, Mary fell into a sort of\nmotionless ecstasy from which nothing could arouse her. She sees only\nJesus, hears nothing but Jesus\u2019 voice. There is nothing else in the\nworld for her at that moment. She cannot have enough of looking at Him,\nof listening to Him, of feeling Him there, living, close to her. If He\nglances at her, she is happy to be looked at; if He does not look at\nher, she fixes her eyes on Him; if He speaks, His words drop one by one\ninto her heart, there to remain to her death; if He is silent, she draws\nfrom His silence a more direct revelation. And she is almost troubled by\nthe bustling and stepping about of her sister. Why should Martha think\nthat Jesus needs an elaborate dinner? Mary is seated at His feet and\ndoes not move even if Martha or Lazarus call her. She is at the service\nof Jesus, but in another way. She has given Him her soul, only her soul,\nbut such a loving soul! And the work of her hands would be inopportune\nand superfluous. She is a contemplative soul, an adorer. She will take\naction only to cover the dead body of her God with perfumes. She would\nmove quickly enough if He should ask of her all her life-blood. But the\nrest, all this business of Martha, is only material activity which is no\nconcern of hers.\n\nWomen loved Him and He requited this love with compassion. No woman who\nturned to Him was sent away disconsolate. The sorrow of the widow of\nNain made Him sorrow, so that He brought to life her dead son; the\nprayers of the Canaanite woman, although she was a foreigner to Him,\nwrought on Him to cure her daughter; the unknown woman which had a\n\u201cspirit of infirmity\u201d eighteen years, and was bowed together and could\nin no wise lift herself, was cured, although it was on the Sabbath day\nand the rulers of the synagogue cried, \u201cSacrilege!\u201d In the first part of\nHis wanderings He cured Peter\u2019s wife\u2019s mother of fever and the Magdalene\nof evil spirits. He brought to life the daughter of Jairus, and cured\nthat unknown woman who had suffered for twelve years from a bloody flux.\n\nThe learned men of His time had no esteem for women in spiritual\nmatters. They tolerated their presence at the sacred festivals, but they\nnever would have thought of teaching high and secret doctrines to any\nwoman. \u201cThe words of the Law,\u201d says a rabbinical proverb of that time,\n\u201crather than teach them to a woman, burn them up!\u201d Jesus on the other\nhand did not hesitate to speak to them of the highest mysteries. When He\nwent alone to the well of Sichar, and the Samaritan woman who had had\nfive husbands came there, He did not hesitate to proclaim His message to\nher, although she was a woman and an enemy of His people. \u201cBut the hour\ncometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in\nspirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is\na spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in\ntruth.\u201d His Disciples came up, and could not understand what the Master\nwas doing. \u201cAnd marvelled that he talked with the woman.\u201d They did not\nyet know that the Church of Christ would make a woman the link between\nthe sons and the Son\u2014the woman who unites in herself the two supreme\npossibilities of Woman: the Virgin Mother who suffered for us from the\nnight in Bethlehem until the night of Golgotha.\n\n\n                       WORDS WRITTEN ON THE SAND\n\n\nOn another occasion at Jerusalem, Jesus found Himself before a woman\u2014the\nAdulteress. A hooting crowd pushed her forward. The woman, hiding her\nface with her hands and with her hair, stood before Him, without\nspeaking. Jesus had taught that wife and husband should be perfectly\none, and He detested adultery. But He detested still more the cowardice\nof tale-bearers, the hounding by the merciless, the impudence of sinners\npresuming to set themselves up as judges of sin. Jesus could not absolve\nthe woman who had brutally disobeyed the law of God, but He did not wish\nto condemn her, because her accusers had no right to be seeking her\ndeath. And He stooped down and with His finger wrote upon the ground. It\nis the first and last time that we see Jesus lower Himself to this\ntrivial operation. No one has ever known what He wrote at that moment,\nstanding there before the woman trembling in her shame, like a deer set\nupon by a pack of snarling hounds. He chose the sand on which to write\nexpressly that the wind might carry away the words, which would perhaps\nfrighten men if they could read them. But the shameless persecutors\ninsisted that the woman should be stoned. Then Jesus lifted Himself up,\nlooked deep into their eyes and souls, one by one: \u201cHe that is without\nsin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.\u201d\n\nWe are all of us guilty of the faults of our brothers. From the first to\nthe last we are all daily accomplices, although too often unpunished.\nThe Adulteress would not have betrayed her husband if men had not\ntempted her, if her husband had made himself better loved; the thief\nwould not rob if the rich man\u2019s heart were not so hard; the assassin\nwould not kill if he had not been harshly treated; there would be no\nprostitutes if men knew how to mortify their wantonness. Only the\ninnocents would have the right to judge; but on this earth there are no\ninnocents, and even if there were, their mercy would be stronger than\njustice itself.\n\nSuch thoughts had never occurred to those angry spies, but Christ\u2019s\nwords troubled them. Every one of them thought of his own betrayals, his\nown secret and perhaps recent sins of the flesh. Every soul there was\nlike a sewer which when the stone is raised exhales a fetid gust of\nnauseous vapor. The old men were the first to go. Then, little by\nlittle, all the others, avoiding each other\u2019s eyes, scattered and\ndispersed. The open place was empty. Jesus had again stooped down to\nwrite upon the ground. The woman had heard the shuffling of the\ndeparting feet, and heard no longer any voice crying for her death, but\nshe did not dare to raise her eyes because she knew that One alone had\nremained, the Innocent,\u2014the only one who had the right to throw against\nher the deadly stones. Jesus for the second time lifted Himself up and\nsaw no one.\n\n\u201cWoman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo man, Lord.\u201d\n\n\u201cNeither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.\u201d\n\nAnd for the first time the Adulteress dared to look in the face of her\nliberator. She did not understand His words. What she had done was\nevidently a sin in His eyes because he commanded her to \u201csin no more\u201d;\nand yet he had so acted that the others did not condemn her. And now He\nalso did not wish to condemn her. What man was this so different from\nall the others, who hated sin but forgave the sinner? She would have\nwished to turn to Him with a question, to murmur a word of thanks, to\nreward Him at least with a smile, because her soul was weak and her lips\nbeautiful. But Jesus had begun again to write on the ground of the\ncourt, His head lowered, and she saw only the silky waves of His hair\nshining in the sun, and His finger moving slowly over the sunlit earth.\n\n\n                               THE SINNER\n\n\nBut no woman loved Him so much as the woman who anointed Him with nard\nand bathed Him with her tears in the house of Simon the Pharisee. Every\none of us has seen that picture in imagination; the weeping woman with\nher hair falling over the feet of the Wanderer; and yet the true meaning\nof the episode is understood by very few, so greatly has it been\ndisfigured by both the ordinary and the literary interpretations. The\ndecadents of the last century, careful workmen in lascivious preciosity,\nwho swarm to the scent of corruption like flies to filth and crows to\ncarrion, have sought out in the Gospel those women who are redolent of\nsin. And they have made such women their own, adorning them with the\nvelvet of adjectives, the silk of verbs, the jewelry and precious stones\nof metaphors; the unknown repentant woman, named Mary Magdalene, the\nunknown adulteress of Jerusalem, Salome the dancer, the sinister\nHerodias.\n\nThe episode of this anointing has been profoundly misrepresented by such\nwriters. It is simpler and infinitely more profound. The praise of Jesus\nfor the woman who brought Him nard is not praise of carnal sin, or of\ncommon love as it is commonly understood by men.\n\nThis sinning woman who silently entered the house of Simon with her box\nof alabaster was no longer a sinner. She had seen Jesus, had known Him\nbefore that day. And she was no longer a woman for hire; she had heard\nJesus speak, and was no longer the public woman, flesh on sale for\nmasculine desires. She had heard the voice of Jesus, had listened to His\nwords; His voice had troubled her, His words had shaken her. The woman\nwho had belonged to every one had learned that there is a love more\nbeautiful than lust, a poverty richer than clinking coins. When she came\nto the house of Simon she was not the woman she had been, the woman whom\nthe men of the countryside had pointed out sneeringly, the woman whom\nthe Pharisee knew and despised. Her soul was changed, all her life was\nchanged. Now her flesh was chaste; her hand was pure; her lips no longer\nknew the bitter taste of rouge, her eyes had learned to weep. From now\non, according to the promise of the King, she was ready to enter into\nthe Kingdom.\n\nWithout taking all this for granted it is impossible to understand the\nstory which follows. The sinning woman wished to reward her Saviour with\na token of her gratitude. She took one of the most costly things left to\nher, a sealed box full of nard, perhaps the gift of a chance lover,\nthinking to anoint her King\u2019s head with this costly oil. Hers was an act\nof public gratitude. The sinning woman wished publicly to thank Him who\nhad cleansed her soul, who had brought her heart to life, who had lifted\nher up out of shame, who had given her a hope more glorious than all\njoys.\n\nShe went into the house with her box of alabaster clasped to her breast,\ntimid and shrinking as a little girl on her first day of school, as a\nreleased prisoner in his first moment outside the prison. She went in\nsilently with her little box of perfume, raising her eyes for only a\nmoment to see at a glance where Jesus was reclining. She went up to the\ncouch, her knees trembling under her, her hands shaking, her delicate\neyelids quivering, because she felt they were all looking at her, all\nthose men\u2019s eyes were fixed on her, staring at her beautiful swaying\nbody, wondering what she was about to do.\n\nShe broke the seal of the little alabaster flask, and poured half the\noil on the head of Jesus. The large drops shone on His hair like\nscattered gems. With loving hands she spread the transparent ointment on\nthe curls and did not stay her hand till every hair was softened, silky\nand shining. The whole room was filled with the fragrance; every eye was\nfixed on her with astonishment.\n\nThe woman, still silent, took up the opened box and knelt by the feet of\nthe Peace-bringer. She poured the remaining oil into her hand and\ngently, gently rubbed the right foot and the left with the loving care\nof a young mother who bathes her first child, for the first time. Then\nshe could control herself no longer, she could restrain no longer the\ngreat burst of tenderness which filled her heart, made her throat ache\nand brought tears to her eyes. She would have liked to speak, to say\nthat this was her thanks, her simple, pure, heartfelt thanks for the\ngreat help she had received, for the new light which had unsealed her\neyes. But in such a moment, with all those men there, how could she find\nthe right words, words worthy of the wonderful grace, worthy of Him? And\nbesides, her lips trembled so that she could not pronounce two words\ntogether; her speech would have been only a stammering broken by sobs.\nThen not being able to speak with her lips, she spoke with her eyes: her\ntears fell down one by one, swift and hot on the feet of Jesus, like so\nmany silent thank-offerings.\n\nWeeping freed her heart of its oppression; the tears relaxed the\ntension. She saw and felt nothing now but an inexpressible delight which\nshe had never known on her mother\u2019s knees or in men\u2019s arms; it ran\nthrough all her blood, made her tremble, pierced her with its poignant\njoy, shook all her being in that supreme ecstasy in which joy is a pain\nand sorrow a joy, in which pain and joy become one mighty emotion.\n\nShe wept over her past life, the miserable life of her vigil. She\nthought of her poor flesh sullied by men. She had been forced to have a\nsmile for them all, she had been forced to offer her luxurious bed and\nher perfumed body to them all. With all of them she had been forced to\npretend a pleasure she did not feel. She had been forced to show a\nsmiling face to those whom she despised, to those whom she hated. She\nhad slept beside the thief who had stolen the money to pay her. She had\nkissed the lips of the murderer and of the fugitive from justice; she\nhad been forced to endure the acrid breath and the repellent fancies of\nthe drunkard.\n\nNever, on a kindly summer night when the eastern sky is all a flashing\nsplendor, had she known the welcoming kiss of a husband who had chosen\nher, virgin among virgins, that she should be one with him till death.\nShe was outside the community and the laws. She was cut off from her\npeople. She was separated from them all. Women envied her and detested\nher; men desired her and defamed her.\n\n\n                           THE SECOND BAPTISM\n\n\nBut at the same time the tears of the weeping woman were tears of joy\nand exaltation. She was weeping not only because of her shame, now\nforever canceled, but because of the poignant sweetness of her life\nbeginning anew.\n\nShe was weeping for her virginity restored, for her soul rescued from\nevil, her purity miraculously recovered, her condemnation forever\nrevoked. Her tears were the tears of joy at the second birth, of\nexultation for truth discovered, of light-heartedness for her sudden\nconversion, for the saving of her soul, for the miraculous hope which\nhad released her from the degradation of the material and raised her to\nthe illumination of the spirit. The drops of nard and her tears were so\nmany thank-offerings for this incredible blessing.\n\nAnd yet it was not alone for her own sorrow and her own joy that she\nwept. The tears which bathed the feet of Jesus were also shed for Him.\n\nThe unknown woman had anointed her King like a king of olden times. She\nhad anointed His head as the high priests had anointed the kings of\nJudea; she had anointed His feet as the lords and guests anointed\nthemselves on festal days. But at the same time the weeping woman had\nprepared Him for death and burial.\n\nJesus, about to enter Jerusalem, knew that those were the last days of\nHis life in the flesh. He said to His disciples, \u201cFor in that she hath\npoured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.\u201d Still\nliving, He was embalmed by a woman\u2019s compassion.\n\nChrist was to receive before His death a third baptism, the baptism of\ninfamy, the baptism of the supreme insult; pr\u00e6torian soldiers were to\nspit upon his face. But He had now received the baptism of glory and the\nbaptism of death. He was anointed like a king about to triumph in His\ncelestial kingdom. He was perfumed like a corpse about to be laid in the\ntomb. This anointing unites the twin mysteries of His Messiahship and of\nthe crucifixion.\n\nThe poor sinning woman, mysteriously chosen for this prophetic rite, had\nperhaps a confused presentiment of the appalling meaning of this\npremonitory embalming. Love\u2019s second-sight, stronger in women than in\nmen, the foresight of exalted and deep emotion, may have made her feel\nthat this body perfumed and caressed by her was in a few days to be an\nicy, blood-stained corpse. Other women, perhaps she herself, were to go\nto the tomb to cover Him for the last time with aromatics, but they\nwould not find Him. He who was now feasting with His friends was at that\ntime to be at the doors of another Hell. Feeling this presentiment, the\nweeping woman let her tears fall on Jesus\u2019 feet to the astonishment of\nall the others, who did not know and did not understand.\n\nNow the feet of the Saviour, the feet of the condemned one, are all\nbathed with tears, the salt of the tears mingling with the perfume of\nthe nard. The poor sinning woman does not know how to dry those feet,\nwet by her tears. She has no white cloth with her, and her garment does\nnot seem to her worthy to touch her Lord\u2019s flesh. Then she thinks of her\nhair, her long hair which has been so much admired for its fine\nsilkiness. She loosens the braids, slips out the pins, unclasps the\nfastenings. The blue-black mass of her tresses falls over her face,\nhiding her flushed face and her compassion. And taking up the masses of\nthese flowing curls in her hands, she slowly dries the feet which have\nbrought her King into that house.\n\nNow her tears are ended. All her tears are shed and dried. Her part is\ndone, but only Jesus has understood her silence.\n\n\n                             SHE LOVED MUCH\n\n\nAmong the men who were present at this dinner there was no one except\nJesus who understood the loving service of the nameless woman. But all,\nstruck with wonder, were silent. They did not understand, but they\nrespected obscurely the solemnity of the enigmatic ceremony. All except\ntwo, who wished to interpret the woman\u2019s action as an offense to the\nguest. These two were the Pharisee and Judas Iscariot. The first said\nnothing, but his expression spoke more clearly than words. The second,\nthe Traitor, presuming on his familiarity with the Master, ventured to\nspeak.\n\nSimon thought to himself, \u201cThis man, if he were a prophet, would have\nknown who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him, for she is\na sinner.\u201d The old hypocrite had for the paid woman the scorn of those\nwho have had much to do with them, or of those who have never known them\nat all. Like his brothers he belonged to the endless cemetery of white\nsepulchers, which within are full of foulness. It is enough for such men\nto avoid physical contact with what they think is impure, even if their\nsouls are sinks of iniquity. Their morals are systems of ablutions and\nwashings; they would leave a wounded man to die, abandoned on the road,\nfor fear of staining themselves with blood; they would let a poor man\nsuffer hunger to avoid touching money on the Sabbath day: like all men\nthey commit thefts, adulteries, and murders, but they wash their hands\nso many times a day that they imagine them as clean as those of babes.\n\nHe had read the Law, and there were still ringing in his ears the\nexecrations and anathemas of Old Israel against prostitutes. \u201cThere\nshall be no whore of the daughters of Israel.... Thou shalt not bring\nthe hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord\nthy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination to the Lord thy\nGod.\u201d And Simon, the wise burgher, remembered with equal satisfaction\nthe admonition of the author of the Proverbs: \u201cFor a whore is a deep\nditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.... For by means of a whorish\nwoman a man is brought to a piece of bread.\u201d The old Jew would perhaps\nnot have felt so bitterly about prostitutes, if they cost nothing! But\nthey are capable, those shameless women, of eating up a patrimony! The\nold proprietor could not be reconciled to one of those dangerous women\nin his house, to the fact that she had touched his guest. He knew that\nthe prostitute Rehab had made victory possible for Joshua and that she\nwas the only one to escape from the massacre of Jericho, but he\nremembered that the invincible Samson, terror of the Philistines, had\nbeen betrayed by a worthless woman. The Pharisee could not understand\nhow a man acclaimed by the people as a prophet should not have\nunderstood what sort of woman had come to bestow on Him this\ndiscreditable honor; but Jesus had read in the heart of the sinning\nwoman and in the heart of Simon, and answered with the parable of the\ntwo debtors. \u201cThere was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the\none owed five hundred pence and the other fifty. And when they had\nnothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which\nof them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he,\nto whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly\njudged.\u201d\n\nAnd he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon: \u201cSeest thou this woman?\nI entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she\nhath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her\nhead.\n\n\u201cThou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath\nnot ceased to kiss my feet.\n\n\u201cMy head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my\nfeet with ointment.\n\n\u201cWherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for\nshe loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.\n\n\u201cAnd he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.... Thy faith hath saved\nthee; go in peace.\u201d\n\nThe parable and the comment of Jesus show how great, even to-day, is the\nlack of understanding of this episode. Every one or nearly every one\nremembers only those words: \u201cHer sins are forgiven, for she loved much.\u201d\nAn attentive reading of the text shows that this ordinary interpretation\nis the opposite of the truth. It is thought that Jesus forgave her sins\nbecause she had loved many men, or because she had shown her love for\nHim with her perfume and her kisses. The parable of the two debtors\nmakes it clear that the meaning of Jesus\u2019 words, badly quoted and even\nmore completely misunderstood, is entirely the contrary. The woman had\nsinned greatly and because of her repentance she was wholly pardoned;\nand because her pardon was great she greatly loved Him who had saved\nher, who had forgiven her; the nard and her tears and her kisses were\nthe expression of that grateful love. If before going into the house\nthat evening the sinning woman had not already become transformed by\nvirtue of her pardon, she would not have obtained from Jesus forgiveness\nfor her past life spent in evil, not by using all the perfumes of India\nand Egypt nor by all the kisses of her lips, nor by all the tears of her\neyes. Christ\u2019s forgiveness was not the reward for those acts of homage;\nthose acts were her thank-offerings for her forgiveness already\nreceived; and they were great because her forgiveness was great, as her\nforgiveness had been great because great had been her sin.\n\nJesus would not have repelled the sinning woman even if she had still\nbeen a sinner, but if He had not been sure of her conversion He would\nnot perhaps have accepted those tokens of love; from now on even the\nmost rigorous Pharisaical precepts permitted Him to speak with her: \u201cThy\nfaith hath saved thee; go in peace.\u201d\n\nSimon could think of no answer; but from the side of the disciples a\nrough, angry voice was raised, well known to Jesus. It was the voice of\nJudas: \u201cWhy was this waste of the ointment made, why was not this\nointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor?\u201d And the\nother disciples, so the Evangelists say, approved the words of Judas,\nand murmured against the woman. Judas was the man who held the purse;\nthe basest of them all had chosen the basest element,\u2014money.\n\nMoney was pleasing to Judas, pleasing in itself and pleasing in its\npossibility of power. He spoke of the poor, but he did not think of the\npoor, to whom Jesus had distributed bread in the country-solitudes, as\nwell as to his own companions, too poor as yet to conquer Jerusalem and\nto found the empire of the Messiah where Judas hoped to be one of the\nmasters. And he was envious as well as grasping; envious as all misers\nare. That silent anointing which was the consecration of the King and\nthe Messiah, those honors offered by a beautiful woman to his Leader,\nmade him suffer; the everlasting jealousy of man against man, when a\nwoman is concerned, was mingled with the disappointment of his cupidity.\n\nBut Jesus answered the words of Judas as He answered the silence of\nSimon. He did not affront those who had affronted Him, but he defended\nthe woman at His feet. And Jesus said, \u201cLet her alone; why trouble ye\nher? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you\nalways, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not\nalways. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my\nbody to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel\nshall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath\ndone shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.\u201d\n\nThe inexpressible sadness of this prophecy escaped perhaps those who sat\nabout Him. They could not be persuaded that Jesus, in order to overcome,\nshould be overcome: that in order to triumph eternally He must die. But\nJesus felt the day drawing near, \u201cBut me ye have not always, she is come\nto anoint my body to the burying.\u201d The woman listened in terror to this\nconfirmation of her presentiment and another burst of tears rained down\nfrom her eyes. Then with her face hidden in her loosened hair, she went\naway as silently as she had come.\n\nThe disciples were silent, not convinced, but abashed. To hide his\nchagrin Simon filled the guest\u2019s cup with better wine, but in the yellow\nlight of the lamps the silent table seemed a banquet of ghosts among\nwhom had passed the shadow of death.\n\n\n                              \u201cWHO AM I?\u201d\n\n\nAnd yet the disciples knew. Those words of death were not the first they\nhad heard from Jesus\u2019 lips. They should have remembered that day, not\nlong before, when on a solitary road near C\u00e6sarea, Jesus had asked what\npeople said of Him. They should have remembered the answer which flashed\nout like sudden flame, the impetuous outcry of belief from Peter\u2019s\nheart; and the splendor which had shone on three of them on the summit\nof the mountain; and the exact prophecies of Christ as to the manner of\nHis death.\n\nThey had heard and they had seen, and still they hoped on,\u2014all but one.\nThe truth shone out in them at moments like lightning-flashes in the\ndark. Then the night fell blacker than ever. The new man in their hearts\nwho recognized Jesus as the Christ, the man born for the second time,\nthe Christian, disappeared to give way to the Jew, deaf and blind, who\nsaw nothing beyond the Jerusalem of bricks and stone.\n\nThe question which Jesus had put to the Twelve on the road in C\u00e6sarea\nmust have been the beginning of their complete conversion to the new\ntruth. What need did Jesus have to know what others thought of Him? Such\na curiosity springs up only in doubtful souls, in those who do not know\nthemselves, in the weak who cannot read in their own hearts, in the\nblind who are not sure of the ground on which they stand. For any one of\nus such a question is legitimate, but not for Jesus. No one of us knows\nreally who he is, no one knows with any certainty what is his real\nnature, his mission, and the name which he has a right to call his own,\nthe eternal name which fits our destiny. The name which was given to us\nin infancy, together with the salt and water of baptism, the name set\ndown on the municipal register, and written in the records of birth and\nof death, the name which the mother calls with so much gentleness in the\nmorning, which the sweetheart murmurs with so much desire at night, the\nname which is cut for the last time on the rectangle of the tomb, that\nis not our real name. Every one of us has a secret name which expresses\nour invisible and authentic essence, and which we ourselves will never\nknow until the day of the New Birth, until the full light of the\nresurrection.\n\nFew of us dare to ask ourselves, \u201cWho am I?\u201d and there are still fewer\nwho can answer. The question \u201cWho art thou?\u201d is the most tremendous, the\nmost weighty which man can put to man. Other human beings are for each\nof us a sealed mystery even in the moments of supreme passion, when two\nsouls desperately essay to become one. We are all of us a mystery even\nto ourselves. Unknown to others, we live among others unknown to us.\nMuch of our wretchedness comes from this universal ignorance. Here is a\nman who acts like a king and believes himself a king and in the absolute\nhe is really only a poor servant, predestined from the beginning of time\nto dependent mediocrity. Here is another dressed and acting like a\njudge; look at him well; he is born a dry-goods dealer, his real place\nis in the country fair. That man there who writes poetry has not\nunderstood his inner voice; he should be a goldsmith, because gold which\ncan be turned into coin suits his taste, and he is attracted by\nfiligree, mosaics, chasing, imitation jewels. This other man who is at\nthe head of an army ought to be teaching school. What an expert and\neloquent professor he might have become! And that fellow there, shouting\nin the public places, heading a revolution, calling on the people to\nrevolt, is a gardener who has mistaken his calling; the red of tomatoes,\nlong lines of onions, garlic, and cabbages would be the fit reward of\nhis true mission. This other man here, on the contrary, who, cursing his\nfate, prunes his grape-vines and spreads the manure on the cultivated\nearth, should have studied in law-books the art of quibbling: no one can\ninvent sophisms and verbal tricks as he can, and even now, how much\neloquence he pours out in humble duels about money matters, this poor\n\u201cleading lawyer\u201d exiled to barns and furrows.\n\nThese errors concern us because we do not know, because we have not\nspiritual eyes strong enough to read in the heart which beats inside our\nown breasts, and the hearts which beat under the flesh of our neighbors,\nso irrevocably remote from us. Everything is in confusion because of\nthose Names which we do not know, illegible for us, known to genius\nalone.\n\n\n                          THOU ART THE CHRIST\n\n\nBut what did Jesus care what was said of Him by the men of the lake and\nof the cities, Jesus who could read in their souls the thoughts hidden\neven to themselves? Long before that day Jesus alone knew with ineffable\ncertainty what His real name was, and what was his superhuman nature. As\na matter of fact He did not ask that He might know, but, now that the\nend was near, that His faithful followers might know, His real name, at\nlast\u2014even they.\n\n\u201cSome say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others,\nJeremias or, one of the Prophets.\u201d\n\nWhat were these things to Him, these rudimentary guesses of the poor and\nthe ignorant? He wished the definite answer to come from His Disciples,\ndestined as they were to follow His work and to bear witness to Him\namong the peoples and the centuries. Even at the last He did not wish to\nimpose by force a belief on those who had seen His life close at hand\nand had heard Him speak. The recognition of His superb human mission,\nthat name which not one of them up to that time had pronounced (as if\nthey were afraid of it, as if it were too dangerous a secret to speak\naloud), that recognition on the part of the Twelve should be free and\nspontaneous, should burst out, an impetuous confession of love, from one\nof those souls, should be pronounced by one of those mouths.\n\n\u201cBut whom say ye that I am?\u201d And then there came to Simon Peter the\ngreat light that was almost too great for him, and made him First to all\neternity. He could not keep back the words, they came to his lips almost\ninvoluntarily in a cry of which he himself the moment before would have\nbelieved himself incapable: \u201cThou art the Christ, the Son of the living\nGod. Thou hast the word of eternal life, and we believe and are sure\nthat thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.\u201d\n\nAt last from Peter the Rock there sprang forth the wellspring which from\nthat day to this has quenched the thirst of sixty generations of men. It\nwas his right and his reward. Peter had been the first to follow Christ\nin the divine wanderings: it was for him to be the first to recognize in\nthe wanderer the Proclaimer of the Kingdom, the everlasting and lawful\nsovereign of that Kingdom, the Messiah whom all men had been awaiting in\nthe desert of the centuries, who had finally come and was there Himself,\nclothed in flesh, standing before their eyes, with His feet in the dust\nof the road.\n\nThe pure King, the Son of Justice, the Prince of Peace, the Son of Man\nsent by God, the Saviour, the Anointed, whom the prophets had foretold\nin the twilight of sorrow and affliction; who had been seen by\napocalyptic writers descending upon the earth like lightning, in the\nfullness of victory and glory; for whom the poor, the wounded, the\nhungry, the afflicted, had been waiting from century to century, as dry\ngrass waits for rain, as the flower waits for the sun, as the mouth\nawaits the kiss, and the heart, consolation; the Son of God and of Man,\nthe Man who hid God in human flesh, the God who cloaked His divinity in\nAdam\u2019s clay, it is He, the dear Brother of every day, who looks quietly\ninto the astounded eyes of those chosen ones!\n\nThe period of waiting is done; ended is the vigil! Why had they not\nrecognized Him until that day? Whence did it come in those simple souls,\nthe first notion of the true name of Him who so many times had taken\nthem by the hand, and had spoken for their ears to hear? They could\nnever think that one of them\u2014a common man like them, a workman and poor\nas they were\u2014could be the Saviour Messiah announced and awaited by\nsaints and by the centuries. With the intellect alone they could never\nhave discovered Him, nor with the mere bodily senses, nor with the\nteachings of the scriptures; only with the inspiration, the intuition,\nthe sudden flaming illumination of the heart, as it happened that day in\nthe soul of Peter. \u201cBlessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona; for flesh and\nblood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven.\u201d\nFleshly eyes would not have been able to see what they saw without a\nrevelation from on high.\n\nBut weighty consequences flow from the choice of Peter for this\nproclamation. It is a reward which calls for other recompense, \u201cThou art\nPeter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hell\nshall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the\nkingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be\nbound in Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be\nloosed in Heaven.\u201d\n\nWeighty words from which have emerged, through the patient germination\nof long centuries, helped by the fire of faith and by the blood of\nwitnesses, one of the greatest Kingdoms which men have ever established\nupon the earth; the only one of the old kingdoms which still lives on in\nthe same city which saw the rise and fall of the proudest and most\npompous of earthly kingdoms. For these words many men suffered, many\nwere tortured, many were killed. To deny or uphold, to interpret or\ncancel these words, thousands of men have been killed in city squares\nand in battles; kingdoms have been divided, societies have been shaken\nand rent, nations have waged war, emperors and beggars have given their\nall. But their meaning in Christ\u2019s mouth is plain and simple. He means\nto say, \u201cThou, Peter, shalt be hard and staunch as a rock, and upon the\nstaunchness of thy faith in me, which thou wast the first to profess, is\nfounded the first Christian society, the humble seed of the Kingdom.\nAgainst this Church which to-day has only Twelve citizens but which will\nbe spread to the limits of the earth, the forces of evil cannot prevail,\nbecause you are the Spirit and the Spirit cannot be overcome and dimmed\nby Matter. Thou shalt close forever\u2014and when I speak to thee I am\nspeaking to all those who shall succeed thee united in the same\ncertainty\u2014the Gates of Hell; and thou shalt open to all those who are\nchosen the Gates of Heaven. Thou shalt bind and thou shalt unloosen in\nmy name. What thou shalt forbid after my death shall be forbidden\nto-morrow also for that new humanity which I will find on my return;\nwhat thou shalt command shalt be justly commanded because thou wilt be\nonly repeating in other words what I have told and taught thee. Thou\nshalt be, in thy person and in that of thy legitimate heirs, the\nshepherd of the interregnum, the temporary and provisional guide who\nshalt prepare, together with comrades obedient to thee, the Kingdom of\nGod and of Love.\n\n\u201cIn requital for this revelation and for this promise I lay on you a\nhard command: to keep silence; for the present you must tell no one who\nI am. My day is near, but has not yet come; you will be witness to\nevents which you do not expect, which will even be the contrary of what\nyou expect. I know the hour in which I shall speak and in which you\nshall speak. And when we break our silence, my cry and your cry shall be\nheard in the most distant realms of Heaven and Earth.\u201d\n\n\n                              SUN AND SNOW\n\n\nA man\u2019s voice, the voice of Peter the Rock, had called Him the Son of\nMan; another voice issuing from a cloud was to call Him the Son of God.\n\nVery high is the three-peaked mountain of Hermon, covered with snow even\nin the hot season, the highest mountain of Palestine, higher than Mount\nTabor. The Psalmist says, \u201cIt is the dew of Hermon that descends upon\nthe mountains of Zion.\u201d Jesus became incarnate light on this mountain,\nthe highest mountain in the life of Christ, that life which marks its\ndifferent stages by great heights\u2014the mountain of the Temptation, the\nmountain of the Beatitudes, the mountain of the Transfiguration, the\nmountain of the Crucifixion.\n\nThree Disciples alone were with Him: he who was called Peter, and the\nSons of Thunder,\u2014the man with the rugged, mountainous character, and the\nstormy men\u2014fitting company for the place and hour. He prayed alone,\napart from them, higher than all of them, perhaps kneeling in the snow.\nAll of us have seen in winter how the snow on a mountain makes any other\nwhiteness seem dull and drab. A pale face seems strangely dark, white\nlinen seems dingy, paper looks like dry clay. The contrary of all this\nwas seen on that day up in the gleaming, deserted height alone in the\nsky.\n\nJesus prayed by Himself apart from the others. Suddenly His face shone\nlike the sun and His raiment became as white as snow in the sunshine,\nwhite \u201cas no fuller on earth can white them.\u201d Over the whiteness of the\nsnow a more brilliant whiteness, a splendor more powerful than all known\nsplendors, outshone all earthly light.\n\nThe Transfiguration is the Feast and the Victory of Light. Jesus still\nin the flesh\u2014for so short a time!\u2014took on the most subtle, the lightest\nand most spiritual aspect of matter. His body awaiting its liberation\nbecame sunlight, the light of Heaven, intellectual and supernatural\nlight; His soul transfigured in prayer shone out through the flesh,\npierced with its flaming whiteness the screen of His body and His\ngarments, like a flame consuming the walls which close it in, and\nflashing through them.\n\nBut the light was not the same on His face and on His raiment. The light\nof His face was like the sun; that of His garments was like the\nbrilliance of snow. His face, mirror of the soul, took on the color of\nfire; His garments, mere material stuff, were white like ice. For the\nsoul is sun, fire, love; but the garments, all garments,\u2014even that heavy\ngarment which is called the human body,\u2014are opaque, cold, dead; and can\nshine only by reflected light.\n\nBut Jesus, all light, His face gleaming with quiet refulgence, His\ngarments shining white\u2014gold sparkling in the midst of silver\u2014was not\nalone. Two great figures, returned from death, gleaming like Him, stood\nby Him, and spoke with Him, Moses and Elias. The first of the Prophets,\nmen of light and fire, came to bear witness to the new Light which\nshines on Hermon. All those who have spoken with God remain radiant with\nlight. The face of Moses when he came down from Mt. Sinai had become so\nresplendent that he covered it with a veil, lest he dazzle the others.\nAnd Elias was caught up to Heaven in a chariot of fire drawn by fiery\nsteeds. John, the new Elias, announced the baptism of fire, but his face\nwas darkened by the sun and did not shine like the sun. The only\nsplendor which came into his life was the golden platter on which his\nbloody head was carried, a kingly gift to Herod\u2019s sinister concubine.\nBut on Hermon there was One whose face shone more than Moses\u2019 and whose\nascension was to be more splendid than that of Elias,\u2014He whom Moses had\npromised and who was to come after Elias. They had come there beside\nhim, but they were to disappear thereafter forever. They were no longer\nnecessary after this last revelation. From now on the world can do\nwithout their laws and their hopes. A luminous cloud hid the glorious\nthree from the eyes of the obscure three, and from the cloud came out a\nvoice: \u201cThis is my beloved Son: hear him.\u201d\n\nThe cloud did not hide the light, but increased it. As from the\ntempest-cloud, the lightning darts out to light up suddenly all the\ncountry; from this cloud already shining in itself, flamed out the fire\nwhich burned up the Old Covenant and confirmed to all eternity the New\nPromise. The column of smoke which guided the fleeing Hebrews in the\ndesert towards Jordan, the black cloud which hid the ark in the day of\ndesolation and fear, had finally become a cloud of light so brilliant\nthat it hid even the sunlike splendor of the face which was soon to be\nbuffeted in the dark days, close at hand.\n\nBut when the cloud disappeared, Jesus was once more alone. The two\nprecursors and the two witnesses had disappeared. His face had taken on\nits natural color. His garments had their everyday aspect. Christ, once\nmore a loving brother, turned back to his swooning companions. \u201cArise,\nand be not afraid.... Tell the vision to no man, until the son of man be\nrisen again from the dead.\u201d\n\nThe Transfiguration forecasts the Ascension; but to die in shame always\nprecedes rising in glory.\n\n\n                       I SHALL SUFFER MANY THINGS\n\n\nJesus had known that He must soon die a shameful death. It was the\nreward for which he was waiting and no one could have defrauded Him of\nit. He who saves others is ready to lose himself; he who rescues others\nnecessarily pays with his person (that is, with the only value which is\nreally his and which surpasses and includes all other values); it is\nfitting that he who loves his enemies should be hated even by his\nfriends; he who brings salvation to all nations must needs be killed by\nhis own people; it suits human ideas of the fitness of things that he\nwho offers his life should be put to death. Every benefaction is such an\noffense to the native ingratitude of men that it can be paid for only by\nthe heaviest penalty. We lend ears only to voices which cry out from the\ntombs, and reserve our scanty capacity for reverence for those whom we\nhave assassinated. The only truths which remain in the fleeting memory\nof the human race are the truths written in blood.\n\nJesus knew what was awaiting Him at Jerusalem, and as later was said by\none worthy to portray Him, His every thought was colored by the thought\nof death. Three times they had already tried to kill Him; the first time\nat Nazareth when they took Him up on the summit of the mountain where\nthe city was built and wished to cast Him down; the second time in the\nTemple, the Jews, offended by His talk, laid their hands on stones to\nstone Him; and a third time at the feast of the Dedication in\nwinter-time, they took up the stones of the street to silence Him. But\nfor these three times he escaped because His hour was not yet come.\n\nHe kept His certainty of death in His own heart for Himself alone until\nHis last hours. For He did not wish to sadden His Disciples who would\nhave shrunk from following a condemned man, a man who in His own heart\nknew Himself at the point of death. But after the triple consecration as\nMessiah\u2014Peter\u2019s cry, the light of Hermon, the anointing of Bethany\u2014He\ncould no longer keep silence. He knew too well the ingenuous complacency\nof the Twelve. He knew that when the rare moments of enthusiasm and\nillumination were gone, their thoughts were often the common thoughts of\ncommon people, human even in their highest dreams. He knew that the\nMessiah for whom they were waiting was a victorious restorer of the Age\nof Gold and not the Man of Sorrows. They thought of Him as a king on his\nthrone and not as a criminal on the gallows; triumphant, receiving\nhomage and tribute, not spat upon, beaten, and insulted; come to raise\nthe dead and not to be executed like an assassin.\n\nLest the Disciples should lose this new certainty of Christ\u2019s\nMessiahship on the day of His ignominy, Christ knew that He must warn\nthem. They must learn from His own mouth that the Messiah would be\ncondemned, that the Victorious One would disappear in a dreadful\ndownfall, that the King of all kings would be insulted by C\u00e6sar\u2019s\nservants, that the Son of God would be crucified by the ignorant, blind\nservants of God.\n\nThree times they had tried to put Him to death; three times after\nPeter\u2019s recognition He announced to the Twelve His imminent death. And\nthere were to be three kinds of men who were to bring about His death:\nthe Elders, the High Priests and the Scribes. The Elders were the\nPatricians, the aristocrats, the lay delegates of the Hebrew\nmiddle-classes, they represented authority and wealth, and Christ had\ncome to transform authority into service and to condemn the rich and\ntheir treasures. The High Priests represented the Temple, and He had\ncome to destroy the Temple. The Scribes were the doctors of law, of\ntheology, the interpreters of the Book, the masters of the Scriptures,\nand represented the authority of word and of tradition; and He had come\nto transform the Word and to regenerate the tradition. These three\norders of men never could forgive Him even after they had sent Him to\nGolgotha.\n\nAnd there were to be three accomplices to His death: Judas who betrayed\nHim, Caiaphas who sentenced Him, Pilate who permitted the execution of\nthe sentence. And there were to be three sorts of men to execute the\npenalty: the guards who arrested Him, the Hebrews who cried \u201cCrucify\nHim!\u201d before the procurator\u2019s house, the Roman soldiers who nailed Him\non the cross.\n\nThere were to be three degrees of His afflictions, as He Himself told\nthe disciples. First He was to be spurned and outraged, then spit upon\nand beaten, and finally killed. But they were not to fear nor to weep.\nAs life has its reward in death, death is the promise of a second life.\nAfter three days, He was to rise from the tomb, never more to die.\nChrist was to be victorious not over earthly kingdoms, but over death.\nHe does not bring golden treasures, nor abundance of grain, but\nimmortality to all those who obey Him, and the cancellation of all sins\ncommitted by men. He was to buy this immortality and this liberation by\nimprisonment and death. The price was hard and bitter, but without those\nfew days of His Passion and burial He could not have secured centuries\nand centuries of life and freedom for men.\n\nThe Disciples were troubled at this revelation and unwilling to believe.\nBut Jesus had already begun His Passion, foreseeing those terrible last\ndays of His life and describing them. From now on the heirs of His work\nknew all, and He could go on His way towards Jerusalem in order that His\nwords should be fulfilled to the very last.\n\n\n                               MARANATHA\n\n\nAnd yet for one day at least He was to be like that King awaited by the\npoor every morning on the thresholds of the holy city.\n\nEaster draws near. It was the beginning of the last week which even now\nhad not yet ended\u2014since the new Sabbath has not yet dawned. But this\ntime Jesus does not come to Jerusalem as in other years, an obscure\nwanderer mingled with the crowd of pilgrims, into the evil-smelling\nmetropolis huddled with its houses, white as sepulchers, under the\ntowering vainglory of the Temple destined to the flames. This time,\nwhich is the last time, Jesus is accompanied by His faithful friends, by\nHis fellow-peasants, by the women who were later to weep, by the Twelve\nwho were to hide themselves, by the Galileans who come in memory of an\nancient miracle, but with the hope of seeing a new miracle. This time He\nis not alone; the vanguard of the Kingdom is with Him, and He does not\ncome unknown: the cry of the Resurrection has preceded Him. Even in the\ncapital ruled by the iron of the Romans, the gold of the merchants, the\nletter of the Pharisees, there are eyes which look towards the Mount of\nOlives and hearts which beat faster.\n\nThis time He does not come on foot into the city which should have been\nthe throne of His kingdom, and which was to be His tomb. When He had\ncome to Bethpage, He sent two disciples to look for an ass, \u201cGo into the\nvillage over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and\na colt with her; loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say\nought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them.\u201d\n\nEven up to our days it has been said that Jesus wished to ride on an ass\nas a sign of humble meekness, as if He wished to signify symbolically\nthat He approached His people as the Prince of Peace. It has been\nforgotten that in the robust early periods of history asses were not the\nsubmissive beasts of burden of to-day, weary bones in flogged and\nill-treated skin, brought low by many centuries of slavery, used only to\ncarry baskets and bags over the stones of steep hills. The ass of\nantiquity was a fiery and warlike animal; handsome and bold as a horse,\nfit to be sacrificed to divinities. Homer, master of metaphors, intended\nno belittling of Ajax the robust, the proud Ajax, when he likened him to\nan ass. The Jews moreover used untamed asses for other comparisons:\nZophar the Naamithite said to Job, \u201cFor vain man would be wise though\nman be born like a wild ass\u2019 colt.\u201d And Daniel tells how Nebuchadnezzar,\nas expiation of his tyrannies, was driven from the sons of men, and his\nheart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild\nasses.\n\nJesus asked expressly for an ass not yet broken, never before ridden,\nsomething like a wild ass, because on that day, the animal chosen by Him\nwas not a symbol of the humility of his rider but was a symbol of the\nJewish people, who were to be liberated and overcome by Christ; the\nanimal, unruly and restive, stiff-necked, whom no prophet and no monarch\nhad mastered and who to-day was tied to a post as Israel was tied with\nthe Roman rope; vain and foolhardy as in the Book of Job; fitting\ncompanion for an evil king; slave to foreigners, but at the same time\nrebellious to the end of time, the Hebrew people had finally found its\nmaster. For one day only: it revolted against Him, its legitimate master\nin that same week; but its revolt succeeded only for a short time. The\nquarrelsome capitol was pulled down and the god-killing crowd dispersed\nlike the husks of the eternal Winnower over all the face of the earth.\n\nThe ass\u2019s back is hard, and Christ\u2019s friends throw their cloaks over it.\nStony is the slope which leads from the Mount of Olives and the\ntriumphant crowds throw their mantles over the rough stones. This, too,\nis symbolical of self-consecration. To take off your mantle is the\nbeginning of stripping yourself, the beginning of that bareness which is\nthe desire for confession and the death of false shame; bareness of the\nbody, promising naked truth for the soul. The loving charity of supreme\nalms-giving; to give what we have on our backs, \u201cIf any man ... shall\ntake away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.\u201d\n\nThen began the descent in the heat of the sun and of glory; in the midst\nof freshly cut branches and of songs of hope. It was at the beginning of\nbreezy April and of the spring. The golden hour of noon lay about the\ncity with its green vineyards, fields and orchards. The sky, immense,\ndeep blue, miraculously calm, clear and joyful as the promise of divine\neyes, stretched away into the infinite. The stars could not be seen, yet\nthe light of our sun seemed augmented by the quiet brilliance of those\nother distant suns. A warm breeze, still scented with the freshness of\nheaven, gently swayed the tender tree-tops and set the young, growing\nleaves a-flutter. It was one of those days when blue seems bluer, green\nseems greener, light more brilliant and love more loving.\n\nThose who accompanied Christ in that descent felt themselves swept away\nby the rapture of the world and of the moment. Never before that day had\nthey felt themselves so bursting with hope and adoration. The cry of\nPeter became the cry of the fervent little army winding its way down the\nslope towards the queen-city. \u201cHosanna to the Son of David!\u201d said the\nvoices of the young men and of the women, in the midst of this impetuous\nexultation. Even the Disciples almost began to hope, although they had\nbeen warned that this would be the last sun, although they knew that\nthey were accompanying a man about to die.\n\nThe procession approached the mysterious, hostile city with the roaring\ntumult of a torrent that has burst its banks. These countrymen, these\npeople from the provinces, came forward flanked as by a moving forest,\nas if they had wished to carry a little country freshness inside the\nnoisome walls, into the drab alleyways. The boldest had cut palm\nbranches along the road, boughs of myrtle, clusters of olives, willow\nleaves, and they waved them on high, shouting out the impassioned words\nof the Psalmist towards the shining face of Him who came in the name of\nGod.\n\nNow the first Christian legion had arrived before the gates of Jerusalem\nand the voices did not still their homage: \u201cBlessed be the King that\ncometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the\nhighest!\u201d Their shouting reached the ears of the Pharisees, who arrived,\nhaughty and severe, to investigate the seditious noise. The cries\nscandalized those learned ears and troubled those suspicious hearts, and\nsome of them, well wrapped up in their doctoral cloaks, called from\namong the crowd to Jesus: \u201cMaster, rebuke thy disciples.\u201d And then He,\nwithout halting, \u201cI tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the\nstones would immediately cry out!\u201d\n\nThe silent, motionless stones which, according to St. John, God could\nhave transformed into sons of Abraham; the hot stones of the desert\nwhich Jesus was not willing to change into loaves of bread at the\nchallenge of the Adversary; the hostile stones of the street which twice\nhad been picked up to stone Him; the hard stones of Jerusalem would have\nbeen less hard, less icy, less insensitive than the souls of the\nPharisees.\n\nBut with this answer, Jesus had asserted His right to be called \u201cthe\nChrist.\u201d It was a declaration of war. At the very moment of His entrance\ninto His city, the New King gave the signal for the attack.\n\n\n                           THE DEN OF THIEVES\n\n\nHe went up to the Temple where all His enemies were assembled. On the\nhill-top the sacred fortress sunned its new whiteness in the\nmagnificence of the day. The old Ark of the nomads, drawn by oxen\nthrough sweltering deserts and over battlefields, had halted on that\nheight, petrified as a defense for the royal city. The moveable cart of\nthe fugitives had become a heavy citadel of stone and marble, a pompous\nstronghold of palaces and stairways, shady with colonnades, lighted with\ncourts, enclosed by walls, sheer above the valley, protected by bastions\nand by towers, a fortress rather than a place of worship. It was not\nonly the precinct of the Holy of Holies, and the sacrificial altar, it\nwas no longer only the Temple, the mystic sanctuary of the people. With\nits great old towers, its guardrooms, its warehouses for offerings, its\nstrong-boxes for deposits, its open piazzas for trade and covered\ngalleries for meetings and amusement, it was anything rather than a\nsanctuary for meditation and prayer. It was everything, a fortress in\ncase of assault, a bank-vault, a market-place in time of pilgrimage and\nfeast-days, a bazaar on all days, a forum for the disputes of\npoliticians, the wranglings of doctors and the gossip of idlers; a\nthoroughfare, a rendezvous, a business center. Built by a faithless King\nto win over the favor of a captious and seditious people, to satisfy the\npride and avarice of the priestly caste, an instrument of war and a\nmarket-place for trade, it must have seemed to the eyes of Jesus the\nnatural focus for all the enemies of His truth.\n\nJesus goes up to the Temple to destroy the Temple. He will leave to the\nRomans of Titus the task of literally dismantling the walls, of\nscattering the masses of stone, of burning down the buildings, of\nstealing the bronze and gold, of reducing to a smoky and accursed ruin\nthe great stronghold of Herod; but He will destroy the values which the\nproud Temple upheld with its piled-up blocks of ordered stone, its paved\nterraces and its golden doors. Jesus goes up towards the Temple: the Man\ntransfigured on the mountain is set against the scribes parched and\nwithered among their scrolls; the Messiah of the New Kingdom against the\nusurper of the kingdom defiled by compromises, corrupt with infamy; the\nGospel against the Torah; the future against the past; the fire of love\nagainst the ashes of the Letter. The day of battle is at hand. Jesus,\namong the songs of His fervent band, goes up to the sumptuous lair of\nHis enemies. Well does He know the street. How many times He had gone\nover it as a little child led along by the hand in the crowd of\npilgrims, in the midst of noise and dust, in the band of Galileans!\nLater as an unknown boy, confused by the dust and heat of the sun, tired\nand bewildered, He used to look toward the walls desperately longing to\narrive at the summit, hoping to find up there in the sacred precincts a\nlittle shade for His eyes, cool water for His mouth, a word of\nconsolation for His heart.\n\nBut to-day everything is transformed. He is not led along. He leads\nalong. He does not come to adore, but to punish. He knows that there\ninside, behind the beautiful fa\u00e7ades of the sublime sepulcher, there are\nonly ashes and corruption: His enemies selling ashes and feeding\nthemselves on corruption. The first adversary who comes before Him is\nthe demon of greed.\n\nHe enters into the Court of the Gentiles, the most spacious and most\ndensely crowded of all. The great, sunny, well-paved terrace is not the\natrium of a sanctuary, but a dirty market-place. An immense, roaring din\nrises up from the vermin-like crowd of bankers, of buyers and sellers,\nof money-changers who give and take money. There are herdsmen with their\noxen and their flocks of sheep; vendors of pigeons and turtle doves,\nstanding by the long lines of their coops; bird-sellers, with cages of\nchirping sparrows; benches for money-changers, with bowls overflowing\nwith copper and silver. Merchants, their feet in the fresh-dropped dung,\nhandle the flanks of the animals destined for sacrifice; or call with\nmonotonous iteration women who have come there after child-birth,\npilgrims who have come to offer a rich sacrifice, lepers who offer\nliving birds for their cure, obtained or hoped for. Money-changers, with\na coin hung at their ears as a mark of their trade, gloatingly plunge\ntheir greedy talons into gleaming piles; the go-betweens run about in\nthe swarm of the gossiping groups; niggardly, wary provincials hold\nexcited conferences before loosening the purse strings to change their\ncash for a votive offering, and from time to time a restless ox drowns\nout with his deep bellow the thin bleating of the lambs, the thrill\nvoices of the women, the clinking of drachma and shekels.\n\nChrist was familiar with the spectacle. He knew that the house of God\nhad been turned into the house of Mammon, and that, instead of silently\ninvoking the Spirit, material-minded men trafficked there in the filth\nof the Demon, with the priests as their accomplices. But this time He\ndid not restrain His scorn and His repugnance. To destroy the Temple, He\ncommenced with the destruction of the market-place. The Eternal\nMendicant, the poor man, accompanied by his poor friends, flung Himself\nagainst the servitors of money. He had in His hand a length of rope,\nwhich He knotted together like a whip, and with it He opened a\npassage-way through the astonished people. The benches of the\nmoney-changers crashed down at the first shock. The coins were scattered\non the ground amid yells of astonishment and wrath; the seats of the\nbird-sellers were overturned beside their scattered pigeons. The\nherdsmen began to urge towards the doors the oxen and the sheep. The\nsparrow-sellers took their cages under their arms and disappeared. Cries\nrose to Heaven, some scandalized, some approving; from the other\ncourt-yards other people came running towards the disturbance. Jesus,\nsurrounded by the boldest of His friends, was brandishing His whip on\nhigh, and driving the money-changers towards the door. And He repeated\nin a loud voice, \u201cMy house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye\nhave made it a den of thieves!\u201d\n\nAnd the last money-handlers disappeared from the courts like rubbish\nscattered by the wind.\n\n\n                            BUSINESS THE GOD\n\n\nThis action of Jesus was not only the righteous purification of the\nsanctuary, but also the public manifestation of His detestation for\nMammon and the servants of Mammon. Business, that modern god, was for\nHim a form of theft. A marketplace was therefore a cave of obsequious\nbrigands, of tolerated thieves. Among all the elements of the legalized\ntheft which is called commerce, none is more detestable and shameful\nthan the use of money. If some one gives you a sheep in exchange for\nmoney, you can be sure that he has made you pay more money than the\nsheep really cost, but at least he gives you something which is not a\nhateful mineral symbol of wealth. He gives you a living being, which\nwill furnish you wool in the spring time, which will bear you a lamb,\nand which you can eat if you like. But the exchange of money for money,\nof coined metal for coined metal, is something unnatural, paradoxical\nand demoniac. Everything that is known of banks, rates of exchange,\ndiscount and usury, is a shameful and repellent mystery which has always\nbeen the terror of simple souls, that is, of upright and deep souls. The\npeasant who sows his grain, the tailor who makes a garment, the weaver\nwho weaves wool or linen, have up to a certain limit a real right that\ntheir wealth should increase, because they have added something which\nbefore was not in the world, in cloth, in wool. But that a mountain of\nmoney should bring forth other money without labor or effort, without\nproduction by man of any object to be seen, to be consumed, to be\nenjoyed, is a scandal which goes beyond, and confounds human\nimagination.\n\nMoney-changers, bankers, amassers of silver and gold, are slaves of the\nwitchcraft of the Demon more than all others. And it is to those men,\nthe men of banks and of finance, that the grateful Demon gives power on\nthis earth: they are the ones even to-day who rule nations, instigate\nwars, who starve nations, and who, by an infernal system of their own,\nsuck out the life of the poor, transformed into gold, dripping with\nsweat and blood.\n\nChrist, who pitied the rich, but who hated and detested wealth, the\ngreat wall which cuts off from men the vision of the Kingdom of Heaven,\nhad broken up the den of thieves and had purified the Temple where He\nwas to teach the last truths which remained to Him to expound. But with\nthat violent action, He had antagonized all the commercial middle-class\nof Jerusalem. The men He had driven away demanded that their patrons\nshould punish the man who was ruining business on the Holy Hill. These\nmen of money found ready hearing with the men of Law, already embittered\nfor other reasons, so much the more because Jesus in disturbing the\nbusiness of the Temple had condemned and harmed the priests themselves.\nThe most successful bazars were the property of the sons of Annas, that\nis, close relations of the High-Priest Caiaphas. All the doves which\nwere sold in the Court of the Gentiles were raised on the property of\nAnnas, and the priests who did business in them made a good income every\nmonth out of turtle-doves alone. The money-changers, who should not have\nbeen allowed to stay in the Temple, paid the great Sadducee families of\nthe priestly aristocracy a goodly tithe on the thousands of shekels\nbrought in every year by the exchange of foreign money into Hebrew\nmoney. Had not the Temple itself perhaps become a great national bank\nwith coffers and strong boxes in treasure chambers?\n\nJesus had wounded the twenty thousand priests of Jerusalem in their\nprestige and in their purses. He had overturned the values of the\nfalsified and mutilated Letter, in the name of which they commanded and\non which they fattened. More than this, He had driven out their\nassociates, the traffickers and bankers. If He had His way, it would\nruin them all. But the two threatened castes drew together still more\nclosely, to make way with the dangerous intruder. It was perhaps that\nvery evening that priests and merchants agreed on the purchase of a\nbetrayer and a cross. The bourgeoisie were to give the small amount of\nmoney necessary; the clergy to find the religious pretext; the foreign\ngovernment, naturally desiring to be on good terms with clergy and\nbourgeoisie, would lend its soldiers.\n\nBut Jesus, having left the Temple, went His way towards Bethany, passing\nby the Mount of Olives.\n\n\n                        THE VIPERS OF THE TOMBS\n\n\nThe next morning when he went back, the herdsmen and merchants had\nsquatted down outside, near the doors, but the courts were humming with\ncrowds of excited people.\n\nThe sentence pronounced and executed by Jesus against the honest thieves\nhad set gossiping Jerusalem all agog. Those blows of the whip, like so\nmany stones thrown into the Jerusalem frog-pond, had awakened the poor\nto joyous hope and had set the lords quaking with fear.\n\nAnd early in the morning, all had gone up there from the dark alleys and\nfrom the fine houses, from the work-shops and from the public squares,\nleaving all their affairs, with the restless anxiety of those who hope\nfor miracles, or revenge. The day-laborers had come, the weavers, the\ndyers, the cobblers, the woodworkers, all those who detested the\nswindlers, the stranglers, the shearers of poverty, traders who enriched\nthemselves at the expense of indigence. Among the first had come the\nlamentable scum of the city, the dirty vermin-ridden prisoners of\neternal beggary, with leprous scabs, with their sores uncared for, with\ntheir bones protruding through the skin to testify to their hunger.\nThere had also come pilgrims from outside, those of Galilee, who had\naccompanied Jesus in His festal entrance; and with them Jews from the\nSyrian and Egyptian colonies, dressed in their best, like distant\nrelatives who reappear every once in so often at the family home for a\nfamily festival.\n\nBut there came up also, in groups of four or five, the Scribes and\nPharisees. They were fraternal colleagues, fitting companions for each\nother. The Scribes were the Doctors of the Law; the Pharisees were the\nPuritans of the Law. Nearly all the Scribes were Pharisees, many\nPharisees were Scribes. Imagine a professor adding religious pedantry to\nhis doctoral pedantry; or a religious hypocrite provided also with the\ngrave face of a casuistical pedagogue, and you will have the modern\nequivalent of a Pharisaical Scribe, or of a Pharisee who was also a\nScribe. A Tartuffe with academic honors; an Academician, who is at the\nsame time a religious hypocrite; a philosophizing Quaker, are other\nmodern equivalents.\n\nThese men therefore went up that morning to the Temple with much show of\npride without and many evil intentions within. They came up proudly\nwrapped in their long cloaks, with their fringes fluttering, their\nchests thrown out, their eyes clouded, their eyebrows raised, with\nsneering mouths and quivering nostrils, with a step which announced\ntheir importance and the indignation felt by them, God\u2019s privileged\nsheriffs.\n\nJesus, in the midst of all these eyes turned on Him, waited for those\nmen. It was not the first time that they had come about Him. How many\ndiscussions between Him and the provincial Pharisees had taken place\nhere and there in the country! They were Pharisees who had demanded a\nsign from Heaven, a supernatural proof that He was the Messiah\u2014because\nthe Pharisees, unlike the skeptical Sadducees, sunk in legalized\nEpicureanism, believed in the imminent arrival of the Saviour.\n\nBut the Pharisees expected to see this Saviour as a Jew, strictly\nobserving all laws as they did, and they held that to be worthy to\nreceive Him it was enough to be clean on the outside and to avoid any\ntransgression of any of the trivial rules of Leviticus. The Messiah, the\nson of David, would not deign to save those who had not avoided all\ncontact, even remote, with foreigners and with heathens, who had not\nobserved the smallest detail of legal purification, who had not paid all\nthe tithes of the Temple, who did not respect at any cost the sanctity\nof the Sabbath day. In their eyes Jesus could not possibly be the Divine\nRedeemer. No spectacular and magic signs had been seen: He had contented\nHimself with healing the sick, with talking about love, and with loving.\nThey had seen Him dining with publicans and sinners, and, worse than\neverything else, had heard with horror that His disciples did not always\nwash their hands before sitting down to the table. But the greatest\nhorror, the unendurable scandal, had been His lack of respect for the\nSabbath. Jesus had not hesitated to cure the sick, even on the Sabbath,\nand He held it no crime on that day to do good to His unfortunate\nbrothers. He even shamelessly gloried in this, claiming blasphemously\nthat the Sabbath was made for man, rather than man for the Sabbath.\n\nIn the minds of the Pharisees there was only one doubt about Jesus: was\nHe a fool or an impostor? To put the matter to the test, they had tried\nmany times to trap Him by theological tricks, or in dialectical\nsubtleties, but to no avail. As long as He went about in the provinces\ndrawing after Him a few dozen peasants, they had let Him alone, sure\nthat some day or other the last beggar, disillusioned, would leave Him.\nBut now the affair was becoming serious. Accompanied by a band of\nexcitable countrymen, He had gone so far as to enter into the Temple as\nthough it belonged to Him, and had seduced some ignorant unfortunates to\ncall Him the Messiah. More than that, usurping the place of the priests,\nand almost giving Himself the airs of a king, He had roughly driven out\nthe honest merchants, pious people who admired the Pharisees, even if\nthey did not entirely imitate them. Up to that time the Pharisees had\nbeen too easy-going and merciful towards Him. But from now on the\nunequaled goodness of heart of those extremely mild and tolerant\nprofessors would be dangerous and inopportune. The intolerable scandal,\nthe reiterated profanation, the public challenge, called for\ncondemnation and punishment. The false Christ must be disposed of and at\nonce. Scribes and Pharisees went up on the hill to see if He had had the\nimpertinence to go back to the place contaminated by His boasting.\n\nJesus was waiting for just those men. He wanted to say to them publicly,\nwith the open sky as witness, what He thought of them, what God thought\nof them, the definite truth about them. The day before, with His whip,\nHe had condemned the animal-sellers and money-changers. Now He was\ndealing with the merchants of the Word, with the usurers of the Law,\nwith the swindlers of Truth. The condemnation of that day did not\nexterminate them: with every generation such men spring up again,\ninnumerable, with new names; but their faces are stamped forever with\nthis condemnation wherever they are born and command.\n\n\n                        THE DESCENDANTS OF CAIN\n\n\n\u201cWoe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!\u201d Their sins could be\nreduced to one, but that is the most poisonous, the least pardonable of\nall sins: the sin against the Spirit, the sin against Truth, the\nbetrayal of Truth and Spirit, the laying waste of the only pure wealth\nwhich the world possesses. Thieves steal perishable goods, assassins\nkill the corruptible body, prostitutes sully flesh destined to\ncorruption; but the hypocrites, the Pharisees sully the Word of the\nabsolute, steal the promises of eternity, assassinate the soul.\nEverything in them is pretense: their dress and their talk, their\nteaching and their practice. What they say is contradicted by what they\ndo. Their inner life does not correspond to what they choose to show.\nSecret swinishness gives the lie to their every claim. They are\nhypocrites because they cover themselves with fringed mantles and with\nwide phylacteries, to be seen in public places, and love to be called\n\u201cMaster,\u201d and all the time they have hidden the keys of knowledge and\nhave shut the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven, and neither go in\nthemselves nor suffer others to enter. Hypocrites because they make long\nprayers in public and devour the houses of widows, and take advantage of\nthe weak and the desolate. Hypocrites because they wash and clean the\noutside of the platter and the cup, and inside they are full of rapine\nand extortion. Hypocrites because they give their attention to minuti\u00e6\nof rites and purifications and have no care for greater things: they\nstrain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Hypocrites because they observe\nthe smallest commandments and do not obey the only one which is of\nvalue: they pay punctually the tithe of mint and anise and cummin and\nrue, but they have not justice, mercy and faith in their hearts.\nHypocrites because they build monuments to the prophets and garnish the\nsepulchers of righteous men of old times, but persecute the righteous\nmen of to-day, and are preparing to kill the prophets. \u201cYe serpents, ye\ngeneration of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?\nWherefore, behold I sent unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes:\nand some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye\nscourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That\nupon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the\nblood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias,\nwhom ye slew between the temple, and the altar.\u201d\n\nThey have accepted the inheritance of Cain. They are the descendants of\nCain. They kill brothers, execute saints, crucify prophets. And, like\nCain, God has stamped upon their faces a Sign\u2014the mysterious sign of\nimmortality. They cannot be killed because theirs are the hands which\nmust kill. The fugitive fratricide was saved by this sign among early\nmen, and the murderous Pharisees will be saved through all the centuries\nbecause God needs them for the high works of His justice which seems\nfoolishness and madness to the eyes of little-minded men. An eternal\ndecree, not revealed to most men, decrees death and the most atrocious\ndeath to all who would be like God. But the simple man could never\nassassinate a saint, nor even a sinner, a miraculous chrysalis of\npotential sanctity. And the saint would no longer be a saint if he took\nthe life of another saint, the only brother given him by the Father. So\nthe indestructible race of the Pharisees was created for all centuries\nand for all peoples, men who are never simple like children and who\nnever know the way of salvation, those who are not visibly sinners, but\nwho are from head to foot the incarnation of the ugliest sin, those who\nwish to appear saints and who hate real saints. God has made them\nfitting instruments of an appalling and necessary massacre, to play the\npart of executioners of perfect men. Faithful to this command,\ninvulnerable as inhabitants of Hell, marked like Cain, immortal as\nhypocrisy and cruelty, they have survived all the empires and all the\noverthrows of empire. With different faces, with different garments,\nwith different rules and pretexts, they have covered the face of the\nearth, stubborn and prolific, up to the present day. And when they have\nnot been able to kill with nails and with fire, with axes and with\nknives, they have used tongue and pen with the utmost success.\n\nJesus, while He spoke to them in the great open courtyard crowded with\nwitnesses, knew that He spoke to His Judges, and to those who would be,\nthrough intermediate persons, the real authors of His death. By speaking\nout on this day, He justified His later silence before Caiaphas and\nPilate. He had condemned them and they would condemn Him; He had judged\nthem first and had nothing more to add when they wished to judge Him.\n\nImages of death came to His lips as He described them to themselves:\nvipers and tombs, treacherous black vipers, which as soon as you\napproach them pour into your blood all the poison hidden in their fangs.\nWhited sepulchers, fair without but within full of dead men\u2019s bones and\nall uncleanness.\n\nThe Pharisees who stood before Jesus, and all those who have\nlegitimately descended from them, are glad to hide themselves in the\nshadow of the dead, to prepare their venom. Cold as a snake\u2019s skin, as\nthe stone of a tomb, neither the heat of the sun, nor the warmth of\nlove, nor the fires of Hell can ever warm them. They know all the words\nsave one, the word of Life.\n\n\u201cWoe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves\nwhich appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of\nthem.\u201d The only one aware of this was Jesus\u2014and it was because of this\nthat He was not to remain more than two days in the sepulcher which they\nwere preparing for Him.\n\n\n                         ONE STONE UPON ANOTHER\n\n\nThe Thirteen went down from the Temple to make their daily ascent to the\nMount of Olives. One of the Disciples (who could it have been?\u2014perhaps\nJohn, son of Salome, still rather childish and na\u00efvely full of wonder at\nwhat he saw? Or Judas Iscariot, with his respect for wealth?) said to\nJesus, \u201cMaster, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!\u201d\n\nThe Master turned to look at the high walls faced with marble which the\nostentatious calculation of Herod had built up on the hill and said,\n\u201cSeest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone\nupon another, that shall not be thrown down.\u201d\n\nThe admiring exclamation suddenly died. No one dared answer, but\nperplexed and surprised, each of them continued to turn over in his mind\nthese words. Hard words for the ears of those carnal-minded Jews, for\nthe narrow hearts of those ambitious provincials. He whom they loved had\nsaid in these last days many other hard words, hard to hear, hard to\nunderstand, hard to believe. But they did not remember any other words\nso hard as these. They knew that He was the Christ and that He was to\nsuffer and die, but they hoped that He would rise again at once in the\nglorious victory of the new David, to give abundance to all Israel and\nto award the greatest prizes and power to them, faithful to Him in the\ndangerous wanderings of His poor days. But if the world was to be\ncommanded by Judea, Judea was to be commanded by Jerusalem, and the\nseats of command were to be in the Temple of the great King. It was\noccupied to-day by the faithless Sadducees, the hypocritical Pharisees,\nthe traitorous Scribes, but Christ was to drive them away to give their\nplaces to His apostles. How then could the Temple be destroyed, splendid\nmemorial of the kingdom in the past; hoped-for rock of the new Kingdom?\n\nThis talk of stones was harder than a stone for Simon called the Rock\nand for his companions. Had not John the Baptist said that God could\nchange the stones of the Jordan into sons of Abraham? Had not Satan said\nthat the Son of God could change the stones of the desert to loaves of\nwheat bread? Had not Jesus Himself said while He was passing the walls\nof Jerusalem that those very stones, in place of men, would have shouted\nout greetings and sung hymns? And was it not He who had made the stones\nfall from the hands of His enemies, the stones which they had taken up\nto kill Him? And had He not made them fall from those who accused the\nadulteress?\n\nBut the Disciples could not understand this talk about the stones of the\nTemple. They could not and they would not understand that those great\nmassive stones, quarried out patiently from the mountains, drawn from\nafar by oxen, squared and prepared by chisels and mallets, put one upon\nanother by masters of the art to make the most marvelous Temple of the\nuniverse; that these stones, warm and brilliant in the sun, should be\ntorn apart once more and pulverized into ruins.\n\nThey had scarcely arrived at the Mount of Olives, and Christ had only\nhad time to sit down opposite to the Temple, when their curiosity burst\nout:\n\n\u201cTell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when\nall these things shall be fulfilled?\u201d\n\nThe answer was the discourse on the Last Things, the second Sermon on\nthe Mount. At the beginning of His work, He had explained how the soul\nmust be transformed to found the Kingdom; now at death\u2019s door He taught\nwhat the punishment of the stubborn would be and in what manner He would\ncome again.\n\nThis discourse, less understood than the other, and even more forgotten,\nis not, as it is generally believed, the answer to one question only.\nThe Disciples had put two questions, \u201cWhen shall these things be?\u201d That\nis, the ruin of the Temple; and \u201cWhat shall be the signs of Thy coming?\u201d\nThere are two answers to these two questions. Jesus first describes the\nevents which will precede the destruction of Jerusalem, and then He\ndescribes the signs of His second appearance. The prophetic discourse,\nalthough it is read all in one piece in the Gospels, had two parts. The\nprophecies are two, quite distinct from each other; the first was\nfulfilled before the end of Jesus\u2019 generation, about forty years after\nHis death. The second has not yet been fulfilled, but perhaps before the\npassing of our own generation the first signs will be seen.\n\n\n                            SHEEP AND GOATS\n\n\nJesus knew the weakness of the Disciples, weakness of the spirit, and\nperhaps also of the flesh, and He puts them on their guard against two\ngreat perils: fraud and martyrdom.\n\n\u201cTake heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name,\nsaying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. Then if any man shall say\nunto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For false\nChrists and false prophets shall rise and shall shew signs and wonders,\nto seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. Go not after them, nor\nfollow them.\u201d\n\nBut although they are to flee from the frauds of the false Messiahs,\nthey cannot escape the persecutions of the enemies of the real Christ.\n\u201cThen shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and\nye shall be hated of all nations for my name\u2019s sake. But take heed to\nyourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the\nsynagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and\nkings for my sake, for a testimony against them. . . . Now the brother\nshall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and the\nchildren shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be\nput to death. . . . And then shall many be offended, and shall betray\none another, and shall hate one another . . . and because iniquity shall\nabound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure to the\nend, the same shall be saved.\u201d\n\nThen shall begin the signs of the imminent punishment, \u201cAnd when ye\nshall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be ye not troubled: for such\nthings must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall\nrise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be\nearthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles:\nthese are the beginnings of sorrow.\u201d\n\nThese are the preliminary warnings: the order of the world shall be\ndisturbed, the world, peaceful at the time when Christ pronounced these\nwords, shall see man set against man, nation against nation, and the\nearth itself soaked with blood shall rise against men; shall tremble\nunder their steps; shall cast down their houses; shall vomit out ashes,\nas if it cast out from the mouth of its mountains all its dead, and\nshall deny to the fratricides the food which ripens to gold every summer\nin the fields.\n\nThen when all this shall have come to pass, the punishment will come\nupon those people who would not be born again in Christ, who did not\naccept the Gospel; on the city which nailed its Lord upon Golgotha and\npersecuted His witnesses.\n\n\u201cAnd when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that\nthe desolation thereof is nigh. But when ye shall see the abomination of\ndesolation, spoken of by Daniel, the prophet, standing where it ought\nnot, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judea\nflee to the mountains: and let him that is on the housetop not go down\ninto the house, neither enter therein, to take anything out of his\nhouse: And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take\nup his garment. But woe to them that are with child, and to them who\ngive suck in those days! And pray ye that your flight be not in winter.\nFor in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the\nbeginning of creation which God created unto this time, neither shall\nbe. There shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this\npeople. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led\naway captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of\nthe Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.\u201d\n\nThis is the end of the first prophecy. Jerusalem shall be taken and\ndestroyed and of the Temple, defiled by the abomination of desolation,\nthere shall remain not one stone upon another.\n\nBut Jesus has not said all, until now has not spoken of His second\ncoming.\n\n\u201cJerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the\nGentiles be fulfilled.\u201d What are these \u201ctempi dei Gentili, tempora\nnationum\u201d? The words of the Greek texts express it with greater\nprecision than the other languages: they are the times adapted to,\nfitting, and awaiting the Gentiles, that is, those in which the non-Jews\nshall be converted to the Gospel, announced to the Jews before all\nothers. Therefore that real end shall not come until the Gospel has been\ncarried into all nations, until the Gentiles, the faithless ones, tread\ndown the city of Jerusalem. \u201cAnd this gospel of the kingdom shall be\npreached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall\nthe end come.\u201d\n\nThe second coming of Christ from Heaven, the Parusia, will be the end of\nthis world and the beginning of the true world, the eternal kingdom. The\nend of Judea was announced by signs human and terrestrial; this other\nend will be preceded by signs divine and celestial. \u201cThe sun shall be\ndarkened, and the moon shall not give her light. And the stars of heaven\nshall fall. And upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the\nsea and the waves roaring; Men\u2019s hearts failing them for fear, and for\nlooking after these things which are coming on the earth: for the powers\nof heaven shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of\nman in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and\nthey shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power\nand great glory.\u201d\n\nFor the end of Jerusalem only, the little earth was troubled; but for\nthis universal ending, Heaven itself is convulsed. In the great sudden\nblackness only the roaring of water will be heard, and screams of\nterror. It is the Day of the Lord, the day of God\u2019s wrath described in\ntheir times by Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah and Joel. \u201cThe day of the Lord\nis at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. A day\nof darkness and of gloominess! The land is as the garden of Eden before\nthem, and behind them a desolate wilderness. The people shall be much\npained: all faces shall gather blackness. Therefore shall all hands be\nfaint and every man\u2019s heart shall melt. And they shall be afraid: pangs\nand sorrow shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman\nthat travaileth; they shall be amazed one at another. Behold the day of\nthe Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land\ndesolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the\nstars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their\nlight: the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their\nhost shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a\nfalling fig from the fig tree.\u201d\n\nThis is the day of the Father, day of blackness in the Heavens and of\nterror on earth. But the day of the Son follows immediately after.\n\nHe does not appear this time hidden in a stable, but on high in Heaven,\nno longer poor and wretched, but in power and splendor of glory. \u201cAnd he\nshall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall\ngather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to\nthe other.\u201d And when the celestial trumpets shall have awakened all\nthose sleeping in the tombs, the irrevocable division shall be made.\n\n\u201cWhen the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels\nwith him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:\n\n\u201cAnd before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate\nthem one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from, the goats:\n\n\u201cAnd he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his\nleft.\n\n\u201cThen shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed\nof my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation\nof the world:\n\n\u201cFor I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave\nme drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:\n\n\u201cNaked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in\nprison, and ye came unto me.\n\n\u201cThen shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an\nhungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?\n\n\u201cWhen saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed\nthee?\n\n\u201cOr when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?\n\n\u201cAnd the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you,\nInasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,\nye have done it unto me.\n\n\u201cThen shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye\ncursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:\n\n\u201cFor I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye\ngave me no drink:\n\n\u201cI was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not:\nsick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.\n\n\u201cThen shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an\nhungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison,\nand did not minister unto thee?\n\n\u201cThen shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as\nye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.\n\n\u201cAnd these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous\ninto life eternal.\u201d\n\nJesus, even in His glory as judge of the last Day, does not forget the\npoor and unhappy whom He loved so greatly during His life on earth. He\nwishes to appear as one of those \u201cleast\u201d who hold out their hands at the\ndoors and on whom the \u201cgreat\u201d look down. On earth, in the time of\nTiberius, He was the man who was hungering for bread and love, thirsting\nfor water and martyrdom, who was like a stranger in His own country, not\nrecognized by His own brothers, who stripped Himself to clothe those\nshaking with cold, who was sick with sorrow and suffering and no one\ncomforted Him, who was imprisoned in the base prison of human flesh, in\nthe narrow prison of earthly life. He was divinely hungering for souls,\nthirsting for faith, He was the stranger come from the ineffable\nfatherland, defenseless before whips and insults, the Man sick with the\nholy madness of love. But on that great Day of final Judgment, He will\nnot be thinking of Himself, as He did not think of Himself when He was a\nman among men.\n\nThe code of this dividing of good from evil men will be based on one\nidea only: Compassion\u2014Charity. During all the time which lies between\nHis first and second coming He has gone on living under the appearance\nof the poor and the pilgrims, of the sick and persecuted, of wanderers\nand slaves. And on the Last Day He pays His debts. Mercy shown to those\n\u201cleast\u201d was shown to Him, and He will reward that mercy in the name of\nall. Only those who did not receive Him when He appeared in the\ninnumerable bodies of the poverty-stricken will be condemned to eternal\npunishment, because when they drove away the unfortunate they drove away\nGod. When they refused bread, water and a garment to the poor man, they\ncondemned the Son of God to cold, thirst and hunger. The Father had no\nneed of your help, for all is His and He loves you even during the\nmoments when you curse Him. But you must love the Father in the persons\nof His children. And those who did not quench the thirst of the thirsty\nwill themselves thirst for all eternity; those who did not warm the\nnaked man will suffer in fire for all eternity; those who did not\ncomfort the prisoner will be prisoners of Hell forever; those who did\nnot receive the stranger will never be received in Heaven, and those who\ndid not help the fever-stricken patient will shiver in the spasms of\neverlasting fever.\n\nThe Great Poor Man in the day of His glory will, as justice dictates,\nreward every one with His infinite riches. He who has given a little\nlife to the poor will have life forever; he who has left the poor in\npain will himself be in pain forever. And then the bare sky will be\npeopled with other more powerful suns, with stars flaming more brightly\nin the heavens and there will be a new Heaven and a new Earth, and the\nChosen will live not as we live now, like beasts, but in the likeness of\nangels.\n\n\n                    WORDS WHICH SHALL NOT PASS AWAY\n\n\nBut when shall these things come to pass? These are the signs, this is\nthe manner in which it shall happen. But the time? Shall we be still\nhere, we who are now under the light of the sun? Or shall the\ngrandchildren of our grandchildren see these events while we are dust\nand ashes under the earth?\n\nUp to the very last, the Twelve understand as little as twelve stones.\nThey have the truth before them and they do not see it: they have the\nLight in their midst and the Light does not reach them. If only they had\nbeen among stones like diamonds which send back, divided into reflected\nrays, the light which strikes them. But these twelve men are rough\nstones, scarcely dug out of the darkness of the quarry, dull stones,\nopaque stones, stones which the sun can warm but not kindle, stones\nwhich are lighted from without but do not reflect the splendor. They\nhave not yet understood that Jesus is not a common diviner, a student of\nthe Chaldeans and of the Etruscans, and that He has nothing to do with\nthe presumptuous pretensions of astrology. They have not understood that\na definitely dated prophecy would not work on men to create a conversion\nwhich needs perpetual vigilance. Perhaps they have not even understood\nthat the Apocalyptic sayings revealed on the Mount of Olives form a\ndouble prophecy which refers to two events, different and distant from\neach other. Perhaps these provincial fishermen, for whom a lake was the\nsea and Judea was the universe, confused the end of the Hebrew people\nwith the end of the human race, the punishment of Jerusalem with the\nsecond coming of Christ.\n\nBut the discourse of Jesus, although it is presented as one unit in the\nsynoptic Gospels, shows us two distinct prophecies.\n\nThe first announces the end of the Jewish kingdom, the punishment of\nJerusalem, the destruction of the Temple; the second the end of the old\nworld, the reappearance of Jesus, the judgment of the merciful and of\nthe merciless, the beginning of the New Kingdom. The first prophecy\ngiven is close at hand\u2014this generation shall not pass before these\nthings shall have arrived\u2014and is local and limited, since it is\nconcerned only with Judea and especially with Judea\u2019s metropolis. The\nhour and the day of the second are not known because certain events,\nslow to take place but essential, must precede this end, which, unlike\nthe other, will be universal.\n\nThe first, as a matter of fact, was fulfilled to the letter, detail by\ndetail, about forty years after the crucifixion, while many who had\nknown Jesus were still living; the second coming, the triumphal Parusia,\nis still awaited by those who believe what He said on that day, \u201cHeaven\nand earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.\u201d\n\nA few years after Jesus\u2019 death the signs of the first prophecy began to\nbe seen. False prophets, false Christs, false apostles, swarmed in\nJudea, as snakes come out of their holes when dog-days arrive. Before\nPontius Pilate was exiled, an impostor showed himself in Samaria, who\npromised to recover the sacred vessels of the Tabernacle hidden by Moses\non Mount Gerizim. The Samaritans believed that such a discovery would be\nthe prelude to the coming of the Messiah, and a great mob gathered\nthreateningly on the mountain until it was dispersed by Roman swords.\n\nUnder Cuspius Fadus, the procurator who governed from 44 to 66, there\narose a certain Theudas, who gave himself out for a great personage and\npromised great prodigies. Four hundred men followed him, but he was\ncaptured and decapitated, and those who had believed him dispersed.\nAfter him came an Egyptian Jew, who succeeded in gathering four thousand\ndesperate men, and camping on the Mount of Olives announcing that at a\nsign from him the walls of Jerusalem would fall. The Procurator Felix\nattacked him and drove him out into the desert.\n\nIn the meantime, in Samaria, arose the notorious Simon Magus, he who\nbewitched people with his prodigies and incantations and announced\nhimself as the Power of God. This man, seeing the miracles of Peter,\nwished to turn Christian, imagining that the Gospel was only one of\nthose Oriental mysteries into which an initiation gave new powers.\nRepelled by Peter, Magus became the father of heresies. He believed that\nEnn\u0153a first came from God and that it is now imprisoned in human beings:\naccording to him Enn\u0153a (or, the first conception of the Deity), was\nincarnate in Helen of Tyre, a prostitute who followed him everywhere;\nand faith in him and in Helen was a necessary condition of salvation.\nCerinthus, the first Gnostic, was one of his followers, against whom\nJohn wrote his Gospel\u2014and Menander, who boasted that he was Saviour of\nthe world. Another Elxai mixed up the old and new Covenant, told stories\nof many incarnations besides those of Christ, and swaggered about with\nhis followers, boasting of his magic powers. Hegesippus says that a\ncertain Tebutis through jealousy of Simon, second Bishop of Jerusalem,\nformed a sect that recognized Jesus as Messiah, but in everything else\nwas faithful to the old Judaism. Paul, in the Epistle to Timothy, puts\nthe \u201cSaints\u201d on guard against Hymeneus, and Phyletus and Alexander. For\nsuch are false prophets, deceitful workers transforming themselves into\nthe apostles of Christ, \u201cwho twisted truth and sowed the evil seed of\nheresy in the early church.\u201d A Dositheus had himself called Christ, and\na certain Nicholas began with his errors the sect of the Nicolaitans,\ncondemned by John in the Apocalypse: and the Zealots fomented incessant\ntumults, claiming that the Romans and all the heathen should be driven\nout in order that God might return to triumph with His own people.\n\nThe second sign, the persecution, arrived promptly. The Disciples had\nscarcely begun to preach the Gospel in Jerusalem when Peter and John\nwere thrown into prison: freed, they were captured again, and beaten and\ncommanded to speak no more in the name of Jesus. Stephen, one of the\nmost ardent of the neophytes, was taken by the priests outside the city\nand stoned.\n\nUnder the rule of Agrippa the tribulations began afresh. In 42 Herod\u2019s\ndescendant had James the Greater, the brother of John, killed by the\nsword; and for a third time Peter was imprisoned. In 62 James the\nrighteous, called the brother of Our Lord, was thrown from the terrace\nof the Temple and killed. In 50 Claudius exiled the Christian Jews from\nRome, \u201cImpulsore Chrestus tumultuantes.\u201d In 58, on account of the\nconversion of Pomponia Gr\u00e6cina, the war against converts began in the\ncapital of the Empire. In 64 the burning of Rome, desired and executed\nby Nero, was the pretext for the first great persecution. An innumerable\nmultitude of Christians obtained their martyrdom in Rome and in the\nProvinces. Many were crucified: others wrapped in the \u201ctunica molesta\u201d\nlighted up the nocturnal amusement of the C\u00e6sar: others wrapped in\nanimal skins were given as food to dogs: many, enforced actors in cruel\ncomedies, made a spectacle for amphitheaters and were devoured by lions.\nPeter died on the cross, nailed head downward. Paul ended under the ax a\nlife which since his conversion had been one long torment. Ten years\nbefore his death in 57 he had been flogged five times by the Jews,\nbeaten three times with rods by the Romans, three times imprisoned,\nthree times shipwrecked, stoned and left for dead at Lystra. The greater\npart of the other Disciples met with similar fates. Thomas met a\nmartyr\u2019s death in India, Andrew was crucified at Patras, Bartholomew was\ncrucified in Armenia. Simon the Zealot and Matthew, like their Master,\nended their lives on the cross.\n\nNor were there lacking wars and rumors of wars. When Jesus was killed,\nthe \u201cpeace of Augustus\u201d still existed, but very soon nations rise\nagainst nations and kingdoms against kingdoms. Under Nero the Britons\nrebel and massacre the Romans, the Parthians revolt and force the\nlegions to pass under the yoke; Armenia and Syria murmur against foreign\ngovernment; Gaul rises with Julius Vindex, Nero is near his end, the\nSpanish and Gallic legions proclaim Galba Emperor; Nero, fleeing from\nthe Golden House, succeeds in being abject even in suicide. Galba enters\nRome, but brings no peace; Nymphidius Sabinus at Rome, Capito in\nGermany, Clodius Macer in Africa, dispute the power with him. All are\ndissatisfied with him: on the 15th of January, 69, the Pr\u00e6torians kill\nhim and proclaim Otho. But the German legions had already proclaimed\nVitellius and move on Rome. Conquered at Bedriacum Otho commits suicide,\nbut Vitellius does not rule long either; the Syrian legions choose\nVespasian, who sends Antonius Primus into Italy. The followers of\nVitellius are defeated at Cremona and at Rome; Vitellius, the voracious\nhog, is killed on the 20th of December, 69. In the meanwhile\ninsurrection breaks out in the north, with the Batavians, with Claudius\nCivilus, and the insurrection of the Jews is not stamped out in the\neast. In less than two years Italy is invaded twice, Rome taken twice,\ntwo Emperors kill themselves; two are killed. And there are wars and\nrumors of wars on the Rhine and on the Danube, on the Po and on the\nTiber, on the banks of the North Sea, at the feet of Atlas and of Tabor.\n\nThe other afflictions announced by Jesus accompany in these years the\nupheaval of the Empire. Caligula the Mad complained because in his reign\nnothing horrible happened: he desired famines, pestilences and\nearthquakes. The degenerate and incestuous epileptic did not have his\nwish, but in the time of Claudius a series of poor crops brought famine\neven to Rome. Under Nero pestilence was added to the famine, and at Rome\nalone in one autumn the treasury of Venus Libitina registered thirty\nthousand deaths.\n\nIn 61 and 62 earthquakes shook Asia, Achaia, and Macedonia: especially\nthe cities of Hierapolis, Laodicea and Coloss\u00e6 were greatly damaged. In\n63 it was Italy\u2019s turn: at Naples, Nocera and Pompeii the earth shook.\nAll the Campagna was a prey to terror. And as if this were not enough,\nthree years later, in 66, the Campagna was devastated by cloudbursts,\nwhich destroyed the crops and rendered more threatening the prospects of\nfamine. And while Galba was entering Rome (68) the earth shook under his\nfeet with a terrible roar. All the signs were fulfilled: now had come\nthe fullness of time for the punishment of Judea.\n\n\n                             JUDEA OVERCOME\n\n\nThe earthquake which shook Jerusalem on the Friday of Golgotha was like\na signal for the Jewish outbreak. For forty years the country of the\ngod-killers had no peace, not even the peace of defeat and slavery, up\nto the day, when of the Temple not one stone was left upon another.\n\nPilate, Cuspius Fadus and Agrippa had been forced to disperse the bands\nof the false Messiahs. Under the Roman procurator, Tiberius Alexander,\nthe conflict began with the raging sect of the Zealots and ended with\nthe crucifixion of the leaders, James and Simon, sons of Judas the\nGalilean. The procurator, Ventidius Cumanus, 48-52, did not have a day\u2019s\npeace: the Zealots and their allies, the Sicarii, did not lay down their\narms. Under the procurator Felix the disorders knew no truce: under\nAlbinus the flames of the revolt flared out more boldly. Finally at the\ntime of Gessius Florus, 64-66, the last procurator of Judea, the fire,\nwhich for some time had been flickering, spread all over the country.\nThe Zealots took possession of the Temple: Florus was obliged to flee,\nAgrippa, who went as peace-maker, was stoned, Jerusalem fell into the\npower of Menahem, another son of Judas the Galilean. Zealots and Sicarii\nnow in power massacred the non-Jews and also those among the Jews who\nseemed tepid to their fanatic eyes.\n\nAnd then finally came the abomination predicted by Daniel and recorded\nby Christ. The prophecy of Daniel had already been fulfilled when\nAntiochus IV Epiphanes had profaned the Temple by placing there the\nstatue of Olympian Jove. In 39 Caligula the Mad, who had set himself up\nas God and had himself adored as God in various places, had sent the\norder to the procurator Petronius to put the imperial statue in the\nTemple, but he died before the order was executed. But Jesus was\nalluding to something quite other than statues. The holy place during\nthe great rebellion occupied by the Sicarii had become a refuge for\nassassins, and the great courts were soaked with blood, even with\npriestly blood. And the Holy City underwent also the abomination of\ndesolation, when in December of 66 Cestius Gallus, at the head of forty\nthousand men, came to crush the insurgents, camped around Jerusalem with\nthose imperial insignia which the Jews held in horror as idolatrous, and\nwhich through a concession of the Emperors had not till then been\nintroduced into the city.\n\nBut Cestius Gallus, finding more resistance than he had anticipated,\nretreated and the retreat was turned into flight to the great jubilation\nof the Zealots, who saw in this victory a sign of divine help.\n\nIn those days, between the first and second assault, when already the\ndouble abomination had contaminated the city, the Christians of\nJerusalem, obeying the prophecy of Jesus, fled to Pela, beyond the\nJordan. But Rome had no intention of giving way to the Jews. The command\nof the punitive expedition was given to Titus Flavius Vespasian, who,\ngathering an army at Ptolemais in 67, advanced against Galilee and\nconquered it. While the Romans were taking up winter quarters, John of\nGischala, one of the heads of the Zealots, having taken refuge in\nJerusalem at the head of a band of Idumeans, overturned the aristocratic\ngovernment and the city was full of uproar and blood.\n\nVespasian, going to Rome to become Emperor, gave the command to his son\nTitus, who on Easter Day in the year 70, came up before Jerusalem and\nbegan the siege. Horrible days began. Even at the height of danger, the\nZealots, carried away by wild frenzy, quarreled among themselves, and\nsplit up into factions, who fought for the control of the city.\n\nJohn of Gischala occupied the Temple, Simon Bar Giora the city, and\ntheir partisans cut the throats of those whom the Romans had not yet\nkilled. In the meantime Titus had taken possession of two lines of wall\nand of a part of the city: on the fifth of July the Tower of Antonia\nfell into his power. To the horror of fratricidal massacre and of the\nsiege was added that of hunger. The famine was so great that mothers\nwere seen, so says Josephus, to kill their children and eat them. On the\n10th of August the Temple was taken and burned, the Zealots succeeding\nin shutting themselves up into the upper city, but conquered by hunger\nthey were obliged to surrender on the 7th of September.\n\nThe prophecies of Jesus had been fulfilled: the city by Titus\u2019 order was\nlaid waste: and of the Temple already swept by fire, there remained not\none stone upon another. The Jews who had survived hunger and the swords\nof the Sicarii were massacred by the victorious soldiery. Those who\nstill remained were deported into Egypt to work in mines, and many were\nkilled for the amusement of the crowd in the Amphitheaters of C\u00e6sarea\nand Berytus. Some hundreds of the handsomest were taken prisoners to\nRome to figure in the triumphal procession of Vespasian and Titus, and\nthere Simon Bar Giora and other heads of the Zealots were executed\nbefore the idols which they hated.\n\n\u201cVerily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these\nthings be fulfilled.\u201d It was the seventieth year of the Christian era\nand His generation had not yet gone down into the tomb when these things\nhappened. One at least of those who heard Him on the Mount of Olives,\nJohn, was witness of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the ruin of the\nTemple. Within the destined time the words of Jesus were fulfilled,\nsyllable by syllable, with atrocious exactness, by a story of blood and\nfire.\n\n\n                              THE PARUSIA\n\n\nThe end of the god-killing people, the partial and local ending, had\ntaken place. According to the sentence of Christ, the statues of the\nTemple were scattered among the ruined walls and the faithful of the\nTemple had met their death by torture or were scattered among other\nnations.\n\nThe second prophecy is left. When shall the Son of Man come on the\nclouds of Heaven, preceded by darkness, announced by angels\u2019 trumpets?\nJesus says that no one can be sure of the day of His coming. The Son of\nMan is likened to lightning which flashes suddenly in the east, to a\nthief who comes by stealth in the night, to a master who has gone far\naway and returns suddenly to take his servants by surprise. We must be\nvigilant and ready. Purify your hearts, because you do not know when He\nmay come; and woe to him who is not ready to appear before Him. Take\nheed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with\nsurfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life; and so that day\ncome upon you unawares, for as a snare shall it come upon all them that\ndwell on the face of the whole earth.\n\nBut if Jesus does not announce the day, He tells us what things must be\nfulfilled before that day. These things are two: the Gospel of the\nKingdom shall be preached to all the nations and the Gentiles shall no\nlonger tread down Jerusalem. These two conditions are fulfilled in our\nown time and perhaps the great day approaches. There are no longer in\nthe world any civilized nations or barbarous tribes where the\ndescendants of the Apostles have not preached the Gospel: since 1918 the\nMoslems have no longer trodden down Jerusalem and there is talk of a\nre\u00ebstablishment of the Jewish State. According to the words of Hosea,\nthe end of the time shall be near when the sons of Israel, left so long\nwithout altar and without King, shall be converted to the Son of David\nand shall turn, trembling, towards God\u2019s goodness.\n\nIf the words of the second prophecy are true, as the words of the first\nprophecy were shown to be true, the Second Coming cannot be far distant.\nOnce again in these years nations have risen against nations, the earth\nhas quaked, destroying many lives, and pestilences, famines and\nseditions have decimated nations. For more than a century the words of\nChrist have been translated and preached in all languages. Soldiers who\nbelieve in Christ, although they are not all faithful to the heirs of\nPeter, are in command over that city, which after its downfall was in\nthe power of the Romans, the Persians, the Egyptians and the Turks. And\nstill men do not think of Jesus and His promise. They live as if the\nworld were always going to continue as it has been, and they work and\nmortify themselves only for their earthly and carnal interests.\n\n\u201cFor as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and\ndrinking, marrying and given in marriage, until the day that Noah\nentered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them\nall away: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Likewise also,\nas it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought,\nthey sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went\nout of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them\nall. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.\u201d\n\nThe same thing happens in our day in spite of the wars and the\npestilences which have cut down millions of lives in a few years. People\neat and drink, marry and have children, buy and sell, write and play.\nAnd no one thinks of the Divine Thief who will come suddenly in the\nnight, no one waits for the Real Master, who will return unexpectedly,\nno one looks at the sky to see if lightning is flashing from the east.\n\nThe apparent life of the living is like the delirious dream of a fatal\nfever. They seem awake because they hurry about without rest, occupied\nby those possessions which are clay and poison. They never look up to\nHeaven\u2014they fear only their brothers. Perhaps they are waiting to be\nawakened in the last hour by those dead of old, who will rise up at the\napproach of the Resurrected Christ.\n\n\n                               UNWELCOME\n\n\nWhile Jesus was condemning the Temple and Jerusalem, those maintained by\nthe Temple and the lords of Jerusalem were preparing His condemnation.\n\nAll those who possessed, taught and commanded were waiting only for the\nright moment to assassinate Him, without danger to themselves. Every man\nwho had a name, dignity, a school, a shop, a sacred office, a little\nauthority was against Him. He came to oppose them and they opposed Him.\nWith the idiocy natural to those in power they believed that they would\nsave themselves by putting Him to death, and they did not know it was\nexactly His death which was needed as the beginning of their punishment.\n\nTo have an idea of the hatred which the upper classes of Jerusalem felt\ntowards Jesus, priestly hatred, scholastic hatred and commercial hatred,\nwe must remember that the Holy City apparently lived by faith, but in\nreality on the Faithful. Only in the Jewish metropolis could valid and\nacceptable offerings be made to the Old God, and therefore every year,\nespecially on great feast days, streams of Israelites poured in there\nfrom the Tetrarchates of Palestine and from all the provinces of the\nEmpire. The Temple was not only the one legitimate sanctuary of the\nJews, but for those who were attached to it and for all the others who\nlived at its feet, it was the great nourishing breast which fed the\nCapital with the products of the victims, the offerings, the tithes and,\nabove all, with the profits accompanying the continual influx of\nvisitors. Josephus says that at Jerusalem on special occasions there\nwere gathered together as many as three million pilgrims.\n\nThe stationary population depended all the year round on the Temple:\nbusiness for the animal-sellers, dealers in victuals, money-changers,\ninn-keepers, and even artisans depended on the fortunes of the Temple.\nThe priestly caste, which without the Levites (and there were a great\ncrowd of them) numbered in Christ\u2019s lifetime twenty thousand descendants\nof Aaron\u2014got their living from the tithes in kind, from the taxes of the\nTemple, from the payments for the first-born\u2014even the first-born of men\npaid five shekels a head!\u2014and got their food from the flesh of the\nsacrificial animals, of which only the fat was burned. They were the\nones who had the pick of herds and crops; even their bread was given\nthem by the people, for the head of every Jewish family was obliged to\nhand over to the priests the twenty-fourth part of the bread which was\nbaked in his house. Many of them, as we have seen, made money on the\nraising of the animals which the Faithful were obliged to buy for their\nofferings; others were associated with money-changers, and it is not\nimpossible that some of them were really bankers, because people readily\ndeposited their savings in the strong-boxes of the Temple.\n\nA net-work of self-interest thus bound to the Herodian edifice all the\ninhabitants of Jerusalem, down to the vendors at fairs and the\nsandal-makers. The priests lived on the Temple and many of them were\nmerchants and rich men: the rich needed the Temple to increase their\nprofits and keep the common people respectful: the merchants did\nbusiness with the rich people who had money to spend, with the priests\nwho were their associates and with the pilgrims from every part of the\nworld drawn towards the Temple: the working men and the poor lived from\nthe scraps and leavings which fell from the tables of the rich, the\npriests, the merchants and the pilgrims.\n\nReligion was thus the greatest and perhaps the only business in\nJerusalem: any one who attacked religion, its representatives, its\nvisible monument (which was the most famous and fruitful seat of\nreligion), was necessarily considered an enemy of the people of\nJerusalem, and especially of the prosperous and well-to-do.\n\nJesus with His Gospel threatened directly the positions and fees of\nthese classes. If all the prescriptions of the Law were to be reduced to\nthe practice of love, there would be no more place for the Scribes and\nDoctors of the Law who made their living out of their teachings. If God\ndid not wish animal sacrifices and asked only for purity of soul and\nsecret prayer, the priests might as well shut the doors of the Sanctuary\nand learn a new profession: those who did business in oxen and calves\nand sheep and lambs and kids and doves and sparrows would have seen\ntheir business slacken and perhaps disappear. If to be loved by God you\nneeded to transform your life, if it were not enough to wash your\ndrinking-cups and punctually pay your tithes, the doctrine and the\nauthority of the Pharisees would be reduced to nothing. If in short the\nMessiah had come and had declared the Primacy of the Temple fallen and\nsacrifices useless, the capital of the cult would, from one day to the\nnext, have lost its prestige and with the passage of time would have\nbecome an obscure settlement of impoverished men.\n\nAs a matter of course, Jesus, who preferred fishermen, if they were pure\nand loving, to members of the Sanhedrin; who took the part of the poor\nagainst the rich, who valued ignorant children more than Scribes,\nblear-eyed over the mysteries of the Scriptures, drew down on His head\nthe hatred of the Levites, the merchants and the Doctors. The Temple,\nthe Academy and the Bank were against Him: when the victim was ready\nthey would call the somewhat reluctant, but nevertheless acquiescent\nRoman sword, to sacrifice Him to their peace of mind.\n\nFor some time the life of Jesus had not been safe. The Pharisees said\nthat Herod had sought to kill Him from the days of His last sojourn in\nGalilee. Perhaps it was the knowledge of this that sent Him into C\u00e6sarea\nPhilippi, outside Galilee, where He predicted His passion.\n\nWhen He came back to Jerusalem the High Priests, the Pharisees and the\nScribes gathered about Him to lay traps for Him and take down His words.\nThe uneasy and embittered crowd set on His track spies, destined to\nbecome false witnesses in a few days. If we are to believe John, the\norder was given to certain guards to capture Him, but they were afraid\nto lay their hands upon Him. The attack with the whips on the\nanimal-sellers and money-changers, the loud invectives against the\nScribes and Pharisees, the allusion to the ruin of the Temple, made the\ncup run over. Time pressed; Jerusalem was full of foreigners and many\nwere listening to Him. Some disorder, some confusion might easily spring\nup, perhaps an uprising of the provincial crowds who were less attached\nto the privileges and interests of the metropolis. The contagion must be\nstopped at the beginning and there seemed to be no better way than to\nmake away with the blasphemer. The wolves of the Altar and of business\narranged a meeting of the Sanhedrin to reconcile law with assassination.\n\n\n                        THE HIGH PRIEST CAIAPHAS\n\n\nThe Sanhedrin was the assembly of the chiefs, the supreme council of the\naristocracy which ruled the capital. It was composed of the priests\njealous of the clientele of the Temple which gave them their power and\ntheir stipends: of the Scribes responsible for preserving the purity of\nthe law and of tradition: of the Elders who represented the interests of\nthe moderate, moneyed middle-class.\n\nThey were all in accord that it was essential to take Jesus on false\npretenses and to have Him killed as a blasphemer against the Sabbath and\nthe Lord. Only Nicodemus attempted a defense, but they were able quickly\nto silence him. \u201cWhat do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let\nhim thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come\nand take away both our place and nation.\u201d It is the Reason of State, the\nSalvation of the Fatherland which political cliques always bring out to\nscreen with legality and ideality the defense of their particular\nprofit.\n\nCaiaphas, who that year was High Priest, settled their doubts with the\nmaxim which has always justified in the eyes of the world the immolation\nof the innocent. \u201cYe know nothing at all nor consider that it is\nexpedient that one man should die for the people and that the whole\nnation perish not.\u201d This maxim in Caiaphas\u2019 mouth, and on this occasion,\nand for what it meant, was infamous, and hypocritical like all the\nspeeches made by the Sanhedrin. But transposed into a higher meaning and\ntransferred into the Absolute, changing nation into humanity, the\nPresident of the circumcised patriciate was expounding a principle which\nJesus Himself had accepted and which has become under another form the\ncrucial mystery of Christianity. Caiaphas did not know\u2014he who had to\nenter alone into the Holy of Holies to offer up to Jehovah the sins of\nthe people\u2014how much his words, coarse in expression and cynical in\nsentiment as they were, were in accord with his victim\u2019s thought.\n\nThe thought that only the righteous can pay for injustice, that only the\nperfect can discount the crimes of the brute, that only the pure can\ncancel the debts of the ignoble, that only God in His infinite\nmagnificence can expiate the sins which man has committed against Him;\nthis thought, which seems to man the height of madness exactly because\nit is the height of divine wisdom, certainly did not flash out in the\ncorrupt soul of the Sadducee when he threw to his sixty accomplices the\nsophism destined to silence their last remorse. Caiaphas, who together\nwith the crown of thorns and the sponge of vinegar was to be one of the\ninstruments of the Passion, did not imagine in that moment that he was\nbearing witness solemnly, though involuntarily, to the divine tragedy\nabout to begin.\n\nAnd yet the principle that the innocent can pay for the guilty, that the\ndeath of one man can be salvation for all, was not foreign to the\nconsciousness of ancient peoples. The heroic myths of the pagans\nrecognize and celebrate voluntary sacrifices of the innocent. They\nrecord the example of Pilades, who offered himself to be punished in\nplace of the guilty Orestes; Macaria of the blood of Heracles, who saved\nher brother\u2019s life with her own; Alcestis, who died that she might avert\nfrom her Admetus the vengeance of Artemis; the daughters of Erechtheus,\nwho sacrificed themselves that their father might escape Neptune\u2019s\nblows. The old King Codrus, who threw himself into the Ilissus, in order\nthat his Athenians might be victorious; and Decius Mus and his sons, who\nconsecrated themselves to the Manes that the Romans might triumph over\nthe Samnites; and Curtius, who, fully armed, cast himself into the gulf\nfor the salvation of his country; and Iphigenia, who offered her throat\nto the knife that Agamemnon\u2019s fleet might sail safely towards Troy. At\nAthens during the Thargelian feast two men were killed to save the city\nfrom divine wrath; Epimenides the Wise, to purify Athens, profaned by\nthe assassination of the followers of Cylon, had recourse to human\nsacrifice over the tombs; at Curium, in Cyprus, at Terracina, at\nMarseilles, every year a man threw himself into the sea as payment for\nthe crimes of the community, a man regarded as the Saviour of the\npeople.\n\nBut these sacrifices, when they were spontaneous, were for the salvation\nof one being alone, or of a restricted group of men; when they were\nenforced they added a new crime to those they were intended to expiate;\nthey were examples of individual affection or of superstitious crimes.\n\nNo man had yet appeared who would take upon his head all the sins of\nmen, a God who would imprison Himself in the abject wretchedness of\nflesh to save all the human race and to give it the power to ascend from\nbestiality to sanctity, from earthly humiliation to the Kingdom of\nHeaven. The perfect man, who takes upon himself all imperfections, the\npure man who burdens himself with all infamies, the righteous man who\nshoulders the unrighteousness of all men, had appeared under the aspect\nof a poor fugitive from justice in the day of Caiaphas. He who was to\ndie for all, the Galilean working-man who was disquieting the rich and\nthe priests of Jerusalem, was there on the Mount of Olives only a short\ndistance from the Sanhedrin. The Seventy, who knew not what they did,\nwho did not know that they were obeying the will of the very man they\nwere persecuting, decided to have Him captured before the Passover; but\nbecause they were cowardly, like all men of possessions, one thing\nrestrained them, the fear of the people who loved Jesus. They consulted\nthat they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill Him. But they said, \u201cNot\non the feast day lest there be an uproar among the people.\u201d To solve\ntheir difficulty, by good fortune, there came to them the day after one\nof the Twelve, he who held the purse, Judas Iscariot.\n\n\n                          THE MYSTERY OF JUDAS\n\n\nOnly two creatures in the world knew the secret of Judas: Christ and the\ntraitor.\n\nSixty generations of Christians have racked their brains over it, but\nthe man of Iscariot, although he has drawn after him crowds of\ndisciples, remains stubbornly incomprehensible. His is the only human\nmystery that we encounter in the Gospels. We can understand without\ndifficulty the depravity of Herod, the rancor of the Pharisees, the\nrevengeful anger of Annas and Caiaphas, the cowardly laxity of Pilate.\nBut we have no evidence to enable us to understand the abomination of\nJudas. The Four Gospels tell us too little of him and of the reasons\nwhich induced him to sell his King.\n\n\u201cThen entered Satan into Judas.\u201d But these words are only the definition\nof his crime. Evil took possession of his heart, therefore it came\nsuddenly. Before that day, perhaps during the dinner at Bethany, Judas\nwas not in the power of the Adversary. But why suddenly did he throw\nhimself into that power? Why did Satan enter into him and not into one\nof the others?\n\nThirty pieces of silver are a very small sum, especially for an\navaricious man. In modern coinage it would amount to about twenty\ndollars, and, granting that its effective value or as the economists say\nits buying power were in those days ten times greater, two hundred\ndollars seem hardly a sufficient price to induce a man whom his\ncompanions describe as grasping to commit the basest perfidy recorded by\nhistory. It has been said the thirty pieces of silver was the price of a\nslave. But the text of Exodus states on the contrary that thirty shekels\nwas the compensation to be paid by the owner of an ox which had injured\na slave. The cases are too far apart for the doctors of the Sanhedrin to\nhave had this early precedent in mind.\n\nThe most significant indication is the office which Judas held among the\nTwelve. Among them was Matthew, a former tax-collector, and it would\nhave seemed almost his right to handle the small amount of money\nnecessary for the expenses of the brotherhood. In place of Matthew, we\nsee the man of Iscariot as the depository of the offerings. Money is\ninsidious and saturated with danger. The mere handling of money, even if\nit belongs to others, is poisonous. It is not surprising that John said\nof Judas the thief, that he, \u201chaving the bag, took away what was put\ntherein.\u201d And yet it is not probable that a man greedy for money would\nhave stayed a long time with a group of such poor men. If he had wished\nto steal, he would have sought out a more promising position. And if he\nhad needed those miserable thirty pieces of silver, could he not have\nprocured them in another way, by running away with the purse, without\nneeding to propose the betrayal of Jesus to the High Priests?\n\nThese common-sense reflections about a crime so extraordinary have\ninduced many to seek other motives for the infamous transaction. A sect\nof heretics, the Cainites, had a legend that Judas sorrowfully accepted\neternal infamy, knowing that Jesus through His will and the will of the\nFather was to be betrayed to His death, that no suffering might be\nlacking in the great expiation. A necessary and voluntary instrument of\nthe Redemption, Judas was according to them a hero and a martyr to be\nrevered and not reviled.\n\nAccording to others, Iscariot, loving his people and hoping for their\ndeliverance, perhaps sharing the sentiments of the Zealots, had joined\nwith Jesus, hoping that he was the Messiah such as the common people\nthen imagined Him: the King of the revenge and restoration of Israel.\nWhen little by little, in spite of his slowness of comprehension, it\ndawned on him from the words of Jesus that he had fallen in with a\nMessiah of quite another kind, he delivered Him over to His enemies to\nmake up for the bitterness of his disappointment. But this fancy to\nwhich no text either canonical or apocryphal gives any support is not\nenough to explain Christ\u2019s betrayer: he could have deserted the Twelve\nand gone in search of other company more to his taste, which certainly,\nas we have seen, was not lacking at that time.\n\nOthers have said that the reason is to be sought in his loss of faith.\nJudas had believed firmly in Jesus, and then could believe no longer.\nWhat Jesus said about His end close at hand, the threatening hostility\nof the metropolis, the delay of his victorious manifestation, had ended\nby causing Judas to lose all faith in Him whom he had followed up till\nthen. He did not see the Kingdom approaching and he did see death\napproaching. Mingling with the people to find out the temper of the day,\nhe had perhaps heard a rumor as to the decisions of the meeting of the\nElders and feared that the Sanhedrin would not be satisfied with one\nvictim alone, but would condemn all those who had long followed Jesus.\nOvercome by fear\u2014the form which Satan took to enter into him\u2014he thought\nhe could ward off the danger and save his life by treachery; unbelief\nand cowardice being thus the ignominious motives of his ignominy.\n\nAn Englishman celebrated as an opium-eater, has thought out a new\napology for the traitor which is the opposite of this theory. His idea\nis that Judas believed: he even believed too absolutely. He was so\npersuaded that Jesus was really the Christ that he wished by giving Him\nup to the Tribunal to force Him finally to show Himself as the\nlegitimate Messiah. So strong was his hope that he could not believe\nthat Jesus would be killed. Or if He really were to die, he knew with\nentire certainty that He would rise again at once to sit on the right\nhand of the Father as King of Israel and of the world. To hasten the\ngreat day, in which the Disciples were at last to have the reward for\ntheir faithfulness, Judas, secure in the intangibility of his Divine\nFriend, wished to force His hand and, putting Him face to face with\nthose whom He was to cast out, to compel Him to show Himself as the true\nSon of God. According to this theory the action of Judas was not a\nbetrayal but a mistake due to his misunderstanding of the real meaning\nof his Master\u2019s teaching. He did not betray therefore through avarice or\nrevengefulness or cowardice, but through stupidity.\n\nOn the other hand others give revenge as the reason. No man betrays\nanother without hating him. Why did Judas hate Jesus? They remember the\ndinner in the house of Simon and the nard of the weeping woman. The\nreproof for his stinginess and hypocrisy must have exasperated the\ndisciple who perhaps had been reproved for these faults on other\noccasions. To the rancor of this rebuff was added envy which always\nflourishes in vulgar souls. And as soon as he could revenge himself\nwithout danger, he went to the palace of Caiaphas.\n\nBut did he really think that his denunciation would bring Jesus to His\ndeath or did he rather suppose that they would content themselves with\nflogging Him and forbidding Him to speak to the people? The rest of the\nstory seems to show that the condemnation of Jesus unnerved him as a\nterrible and unexpected result of his kiss. Matthew describes his\ndespair in a way to show that he was sincerely horrified by what had\nhappened through his fault. The money which he had pocketed became like\nfire to him: and when the priests refused to take it back he threw it\ndown in the Temple. Even after this restitution he had no peace and\nhastened to kill himself. He died on the same day as his victim. Luke in\nthe Acts sets down in another way the evil end of Judas, but the\nChristian tradition prefers the story of his remorse and suicide.\n\nIn spite of all the unraveling of unsatisfied minds, mysteries are still\ntangled about the mystery of Judas. But we have not yet invoked the\ntestimony of Him who knew better than all men, even better than Judas,\nthe true secret of the betrayal. Jesus alone could give us the key to\nthe mystery; Jesus who saw into the heart of Judas as into the hearts of\nall men, and who knew what Judas was to do before he had done it.\n\nJesus chose Judas to be one of the Twelve and to carry the gospel to the\nworld along with the others. Would He have chosen him, kept him with\nHim, beside Him, at His table, for so long a time if He had believed him\nto be an incurable criminal? Would He have confided to him what was\ndearest in the world to Him, the most precious thing in the world\u2014the\nprophecy of the Kingdom of God?\n\nUp to the last days, up to that last evening, Jesus treated Judas\nexactly like the others. To him, as to all others, He gave His body,\nsymbolized by bread, His soul, symbolized by wine. He washed and wiped,\nwith His own hands, the feet of Judas, those feet which had carried him\nto the house of Caiaphas\u2014with those hands which, through Judas\u2019 fault,\nwere to be nailed to the cross on the following day. And when, in the\nred light of the flickering lanterns and the flashing of swords, Judas,\nunder the dark shadow of the olive trees, came and kissed that face\nstill wet with bloody sweat, Jesus did not repel him, but said, \u201cFriend,\nwherefore art thou come?\u201d\n\n_Friend!_ It was the last time that Jesus spoke to Judas, and even in\nthat moment He would use none other than that wonted word. Judas was not\nfor Him the man of darkness who came in the darkness to turn Him over to\nthe guards, but the friend, the same who a few hours before had been\nsitting with Him before the dish of lamb and herbs, and had set his lips\nto His cup: the same who, so many times in hours of rest in leafy shade,\nor in the shadow of walls, had listened with the others like a disciple,\nlike a companion, like a friend, like a brother, to the great words of\nthe Promise. Jesus had said at the Last Supper, \u201cWoe unto that man by\nwhom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had\nnot been born.\u201d But now that the traitor was before Him, that the\ntreachery was complete, now that Judas had added to that betrayal the\noutrage of the kiss laid on the lips of Him who has commanded love for\nour enemies, He answered him with the sweet and divine words of their\nhabitual intercourse, \u201cFriend, wherefore art thou come?\u201d\n\nThus the testimony of Him who was betrayed increases our bewilderment\ninstead of raising the veil of the dreadful secret. He knew that Judas\nwas a thief and He gave him the purse: He knew that Judas was evil and\nHe confided to him a treasure of truth infinitely more precious than all\nthe money in the universe: He knew that Judas was to betray Him and He\nmade him a participant of His divinity, offering him the mouthful of\nbread and the sip of wine; He saw Judas leading His assailants upon Him\nand He still addressed him as at first, as He always had, with the holy\nname of friend.\n\n\u201cIt had been good for that man if he had not been born.\u201d These words\nmight have been, rather than a condemnation, an exclamation of pity at\nthe thought of a fate which could not be escaped. If Judas hated Jesus,\nwe see no signs that Jesus was ever repelled by Judas, because Jesus\nknew that the base bargain was necessary, as the weakness of Pilate was\nnecessary, the rage of Caiaphas, the insults of the soldiery, the\ntimbers and nails of the cross. He knew that Judas must needs do what he\ndid and He did not curse him, as He did not curse the people who wished\nHis death, or the hammer which drove the nails into the cross. One\nprayer alone broke from him, to beg Judas to shorten the dreadful agony,\n\u201cThat thou doest, do quickly.\u201d\n\nThe mystery of Judas is doubly tied to the mystery of the Redemption and\nwe lesser ones shall never solve it.\n\nNo analogy can give us light. Joseph also was sold by one of his\nbrothers, who, like Iscariot, was called Judas, and was sold to\nIshmaelite merchants for twenty pieces of silver, but Joseph, who\nprefigured Christ, was not sold to his enemies, was not sold to be put\nto death: and as a compensation for his betrayal, great good fortune was\nhis and he became so wealthy that he could enrich his father, and so\ngenerous that he could pardon even his brothers.\n\nJesus was not only betrayed, but sold, sold for a price, sold for a\nsmall price, bought with coins. He was the object of a bargain, a\nbargain struck and paid. Judas, the man of the purse, the cashier, did\nnot present himself as an accuser, did not offer himself as a\ncut-throat, but as a merchant doing business in blood. The Jews, who\nunderstood bartering for blood, daily cutting the throats of victims,\nand quartering them, butchers of the Most High, were the first and last\ncustomers of Judas. The sale of Jesus was the first business done by the\nmerchant, just entering business; not very big business, it must be\nadmitted, but a real, true commercial transaction, a valid contract of\nbuying and selling, verbal, but honestly lived up to by the contracting\nparties. If Jesus had not been sold, something would have been lacking\nto the perfect ignominy of His expiation: if He had been sold for more\nmoney, for three hundred shekels instead of thirty, for gold instead of\nsilver, the ignominy would have been diminished, slightly, but still\ndiminished. It had been destined to all eternity that He should be\nbought, but bought with a small sum. In order that an infinite,\nsupernatural but communicable value should be made available to men, it\nwas needful to buy it with a small sum, and with a sum of metal, which\nhas no real value. Did Jesus bought by others not do the same, He who\nwished to redeem with the blood of only one man all the blood shed on\nthe earth from the days of Cain to Caiaphas?\n\nAnd if He had been sold as a slave, as so many living souls were sold in\nthose days in the public places, if He had been sold as redeemable\nproperty, as human capital, as a living tool for work, the ignominy\nwould have been almost nothing, and the Redemption put off. But He was\nsold as the calf is sold to the butcher, as the innocent animals which\nthe butcher buys to kill, to sell again, to distribute in morsels to\nflesh-eaters. The sacred butcher, Caiaphas, never in his most successful\ndays had a victim so prodigious. For more than two thousand years\nChristians have been fed on that victim, and it is still intact, and\nthose who feed are not satiated.\n\nEvery one of us has contributed his quota, an infinitesimal quota, to\nbuy that victim from Judas. We have all contributed towards the sum for\nwhich the blood of the Redeemer was bought: Caiaphas was only our agent.\nThe field of Aceldama, bought with the price of blood, is our\ninheritance, our property. And this field has grown mysteriously larger,\nhas spread over half the face of the earth: whole populous cities,\npaved, lighted, well-ordered cities, of shops and brothels, shine\nresplendent on it from north to south. And that the mystery should be\neven greater, Judas\u2019 money, also multiplied by the betrayals of so many\ncenturies, by the accumulation of interest, has become incalculably\ngreat. Nothing is so fruitful and fecund as blood. The statisticians,\nthose soothsayers of modern days, can bear witness to the fact that all\nthe courts of the Temple could not contain the money engendered from\nthat day to this by those thirty pieces of silver cast down there in a\ndelirium of remorse, by the man who sold his God.\n\n\n                        THE MAN WITH THE PITCHER\n\n\nThe bargain was struck, the price paid, the buyers were impatient to\nfinish the transaction. They had said \u201cbefore the Feast day.\u201d The great\nfeast day of the Passover fell on a Saturday and this was Thursday.\n\nJesus had but one more day of freedom, the last day.\n\nBefore leaving His friends, those who were to abandon Him that night, He\nwished once more to dip His bread in the same platter with them. Before\nthe Syrian soldiery should have spit upon Him, before He should be\ndefiled by the Jewish filth, He wished to kneel down and wash the feet\nof those who until the day of their death were to travel all the roads\nof the earth to tell the story of His death. Before the blood dropped\nfrom His hands, His feet, His chest, He wished to give the first fruits\nto those who were to be one soul with Him until the end. Before\nsuffering thirst, nailed upon the cross, He wished to drink a cup of\nwine with His companions. This last evening before His death was to be\nlike an anticipation of the banquet of the Kingdom.\n\nOn the evening of Thursday, the first day of unleavened bread, the\nDisciples asked Him, \u201cWhere wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou\nmayest eat the passover?\u201d\n\nThe Son of Man, poorer than the foxes, had no home of His own. He had\nleft His home in Nazareth forever. The home of Simon of Capernaum, which\nhad been in the early days like His own, was far away; and the home of\nMary and Martha in Bethany, where He was almost Master, was too far\noutside the city.\n\nHe had only enemies in Jerusalem or shame-faced friends: Joseph of\nArimathea was to receive Him as his guest only the next evening, in the\ndark cave, the banquet-hall of worms.\n\nBut a condemned man on his last day has a right to any favor he may ask.\nAll the houses of Jerusalem were rightfully His. The Father would give\nHim the house best suited to shelter His last joy. And He sent two\nDisciples with this mysterious command, \u201cGo ye into the city, and there\nshall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water; follow him. And\nwheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the good man of the house, the\nMaster saith, My time is at hand; where is the guest chamber, where I\nshall eat the passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large\nupper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us.\u201d\n\nIt has been believed that the master of that house was a friend of Jesus\nand that they had arranged this beforehand. But that cannot be. Jesus\nwould have sent the two Disciples straight to him, giving his name, and\nwould not have had recourse to the following of the man with the\npitcher.\n\nThere were many men on the morning of that feast day who must have been\ncoming up from Shiloah with pitchers of water. The two Disciples were to\nfollow the first one whom they saw before them. They did not know why\nthey were not to stop him instead of going after him to see where he\nwent in. His master, since he had a servant, certainly was not a poor\nman, and in his house, as in all those of prosperous people, there would\ncertainly be a room suitable for serving a supper, and he would know at\nleast by hearsay who \u201cthe Master\u201d was. In those days at Jerusalem there\nwas little talk of anything else. The request was one which could not be\nrefused. \u201cThe Master saith, My time is at hand.\u201d The time which was\n\u201cHis\u201d was the hour of death. No one could shut out from his house a man\nat the point of death, who wished to satisfy his hunger for the last\ntime. The Disciples set out, found the man with the pitcher, entered the\nhouse, talked with the master, prepared there what was necessary for the\nsupper: lamb cooked on the spit, round loaves without leaven, bitter\nherbs, red sauce, the wine of thanksgiving, and warm water. They set the\ncouches and pillows about the table and spread over it the white cloth.\nOn the cloth they set the few dishes, the candelabra, the pitcher full\nof wine, and one cup, one cup only to which all were to set their lips.\nThey forgot nothing: both were experienced in this preparation. From\nchildhood up, in their home beside the lake, they had watched,\nwide-eyed, the preparations for the most heart-warming feast of the\nyear. And it was not the first time since they had been with Him whom\nthey loved, that they had thus eaten all together of the feast of the\nPassover. But for that last day\u2014and perhaps their dull minds had at last\nunderstood the dreadful truth that it was really the last\u2014for this last\nsupper which all the thirteen were to have together, for this Passover\nwhich was the last for Jesus and the last valid Passover for old Judaism\nbecause a new covenant was about to begin for all countries and all\nnations: for this festal banquet which was a memorial of life, and a\nwarning of death, the Disciples performed those humble menial tasks with\na new tenderness, with that pensive joy that almost brings tears.\n\nWith the setting of the sun, the other ten came with Jesus and placed\nthemselves around the table, now in readiness. All were silent as if\nheavy-hearted with a presentiment which they were afraid to see\nreflected in their companions\u2019 eyes. They remembered the supper in\nSimon\u2019s house, almost funereal, the odor of the nard, the woman and her\nendless weeping, and Christ\u2019s words on that evening, and His words of\nthose last days; the repeated warnings of ignominy and of the end; the\nsigns of hatred increasing about them, and the indications, now very\nplain, of the conspiracy, which with all its torches was about to come\nout from the darkness.\n\nBut two of them\u2014for opposite reasons\u2014were more oppressed, more moved\nthan the others: the two for whom this was the last of their lives, the\ntwo who were about to die: Christ and Judas, the one sold and the\nseller; the Son of God and the abortion of Satan.\n\nJudas had finished his bargain, he had the thirty pieces of silver on\nhis person wrapped tightly so that they would not clink. But he knew no\npeace. The Enemy had entered into him, but perhaps the friend of Christ\nwas not yet dead in his heart. To see Him there in the midst of His\nfriends, calm but with the pensive expression of the man who is the only\none who knows a secret, who is aware of a crime, a betrayal; to see Him,\nstill at liberty in the company of those who loved Him, still alive, all\nthe blood still in His veins under the delicate protection of the\nskin\u2014and yet those bargainers who had paid the price refused to wait any\nlonger, the affair was arranged for that very night!\u2014and they were only\nwaiting for Judas to act. But suppose Jesus, who must know all, had\ndenounced him to the eleven? And suppose they, to save their Master, had\nthrown themselves on Judas to bind him, perhaps to kill him? Judas began\nto feel that to betray Christ to His death was perhaps not enough to\nsave himself from the death, which he so greatly feared and yet which\nwas near upon him.\n\nAll these thoughts darkened his somber face, more and more blackly, and\nat times terrified him. While the more active ones busied themselves\nwith the last arrangements for serving the supper, he looked furtively\nat the eyes of Jesus\u2014clear eyes scarcely veiled with the loving sadness\nof parting\u2014as if to read there the revocation of his fate, so close at\nhand. Jesus broke the silence: \u201cWith desire I have desired to eat this\nPassover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any\nmore eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.\u201d\n\nSuch great love had not up to that moment been expressed by any words of\nChrist to His friends: such a longing for the day of perfect union, for\nthe feast, so ancient and destined to so great a sublimation. They knew\nthat He loved them; but until this evening their poor bruised hearts had\nnot felt how poignant His love was. He knew that this evening was the\nlast respite of rest and cheer before His death, and yet He had desired\nit ardently as though it were a boon, with that fervor which is the mark\nof passionate souls, souls on fire, loving souls, those who battle for\nthe love of victory, who endure all things for a high prize. He had\nardently desired to eat this Passover with them. He had eaten others: He\nhad eaten with them thousands of other times, seated in boats, in their\nfriends\u2019 houses, in strangers\u2019 houses, in rich men\u2019s houses, or seated\nbeside the road, in mountain pastures, in the shadow of bushes on the\nshore; and yet for so long He had ardently desired to eat with them this\nsupper which was the last! The blue skies of happy Galilee, the soft\nwinds of the spring just passed, the sun of the last Passover, the\nwaving branches of His triumphant entry, did He think of them now? Now\nHe saw only His first friends and His last friends, the little group\ndestined to be diminished by treachery, and dispersed by cowardice.\nStill, for a time they were there about Him in the same room, at the\nsame table, sharing with Him the same overwhelming grief, but sharing\nalso the light of a supernatural certainty.\n\nUp to that day He had suffered, but not for Himself; He had suffered\nbecause of His ardent desire for this nocturnal hour, when the air was\nalready heavy with the tragedy of farewells. And, when He had thus told\nthem how great was His love, Christ\u2019s face, soon to be buffeted, shone\nwith that noble sadness which is so strangely like joy.\n\n\n                        THE WASHING OF THE FEET\n\n\nNow that He was on the point of being snatched from those whom He loved,\nHe wished to give them a supreme proof of this love. From the time they\nhad begun to share His life, He had always loved them, all of them, even\nJudas: He always loved them with a love surpassing all other affections,\na love so bountiful that their narrow hearts could not always contain\nit; but now about to leave them, knowing that He was to be with them\nagain only when transfigured after death, all His hitherto unexpressed\naffection overflowed in a great wave of tender sadness.\n\nBefore beginning the supper where He was the head of the family, He\nwished to be kinder than a Father, humbler than a servant. He was their\nKing, and He would humble Himself to the service performed by slaves: He\nwas their Master and He would put Himself below the level of His\ndisciples; He was the Son of God and He would accept a position despised\nof men: He was the first and He would kneel before His inferiors as if\nHe had been the last. So many times, to rebuke their pride and jealousy,\nHe had told them that the Master must serve his servants, that the Son\nof Man was come to serve, that the first must be last. But His words had\nnot yet been assimilated by those souls, since even up to the last, they\ncontinued to quarrel for priority and precedence.\n\nFor raw, untrained minds, action has more meaning than words. Jesus\nprepared Himself to repeat, with the symbolic aspect of a humiliating\nservice, one of His most important instructions. John tells us, \u201cHe\nriseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and\ngirded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason and began to\nwash the disciples\u2019 feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he\nwas girded.\u201d\n\nOnly a mother or a slave would have done what Jesus did that evening.\nThe mother would have done it for her little children, but for no one\nelse: the slave for his masters, but for no others. The mother would\nhave served joyfully because of her love, the slave would have been\nresigned through obedience. But the Twelve were neither Christ\u2019s\nchildren nor His masters. Son of Man and of God, His love was above that\nof all earthly mothers,\u2014King of a kingdom existing in the future, but\nmore legitimate than all existing monarchies, He was the unrecognized\nMaster of all masters.\n\nAnd yet He was willing to wash and wipe those twenty-four callous and\nsweaty feet, in order to engrave on those unwilling hearts, still\nswollen with vanity, the truth which His lips had so long vainly\npronounced; \u201cAnd whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he\nthat shall humble himself shall be exalted.\u201d\n\nSo after He had washed their feet and taken His garments and was set\ndown again He said unto them, \u201cKnow ye what I have done to you? Ye call\nme Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord\nand Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another\u2019s\nfeet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done\nto you. Verily, verily I say unto you, The servant is not greater than\nhis lord; neither is he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If\nye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.\u201d\n\nJesus had not only given them a memory of complete humility, but an\nexample of perfect love. \u201cA new commandment I give unto you, That ye\nlove one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.\nGreater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his\nfriends. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.\u201d\n\nBut this action, with its deep meaning hidden under the appearance of\nmenial service, signifies purification as well as love. \u201cHe that is\nwashed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and\nye are clean, but not all.\u201d\n\nThe eleven, although not of lofty character, had some right to this\ncleansing service from Jesus. For many months those feet had trodden the\ndusty, muddy, filthy roads of Judea to follow Him who brought life; and\nafter His death, year by year, they were to tread longer and harder\nroads in countries the very names of which they then did not know; and\nforeign clay would soil the sandaled feet of those who were to go as\npilgrims and strangers to repeat the call of the Crucified One.\n\n\n                                TAKE\u2014EAT\n\n\nThese thirteen men had apparently come together to perform the old\nsocial rite in memory of the liberation of their people from Egyptian\nslavery. They seemed to be thirteen devout men of the people, waiting\nabout a white table redolent of roasted lamb and wine, for the signal to\nbegin an intimate and festal supper.\n\nBut this was only in appearance. In reality it was a vigil of\nleave-taking and separation. Two of these thirteen, He into whom God had\nentered and he into whom Satan had entered, were to die terrible deaths\nbefore the next nightfall. The very next day the others were to be\ndispersed, like reapers at the first downfall of hail.\n\nBut this supper which was the viaticum of an ending, was also a\nwonderful beginning. In the midst of these thirteen Jews the observance\nof the Jewish Passover was about to be transfigured into something\nincomparably higher and more universal, into something unequaled and\nineffable; into the great Christian mystery. The simple eating of bread\nwas to become actual communion with God.\n\nFor the Jews, Easter is only the feast in memory of their flight from\nEgypt. They never forgot their victorious escape from their slavery,\naccompanied by so many prodigies, so manifestly under God\u2019s protection,\nalthough they were to bear on their necks the yokes of other\ncaptivities, and to undergo the shame of other deportations. Exodus\nprescribed an annual festivity which took the name of the Passover;\nPasch, the paschal feast. It was a sort of banquet intended to bring to\nmind the hastily prepared food of the fugitives. A lamb or a goat should\nbe roasted over the fire, that is, cooked in the simplest and quickest\nway; bread without leaven, because there was no time to let yeast rise.\nAnd they were to eat of it with their loins girded, their staves in\ntheir hands, eating in haste, like people about to set out upon a\njourney. The bitter herbs were the poor wild grasses snatched up as they\nwent along by the fugitives, to dull the hunger of their interminable\nwanderings. The red sauce, where the bread was dipped, was in memory of\nthe bricks which the Jewish slaves were obliged to bake for the\nPharaohs. The wine was something added: the joy of escape, the hope of\nthe land of promise, the exaltation of thanksgiving to the Eternal.\n\nJesus changed nothing in the order of this ancient feast. After the\nprayer He had them pass from hand to hand the cup of wine, calling on\nGod\u2019s name. Then He gave the bitter herbs to each one and filled a\nsecond time the cup which was to be passed around the table for each to\nsip.\n\nWhat taste did that wine have in the mouth of the traitor, when Jesus in\nthat deep silence pronounced those words of longing and hope which were\nnot for Judas, but only for those who could ascend to the eternal\nbanquet of the Father: Take this and divide it among yourselves, \u201cbut I\nsay unto you I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine,\nuntil that day when I drink it new with you in my Father\u2019s kingdom.\u201d\n\nA sad farewell; but nevertheless the confirming of a solemn promise.\nPerhaps they felt only the promise, and perhaps there flashed before\ntheir poor men\u2019s eyes a vision of the great Heavenly feast. They did not\nbelieve that they would have a long time to mourn: after that other\nvintage-time, after the fruit of the vine had fermented, and the sweet\nwine had been poured into the flasks, the Master would return, as He had\npromised, to summon them to the great wedding of Heaven and Earth, to\nthe everlasting banquet. They must have thought, \u201cWe are men growing\nold, elderly men, more than mature, within sight of old age; if the\nBridegroom tarries too long He will not find us among the living, and\nthose who have believed Him will be mocked at.\u201d\n\nComforted by the certainty of an early and glorious reunion, they\nchanted together, as the custom was, the Psalm of the first\nThanksgiving, a chant of praise to the Father from Him who served Him.\n\u201cTremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of\nthe God of Jacob; which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint\ninto a fountain of waters.\u2014He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and\nlifteth the needy out of the dung-hill; that he may set him with\nprinces, even with the princes of his people.\u201d\n\nThese old words, colored at that moment with a new meaning, were sung\nwith a joyful conviction of their truth. They, too, the Disciples, were\npoor men and they would be raised out of the dust of poverty by the\nintercession of the Son of God: they too were poor men and He would soon\nraise them out of the misery of their beggary, to make them masters of\ninconsumable wealth.\n\nThen Jesus, who saw how insufficiently they understood, took the loaves,\nblessed them, broke them and, as He gave them each a piece, set the\ndreadful truth before their eyes. \u201cTake, eat; This is my body which is\ngiven for you: this do in remembrance of me.\u201d\n\nSo He was not to return as quickly as they thought! After His brief stay\nduring the Resurrection, His second coming was to be delayed, so long\nthat it might be possible to forget Him and His death.\n\n\u201cThis do in remembrance of me.\u201d The breaking of bread at the common\ntable among those who await Him shall be the signal of a new\nbrotherhood. Every time that you break bread, I will not only be present\namong you, but by that means you will be intimately united with me.\nBecause, as this bread is broken in my hands, my body will be broken by\nmy enemies. As this bread eaten to-night will be your food until\nto-morrow, my body which I will offer in death to all men shall satisfy\nthe hunger of those who believe in me, until the day when the great\ngranaries of the Kingdom shall be open to all, when you shall be angels\nin the presence of your Father whom you shall have found again. I will\nleave you therefore not merely a memory; I will be present with a mystic\nbut real presence in every particle of bread consecrated to me and this\nbread shall be a living necessary food for souls, and my promise to be\nwith you shall be fulfilled till time shall be no more.\n\nIn the meantime, this evening, eat this unleavened bread, this bread\nmade by the hand of man, made of water and grain, these loaves which\nhave felt the heat of the oven and which my hands, not yet cold in\ndeath, have divided amongst you\u2014and which my love has changed into my\nflesh so that it may be your everlasting food. It is sweet to the heart\nof a friend to see his friends eating bread at his table, bread born of\nthe earth, bread which was green blades with flowering lilies among\nthem, and then the ripe ear bending down the tall stalk with its golden\nweight. You know how many efforts, how much anxiety, how much trouble,\nare contained in a piece of bread; how the great oxen cultivated the\nearth, how the countrymen threw great handfuls of the grain into the\nfallow land in winter, how the first blade softly penetrated the damp\ndarkness of the earth, how the reapers all day long cut down the ripened\nstalks, and then the sheaves were bound, and carried to the threshing\nfloor and beaten so that the ears let fall the grain. The workers must\nwait for a little wind, neither too gentle nor too violent, to winnow\nout the good grain from the chaff. Then they grind it, sift out the bran\nfrom it, make a dough with warm water, heat the oven with dry grass or\ntwigs. All this must be done with love and patience before the father\nmay break a piece with his children, the friend with his friends, the\nhost with strangers. Plowers, sowers, reapers, winnowers, millers and\nbakers sweat in the heat of the sun, in the heat of the oven, before the\ngolden wheat can be transformed into well-baked golden bread for our\ntable.\n\nTruly it is sweet to eat good wholesome bread with friends: the soft\nwhite crumb, covered with the crisp crust. So many times with me you\nhave begged bread in poor men\u2019s houses; and all your lives you are to\nbeg it in my name: you will have the moldy hard crusts which dogs\nrefuse, the dry bits left at the bottom of the dish, the crusts gnawed\nby children and old people which they have let fall upon the hearth. But\nyou know want, and nights of fasting and the pale face of poverty. But\nyou are strong; you have the powerful jaws of those who eat hard bread.\nYou will not lose courage, if no place is made for you at the tables of\nthe well-to-do.\n\nBut verily it is infinitely sweeter for Him who loves you to transform\nthe bread which comes from the hard earth and from hard labor into the\nBody which will be eternally offered for you, into the Body which every\nday will come down from Heaven as the visible means of grace.\n\nRemember the prayer which I taught you: \u201cGive us this day our daily\nbread\u2014\u201d For to-day and for always your bread is this bread, my Body. He\nshall never know hunger who shall eat my Body, which every morning\nthroughout endless centuries shall be changed into endless morsels of\ntransubstantiated bread. But whosoever shall refuse it, shall be\nanhungered to all eternity.\n\n\n                             WINE AND BLOOD\n\n\nAs soon as they had eaten the lamb with the bread and the bitter herb,\nJesus filled the common cup for the third time and gave it to the\nApostle nearest Him, \u201cDrink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the\nnew testament, which is shed for many.\u201d\n\nHis blood, mixed with sweat, had not yet fallen on the ground, under the\nolives, and had not yet dropped from the nails upon Golgotha. But His\ndesire to give life with His life, to redeem with His suffering all the\nsorrows of the world, to transmit at least a part of His substance to\nHis immediate heirs; this desire to give Himself up wholly for those\nwhom He loves is so great that from this moment on, He feels the\nimmolation complete and the gift possible. If bread is the body, blood\nis in a certain sense the soul. The Lord said to Noah: \u201cBut flesh with\nthe life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.\u201d With\nblood as visibly representing life, the God of Abraham and of Jacob had\nestablished the covenant with His own people. When Moses had received\nthe law, he had sacrificed oxen, took half of the blood and put it in\nbasins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar: \u201cAnd Moses took\nthe blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of\nthe covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these\nwords.\u201d\n\nBut after a trial of many centuries, God had announced by the voice of\nthe prophets that the Old Covenant was obliterated and abrogated, and\nthat another was henceforth necessary. The blood of animals sprinkled\nupon stubborn heads and upon blaspheming faces had lost its virtue;\nanother Blood, purer and more precious, was needed for the New Covenant,\nfor the Last Covenant of the Father with His perjured children. In many\nways He had already tried to lead His first-born towards the narrow door\nof salvation; the rain of fire on Sodom, the washings of the waters of\nthe flood, the Egyptian slavery, hunger in the desert, had terrified\nthem without reforming them.\n\nAnd now there had come a Liberator at once more divine and more human\nthan the old Captain of Exodus. Moses also saved a people, spoke upon a\nmountain, announced a promised land. But Jesus saves not only His\npeople, but all peoples; writes His laws not upon stone, but upon human\nhearts; and His promised land is not a country of rich grazing-land and\nvineyards, with great clusters of grapes, but a Kingdom of holiness and\neternal joy. Moses had killed a man, and Jesus brought the dead to life;\nMoses changed water into blood and Jesus, after having changed water\ninto wine at the wedding banquet, changed wine into blood, into His own\nblood, at the melancholy last supper of His marriage with death. Moses\ndied full of years and honors on a solitary mountain top, glorified by\nhis people; and Jesus was to die among the insults of those whom He\nloved.\n\nThe blood of oxen, the impure blood of earthly animals, involuntary and\ninferior victims, is no longer sufficient. The New Covenant was\nestablished that night with the words of Christ, who under the\nappearance of wine shed His own blood and His own soul: \u201cThis cup is the\nnew testament in my blood, which is shed for you.\u201d\n\nIt was shed not merely for the Twelve who were there; they represent in\nHis eyes all of humanity alive at that time and all those to be born\nthereafter. The blood which was to be shed the next day, on Golgotha,\nwas real blood, actual, warm blood congealing on the cross in clots\nwhich all the tears shed by Christians can never wash away. But the\nblood of the Last Supper symbolizes a soul which gave itself up to make\nover into His own likeness, the souls shut up in the bodies of men:\nwhich was given to those who asked for it and to those who fled away\nfrom it, which had suffered for the sake of those who had received it\nand for those who had blasphemed it. This baptism of blood which came\nafter the baptism of water by John, after the baptism of tears by the\nwomen of Bethany, after the baptism of spitting by the Jews and by the\nRomans, this baptism of blood, red as the baptism of fire announced by\nthe prophet of fire, and mixed with the tears shed by women over His\nblood-stained body, this is the greatest sacrament, revealed to His\nbetrayers, by Him who was betrayed.\n\nI have broken bread for you, daily bread for which you pray every day to\nthe Father, as my body will be broken to-morrow, and I offer you now my\nblood in this wine which I drink for the last time on earth. If you\nalways do this in memory of me, you will feel no hunger, no thirst.\nThere is no food better than wheat-bread, and no drink better than wine,\nbut the bread and wine which I have given you to-night will feed you and\nquench your thirst for all your lives, by virtue of my sacrifice and of\nthat love which makes me seek for death and which reigns beyond death.\n\nUlysses advised Achilles to give the Achaians, before they went into\nbattle, \u201cbread and wine that they should have strength and courage.\u201d For\nthe Greek the strength of his members came from bread and homicidal\ncourage from wine. Wine was to intoxicate men so that they should\ndestroy each other and bread was to strengthen their arms so that they\ncould battle without weakness. The bread given by Christ does not\nstrengthen the flesh, but the soul, and His wine gives that divine\nintoxication which is Love, that Love which the Apostle, scandalizing\nthe descendants of Ulysses, was to call in his Epistle to the\nCorinthians, \u201cthe foolishness of God.\u201d\n\nJudas also ate that bread and swallowed that wine, partook of that body,\nin which he had trafficked, drank that blood which he was to help shed,\nbut he had not the courage to confess his infamy, to throw himself down\nweeping at the feet of Him who would have wept with him. Then the only\nfriend remaining to Judas warned him, \u201cVerily I say unto you, that one\nof you shall betray me.\u201d\n\nThe eleven were capable of leaving Him alone in the midst of Caiaphas\u2019\nguards, but they never could have brought themselves to sell Him for\nmoney, and at this they shuddered. Every one looked in his neighbor\u2019s\nface, almost dreading to see in his companion the livid look of guilt,\nand all, one after the other, said, \u201cLord, is it I?\u201d\n\nEven Judas, hiding his increasing confusion under the appearance of\noffended astonishment, was able to force his voice to say, \u201cLord, is it\nI?\u201d But Jesus, who the next day would not defend Himself, would not even\nbring an accusation and only repeated the sad prophecy in more definite\nwords, \u201cHe that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall\nbetray me.\u201d And while they all still gazed at Him in painful doubt, for\nthe third time He insisted, ... \u201cThe hand of him that betrayeth me is\nwith me on the table.\u201d He added no more, but to follow the old customs\nup to the last, He filled the cup for the fourth time and gave it to\nthem to drink. And once more the thirteen voices rang out in the old\nhymn, the \u201cgreat hallel\u201d which ended the liturgy of the Passover. Jesus\nrepeated the vigorous words of the Psalmist which were like a prophetic\nfuneral oration for Him, pronounced before His death. \u201cThe Lord is on my\nside; I will not fear; what can man do unto me?... They compassed me\nabout like bees: they are quenched as the fire of thorns.... I shall not\ndie, but live.... The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given\nme over unto death. Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go\ninto them, and I will praise the Lord:... The stone which the builders\nrefused is become the headstone of the corner.... Bind the sacrifice\nwith cords, even unto the horns of the altar.\u201d\n\nThe victim was ready and the next day the inhabitants of Jerusalem were\nto see a new altar of wood and iron. But perhaps the Disciples, sleepy\nand confused, did not understand the new meaning both melancholy and\ntriumphant of the old canticles.\n\nWhen the hymn was ended they left the room and the house, at once. As\nsoon as they had emerged from the house Judas disappeared into the\nnight. The remaining eleven silently followed Jesus, who, as was His\nwont, made His way to the Mount of Olives.\n\n\n                              ABBA FATHER\n\n\nOn the Mount there was a garden, and a place where olives were crushed,\nwhich gave it its name, Gethsemane. Jesus and His friends had been\nspending the nights there, either to avoid the odors and noise of the\ngreat city, distasteful to them, country-bred as they were, or because\nthey were afraid of being treacherously captured in the midst of their\nenemies\u2019 houses.\n\nAnd when He was at the place, He said to His disciples, \u201cSit ye here\nwhile I go and pray yonder.\u201d\n\nBut He was so heavy-hearted that He dreaded being alone. He took with\nHim the three whom He loved the best, Simon Peter, James and John. And\nwhen they had gone a little way from the others, He began to be\nsorrowful and very heavy. \u201cMy soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto\ndeath; tarry ye here, and watch with me.\u201d\n\nIf they answered Him no one knows what they said. But we know that they\ndid not comfort Him with the words which come from the heart when it\nshares the suffering of a loved one, for He withdrew Himself from them\nalone, and went further on, to pray. He fell on the ground on His face\nand prayed, saying, \u201cAbba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; O\nmy Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.\u201d\n\nHe was alone now, alone in the night, alone in the midst of men, alone\nbefore God, and He could show His weakness without shame. After all, he\nwas a Man, too, a man of flesh and blood, a living, breathing man, who\nknew that His destruction was at hand, that His body would be destroyed,\nthat His flesh would be pierced, that His blood would be poured out on\nthe ground.\n\nThis was the second temptation. After the defeat of Satan in the desert,\nthe Evangelist says: \u201che departed from him for a season.\u201d He had left\nHim till this moment. Now He was in a new desert, terribly alone in the\ndarkness, more alone than in the desert where the wild beasts served\nHim. Cloaked and learned wild beasts were at hand now, but only to tear\nHim to pieces. In that terrible nocturnal desert, Satan returned to\ntempt his enemy; at first he had promised Christ, kingdoms, victories,\nand prodigies, he had tried to draw Him by the bait of power. Now, on\nthe contrary, he counted on His weakness. At the beginning of His life,\nChrist burning with confident love had not fallen into his trap, but\nChrist near His end, abandoned by those nearest to Him, encompassed by\nHis enemies, might be conquered by fear, even though He had risen above\ncupidity. The prayer to the Father was at the instigation of Satan, was\na beginning of cowardice. Jesus knew He must die, that His death was\nnecessary, that He had come to give life by His death, to confirm by His\ndeath that greater life which He announced. He had made no effort to\navoid death, He had been willing to die for His friends, for all men,\nfor those who did not know Him, for those who hated Him, for those not\nyet born. He had predicted His death to His friends, had already given\nthem the rewards of His death, the bread of His body, the blood of His\nsoul; and He had no right to ask the Father that the cup might pass from\nHis lips or that His death might be delayed. He had written His words on\nthe dust of the public place, and the wind had quickly obliterated them.\nHe had written them on the hearts of a few men, but He knew how easily\neffaced are words written on the hearts of men. If His truth were to\nremain forever on the earth so that no one could ever forget it He must\nwrite it with His blood. Only with the blood in our veins can truth be\nwritten permanently on the pages of earth so that it will not fade under\nmen\u2019s footsteps or under the rainfall of centuries. The Cross is the\nrigorously necessary consequence of the Sermon on the Mount. He who\nbrings love is given over to hatred, and He can only conquer hatred by\naccepting condemnation. Everything must be paid for, the good at a\nhigher price than evil; and the greatest good, which is love, must be\npaid for by the greatest evil in men\u2019s power, assassination.\n\nBut all that faith and revelation tell us of His divinity rises up\nagainst the idea that He can ever have been subjected to temptation. If\nthe torture and the end of His body had really terrified Him, was there\nnot yet time to save Himself? For many days He had known that they were\ntrying to take Him captive, and even on that night there were ways of\nescaping the pack of hounds ready to fall upon Him. He would have been\nsafe if, either alone or with His most faithful friends, He had taken\nthe road back to the Jordan, and thence by hidden paths have passed\nacross Perea into the Tetrarchy of Philip, where He had already taken\nrefuge to escape the ill-will of Antipas. The Jewish police were so few\nand primitive that they could scarcely have found Him. The fact that He\ndid not do this, did not flee, shows that He did not try to escape death\nand the horrors that were to accompany it. From the point of view of our\ncoarse human logic His death was a suicide\u2014a divine suicide by the hand\nof others, not unlike that of the heroes of antiquity who fell upon the\nsword of a friend or a slave. What sort of a life would He have had\nafter such a flight? To grow old obscurely, the timorous master of a\nhidden sect, to die at the last, worn out, the death-rattle in His\nthroat like any other man! Better, infinitely better to finish the\nsowing of the Gospel on the Cross and to water it with His blood. He had\nspoken out His truths and now, that those truths should be everlastingly\nremembered He must needs link with them the horror of His unforgettable\ndeath. Perhaps this blood, like a stinging drink, would arouse His\ndisciples forever.\n\nBut if the cup that Jesus wished to pass from Him was not fear of death,\nwhat else could it have been? Betrayal by him whom He had chosen and\nloved, by the disciple whose hunger He had fed that very evening with\nHis body, whose thirst He had quenched with His soul? Or the denial\nclose at hand of the other disciple in whom after his cry at C\u00e6sarea He\nhad the greatest hope? Or the desertion of all the others who would flee\nlike scattered lambs when the wolf sets his fangs into their mother\u2019s\nbody? Or was it grief for that greater denial, the refusal of His own\npeople, the Jews, of the people from whom He was born and who now\ndespised Him like one born out of His time, and suppressed Him like a\nchild of shame, and did not know that the blood of Him who came to save\nthem would never be wiped from their foreheads? Perhaps in the darkness\nof this last vigil He had a glimpse of the fate which would befall His\nchildren later on, the bewilderment of the first saints, the dissensions\nbetween them, the desertions, the martyrdoms, the massacres, and after\nthe hour of triumph the weakness of those who should have guided the\nmultitude, the irrepressible schisms, the dismemberment of the Church,\nthe wild dreaming of heretical pride, the growth of innumerable sects,\nthe confusion of false prophets, the boldness of rebellious reformers,\nthe simony and dissoluteness of those who deny Him in their actions\nwhile glorifying Him in word and gesture: the persecutions of Christians\nby Christians, the neglect of the lukewarm and the arrogant, the\ndominion of new Pharisees and new Scribes, distorting and betraying His\nteachings, the misunderstanding of His words, when they fall into the\nhands of the hair-splitters, weighers of the immaterial, separators of\nthe inseparable, who, with learned vanity, eviscerate and cut to pieces\nthe living things they pretend to bring to life.\n\nThe cup that Jesus wished to pass from Him might therefore have been not\nat all any wrong done to Him, but wrongs committed by others, those\nalive then and close to Him, or those not yet born and far-distant. What\nHe was asking from His Father might have been not His own safety from\ndeath, but safety from the evils, which, then and later, were to\noverwhelm those who claim to believe in Him. The origin of His sadness\nwould have been thus not fear for Himself, but love for others.\n\nBut no one will ever know the true meaning of the words cried out by the\nSon to the Father, in the black loneliness of the Olives. A great French\nChristian called the story of this night the \u201cMystery of Jesus.\u201d The\n\u201cMystery of Judas\u201d is the only human mystery in the Gospels; the prayer\nof Gethsemane is the most inscrutable, divine mystery of the story of\nChrist.\n\n\n                            BLOOD AND SWEAT\n\n\nAnd when He had prayed, He turned back to find the Disciples, who were\nperhaps waiting for Him to return. But the three had gone to sleep.\nCrouching on the ground, wrapped as best they could in their cloaks,\nPeter, James and John, the faithful, the specially chosen, had allowed\nthemselves to be overcome with sleep. The obscure apprehensions, the\nrepeated agitations of those last few days, the oppressive melancholy of\nthe Supper, accompanied by words so grave, by presentiments so sad, had\nplunged them into that prostration which is more like torpor than sleep.\nThe voice of the Master\u2014who of us has the spiritual acuteness to realize\nthat the accent of that voice in the sinister black silence is speaking\nalso to our own hearts now?\u2014called them: \u201cWhat, could ye not watch with\nme one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The\nspirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.\u201d Did they hear these\nwords in their sleep? Did they answer, shamefaced, putting their hands\nto their confused eyes which could not bear even the dim light of the\nnight? What could they answer, startled, only half awake, to the\nSleepless One who was to sleep no more?\n\nJesus went away again, more heavy-hearted than ever. Was the temptation\nagainst which He had put them on guard in them alone or also in Him? Was\nit the temptation to escape? To deny Himself as others were to deny Him?\nTo oppose violence to violence? To pay with the lives of others for His\nown life, or to beg once more with a more despairing supplication that\nthe peril might be averted from His head?\n\nJesus was once more alone, more alone than ever, in a solitude complete\nas infinite desolation. Until that hour He might have thought that\nthere, close at hand, His loved friends were keeping vigil with Him. Now\nthey had reached the limit of their endurance and had deserted Him\nspiritually before deserting Him bodily.\n\nThey had left Him alone; they were not men enough to grant Him the last\nfavor which He asked, they who had received so many. In return for His\nblood, and His soul, for all His promises, for all His love, He had\nasked one thing only, that they should not fall asleep. And this small\nfavor had not been granted Him. And yet He was suffering and struggling\nat that moment for the sake of those who slept. He who gave all was to\nreceive nothing. During that night of refusals His every prayer was\ndenied; both His Father and His fellow-men refused Him.\n\nSatan also had disappeared into the darkness which is his own kingdom,\nand Christ was alone, utterly alone, alone as men are alone who raise\nthemselves above other men, who suffer in the darkness to bring light to\nall. Every hero is always the only one awake in a world of sleepers,\nlike the pilot watching over his ship in the solitude of the ocean and\nof the night, while his companions rest.\n\nJesus was the most solitary of all these eternally solitary souls.\nEverything slept about Him. The city slept, its white, shadow-checkered\nmass sprawling beyond the Kedron; and in all the houses, in all the\ncities in the world, the blind race of ephemeral men were sleeping. The\nonly ones awake at that hour were perhaps some woman waiting for the\ncall of her lover; perhaps a thief in ambush in the dark, his hand on\nthe hilt of his knife; perhaps a philosopher pondering the problem,\n\u201cDoes God exist?\u201d\n\nBut the leaders of the Jews and their guards were not asleep that night.\nThose who should have defended Jesus, who might at least have consoled\nHim, those who claimed to love Him and who in their way at times did\nreally love Him, were stretched in sleep. But those who hated Him, who\nwished to kill Him, did not sleep. Caiaphas was not asleep and the only\nDisciple awake at that moment was Judas.\n\nUntil the arrival of Judas His Master was alone with His death-like\nsadness. That He might feel less alone He began to pray to His Father,\nand once more those imploring words rushed to His lips. The effort to\nkeep them back, the conflict which convulsed His whole being\u2014because the\ndivinity which was in Him accepted joyfully what it had willed, while\nthe ruddy clay which clothed it shuddered\u2014this human and superhuman\neffort brought to Him at last the victory. He was racked with suffering,\nbut He was triumphant; He was utterly spent, but He had conquered.\n\nThe spirit had once more overcome the flesh; but from now on His body\nwas merely a trunk which bled and died. The tension of the terrible\nstruggle had done so great a violence to all that was earthly in Him\nthat the sweat stood out on Him, as though He had achieved an impossible\ntask, had endured the unendurable. The sweat poured from all His person;\nbut not merely the natural sweat which runs down the face of the man\nwalking in the sun, or working in the fields or raving in fever. The\nblood which He had promised to shed for men was shed first on the grass\nof the garden of Gethsemane. Great drops of blood mixed with sweat fell\non the earth as a first offering of His conquered flesh. It was the\nbeginning of liberation, almost a relief to that humanity which was the\ngreatest burden of His expiation.\n\nThen from His lips wet with tears, wet with sweat, wet with blood, arose\na new prayer: \u201cO my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me,\nexcept I drink it, thy will be done. Not my will, but thine, be done.\u201d\n\nGone now was any trace of cowardly shrinking; the will, that is the\nindividual, abdicated in the obedience which alone can assure the\nfreedom of the universal. He is no longer a man, but Man; the Man one\nwith God, \u201cI wish that which Thou wisheth.\u201d From that moment His victory\nover death is assured, because he who gives himself wholly to the\nEternal cannot die. \u201cFor whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and\nwhosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.\u201d\n\nHe stood up calmed, and turned back towards His Disciples. His sad\nreproof had been vain; worn out and exhausted, the three were again\nsleeping. But this time Jesus did not call them. He had found a\nconsolation greater than any which they could give Him\u2014and He kneeled\ndown once more to repeat to the Father those great words of abnegation,\n\u201cNot my will, but thine, be done.\u201d\n\nGod was no longer to be asked to be the servant of man. Up to that time\nmen had asked Him to satisfy their particular wishes in exchange for\ncanticles and offerings. I wish for prosperity, said the man who prayed,\nfor safety, for strength, for flowering fields, for the ruin of my\nenemies. But now Christ, the Over-turner, has come to transpose the\ncommon prayer, \u201cNot what is pleasing to me, but what is pleasing to\nThee. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.\u201d Blessedness can\nonly come as a result of perfect harmony between the sovereign will of\nthe Father and the subordinate will of man, as a result of the\nconvergence and identity of those two wills. What if the will of God\ngive me into the hands of the torturers and fastens me like an evil and\nmalignant beast upon two crossed beams of wood? If I believe in the\nFather as a Father, I know that He loves me more than I could love\nmyself, and that He knows more than I could know, therefore He can wish\nonly for what is best for me even if that best to human eyes seems the\nmost dreadful evil; and I wish for what the Father wills. If His\nfoolishness is unimaginably more wise than our wisdom, martyrdom given\nby Him will be incomparably better than any earthly pleasures.\n\nWhat if the Disciples slept? What if all men slept? Christ was no longer\nalone. He was content to suffer, content to die. He had found His peace\nunder the hammer-stroke of anguish.\n\nNow He can listen almost longingly for the footsteps of Judas.\n\nFor a time He hears only the beating of His own heart, so much calmer\nthan at first, now that the horror is nearer. But after some moments, He\nhears approaching the sound of cautious shuffling, and there among the\nbushes which border the road red flickerings of light appear and\ndisappear in the darkness. They are the servants of the assassins who\nare following Iscariot along the path.\n\nJesus turns to the Disciples, still asleep, \u201cBehold the hour is come;\nrise, let us go. Lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.\u201d\n\nThe eight other Disciples, sleeping farther away, are already aroused by\nthe noise, but have no time to answer the Master because while He is\nstill speaking the crowd comes up and stops.\n\n\n                          THE HOUR OF DARKNESS\n\n\nIt was the rabble who swarmed around the Temple, paid by the Sanhedrin;\nbunglingly made over for the time being into warriors; sweepers, and\ndoor-keepers, the lower parasites of the sanctuary, who had taken up\nswords in place of brooms and keys. There were many of them, a great\nmultitude, so the Evangelists say, although they knew they were going\nout against only twelve men, who had only two swords. It is not credible\nthat there were Roman soldiers among them and certainly not \u201ca captain,\u201d\nas John says, an officer over a thousand men. Caiaphas wished to make\nChrist a prisoner before he presented Him to the procurator, and the few\nforces at his disposition (the last vestiges of David\u2019s army) with the\naddition of some clients and relatives were enough to carry out the\nfar-from-dangerous capture.\n\nThis haphazard mob had come with torches and lanterns almost as if out\nfor an evening celebration. The pallid faces of the disciples, the livid\nface of Judas seemed to flicker in the red lights. Christ offered His\nface, stained with blood but more luminous than the lights, to Judas\u2019\nkiss. \u201cFriend, wherefore art thou come? Betrayest thou the Son of Man\nwith a kiss?\u201d He knew what Judas came to do, and He knew that this kiss\nwas the first of His tortures and the most unendurable. This kiss was\nthe signal for the guards who did not know the delinquent by sight.\n\u201cWhomsoever I shall kiss, that same is He: take Him and lead Him away\nsafely,\u201d the merchant of blood had told the rough crowd who followed him\nas they came along the road. But that kiss was at once the first and the\nmost horrible sullying of those lips which had pronounced the most\nheavenly words ever spoken here in the inferno of our earth. The\nspitting, the buffeting, the blows of the Jewish rabble and of the Roman\nsoldiers, and the sponge dipped in vinegar, were to be less intolerable\nthan that kiss, the kiss of a mouth which had called Him friend and\nMaster, which had drunk from His cup, which had eaten from His dish.\n\nAs soon as the sign was given the boldest came up to their enemy.\n\n\u201cWhom seek ye?\u201d\n\n\u201cJesus of Nazareth.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am he.\u201d He had scarcely said \u201cI am he\u201d when the curs fell backward,\neither at the sound of His tranquil voice or at the light of those\ndivine eyes. But even at such a moment Jesus took thought for His\nfriends \u201cI have told you that I am He, if therefore ye seek me, let\nthese go their way.\u201d\n\nAt the moment, profiting by the confusion of the guards, Simon, coming\nsuddenly to himself from his sleep and from his panic, laid his hand to\na sword and cut off the ear of Malchus, a servant of Caiaphas. Peter on\nthat night was full of contradictory impulses; after the supper he had\nsworn that no matter what happened he would never leave Jesus; then in\nthe garden he fell asleep and could not keep himself awake; after that,\ntardily he set himself up as a militant defender; and a little later he\nwas to deny that he had ever known his Master. Simon\u2019s untimely and\nfutile action was at once repudiated by Christ: \u201cPut up thy sword into\nthe sheath, for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword.\nThe cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?\u201d And He\noffered His hands to the nearest rogues who made all haste to tie them\nwith the rope which they had brought. While they were busy tying Him,\nthe prisoner accused them of cowardice. \u201cAre ye come out, as against a\nthief, with swords and staves to take me? When I was daily with you in\nthe temple ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour\nand the power of darkness.\u201d\n\nHe is the Light of the world, and the powers of darkness seek to\nextinguish it; but they can obscure it only for a short time, as on a\nJuly noon when the sun is suddenly covered by a dark storm-cloud but an\nhour afterwards shines out again, higher and more majestic than ever.\nThe guards, eager to return triumphantly and to receive their fees, did\nnot trouble to answer; they dragged Him by the rope towards the road to\nJerusalem as butchers drag the ox to the slaughter-house. Then,\nconfesses Matthew, \u201c... all the disciples forsook him, and fled.\u201d Their\nMaster forbade them to defend Him; instead of blasting His enemies the\nMessiah offered His hands to be bound; the Saviour was powerless to save\nHimself. What could they do but disappear so that they might not also be\nbrought before those powers which yesterday they had boasted of\noverthrowing, but which now, in the flickering of the lanterns and the\nswords, seemed suddenly very formidable to their distracted minds? And\nonly two followed the infamous procession, and they from a safe\ndistance. We shall see them later in the court-yard of Caiaphas\u2019 house.\n\nAll this bustle awakened a young man who had been sleeping in the house\nin the grove of olives. Inquisitive like all young men, he did not take\nthe time to dress, but wrapping a sheet about him, stepped out to see\nwhat was happening. The guards thought him a disciple who had not had\ntime to escape, and laid hands on him, but the young man, casting off\nthe sheet, left it in their hands and fled from them naked.\n\nNo one has ever known the identity of this mysterious man awakened from\nhis sleep, who appeared suddenly in the night, and as suddenly\ndisappeared. Perhaps he was the youthful Mark, the only one of the\nEvangelists who tells this story. If it were Mark, it is possible that\non that night the involuntary witness of the beginning of the Passion\nfirst conceived the impulse to become, as Mark did, its first historian.\n\n\n                                 ANNAS\n\n\nIn a short time the criminal was taken to the house which Annas shared\nwith his son-in-law, the High Priest Caiaphas. Although the night was\nnow well advanced, and although the assembly had been warned the day\nbefore, that Caiaphas hoped to capture the blasphemer early in the\nmorning, many of the Jews were still in bed and the prosecution could\nnot begin at once. In order that the common people might not have time\nto rise in rebellion, nor Pilate to take thought, the leaders were in\nhaste to finish the affair that very morning. Some of the guards who\nreturned from the Mount of Olives were sent to awake the more important\nScribes and Elders, and in the meantime old Annas, who had not slept all\nthat night, set himself on his own account to question this false\nProphet.\n\nAnnas, son of Seth, had been for seven years High Priest, and though\ndeposed in the year 14 under Tiberius, he was still the real primate of\nthe Jewish Church. A Sadducee, head of one of the most aggressive and\nwealthy families of the ecclesiastical patriarchate, he was still,\nthrough his son-in-law, leader of his caste. Five of his sons were\nafterwards High Priests, and one of them, also called Annas, caused\nJames, the brother of the Lord, to be stoned to death.\n\nJesus was led before him. It was the first time that the wood-worker of\nNazareth found Himself face to face with the religious head of His\npeople, with His greatest enemy. Up to that time He had met only the\nsubalterns in the Temple, the common soldiers, the Scribes and\nPharisees; now He was before the head, and He was no longer the accuser\nbut the accused. This was the first questioning of that day. In the\nspace of a few hours, four authorities examined Him; two rulers from the\nTemple, Annas and Caiaphas; and two temporal rulers, Antipas and Pilate.\n\nThe first question Annas put to Jesus was to ask Him who His disciples\nwere. The old political priest who like all the other Sadducees gave no\ncredence to the foolish stories about the coming of a Messiah, wished to\nknow first of all who were the followers of the new Prophet, and from\nwhat rank of society He had picked them up, so that he might determine\nhow far the seditious ulcer had progressed. But Jesus looked at Him\nwithout answering. How could that dove-huckster have thought that Jesus\ncould betray those who had betrayed Him?\n\nThen Annas asked about His doctrine. Jesus answered that it was not for\nHim to explain: \u201cI spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the\nsynagogue and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in\nsecret have I said nothing. Why askest thou me? ask them which heard me,\nwhat I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said.\u201d\n\nThis was the truth. Jesus was not esoteric. Even if He sometimes said to\nHis Disciples words that He did not repeat in the open places of the\ncity, He exhorted them to cry out on the housetops what He told them in\nthe house. But Annas must have made a wry face at an answer which\npre-supposed an honest trial, for one of the officers standing by struck\nJesus with the palm of his hand, saying, \u201cAnswerest thou the high priest\nso?\u201d\n\nThis blow from the quick-tempered attendant was the beginning of the\ninsults which were henceforth rained upon Christ up to the cross. But He\nwho had been struck, with His cheek reddened by the boor, turned towards\nthe man who had struck Him, \u201cIf I have spoken evil, bear witness of the\nevil: but if well, why smitest thou me?\u201d\n\nThe rogue, abashed by such calm, found no answer. Annas began to see\nthat this Galilean was no common adventurer, and he was all the more\neager to get Him out of the way. Seeing, however, that he was not\nsucceeding in extracting anything from Him, he sent Him bound to\nCaiaphas, the High Priest, so that the fiction of a legal prosecution\nmight begin at once.\n\n\n                             THE COCK CROWS\n\n\nOnly two of the fleeing Disciples repented of their cowardice, and\ntrembling in the shadow of the walls, followed from afar the swaying\nlanterns which accompanied Christ to the den of fratricides: Simon, son\nof Jonas, and John, son of Zebedee.\n\nJohn, who was known in the household of Caiaphas, went into the\ncourtyard of the building with Jesus, but Simon, more shamefaced, or not\nso bold, did not enter and stood at the door without: then after a few\nmoments John, not seeing his companion, and wishing to have him at hand\nfor sympathy or defense, went out and persuaded the suspicious\ndoorkeeper to let Peter also come in. But as he stepped through the\ndoor, the woman recognized him: \u201cArt not thou also one of his\ndisciples?\u201d\n\nBut Peter took on an offended air, \u201cI know not, neither understand I\nwhat thou sayest. I know him not.\u201d\n\nAnd he sat down with John near the brazier which the servants had\nkindled in the courtyard because, although it was in April, the night\nwas cold. But the woman would not give up her idea, and coming to the\nfire and looking at him earnestly, said, \u201cThou also wast with Jesus of\nNazareth,\u201d and he denied again with curses, \u201cWoman, I know him not!\u201d\n\nThe gate-keeper, shaking her head, turned back to her gate, but the men\naroused by these heated denials looked at him more closely and said,\n\u201cSurely thou art one of them: for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech\nagreeth thereto.\u201d\n\nThen Simon began to curse and to swear, but another, a kinsman of\nMalchus whose ear Peter had cut off, cut short his testimony: \u201cDid I not\nsee thee in the garden with him?\u201d\n\nBut Peter, now hopelessly involved in lies, began again to protest that\nthey had mistaken him for another and that he was not one of the friends\nof the Man.\n\nAt this very moment Jesus, bound among the guards, crossed the courtyard\nafter His colloquy with Annas, passing to the other part of the palace,\nwhere Caiaphas lived: and He heard the words of Simon and looked at Him.\nFor just one moment He turned His eyes upon Simon, those eyes where\nSimon, denying Him now, had once recognized the gleam of divinity. For\nan instant only He looked at him with eyes whose gentleness was more\nunendurable than any contempt. And this look pierced for all time the\npitiable, distracted heart of the fisherman. To the day of his death he\ncould never forget those sad, mild eyes fixed on him in that terrible\nnight; those eyes which in one flash expressed more and moved him more\nthan a thousand words.\n\n\u201cThou also who wast the first, of whom I hoped most, the hardest but the\nmost zealous, the most ignorant but the most fervent, thou also, Simon,\nthe same who cried out my true name near C\u00e6sarea, thou also who knowest\nall my words and hast slept with thy head on my cloak and hast kissed me\nso many times with those lips which now deny me, thou also, Simon Peter,\nson of Jonas, deny me before those who are about to kill me! I was right\nthat day when I called thee a stumbling block and reproached thee with\nthinking not like God but like men. Thou mightest at least have fled\naway as the others did if thou hadst not the strength to drink with me\nthe cup of infamy which I had foretold to thee. Flee away now that I may\nsee thee no more until the day when I shall be truly free and thou shalt\nbe truly made over by faith. If thou fearest for thy life why art thou\nhere? If thou fearest not, why dost thou deny me? Even Judas at the last\nhas been more faithful than thou: he came with my enemies, but he did\nnot deny that he knew me. Simon, Simon, I foretold that thou wouldst\nleave me like the others, but now thou art more cruel than the others. I\nhave pardoned thee from my heart. I am about to die, and I pardon him\nwho brings me to death, and thee also; and I love thee as I have always\nloved thee, but canst thou forgive thyself?\u201d\n\nUnder the weight of this look, Simon hung his head and his heart beat\nfuriously in his breast. Not for his very life could he have brought out\nanother \u201cNo.\u201d His face burned with an intolerable heat as if the brazier\nbefore him had been the mouth of Hell. He was torn by an unbearable\ntumult of passion and of remorse; in one breath he seemed frozen, in the\nnext all his body flamed. A moment before he had said that he had never\nknown Jesus, and now it seemed to him that he had spoken truly, that at\nthis moment he knew Him for the first time: that he finally understood\nwho He was, as if those eyes full of loving grief had pierced him with a\nflash like an archangel\u2019s sword.\n\nHe was scarcely able to drag himself to his feet and to stumble out to\nthe door. As he went out into the street in the silent, solitary\ndarkness a distant cock crew. This gay, bold note was for Peter like the\ncry which awakens a sleeper from his nightmare. Then in the dim light of\ndawn the last stars saw a man staggering along like a drunkard, his head\nhidden in his cloak, his shoulders shaken by the sobs of a despairing\nlament.\n\nWeep, Peter, now that God mercifully grants you the grace of tears, weep\nfor yourself and for Him, weep for Judas, your traitor brother; weep for\nyour fleeing brothers, weep for the death of Him who is dying to save\nyour poor soul, for all those who will come after you and who will do as\nyou have done, deny their Saviour, and who will not pay for their\nredemption by repentance. Weep for all the apostates, for all the others\nwho will deny Him, all those who will say as you have said, \u201cI am not\none of His disciples!\u201d Who of us has not done at least once what Simon\nPeter did? Who of us, born in the Church of Christ, having prayed to Him\nwith our childish lips, having knelt before His blood-stained face, has\nnot said, fearing a mocking smile, \u201cI never knew Him.\u201d\n\nThou at least, unfortunate Simon, although thou wast Peter the rock,\nwept bitterly and hid in thy cloak thy face convulsed with remorse. And\nbefore many days Christ risen from the dead will kiss thee once more\nbecause thy perjured mouth has been washed clean forever by thy tears.\n\n\n                 THEN THE HIGH PRIEST RENT HIS CLOTHES\n\n\nCaiaphas\u2019 real name was Joseph. Caiaphas is a surname and is the same\nword as Cephas, Simon\u2019s surname, that is to say, Rock. On that Friday\nmorning\u2019s dawn, the Son of Man was caught between those two rocks like a\ngrain of wheat between two millstones. Simon Peter is the type of the\ntimid friends who knew not how to save Him: Joseph Peter, of His\nenemies, determined at any cost to destroy Him. Between the denial of\nSimon and the hatred of Joseph, between the head of the church about to\ndisappear and the head of the Church just coming into existence, between\nthose two rocks Jesus was like wheat between the mill-stones.\n\nThe Sanhedrin had already come together and was awaiting Him. Together\nwith Annas and Caiaphas who presided, there were John, Alexander, and\nall the reeking scum of the upper classes. As a rule the Sanhedrin was\ncomposed of twenty-three priests, twenty-three Scribes, twenty-three\nElders, and two Presidents, in all, seventy-one. But on this occasion\nsome were absent, those who had more fear of an uprising of the people\nthan hatred for the blasphemer, and those few who would not lift a\nfinger to condemn Him, but would not defend Him openly: among these last\nwere certainly Nicodemus, the nocturnal disciple, and Joseph of\nArimathea, who was devoutly to lay Jesus in His tomb.\n\nThey had come together to ratify with a cloak of legality the decree of\nmurder already written on their hearts. These delegates from the Temple,\nfrom the School and the Bank, burned with impatience to confirm, each\nfor his own reasons, their revengeful sentence. The great room of the\ncouncil already full of people was like a den of werewolves. The new day\nshowed itself hesitatingly: the orange-colored tongues of the torches\nwere scarcely visible in the dim light of dawn. In this sinister\nhalf-shadow the Jews were waiting: aged, portly, hook-nosed, harsh,\nbeetle-browed, wrapped in their white cloaks, their heads covered,\nstroking their venerable beards, with choleric eyes, seated in a half\ncircle, they seemed a council of sorcerers awaiting a living offering.\nThe rest of the hall was occupied by the clients of the seated assembly,\nby guards with staves in their hands, by the domestic servants of the\nhouse. The air was heavy and dense as in a charnel house.\n\nJesus, His wrists still tied with ropes, was thrust into the midst of\nthis kennel like a condemned man thrown to the beasts of the Imperial\namphitheater. Annas had gathered together in all haste from among the\nrabble some false witnesses to make an end of any discussion or defense.\nThe pretense of a trial began with calling these perjurers. Two of them\ncame forward and swore that they had heard these words: \u201cI will destroy\nthis temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build\nanother made without hands.\u201d\n\nAt the time and for those hearers this accusation was a very grave one,\nmeaning nothing less than sacrilege and blasphemy. For in the minds of\nits upholders the Temple of Jerusalem was the one intangible home of the\nLord. And to threaten the Temple was to threaten their real Master, the\nMaster of all the Jews. But Jesus had never said these words or at least\nnot in this form, nor with this meaning. It is true that He had\nannounced that of the Temple not one stone would remain upon another,\nbut not through any action of His. And the reference to the Temple not\nmade with hands, built up in three days, was part of another discourse\nin which He had spoken figuratively of His resurrection. The false\nwitnesses could not even agree about these words confusedly and\nmaliciously repeated, and one statement from Jesus would have been\nenough to confound them utterly. But Jesus held His peace.\n\nThe High Priest could not endure this silence, and standing up, cried\nout, \u201cAnswerest thou nothing? What is it which these witness against\nthee?\u201d\n\nBut Jesus answered nothing.\n\nThese silences of Jesus were so weighty with magnetic eloquence that\nthey enraged His judges. He held His peace at the first questioning of\nAnnas. He was silent now at the outcry of Caiaphas and He was to be\nsilent with Antipas and Pilate.\n\nHe had made already, a thousand times, the statements He might have made\nnow, and any other answers He might have made would either have been\nmisunderstood by His judges, or have been used by them as new pretexts\nfor attacking Him. Superhuman truths are in their very nature ineffable,\nand only a shadow of them can be grasped, through a loving effort by\nthose who already have a faint divination of that shadow; and even to\nthem this comes more through the heart than through faulty and defective\nwords.\n\nJesus did not speak, but looked about Him with His great calm eyes, at\nthe troubled and convulsed faces of His assassins, and for all eternity\njudged these phantom judges. In a flash every one of them was weighed\nand condemned by that look which went straight to the soul. Were they\nworthy to hear His words, those flawed, self-seeking souls, empty and\ninane, those of them that are not ulcerous and moribund? How could He\never, by the most unthinkable prodigy, stoop to justify Himself before\nthem?\n\nSuch self-justification was attempted by the son of the midwife, the\nflat-nosed student and rival of the Sophists! The seventy-year-old\narguer, who for so many years had bored the artisans and the idlers on\nthe market-place, was capable of reciting to the judges of Athens an\neloquent and carefully arranged oration of excuses, which, from the\nlimits of dialectics, descended little by little to the sophistries of\nlaw courts. It is true that the ironical old man who had set himself to\nreform the art of thinking rather than the art of living, who had not\nbeen above usury, who, not having his fill with Xantippe, had had two\nchildren by his concubine Myra, and who amused himself with caressing\nhandsome young men more than was becoming for the father of a family,\nwas ready to die, and knew how to die with noble firmness; but at the\nbottom of his heart he would have preferred to descend into Hades by the\nmore natural road. Towards the end of his specious defense, he tried to\nplacate his judges by recalling his old age to them. \u201cIt is useless to\nkill me because I will die very soon anyhow\u201d\u2014and offered to pay thirty\ngreater min\u00e6 if they would let him go in peace.\n\nBut Christ was neither a sophist nor a lawyer, Christ whom so many\nposthumous Pilates have tried to belittle by comparing Him to Socrates,\nso inferior to Him. Like Dante\u2019s angel, He disdained human discussions.\nHe answered with silence, or if He was forced to speak, spoke candidly\nand briefly. Caiaphas, exasperated by this disrespectful taciturnity,\nfinally hit on a way to make him speak. \u201cI adjure thee by the living\nGod, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.\u201d\n\nAs long as they conducted His trial with the usual insidious procedure,\nadducing falsities or asking Him about perfectly well-known truths,\nJesus said no word; but even in the infamous mouth of the High Priest,\nthe invocation to the living God was irresistible. Jesus could not deny\nHimself to the living God, to the God who will live eternally, and who\nlives in all of us, and who was present there even in that lair of\ndemons. And yet He hesitated a moment before dazzling those bleared eyes\nwith the splendor of His formidable secret.\n\n\u201cIf I tell you, ye will not believe: And if I also ask you, ye will not\nanswer me.\u201d\n\nNow Caiaphas was not alone in putting the question; all of them,\nexcited, sprang to their feet and cried out, their clawing fingers\nstretched towards Him, \u201cArt thou then the Son of God?\u201d\n\nJesus could not, like Peter, deny the irrefutable certainty which was\nthe reason for His life and for His death. He was responsible towards\nHis own people and towards all men. But, as at C\u00e6sarea, He wished others\nto be the ones to pronounce His real name, and when they had said it He\ndid not refuse it, even though death were the penalty.\n\n\u201cYe say that I am. I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man\nsitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.\u201d\n\nHe had condemned Himself out of His own mouth. The snarling pack about\nHim was frothing at the mouth with delight and anger. In the presence of\nHis assassins He had proclaimed what He had secretly admitted to His\nmost loving friends. Although they might betray Him, He had not betrayed\nHimself or His father. Now He was ready for the last degradation. He had\nsaid what He had to say.\n\nCaiaphas was triumphant. Pretending a shocked horror which he did not\nfeel\u2014because like all the Sadducees he had no faith whatever in the\napocalyptic writers and cared about nothing but the fees and honors of\nthe Temple\u2014he rent his priestly garments, crying out, \u201cHe hath spoken\nblasphemy! What further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have\nheard his blasphemy. What think ye?\u201d\n\nAnd all the noisy kennel bayed out their answer, \u201cHe is guilty of\ndeath.\u201d\n\nAnd without any further examination, without a single protest, they all\ncondemned Him to death as a blasphemer and false prophet.\n\nThe comedy of legal pretense was played to an end, and the cloaked\nghosts felt themselves relieved of an immense weight. It had cost the\nHigh Priest a garment and he let the torn pieces hang like glorious\nsymbols of victorious battle. He did not know that on that very day a\ngarment more precious than any of his was to be torn, and he did not\ndream that his gesture was a symbolic recognition of another\ndeath-sentence. The priesthood of which he was the head was henceforth\ndisqualified and abolished forever. His successors were to be mere\nsemblances of priests, spurious and illegitimate, and in a few years the\nsumptuous garment of marble and masonry of the Jewish sanctuary was to\nbe rent by the Roman rabble.\n\n\n                   AND WHEN THEY HAD BLINDFOLDED HIM\n\n\nWhen the tragi-comedy acted by the masters had ended in a\ndeath-sentence, the devils\u2019 band of subalterns had their turn. While the\nhigh officials went apart to take counsel on the manner of securing the\nratification from the Procurator and executing the death sentence with\nall speed, Jesus was thrown as prey to the rabble in the Palace, as the\noffal of the slain animal is thrown to the pack which has taken part in\nthe hunt. The ruffians who lived upon the leavings of the Temple felt\nthat they had as their perquisite the right to some amusement. Man, the\nbeast, when he is certain of impunity, knows no more pleasing recreation\nthan to wreak himself upon the defenseless, especially if the\ndefenseless is innocent. Our bestial nature, crouching untamed at the\nbottom of every human heart, rushes out bold and snarling; the face\nbecomes a muzzle, teeth are tusks, hands appear what they really are,\nclaws, the articulate sounds of human speech vanish in snarlings and\ngrowlings. If a drop of blood reddens to the view, they jostle each\nother to lick it up: there is no more intoxicating liquor than blood: it\nis far more stimulating than wine, and far fairer to see, red as it is,\nthan the water of Pilate.\n\nBut tigerishness breaking loose readily takes the form of play; even\ntigers are sportive, even children, as soon as they begin to grow strong\nat all, are tigerish. The captors of Christ, waiting for foreign\nauthority to confirm the death sentence of the most innocent of their\nbrothers, meant to give Christ a humorous foretaste of His sufferings.\nThey had permission to jest with their King, to divert themselves with\ntheir God. And they felt that they really deserved some amusement; they\nhad been awake all night long, and the night had been cold: and then the\nmarch up to the Mount of Olives, fearing resistance, a well-grounded\nfear, since one of them had had his ear stricken off; and then the long\nwait, till dawn, a very tiring business especially on those festal days\nwhen the city and the Temple were full of foreigners and there was so\nmuch more for every one to do.\n\nBut they did not know how to begin. He was tied and his friends had\ndisappeared. But this man who looked at them with an expression they had\nnever seen till then, with a steady look which seemed beyond all earthly\nthings and yet searched them out within like a ray of troublesome\nsunshine\u2014this man, bound, exhausted, the fresh sweat on His face\nsoftening the drops of dried blood on His cheeks, this insignificant\nman, this defenseless provincial with no protecting patrons, condemned\nto death by the highest and holiest tribunal of the Jewish people, this\nhuman rubbish destined to the cross of slaves and thieves, this\nlaughingstock whom the authorities had given over to their abuse like a\npuppet at the saturnalia, this man who did not speak nor complain nor\nweep, but who looked on them as if He had compassion on them, as a\nfather might look at his sick child, as a friend might look at a\ndelirious friend, this man, mocked by all, inspired in their worthless\nsouls a mysterious reverence.\n\nBut one of the Scribes or the Elders gave the example, and spat at Jesus\nas he passed by Him. He was too careful of His ritual cleanliness to\ncontaminate His newly washed hands, ready for the Passover, by touching\nan enemy of God, who, near to death, was already impure like a corpse.\nBut saliva: what is saliva? Refuse of the body, contempt materialized in\na liquid.\n\nAnd on that face illumined by the early morning sun and by imprisoned\ndivinity, on that face transfigured by the light of the sun and by\nlove\u2019s light, on the golden face of Christ, the spittle of the Jews\ncovered the first blood of the Passion. But for the rabble of the\nservants and the guards spitting was not enough, nor were they afraid of\nsullying their hands. The example of the leaders had overcome the\nimpression made on them by the condemned man\u2019s sad and brotherly look.\nThe guards who were nearest Him struck Him in the face; those who could\nnot strike His face rained down blows and threats, and the words which\ncame from the mouths of those insensate men wounded Him more cruelly\nthan blows.\n\nThat face, which had been white as a hawthorn blossom and shining like\nsunlight, darkened into the livid purple of beaten flesh. The fair,\ngracious body, reeling with blows, staggered in the midst of the heaving\ncrowd. Christ said no word to those who vomited out on Him the appalling\ncontents of their souls. He had answered the guard who had struck Him in\nthe presence of Annas, asking him to correct Him if He had spoken ill;\nfor this ribald mob let loose He had no answer. But one of them more\nquick-witted or more childish than the others had an idea: he took a\ndirty cloth and with it covered the bleeding, buffeted face, tying the\ncorners behind. And he said: \u201cLet us play blind man\u2019s buff. This man\nboasts of being a prophet; let us see if he can guess which of us is\nstriking him.\u201d\n\nChrist\u2019s face was covered. Was there, in the action of the ruffians, an\nunconsciously compassionate desire to spare Him, at least, the sight of\nHis brothers become like beasts? Or was that look of suffering love\nreally unendurable to them? With childish cruelty, they arranged\nthemselves in a circle about Him and first one and then another twitched\na fold of His garment, gave Him a blow on the shoulder, thrust Him in\nthe back, struck Him with a staff over the head: \u201cProphesy! Who is it\nthat smote thee?\u201d\n\nWhy did He not answer? Had He not predicted the ruin of the Temple, wars\nand earthquakes, the coming of the Son of Man on clouds and many other\nidle stories? How was it that now He could not make such an easy guess,\ngive the name of a person so close at hand? What sort of a prophet was\nthis? Had he lost His power all at once, or had He never had it? He\nmight be able to make those poor countrified Galileans believe His\nstories, but here we are in Jerusalem, the city which understands\nprophets and kills them when they do not show a proper spirit. Luke\nadds, \u201cAnd many other things blasphemously spake they against him.\u201d\n\nBut Caiaphas and the others were in haste and thought that the servile\npack had amused itself long enough. The false king must be taken to\nPilate that his sentence be confirmed: the Sanhedrin could pronounce\njudgment, but since Judea was under Roman rule, it had no longer,\nunfortunately, the Jus Gladii. And the High Priests, Scribes and Elders,\nset out for the Palace of the Procurator, followed by the guards leading\nJesus with ropes, and by the yelling horde which grew larger as they\nwent along the street.\n\n\n                             PONTIUS PILATE\n\n\nSince A. D. 26, Pontius Pilate had been Procurator in the name of\nTiberius C\u00e6sar. Historians know nothing of him before his arrival in\nJudea. If the name comes from Pileatus it may be supposed that he was a\nfreedman or descendant of freedmen, since the Pileo, or skull cap, was\nthe head gear of freed slaves.\n\nHe had been in Judea only a few years, but long enough to draw upon\nhimself the bitterest hate of those over whom he ruled. It is true that\nall our information about him comes from Jews and Christians, who were,\nof course, his declared enemies; but it appears that he finally lost\nfavor even with his masters, since in A. D. 36 the Governor of Syria,\nLucius Vitellius, sent him to Rome to justify himself before Tiberius.\nThe Emperor died before Pilate arrived in the metropolis, but according\nto tradition, he was exiled by Caligula, exiled into Gaul, where he\nkilled himself.\n\nIn the first place the hatred of the Jews came from the profound scorn\nwhich he showed from the start for this stiff-necked, indocile people,\nwho must have seemed to him, brought up in Roman ideas, like a snake pit\nof venomous serpents\u2014a low, dirty crowd, scarcely worthy to be tamed by\nthe cudgels of the mercenaries. To have an idea of Pilate\u2019s personality,\nmake a mental picture of an English Viceroy of India, a subscriber to\nthe _Times_, a reader of John Stuart Mill and Shaw\u2014with Byron and\nSwinburne on his bookshelves\u2014destined to administer the government over\na ragged, captious, hungry and turbulent people, wrangling among\nthemselves over a confusion of castes and mythologies and superstitions\nfor which their ruler feels in his heart the profoundest aversion,\nlooking down on them from the height of his dignity as a white man, a\nEuropean, a Briton and a Liberal. Pilate, as shown by his questions put\nto Jesus, was one of those skeptics of the Roman decadence corrupted\nwith Pyrrhonism, a devotee of Epicurus, an encyclopedist of Hellenism\nwithout any belief in the gods of his country, nor any belief that any\nreal God existed at all. The idea certainly can never have occurred to\nPilate that the true God could be found in this vermin-ridden,\nsuperstitious mob, in the midst of this factious and jealous clergy, in\nthis religion which must have seemed to him like a barbarous mixture of\nSyrian and Chaldean oracles. The only faith remaining to him, or which\nhe needed to pretend to hold because of his office, was the new Roman\nreligion, civic and political, concentrated on the cult of the Emperor.\nThe first conflict with the Jews arose in fact from this religion. When\nhe had changed the guard of Jerusalem, he ordered the soldiers to enter\nthe city by night, without taking off from their ensigns the silver\nimages of C\u00e6sar. In the morning, as soon as the Jews were aware of this,\ngreat was the horror and the uproar. It was the first time that the\nRomans had lacked in external respect for the religion of their subjects\nin Palestine. These figures of the deified C\u00e6sar planted near the Temple\nwere for them an idolatrous provocation, the beginning of the\nabomination of desolation. All the country was in an uproar; a\ndeputation was sent to C\u00e6sarea to have Pilate take them away. Pilate\nrefused; for five days and nights they stormed about him day and night.\nFinally the Procurator, to get himself out of the trouble, convoked them\nin the amphitheater and treacherously had them surrounded with soldiers\nwith naked swords, assuring them that no one would escape if they did\nnot make an end of their clamor. But the Jews, instead of asking for\nmercy, offered their throats to the swords, and Pilate, conquered by\nthis heroic stubbornness, ordered that the insignia be carried back to\nC\u00e6sarea.\n\nBut if this clemency did not diminish the hatred of the Jews for the new\nProcurator, neither did it lessen Pilate\u2019s distaste nor his desire to do\nthem an ill turn. A little while after this, he introduced into Herod\u2019s\npalace, where he lived when he stayed at Jerusalem, votive tablets\ndedicated to the Emperor. But the priests heard of it and once more the\npeople were aroused to outraged and furious anger. He was asked to take\naway the idolatrous objects at once. An appeal to C\u00e6sar was threatened,\nan appeal supported by evidence of the impositions and cruelties\ncommitted by Pilate. Pilate this time also did not yield. The Jews then\nmade the appeal to Tiberius, who decreed that the tablets should be sent\nback to C\u00e6sarea.\n\nTwice Pilate had had the worst of a dispute. But the third time he was\ntriumphant. Coming from the city of public baths and aqueducts, a\nfriend, as is well known, of ablutions, he noticed that Jerusalem lacked\nwater and he planned to have a fine large reservoir constructed and an\naqueduct several miles long. But the undertaking was expensive and to\npay for it he used a goodly sum taken from the treasury of the Temple.\nThe treasury was rich, for all the Jews scattered about in the Empire\ncame there to bring offerings, and when they could not come in person\nsent them from a distance\u2014but the priests cried out on the sacrilege,\nand the people incited by them made such a commotion that when Pilate\ncame for the Feast of the Passover to Jerusalem, thousands of men\ngathered in a tumultuous crowd in front of his Palace. But this time he\nsent among the multitude a large number of disguised soldiers who at a\ngiven signal began to lay about them so vigorously, among the most\nfurious of the crowd, that in a short time they all fled away, and\nPilate could enjoy in peace the water of the reservoir paid for with the\nJews\u2019 money, and make use of it for his various ablutions.\n\nOnly a short time had passed since this last encounter and now these\nvery priests who three times had risen against his authority, the very\nones who had tried to obtain his deposition, the very ones who hated him\nheartily, hated him as a Roman, as a symbol of the foreign dominion and\nof their slavery, and hated him still more personally as Pontius Pilate,\nas plotter against their religion and thief of their money\u2014these very\nHigh Priests were forced to have recourse to him in order to vent\nanother hatred, which for the moment was more bitter in their wicked\nhearts. Only hard necessity drove them to it, because death sentences\ncould not be carried out if they were not confirmed by C\u00e6sar\u2019s\nrepresentative.\n\nThat Friday, at dawn, Pontius Pilate, wrapped in his toga, still sleepy\nand yawning, was waiting for them in Herod\u2019s palace, very ill-disposed\ntowards those tiresome trouble-makers, whose contentions had forced him\nto rise earlier than usual.\n\n\n                             WHAT IS TRUTH?\n\n\nThe crowd of the accusers and of the rough populace finally came out\ninto the open place which was before Herod\u2019s palace, but they stopped\noutside, because if they went into a house where there was leaven and\nbread baked with leaven, they would be contaminated all day long and\ncould not eat the Passover. Innocent blood does not pollute, but leaven\ndoes.\n\nPilate, warned of their coming, went out on the door-sill and asked\nabruptly: \u201cWhat accusation bring ye against this man?\u201d\n\nThose who were before him were his enemies. It appeared that this man\nwas their enemy and Pilate instinctively took his part. Not that he had\nany pity for him\u2014was he not a Jew like the others, and poor into the\nbargain? But if he were by any chance innocent, Pilate had no mind to\nlend himself to a whim of those detestable vermin.\n\nCaiaphas answered at once as if offended: \u201cIf he were not a malefactor,\nwe would not have delivered him up unto you.\u201d\n\nThen Pilate who wished to lose no time with ecclesiastical squabbles,\nand did not think that there was any question of a capital crime,\nanswered dryly: \u201cTake ye him, and judge him according to your law.\u201d\n\nAlready in these words appears his wish to save the man without being\nforced to take sides openly. But the concession of the Procurator, which\nin any other case would have delighted Caiaphas and his party, this time\ndid not suit them, because the Sanhedrin could inflict only light\nsentences and now they desired the most extreme sentence of all and\ncould not dispense with the Roman arm. They answered: \u201cIt is not lawful\nfor us to put any man to death.\u201d\n\nPilate suddenly understood what sentence they wished passed on the\nwretched man who stood before him, and he wished to find out what crime\nHe had committed. What might seem worthy of a death sentence to those\nbigoted rabbis might seem a venial fault in the eyes of a Roman.\n\nThe foxes of the Temple had thought of this difficulty before taking\naction. They knew very well that Pilate would not be satisfied if they\ntold him that this man attacked the religion of their fathers and\nannounced the Kingdom of God. They were prepared therefore to lie. For a\nman about to commit a base action, one more accessory and subordinate\ninfamy seems of little consequence. Pilate could be conquered only with\nhis own weapons, by appealing to his loyalty to Rome and to the Emperor\nand to the basis of his office-holding. It was already agreed that they\nwould give a political color to the accusation. If they told him that\nJesus was a false Messiah, Pilate would smile. But if they said that He\nwas a seditious inciter of revolt, that He was trying to rouse the\ncommon people against Rome, Pilate could not do less than put Him to\ndeath.\n\n\u201cWe found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give\ntribute to C\u00e6sar, saying that he himself is Christ, a King.... He\nstirreth up all the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning\nfrom Galilee to this place.\u201d\n\nEvery word was a lie. Jesus had commanded men to render unto C\u00e6sar that\nwhich was C\u00e6sar\u2019s. He paid no attention whatever to the Romans. He said\nthat He was Christ but not in the coarse, political meaning of a King of\nthe Jews: and He did not stir up the people but wished to make of an\nunhappy and degraded people a blessed kingdom of saints. However grave\nthese accusations might have seemed to Pilate if they had been true,\nthey only increased his suspicions of the priests. Was it probable that\nthose treacherous vipers who detested him and Rome, and who had tried to\noverturn him so many times and whose one dream was to sweep away the\ngoverning pagans and foreigners, should suddenly be kindled with so much\nzeal to denounce a rebel of their own nation?\n\nPilate was not convinced and he wished to find out for himself, by\nquestioning the accused man in private. He went back into the palace and\ncommanded that Jesus be brought to him. Disregarding the less important\naccusations, he went at once to the essential: \u201cArt thou the King of the\nJews?\u201d\n\nBut Jesus did not answer. How could He ever make this Roman understand!\nThis Roman who knew nothing of God\u2019s promises, misinformed by His\nassassins, a Pyrrhonic atheist, whose only religion was the artificial\nand diabolical cult of a living man\u2014and of what a man\u2014Tiberius!\u2014how\ncould He ever explain to this freedman, a pupil of the lawyers and\nrhetoricians of Rome in the most decadent of all the degenerate foulness\nof that time; how could He explain that He was the King of a Kingdom not\nyet founded, of a spiritual Kingdom which would abolish all human\nkingdoms?\n\nJesus read the depths of Pilate\u2019s soul and made no answer, as He had\nkept silent at first before Annas and before Caiaphas. The Procurator\ncould not understand this silence on the part of a man over whom hung\nthe threat of death. \u201cHearest thou not how many things they witness\nagainst thee?\u201d\n\nBut Jesus answered him never a word. Pilate, who at all costs wished to\ntriumph over those who hated him as much as they hated this man,\ninsisted, hoping to extract a denial which would permit him to set Him\nat liberty: \u201cArt thou the King of the Jews?\u201d\n\nIf Jesus denied this He would betray Himself. He had said to His\ndisciples and to the Jews that He was Christ. He had no wish to lie and\nsave Himself. The better to sound the Roman\u2019s mind He answered Him, as\nwas his wont, with another question: \u201cSayest thou this thing of thyself,\nor did others tell it thee of me?\u201d\n\nPilate answered, as if offended, \u201cAm I a Jew? Thine own nation and the\nchief priests have delivered thee unto me. Art thou the King of the\nJews?\u201d\n\nWith the exception of this contemptuous beginning, this answer of Pilate\nwas conciliatory. \u201cFor whom do you take me? Do you not know that I am a\nRoman, that I do not believe what your enemies believe? Your accusers\nare priests, not I; but they are obliged to give you into my hands: your\nsafety rests with me: tell me that what they say is not true and you\nshall be free.\u201d\n\nJesus had no wish to escape death, but still He determined to try to\nshed more light on this pagan. Everything is possible to the Father: was\nit not possible that Pilate might be the last convert of the dying man?\n\n\u201cMy kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then\nwould my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but\nnow is my kingdom not from hence.\u201d\n\nThe servant of Tiberius did not understand. The difference between \u201cof\nthis world\u201d and \u201cmy kingdom is not from hence\u201d was obscure to him.\nPilate thought that what is the phrase \u201cnot of this world\u201d meant the\ngods above if there were really any, gods favorable or malignant to men,\nand below in Hades the shadows of the dead if really there was anything\nremaining of us when the body had been consumed by fire or worms: the\nonly reality for such a man as Pilate was \u201cthis world,\u201d the great world\nwith all its kingdoms. And once more he asked: \u201cArt thou a king then?\u201d\n\nThere was no longer any reason to deny. He would say to this blinded man\nwhat He had proclaimed to the others: \u201cThou sayest that I am a king. To\nthis end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I\nshould bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth\nheareth my voice.\u201d\n\nThen Pilate, annoyed by what seemed to him truculent mystification,\nanswered with the celebrated question: \u201cWhat is truth?\u201d\n\nAnd without waiting for an answer, he rose to go out. The skeptical\nRoman had many times been present at the endless disputes of\nphilosophers, and because he had heard so many contradictory\nmetaphysical contentions and so many sophistical quibblings, had become\nconvinced that truth did not exist, or if it did exist, could never be\nknown by men. He did not dream for a moment that this obscure Jew who\nstood before him as a malefactor could tell him the truth. It was\nPilate\u2019s destiny on that one day of his life to contemplate the face of\ntruth, supreme truth made man, and he could not see it. Living truth,\nthe truth which could have made him a new man, was before him clothed\nwith human flesh and rough garments, with buffeted face, and hands tied.\nBut in his arrogance he did not guess what prodigious good fortune was\nhis, a good fortune which millions of men have envied him after his\ndeath. If any one had told him that because of this one encounter,\nbecause to him was vouchsafed the overwhelming honor of having spoken to\nJesus and having sent Him to the cross, his name would be known,\nalthough in infamy and malediction, through all the centuries and by all\nthe human race, such a prophecy would have seemed to him like the\nfrenzied ravings of a madman. Pilate was blind with an appalling and\nincurable blindness, but Christ on that very day was to pardon even him\nbecause the blind, even less than others, know what they do.\n\n\n                            CLAUDIA PROCULA\n\n\nJust as Pilate was preparing to go out and give his answer to the Jews,\nwho were muttering restlessly and impatiently before the door, a servant\nsent by his wife came up to him, giving him this message: \u201cHave thou\nnothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this\nday in a dream because of him.\u201d\n\nNo one in the four Gospels tells us what impression was made on the\nProcurator by this unexpected intercession from his wife. We know\nnothing of her except her name. According to the Gospel of Nicodemus her\nname was Claudia Procula, and if this name was really hers she may have\nbelonged to the Gente Claudia, distinguished and powerful at Rome. We\nmay thus suppose that she was by birth and connections of a higher\nsocial rank than her husband, and that Pilate, a mere freedman, may have\nowed to her and her influence in Rome his post in Judea.\n\nIf all this was true, certainly the request of Claudia Procula must have\nmade some impression on Pilate, especially if he loved her; and that he\nloved her, at least as a man of his nature could love, seems proved by\nthe fact that he had asked to take her with him into Asia. The Lex\nOppia, although mitigated by a decree of the Senate in the consulship of\nCethegus and Varro, forbade the pro-consuls to take their wives with\nthem, and Pontius Pilate had a special permit from Tiberius allowing\nClaudia Procula to accompany him to Palestine.\n\nThe motives for this intercession, so briefly stated, are mysterious.\nThe words of Matthew refer to a dream in which she had suffered because\nof Jesus: it is probable that she had heard people talking for some time\nof the new Prophet; perhaps she had seen Him, and found Him very\ndifferent from the other Jews. The fact that He was neither a vulgar\ndemagogue nor a hypocritical Pharisee must have been pleasing to the\nimagination of a fanciful Roman woman. She did not understand the\nlanguage spoken in Jerusalem, but some interpreter of the law courts\nmight have repeated to her some of Jesus\u2019 words, words which would have\nconvinced her that He was not, as they said, a dangerous criminal.\n\nIn those days the Romans, especially Roman women, were beginning to feel\nthe attraction of Oriental myths and cults, which gave more satisfaction\nto the longing for personal immortality than the old Latin religion, a\ncold, legal, businesslike exchange of sacrifices to obtain utilitarian\nand political ends. Many patrician women, even in Rome, had been\ninitiated into the mysteries of Mithra, Osiris and of Isis, the Great\nMother, and some showed a certain leaning towards Judaism. In that very\nreign of Tiberius many Jews living in Rome were exiled from the Capital\nbecause, according to Josephus, some of them had deceived a matron\nFulvia\u2014converted to Judaism\u2014and Fulvia, as we see from a reference of\nSuetonius, was not the only one.\n\nIt is not impossible that Claudia Procula, living in Judea, had been\ncurious to know more in detail about the religion of the people governed\nby her husband, and that, curious like all women about new things, she\nhad tried to find out what new doctrines were being preached by the\nGalilean prophet of whom every one in Jerusalem was talking. It is\ncertain that she had become convinced that Jesus was a \u201cjust man\u201d and\nhence innocent. The dream of that night, the terrible dream\u2014for she had\n\u201csuffered many things\u201d in it\u2014had confirmed her in this conviction, and\nit is not surprising that relying on the influence which women have with\ntheir husbands, even if their husbands love them no longer, she sent\nthis imploring message to Pilate.\n\nIt is enough for us that she called Him \u201cThat just man\u201d\u2014the man whom the\nJews wished to assassinate. Together with the Centurion of Capernaum and\nwith the Canaanite woman, Claudia Procula is the first pagan who\nbelieved in Christ, and the Greek Church has good reason to revere her\nas a Saint.\n\nThis message from his wife strengthened Pilate\u2019s reluctance, inclined as\nhe already was to neutrality, if not to clemency, through his animosity\nto Caiaphas, and perhaps through the words of the Accused. Claudia\nProcula had not said, \u201cSave Him\u201d\u2014but: \u201cHave thou nothing to do with that\njust man.\u201d This was Pilate\u2019s idea, also; as if he had a confused\ndivination of the importance of this mysterious beggar who called\nHimself King. At the very first he had ordered the Jews to judge Him,\nthemselves, but they had not been willing to do this. Then another way\nto evade the responsibility occurred to him. He went back to Jesus and\nasked whether He were a Galilean.\n\nThis evasion seemed to promise success. Jesus did not belong to his\njurisdiction, but to that of Herod Antipas. By good luck Herod was there\nat Jerusalem at that very time, come as was his wont for the Passover.\nThe Procurator had found a legitimate subterfuge to satisfy his wife\u2014and\nto free himself from this troublesome perplexity. With one stroke he\nwould ingratiate himself with the Jews, leaving to one of their own race\nthe decisive judgment, and at the same time he would do a bad turn to\nthe patriarch whom he hated with all his heart because he suspected him\nwith good reason of spying on him and tale-bearing to Tiberius. So,\nlosing no time, he ordered the soldiers to take Jesus before Herod.\n\n\n                            THE WHITE CLOAK\n\n\nThe third judge before whom Jesus was led was a son of that\nbloody-minded hog, Herod the Great, by one of his five wives. He was the\ntrue son of his father because he wronged his brothers as his father had\nwronged his sons. When his brother Archelaus, his own half-brother, was\naccused by his subjects, he managed to have him exiled. He robbed his\nother brother Herod of his wife. When he was seventeen years old he\nbegan to reign as Tetrarch over Galilee and over Berea, and to\ningratiate himself with Tiberius, offered himself as a secret\ntale-bearer of the sayings and doings of his brothers and of the Roman\nofficials in Judea. On a voyage to Rome he fell in love with Herodias,\nwho was both his niece and his sister-in-law, since she was the daughter\nof his brother Aristobulus, and wife of his brother Herod, and not\nshrinking from the double incest, he persuaded her to follow him,\ntogether with Salome, the daughter of the adulteress. His first wife,\ndaughter of Aretas, king of the Nabatei, went back to her father, who\ndeclared war on Antipas and defeated him.\n\nThis happened while John the Baptist was beginning to be talked about\namong the people. The prophet let slip some words of condemnation\nagainst these two incestuous adulterers, and this was enough for\nHerodias to persuade her new husband to have him taken and shut up in\nthe fortress of Mach\u00e6rus. Every one knows how the foul Tetrarch,\ninflamed by cruel Salome\u2019s lascivious arts, and perhaps meditating a new\nincest, was forced to offer her the bearded head of the Prophet of Fire\non a golden platter.\n\nBut even after his decapitation John\u2019s shade disturbed Herod, and when\nhe began to hear talk of Jesus and of His miracles he said to his\ncourtiers, \u201cThis is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead.\u201d\n\nIt seems that he kept his eye on the new prophet, and that at one time\nhe thought of serving Him as he had his precursor; but either for\npolitical or superstitious reasons, deciding that he would have no more\nto do with prophets, he saw that the best way was to force Jesus to\nleave his Tetrarchy. One day some Pharisees, very probably acting on\nHerod\u2019s instructions, went to say to Jesus: \u201cGet thee out, and depart\nhence: for Herod will kill thee.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd he said unto them, Go ye and tell that fox ... nevertheless I must\nwalk to-day, and to-morrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that\na prophet perish out of Jerusalem.\u201d\n\nAnd now at Jerusalem near His death, He appeared before that fox. That\ntraitor and spy, incestuous adulterer, assassin of John and enemy of the\nprophets was the most fitting person to condemn innocence. But Jesus had\nnamed him well: he was more fox than tiger, and he shrank from being a\nsubstitute for Pilate. Luke tells us, \u201cWhen Herod saw Jesus he was\nexceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because\nhe had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle\ndone by him.\u201d\n\nThe son of the Idumean and the Samaritan woman had scorched himself in\nJohn\u2019s fire, and he received Jesus as an old tamer of animals, with the\nmarks of the lion\u2019s teeth still on his arm, looks at a new wild animal\nbrought for him to see. But, like all Oriental barbarians, his mind was\nobsessed by prodigies, and he imagined Jesus to be a wandering wizard\nwho could, whenever He wished, repeat some of His sorcery. Herod hated\nHim as he had hated John, but he hated Him partly because he feared Him;\nthe prophets had a power which Herod did not understand and which\nintimidated him: perhaps the beheading of John had brought him bad luck.\nHe too wished Jesus to be killed, but he had no mind to be in any way\nresponsible for His death.\n\nSeeing that there were no miracles to be expected, he began to put many\nquestions, to which Jesus made no answer. He had broken His silence for\nAnnas, for Caiaphas, for Pilate, but He would not for this crowned\nrascal! Annas and Caiaphas were His declared enemies, Pilate was a blind\nman groping along, thinking that he was saving Him, but this Herod was a\ncowardly fox and did not deserve even an insult. The High Priests and\nthe Scribes, fearing that John\u2019s assassin would be too cowardly to kill\nJesus, as in fact he was, had followed their victim there and vehemently\naccused him. These furious accusations and the silence of the accused\nman deepened the hidden rancor of Antipas, who, together with his\nsoldiers, abused the Man of divine silences, threw over his shoulders a\ngorgeous robe, and sent Him again to Pilate.\n\nLike Pilate, but for other reasons, he was not willing to condemn the\nman baptized by John, and who perhaps was John himself returned from the\ndead to avenge himself. But when he sent Him away he made Him a gift\nwhich bears unconscious witness to the rank of the man about to die. The\nmantle, shining with whiteness, was, so Josephus says, the garment of\nthe Jewish Kings, and Jesus was accused of wishing to make Himself King\nof the Jews. Antipas, the astute, wished to ridicule the pretensions of\nJesus by ironically making him a present of the regal robe; but when he\ncovered Him with that whiteness, which is the symbol of innocence and of\nsovereignty, the ignoble fox sent to Pilate a symbolical message which\ninvoluntarily confirmed the message of Claudia Procula, the accusation\nof Caiaphas, and what Christ Himself had said.\n\n\n                              CRUCIFY HIM!\n\n\nPilate had thought that he had succeeded in extracting himself from the\ntroublesome position in which his adversaries had tried to place him.\nBut when he saw Jesus return wrapped in that regal white garment he\nunderstood that he must at any cost get the matter settled.\n\nThe bitter fury of those who for so many reasons were objects of\nsuspicion to him, his wife\u2019s compassion, the answers of Christ, the fact\nthat Antipas had refrained from action, all inclined him to refuse to\ngive the Jews the life for which they were asking. Perhaps while Jesus\nwas with the Tetrarch, Pilate had asked some one of his followers about\nthe pretended King, and the information confirmed him in his decision.\nJesus had never said anything that would be offensive to Pilate: rather\nthere was much in what He said calculated to please the Roman, or at\nleast that would seem advantageous to the authority of Rome.\n\nJesus taught love for enemies, and in Judea the Romans were considered\nenemies; He called the poor blessed, hence He exhorted them to\nresignation and not to revolt; He advised men to render unto C\u00e6sar that\nwhich was C\u00e6sar\u2019s, that is, to pay tribute to the Emperor; He was\nopposed to the Pharisaical formalism which made the relations of the\nRomans with their subjects so difficult; He did not respect the Sabbath;\nHe ate with publicans and with Gentiles; and finally He announced that\nHis Kingdom was not of this world, but of a world so metaphysical and\nremote that it could never endanger Tiberius or his successors. If\nPilate knew these things, he must have said to himself with the\nsuperficiality of all skeptics, especially when they think themselves\nexpert politicians, that it would be a good thing for him and for Rome\nif many Jews followed Jesus, rather than fomented rebellion in the\ncouncils of the Zealots.\n\nHe had therefore decided to save Jesus, but in this indulgence he wanted\nto put a sarcastic note, something that would be offensive to the High\nPriests, who three times had set themselves against him and now were\nimportuning him to be their hangman. Up to the last he would pretend to\ntreat Jesus like the King of the Jews. Here is your King, the King that\nyou deserve, wretched and perfidious people! A village carpenter, a\nvagabond, a beggar, who vapored of reigning beyond earthly life, and who\nas a matter of fact had as followers only a few fishermen and peasants\nand a few silly women. See how wretched He is, how miserable! Why do you\nwant to kill Him? Keep Him; you deserve no better King than He. I will\nfollow your example, will amuse myself a little by tormenting Him, and\nthen I will let Him go.\n\nAnd causing Jesus to be led out, Pilate went to the door and said to the\nHigh Priests and the others who crowded about, their faces thrust\nforward to hear the sentence given at last, \u201cYe have brought this man\nunto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having\nexamined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those\nthings whereof ye accuse him: No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him;\nand lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore\nchastise him and release him.\u201d\n\nThis was not the answer awaited by the ravening hounds, yelling in the\nsquare before the Procurator\u2019s house. A bestial cry burst out from those\ngaping mouths, \u201cKill Him!\u201d\n\nA flogging would be too light a punishment for this dangerous enemy of\nthe God of Armies and the God of Business. Something quite different\nfrom that was necessary to satisfy these butchers of the Temple. They\nhad come to ask for blood and not for pardon.\n\n\u201cKill Him!\u201d yelled Annas and Caiaphas, and with them the Pharisaical\nvipers hissed, the sellers of the holy animals shrieked, the\nmoney-changers, the men who rented beasts of burden, the porters of the\ncaravans. \u201cKill Him!\u201d howled the Scribes, wrapped in their theological\ncloaks, the vendors of the Passover fair, the tavern-keepers of the\nupper city, the Levites, the servants of the Temple, the hired helpers\nof the usurers, the errand boys of the priests, all the servile horde\nassembled before the Procurator\u2019s house.\n\nAs soon as this uproar was a little quieted, Pilate asked, \u201cWhat will ye\nthen that I shall do unto him whom ye call King of the Jews?\u201d\n\nAnd they all answered, \u201cCrucify him!\u201d\n\nBut the Procurator resisted, \u201cWhy, what evil hath he done?\u201d\n\nAnd they cried out the more exceedingly, \u201cCrucify him!\u201d\n\nJesus, pale and calm in the whiteness of the mocking cloak, looked\nquietly at the crowd, which desired to give Him what in His heart He had\nbeen seeking. He was dying for them, with the divine hope of saving even\nthem by His death, and they were assailing Him, howling as if He had\nwished to escape His accepted fate. His friends were not there, were\nhidden; all His people wished to pierce His flesh with nails, and only a\nforeigner, an idolater, defended His life. Why was Pilate not moved to\ncompassion? Why did He not give Him at once to the crucifiers? Did he\nnot realize that his false pity only lengthened and embittered the\nanguish? He loved and it was fitting that He should be hated; He brought\nmen back from death and it was fitting that He should be killed; He\nwished to save others and it was fitting that all men should wish to\ndestroy Him; He was innocent and it was fitting that He should be\nsacrificed.\n\nBut obstinate Pilate did not surrender to the howls of the Jews nor to\nJesus\u2019 silent prayer. At any cost he wanted to win his point. He would\nnot give in once more to that fierce, filthy mob. He had not succeeded\nin transferring to Antipas the disagreeable responsibility of a\ndeath-sentence; he had not succeeded in persuading this tigerish and\nmulish people of the innocence of their wretched king. What they wanted\nwas to see a little blood; on these festival days they wanted to enjoy\nthe spectacle of a crucifixion. He would satisfy them with a bargain,\ngiving them the carcass of a murderer in exchange for the body of an\ninnocent man.\n\n\n                                BARABBAS\n\n\n\u201cI find in him no fault at all. But ye have a custom, that I should\nrelease unto you one at the passover. Whom will ye that I release unto\nyou? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?\u201d\n\nTaken by surprise, the people did not know what to answer. Until then\nthere had been but one name, one victim, one punishment asked for;\neverything was as clear as the sky on that mid-April morning. But now,\nin order to save that scandal-maker, this impertinent pagan brought into\nquestion another name which confused the whole matter. Pilate wanted to\nflog Him only, instead of crucifying Him: and now he wanted to crucify\nanother delinquent in His place. By good fortune the Elders, Scribes and\nPriests were still there and they had no intention of letting Jesus\nescape. In a flash they suggested the right reply. So that when Pilate\nasked them a second time which of the two they wished him to free, they\nanswered with one voice, \u201cAway with this man, and release unto us\nBarabbas!\u201d\n\nHe was not an ordinary delinquent, the man whom the Procurator offered\nas blood-ransom to those men with such a morbid relish for crucifixions.\nThe common tradition has preserved his memory as a street ruffian, a\ncriminal by profession. But his surname\u2014Bar Rabban, which means Son of\nRab, or rather disciple of the Master, since the scholars of the Rabbis\nwere called their sons\u2014shows us that through birth or through study he\nbelonged to the caste of Doctors of Law. Mark and Luke say expressly\nthat he was accused of having committed murder during a sedition, hence\na political assassin. Jesus Barabbas, a student in the school of the\nScribes, lamenting over the loss of the Jewish Kingdom, and hating\nJudea\u2019s pagan masters, was probably a Zealot and had been captured in\none of the unsuccessful revolts, so common at that time. Was it likely\nthat such an absurd bargain would satisfy the Sadducee and Pharisee\nassembly which shared the sentiments of the Zealots, even if for reasons\nof state they hid them, or out of weakness of soul forgot them?\n\nBarabbas, although an assassin, and indeed precisely because he was an\nassassin\u2014was a patriot, a martyr, persecuted by the foreigners. Jesus,\non the other hand, although He had never killed any one, had wished to\noverturn the law of Moses, and to ruin the Temple. The first, in short,\nwas a sort of national hero, the other an enemy of the nation: there\ncould be no doubt about their choice. \u201cFree Barabbas! Let this man die!\u201d\nOnce more Pontius Pilate had failed to save Christ or himself. He ought\nto have realized before this, that the leaders of the Jews would not\nloose their hold on the flesh into which they had already set their\nteeth, the only flesh which could stay their hunger. Their need for it\nthat day was like their need for bread and air. They would not have left\nthat spot, not even to eat, until they had seen that Bastard Messiah\nfastened with four nails upon two beams.\n\nPontius Pilate was cowardly. He was afraid that he was committing an\ninjustice; he was afraid of displeasing his wife; he was afraid of\ngiving satisfaction to his enemies; but at the same time he was afraid\nto put Jesus in a place of safety; he was afraid to have his soldiers\ndisperse that sullen, arrogant crowd; he was afraid to decide with a\nclear-cut act of authority that Jesus, the innocent man, should be\nreleased, and not Barabbas, the assassin. A real Roman, a Roman of\nantiquity, of the true Roman stock, would either at once have satisfied\nthe demands of that turbulent crowd and would not have wasted a moment\nin defending an obscure visionary; or would at once have decreed, from\nthe beginning, that this man was innocent and was under the august\nprotection of the Empire.\n\nBy his stratagems, half-measures, indolent questionings, hesitations and\npartially executed maneuvers Pilate found himself slowly pushed towards\na decision he did not wish to make. The fact that he had not at once\ndecided the question with a yes or no had increased the insolence of the\nHigh Priests and the excitement of the people. Now there were only two\nalternatives: either to give in shamefully after resisting so long, or\nto risk starting a tumult which on those days, when Jerusalem included\nalmost a third of the population of Judea, might become a perilous\nuprising.\n\nUndone by his cowardly wavering, deafened by the yells, the only thing\nthat came into his mind was to ask once more the advice of men to whom\nhe should have issued orders.\n\n\u201cWhat shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?\u201d\n\n\u201cCrucify him, let him be crucified!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy, what evil hath he done?\u201d\n\n\u201cCrucify him! Crucify him!\u201d\n\nWhat affair is it of this odious foreigner if Jesus had done evil or\nnot? According to our faith He is an impostor, a blasphemer, an enemy of\nthe people and deserves death. Even if He has done no evil He deserves\ndeath because His words are more dangerous than any wicked actions.\n\n\u201cCrucify him! Crucify him!\u201d\n\n\u201cTake ye him and crucify him,\u201d cried Pilate, \u201cfor I find no fault in\nhim.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself\nthe Son of God.\u201d\n\nThe silence of Jesus was more potent than this bestial outcry. They were\nfighting for the possession of His body, and He seemed scarcely to be\naware of it. He knew that from the beginning of time His destiny was\nsealed and that this was His day. The battle was so uneven! On one side\na Gentile, who knew nothing and understood nothing of Him, who did not\ndefend Him through love but through Hate, who did not defend Him openly\nbut with tricks and quibbles, who was more afraid of a revolt than of an\ninjustice, who was stubborn through punctilio and not because of his\ncertainty of Christ\u2019s innocence. On the other hand, a threatened clergy,\na vindictive bourgeoisie, a crowd, like all crowds, easily incited to\nevil deeds. It was easy enough to foresee the outcome.\n\nBut Pontius Pilate would not yield the point. He would restore Barabbas\nto his accomplices, but he would not give up Jesus. His first idea came\ninto his head again: to have Him scourged; perhaps when they saw the\nbruises and the blood dripping from His back they would be satisfied\nwith that punishment and would leave in peace the innocent man who\nlooked with equal pity on the cowardly shepherd and the unruly wolves.\n\nThe Procurator had said that he found no fault with Him, and yet he was\nto have Him scourged with rods. This contradiction, this half-injustice,\nthis compromise, is characteristic of Pilate. But it was to be of no\navail; like his other efforts, it was merely to add one more shame to\nhis final defeat.\n\nThe Jews were still shrieking, \u201cLet him be crucified!\u201d But Pilate went\nback into his house and gave Jesus over to the Roman soldiers to be\nflogged.\n\n\n                             A CROWNED KING\n\n\nThe mercenaries, who (in the provinces) were the majority in the\nlegions, had been waiting for this decision. Throughout the long dispute\nthe soldiers of the Procurator\u2019s guard had been obliged to look on,\nsilent and motionless, at this mysterious colonial uproar, of which only\none thing seemed clear to them, that their commanding officer was not\ncutting the best figure. For a while they had been amused by watching\nthe sinister faces, the excitability and the gesticulation of that\nJewish swarm; and they had become aware that the Procurator, somber and\nperplexed, was vainly trying to unravel the tangled threads of this\nearly-morning quarrel. They kept their eyes on him, as dogs watch an\nunskillful hunter, circling about without making up his mind to fire,\nalthough the quarry is close at hand.\n\nNow at last something to their taste happened. They were to have their\nturn at amusing themselves. To flog a Jew, hated by the Jews themselves,\nwas an amusement neither dangerous nor very tiring,\u2014just enough to\nexercise their arms, to stretch the muscles contracted by the morning\nchill, and to start the blood circulating.\n\nAll the company was ordered into the court-yard of the palace, and the\nwhite cloak given by Antipas was taken from Jesus\u2019 back\u2014the first spoils\nof the enterprise\u2014together with part of His other clothes. The lictors\nchose the rods, and the strongest among the soldiers snatched at them.\nThey were practical people who knew how to flog energetically and\naccording to the rules.\n\nJesus, half of His body bared, tied to a pillar, that He might not\nlessen the force of the blows by bending forward, silently prayed to the\nFather for the soldiers about to scourge Him. Had He not said: \u201cLove\nthose who hate you, do good to those who persecute you, offer the left\ncheek to him who has struck the right\u201d? At that moment He could reward\nhis scourgers only by interceding with God for their forgiveness. These\nsoldiers were prisoners as much as He, and they knew not whom they were\nflogging with such innocent heartiness. They themselves had been flogged\nsometimes for small breaches of discipline, and they saw nothing out of\nthe way in the fact that the Procurator, a Roman officer, had them\nscourge a delinquent belonging to a subject and inferior race.\n\nStrike hard, O legionaries, for of this blood which now begins to flow,\nsome drops are shed for you. This was the first blood drawn by men from\nthe Son of Man. At the Last Supper His blood had been symbolized by the\nwine, on the Mount of Olives the blood which mixed with the sweat, stood\nin drops on His face, came from a suffering altogether spiritual and\ninner. But now, at last, men\u2019s hands shed blood from the veins of\nChrist; knotty hands of soldiers in the service of the rich and the\npowerful, hands which wield the scourge before taking up the nails. That\nlivid back, swollen and bloody, was ready for the cross; torn and raw as\nit was, it would add to the suffering of crucifixion when they stretched\nit out on the rough wood of the cross. Now they could stop, the\ncourtyard of the cowardly stranger was stained with blood. Servants that\nvery day might wash away those spots, but they would start out again on\nthe well-washed white hands of Pontius Pilate.\n\nThe number of blows prescribed had been duly administered, but now,\nafter their taste of amusement, the legionaries did not wish to let\ntheir plaything escape at once. All they had done so far was to execute\nan order; now they wished to have some entertainment of their own. This\nman, so said the Jews howling out there in the public square, pretended\nto be a king. Let us give Him His wish, this madman, and thus we will\nenrage those who refuse Him His royal dignity.\n\nA soldier took off his scarlet cloak, the red chlamys of the\nlegionaries, and threw it over those shoulders, red with blood; another\ntook up a handful of dry thorns, kindling for the brazier of the\nnight-watch, twisted a couple of them together like a crown and put it\non His head; a third had a slave give Him a reed and forced it into the\nfingers of His right hand; then, roaring with laughter, they pushed Him\nupon a seat. One by one, passing before Him, they bent their knees\nawkwardly, crying: \u201cHail, King of the Jews!\u201d\n\nBut some were not satisfied with this burlesque homage, and one of them\nstruck a blow at the cheek, still showing the marks of the fingers of\nCaiaphas\u2019 servants; one, snatching the reed out of His hand, gave Him a\nblow on the head, so that the thorns of His crown pierced the skin and\nmade about His forehead a border of drops red as His cloak.\n\nThey would perhaps have thought of some other amusing diversion if the\nProcurator, coming up when they were making merry, had not ordered them\nto lead the scourged King outside. The jocose disguise invented by the\nlegionaries fitted in with the sarcastic intention of Pilate. He smiled,\nand taking Jesus by the hand, led Him to the crowd of wild animals\nthere, and cried: \u201cBehold the man!\u201d\n\n\n                        THE WASHING OF THE HANDS\n\n\n\u201cBehold the man!\u201d\n\nAnd he turned Christ\u2019s shoulders towards that expanse of yelling muzzles\nthat they might see the welts left by the rods, red with oozing blood.\nIt was as if he said: Look at Him, your King, the only King that you\ndeserve, in His true majesty, tricked out as befits such a King. His\ncrown is of sharp thorns; His purple cloak is the chlamys of a\nmercenary; His scepter is a dry reed. These are the ornaments merited by\nyour degraded King, unjustly rejected by a degraded people like\nyourselves. Was it His blood you desired? Here is His blood; see how it\ndrops from the thorns of His crown. There is not much of it, but it\nought to be enough for you, since it is innocent blood. It is shed as a\ngreat favor to you\u2014to satisfy you. And now be off from here, for you\nhave troubled me long enough!\n\nBut the Jews were quieted neither by these words nor by that spectacle.\nThey demanded something quite other than a flogging and a masquerade\nbefore they would go their ways. Pilate thought that he could make mock\nof them, but he would realize that this was no time for feeble jokes.\nThey had had the best of him twice already and they would again. A few\nbruises and a practical joke played by the soldiery were not enough to\npunish this enemy of God as He deserved; there were trees in Judea and\nnails to nail Him to them. And their hoarse voices shouted all together,\n\u201cLet him be crucified! Let him be crucified!\u201d\n\nToo late Pilate realized that they had driven him into a tangle from\nwhich he could not disengage himself. All his decisions were combated\nwith a pertinacity he had not foreseen. By a flash of inspiration he had\npronounced the great words, \u201cBehold the man!\u201d But he himself did not\nunderstand that proclamation which transcended his base soul. He did not\nrealize that he had found the truth he was seeking: a half-truth, but\ndeeper than all the teachings of the philosophers of Rome and Greece. He\ndid not understand how Jesus was really Man, the symbol of all humanity,\nsorrowing and humiliated, betrayed by its rulers, deceived by its\nmasters, crucified every day by the Kings who oppress their subjects, by\nthe rich who cause the poor to weep, by priests who think of their\nbellies rather than of God. Jesus is the Man of Sorrows announced by\nIsaiah, the man without form or comeliness, despised and rejected of\nmen, who was to be killed for all men; He is God\u2019s only son who had\ntaken on man\u2019s flesh, and who would ascend in the glory of power and of\nthe new sun, in the midst of the blaring of the trumpets calling the\ndead to life. But now to the eyes of Pilate, to the eyes of Pilate\u2019s\nenemies, He was only a wretched, insignificant man, flesh for rods and\nfor nails, a man and not Man, a mortal and not a God. Why did Pilate\nlose time with those sibylline remarks before delivering Him to the\nexecutioner?\n\nAnd yet Pilate still did not yield. Standing beside that silent man, the\nRoman felt his heart heavy with an oppression he had never known before.\nWho could this man be whom all the people wished to kill, and whom he\ncould neither save nor sacrifice? He turned once more to Jesus, \u201cWhence\nart thou?\u201d\n\nBut Jesus gave him no answer.\n\n\u201cSpeakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to\ncrucify thee, and have power to release thee?\u201d\n\nThen the insulted King raised His head, \u201cThou couldest have no power at\nall against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that\ndelivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.\u201d\n\nCaiaphas and his associates were the guilty ones; the others were dogs\nincited by Caiaphas, mere tools of Caiaphas. Even Pilate was only an\nindocile instrument of priestly hatred and of the Divine will.\n\nBut the Procurator in his perplexity found no new expedient to free\nhimself from the net about him, and returned to his fixed idea, \u201cBehold\nyour King!\u201d\n\nThe Jews, infuriated by this repeated insult, burst out, enraged, \u201cIf\nthou let this man go, thou art not C\u00e6sar\u2019s friend; whosoever maketh\nhimself a king speaketh against C\u00e6sar.\u201d\n\nAt last they had hit on the right words to bring pressure on weak,\ncowardly Pilate. Every Roman magistrate, no matter how high his rank,\ndepended on C\u00e6sar\u2019s favor. Pilate\u2019s reputation might be ruined by an\naccusation of this sort, presented with ability, by malicious\nadvocates\u2014and there were plenty of those among the Hebrews, as was shown\nlater by the memorial of Philo. But in spite of the threat, Pilate cried\nout his last and weakest question, \u201cShall I crucify your king?\u201d\n\nThe High Priests, feeling that they were on the point of winning,\nanswered with their last lie, \u201cWe have no king but C\u00e6sar.\u201d\n\nPilate surrendered. He was forced to yield unless he wished to start an\nuproar which might set all Judea on fire. His conscience did not disturb\nhim: had he not tried everything possible to save this man who did not\nwish to save Himself?\n\nHe had tried to save Him by referring the matter to the Sanhedrin, which\ncould not pronounce a death sentence; he had tried to save Him by\nsending Him to Herod; he had tried to save Him by affirming that he\nfound no fault in Him; he had tried to save Him by offering to free Him\nin the place of Barabbas; he had tried to save Him by having Him\nscourged in the hope that this ignominious punishment would pacify them;\nhe had tried to save Him by seeking to arouse a little pity in those\nhardened hearts. But all his maneuvers had failed, and he certainly did\nnot wish the whole province to rise on account of that unfortunate\nProphet; and even less was he willing that on His account they should\naccuse him before Tiberius and have him deposed.\n\nPilate thought himself innocent of the blood of this innocent man. And\nin order that they might all have a visible representation of that\ninnocence which they would not forget, he had a basin of water brought\nto him and washed his hands there before them all, saying, \u201cI am\ninnocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.\u201d\n\nThen answered all the people and said, \u201cHis blood be on us, and on our\nchildren.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus he\ndelivered him to be crucified.\u201d\n\nBut the water which flowed over his hands was not enough to cleanse\nthem. His hands are still blood-stained, and will be to all eternity. He\nmight have saved Christ if he had really wished. Jesus was sent to\nGolgotha by Pilate\u2019s subterfuges, by the multiple forms taken by the\ncowardice of Pilate\u2019s soul, poisoned by the irony of skeptics. He would\nhave been less base if he had really believed Christ guilty and had\ngiven his consent to the assassination. But he knew that there was no\nfault in Jesus, that Jesus was a just man as Claudia Procula had said,\nas he himself had repeated after her. There is no excuse for a man in\nauthority who, fearing for himself, allows a just man to be killed: he\nholds office in order to protect the just against assassins. But Pilate\nsaid, \u201cI have done everything that I could to save Him from the hands of\nthe unjust.\u201d That was not true; he had tried many ways, but not the only\nway which could have succeeded. He had not offered himself, had not\nsacrificed himself, had not been willing to risk his dignity and his\nfortune. The Jews hated Jesus, but they also hated Pilate, who had\nharassed and derided them so many times. Instead of proposing the\nseditious Barabbas in exchange for Jesus, he ought to have proposed\nhimself, Pontius Pilate, Procurator of Judea, and perhaps the people\nmight have accepted the bargain. No other victim except himself would\nhave satisfied the rage of the Jews. It would not have been necessary\nfor him to die. It would have been enough to let them denounce him to\nC\u00e6sar as C\u00e6sar\u2019s enemy. Tiberius would have deposed him and perhaps have\nbanished him, but he would have taken into exile and into disgrace a\ncomforting certainty of innocence. Little did his shifts avail him; for\nthe fate he now sought to avert by giving Jesus over into the hands of\nhis adversaries fell upon him a few years later. The Jews and the\nSamaritans accused him; the Governor of Syria deposed him, and Caligula\nbanished him to the frontiers of Gaul. But he was followed into his\nexile by the shade of that great, silent man, assassinated with his\nconsent. In vain had he constructed in Jerusalem the great reservoir\nfull of water, in vain had he washed himself with that water before the\nmultitude. That water was Jewish water, turbid and ill-omened water that\ndid not cleanse. No washing will ever cleanse his hands from the stains\nleft on them by the divine blood of Christ.\n\n\n                              GOOD FRIDAY\n\n\nThe sun rose higher in the clear April sky and now it was near to noon.\nThe contest between the flaccid defender and the furious assailants had\nwasted most of the morning, and there was no time to lose. According to\nMosaic law, the bodies of executed criminals could not remain after\nsunset on the place of punishment, and April days are not as long as\nJune days.\n\nMoreover, Caiaphas, re\u00ebnforced though he was by so many furiously\nenraged partisans, could not draw a tranquil breath until the Vagabond\u2019s\nfeet were forever halted, fastened with iron nails on the cross. He\nremembered how, a few days before, Jesus had entered the city surrounded\nwith waving branches and joyful hymns. He was sure of the city itself,\nbut at this period it was full of provincials come from everywhere, who\nhad not the same interests and the same passions as the clientele\ndependent on the Temple. Those Galileans especially, who had followed\nHim until now, who loved Him, might make some effort at resistance and\nput off, even if they did not actually prevent, the real votive offering\nof that day.\n\nPilate, too, was in haste to have that troublesome, innocent man taken\naway. He did not wish to think of Him again. He hoped that he would\nforget after His death that look, those words and, above all, his own\ncorroding uneasiness, so painfully like remorse. Although he had washed\nand dried his hands, that man in His silence, it seemed to him, was\nsentencing him to a penalty worse than death itself. Before that\nscourged man, at the point of death, he felt himself the guilty one. To\nvent his uneasiness on those who really caused it, he dictated the\nwording of the titulus or superscription, which the condemned man was to\nwear about His neck until it was fastened above His head at the top of\nthe cross, as follows: \u201cJesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.\u201d The\nScribe wrote these words three times in three languages in clear, red\nletters on the white wood.\n\nThe leaders of the Jews, who had remained there, craning their necks, to\nhasten the preparations, read this sarcastic inscription and protested.\nThey said to Pilate, \u201cWrite not, The King of the Jews; but that he said,\nI am King of the Jews.\u201d\n\nBut the Procurator cut them short with a dry brevity: \u201cWhat I have\nwritten I have written.\u201d\n\nThese are the last words recorded of him, and the most profound! I am\nforced to make you a present of the life of this man, but I do not deny\nwhat I have said. Jesus is a Nazarene, which means also, saint. And He\nis your King, the wretched King who fits your wretchedness. I wish all\nmen to know how your ill-born race treats saints and kings. It is for\nthis I have written these words in Latin and Greek as well as in Hebrew.\nAnd now be off, for I have endured you long enough, \u201cQuod scripsi,\nscripsi.\u201d\n\nIn the meantime the soldiers had put back on the King His poor man\u2019s\ngarments and had tied the notice about His neck. Others had brought out\nfrom the storerooms three massive crosses of pine, the nails, the hammer\nand the pincers. The escort was ready. Pilate pronounced the usual\nformula: \u201cI lictor, expedi crucem.\u201d And the sinister procession moved\nforward.\n\nThe Centurion rode at the head, he whom Tacitus calls with terrible\nbrevity, \u201cexactor mortis.\u201d Immediately after him came, in the midst of\nthe armed legionaries, Jesus and the two thieves who were to be\ncrucified with Him. Each of them carried a cross on his shoulders,\naccording to the Roman rule. And behind them, the shuffling steps and\nthe uproar of the excited crowd, increased at every step by accomplices\nand idle sight-seers.\n\nIt was Parasceve, the day of preparations, the last night before the\nPassover. Thousands of lambs\u2019 skins were stretched out on the sunlit\nroofs; and from every house rose a column of smoke, delicate as a\nflower-bud, which opened out in the air and then was lost in the clear,\nfestal sky. Old women with malignant faces, mumbling anathemas, emerged\nfrom the dark alley-ways; dirty-faced little children trotted along with\nbundles under their arms; bearded men carried on their shoulders a kid\nor a cask of wine; drovers were dragging along asses with hanging heads;\nchildren stared with impudent and melancholy eyes at the foreigners who\nwere walking about circumspectly, impeded by this festal bustling. In\nevery home the house-mother was busy, preparing everything needful for\nthe next day, because with the setting of the sun every one was exempt\nfor twenty-four hours from the curse of Adam. The lambs, skinned and\nquartered, were all ready for the fire; the loaves of unleavened bread\nwere piled up fresh from the oven; men were decanting the wine, and the\nchildren to lend a hand somewhere were cleaning the bitter herbs.\n\nThere was no one idle, no one whose heart was not rejoicing at the\nthought of that festal day of repose, when all families would be\ngathered about the father, when they would eat in peace and drink the\nwine of Thanksgiving from the same cup; and God would be witness of this\ncheer because the psalms of the grateful would go up to Him from every\nhouse. On that day even the poor felt themselves almost rich; and the\nrich, because of their unusual profits, felt themselves almost generous;\nand children whose hopes had not yet been dashed by experience of life\nfelt themselves more loving; and women more loved.\n\nEverywhere there was that peaceful confusion, that good-natured tumult,\nthat joyous bustle which goes before a great, popular feast-day. An odor\nof hope and of Spring purified the old filth of the Jewish ant-heap. And\nthe great eastern sun sent down a flood of light upon the four Hills.\n\n\n                            SIMON OF CYRENE\n\n\nUnder that festal sky, through that festal crowd, slow as a funeral\nprocession, the sinister column of the bearers of the cross made its\nway. About them everything spoke of joy and of life, and they were going\nto burning thirst and to death. About them all men were waiting joyfully\nto spend the evening with their loved ones, to sit down at the\nwell-garnished table, to drink the bright, genial wine served on\nfeast-days, to stretch themselves out on their beds to wait for the most\nlonged-for Sabbath morning of the year. And the three, cut off forever\nfrom those who loved them, would be stretched upon the cross of infamy,\nwould drink only a sip of bitter wine, and, cold in death, would be\nthrown into the cold earth.\n\nAt the sound of the Centurion\u2019s horse, people stepped to one side and\nstopped to look at the wretched men toiling and sweating under their\nterrible burden. The two thieves seemed more sturdy and callous, but the\nfirst, the Man of Sorrows, seemed scarcely able to take another step.\nWorn out by the terrible night, by His four questionings, by the\nbuffetings, by the beatings, by the flogging, disfigured with blood,\nsweat, saliva, and by the terrible effort of this last task set Him, He\ndid not seem like the fearless young man who a few days before had\nscourged the vermin out of the Temple. His fair, shining face was drawn\nand contracted by the convulsions of pain; His eyes, red with suppressed\ntears, were sunken in their sockets; on His shoulders, torn by the rods,\nHis clothes clung to the wounds, increasing His sufferings; His legs,\nmore than His other members, felt this terrible weakness, and they bent\nunder His weight and under that of the cross. \u201cThe spirit is willing but\nthe flesh is weak.\u201d After the vigil, which had been the beginning of His\nagony, how many blows had been struck upon that flesh! Judas\u2019 kiss, the\nflight of His friends, the rope on His wrists, the threats of the\njudges, the blows of the guard, the cowardice of Pilate, the howling\ndemands for His death, the insults of the legionaries, and now this\nweight of the cross, carried along amid the sneers and scoffing of those\nwhom He loved!\n\nThose who saw Him pass took no notice of Him, or at the most, those who\nknew how to read tried to make out the inscription which hung down on\nHis chest. Many, however, knew Him by sight and by name, and pointed Him\nout to their neighbors with learned and complacent airs. Some of them\nmingled with the crowd, following behind to enjoy to the end the\nspectacle, always new, of a man\u2019s death; and more would have followed if\nit had not been a day when there was much to do at home. Those who had\nbegun to hope in Him now despised Him because He had not been stronger,\nbecause He had let Himself be taken like any sneak-thief; and to\ningratiate themselves with the Priests and Elders mingled with the\ncrowd, they cast out at the false Messiah as He went by some neatly\nphrased insult. Very few were those who felt any movement of pity to see\nHim in that situation and among those few were some who did not know who\nHe was, who were moved merely by the natural pity which any crowd feels\nfor condemned men. Some few there were who still felt a little love in\ntheir hearts for the Master who had loved the poor, who had healed the\nsick, who had announced the Kingdom so much more righteous and holy than\nthe kingdoms then in existence and ruining the earth. But these were\nfew, and they were almost ashamed of that secret tenderness for one whom\nthey had believed to be less hated or more powerful. The greater part\nlaughed, satisfied and contented, as if this funeral procession had been\na part of the feast-day.\n\nOnly some women, their heads wrapped in their cloaks, came behind all\nthe rest, weeping, but trying to hide this seditious grief.\n\nThey had not yet come to the Gate of Gardens, but they were almost there\nwhen Jesus, His strength utterly exhausted, fell to the ground and lay\nthere stretched under His cross. His face had suddenly gone white as\nsnow; the reddened eyelids were dropped over His eyes; He would have\nseemed dead if it had not been for the painful breath coming and going\nthrough His half-open mouth.\n\nThey all stopped, and a dense circle of jeering men stretched out their\nfaces and hands towards the fallen man. The Jews, who had followed Him\nfrom Caiaphas\u2019 house, would not listen to reason.\n\n\u201cHe is only pretending,\u201d they cried. \u201cLift Him up! He is a hypocrite! He\nought to carry the cross to the last! That is the law! Give Him a kick,\nas you would to an ass, and let Him get along!\u201d\n\nOthers said, \u201cLook at the great King who was to conquer Kingdoms. He\ncannot manage even two sticks of wood, and yet He wanted to wear armor.\nHe said that He was more than a man, and see, He is a womanish creature\nwho faints away at the first work given Him. He made paralytics walk and\nHe Himself cannot stand up. Give Him a cup of wine to bring back His\nstrength.\u201d\n\nBut the Centurion who, like Pilate, was in great haste to finish his\ndistasteful task, was experienced in the handling of men, and saw\nclearly that the unfortunate Jesus would never be able to drag the cross\nalong all the way to Golgotha. He cast his eyes about to find some one\nto carry that weight. Just at that moment there came in from the country\na Cyrenian called Simon, who, at the sight of so many people, had\nstepped into the crowd and was looking with an astonished and pitying\nexpression at the body prostrate and panting under the two beams. The\nCenturion saw that he had a kindly look, and furthermore that he was\nstrongly built, and called to him, saying, \u201cTake this cross and come\nafter us.\u201d\n\nWithout a word the Cyrenian obeyed, perhaps out of goodness of heart,\nbut in any case from necessity, because the Roman soldiers in the\ncountries which they occupied had the right to force any one to help\nthem. \u201cIf a soldier gives you some task to do,\u201d wrote Arrian, \u201cbe\ncareful not to resist him and not to murmur, otherwise you will be\nbeaten.\u201d\n\nWe know nothing more of the merciful-hearted man who lent his broad\ncountryman\u2019s shoulders to lighten Jesus\u2019 load, but we know that his\nsons, Alexander and Rufus, were Christians, and it is extremely probable\nthat they were converted by their father\u2019s telling them of the death of\nwhich he was an enforced witness.\n\nTwo soldiers helped the fallen man up on His feet, and urged Him\nforward. The procession took up its way again under the noon-day sun,\nbut the two thieves muttered between their teeth that no one thought of\nthem, and that it was not right that that other man by pretending to\nfall should be freed of His burden while they still were forced to carry\ntheirs. It was favoritism, nothing less, especially as that fellow, to\nhear what the priests said about Him, was much more guilty than they.\nFrom that moment His two companions in punishment, jealous of Him, began\nto hate Him, and were to insult Him even when they were nailed at His\nside on the crosses which they were then carrying on their backs.\n\n\n                              FORGIVE THEM\n\n\nThe Centurion halted outside the old walled city, in the midst of the\nyoung verdure of the suburban gardens. The city of Caiaphas did not\nallow capital punishment within its walls; the air perfumed with the\nvirtue of the Pharisees would be polluted; and the soft hearts of the\nSadducees would be distressed; hence, condemned prisoners were expelled\nfrom the city before their death.\n\nThey had stopped on the summit of a rounded mound of limestone\nresembling a skull. This resemblance might seem to be the reason for\nchoosing this place for executions, but the real reason was rather\nbecause the two great roads from Jaffa and Damascus crossed each other\nclose at hand, and it was well that the cross should show its terrible\nwarning to the traveling multitude of pilgrims, merchants and\nprovincials.\n\nThe sun, the benign sun of the solstice, the high noon-day sun, shone on\nthe white mound and on the mattocks ringing sonorously in the rock. In\nthe nearby gardens the spring flowers expanded in the mild air; singing\nbirds, hidden in the trees, rent the sky with the silver arrows of their\nwarblings; doves flew about in pairs in the warm, pastoral peace. It\nwould be sweet to live there in some well-watered garden beside a well,\nin the perfume of the earth awakening and clothing itself, awaiting the\nharvest moon, in company with loving friends! Days of Galilee, days of\npeace, days of sunshine and friendship among the vineyards, beside the\nlake, days of light and liberty, wandering with friends who listened\nunderstandingly, days drawing to a close with the well-earned\ncheerfulness of supper, days which seemed eternal, although they were so\nshort!\n\nNow Thou hast no one with Thee, Jesus, called the Christ. These soldiers\npreparing that appalling bed, these thieves insulting Thee, those hounds\nawaiting Thy blood, are only shadows, cast by the great shadow of God.\nThou art alone as Thou wert alone at night; the sun that warms Thy\nassassins is not for Thee. Before Thee lies no other day, no other\njourney; ended are Thy wanderings and now at last Thou canst rest; this\nskull of rock is Thy goal. A few hours hence, Thine imprisoned spirit\nshall be torn from its dungeon.\n\nGod\u2019s human face is wet with cold sweat. The blows of the mattocks ring\nin His head, as if they struck at Him; the sun which He loved so much,\nsymbol of the Father, just even to the unjust, now falls harshly on His\naching eyes and swollen eyelids. His whole body aches with weariness,\ntrembles in a yearning for rest which He resists with all His soul. Has\nHe not promised to suffer as much as is needful up to the very last? At\nthe same time it seems to Him that He loves with a more intimate\ntenderness those whom He is leaving, even those who are working for His\ndeath. And from the depths of His soul, like a song of victory over the\ntorn and weary flesh, rise up the words, never to be forgotten by men,\n\u201cFather, forgive them; for they know not what they do.\u201d\n\nNo more divine prayer was ever raised to Heaven since men have lived and\nprayed; it is not the prayer of a man, but of a God to a God. Men, who\ncannot pardon even the innocence of an innocent man, had never before\nthat day dreamed that a man might pray for the forgiveness of those who\nwere putting him to death.\n\nFor they know not what they do! Wrongs consciously wrought cannot be\nabsolved without assurance of repentance. But the ignorance of men is so\nappallingly great that only a few really know what they do.\n\nJesus had taught what men should know; but how many knew it? Even His\nown Disciples, the only ones to know that Jesus was Christ, had been\novercome by the fear of losing this last remnant of their lives; even as\nthey fled away, they had shown that they did not know what they did. And\neven more ignorant of what they really did were the Pharisees, fearful\nof losing their pre\u00ebminence; the Doctors, fearful of losing their\nprivileges; the rich, fearful of losing their money; Pilate, fearful of\nlosing his office; and most ignorant of all were the Jews, misled by\ntheir leaders, and the soldiers obedient to orders. None of them knew\nwho Christ was and what He came to do, and why He was killed. Some of\nthem were to know it, but afterwards, and they came to know it only\nthrough the intercession of the Man whom they were killing.\n\nNow, at the point of death, He had confirmed His most difficult and\ndivine teaching, \u201cLove for enemies,\u201d and He could now hold out His hands\nto the hammer. The crosses had been raised; now they were piling stones\nabout them to steady them under the weight, and were filling the holes\nwith earth, stamping it down with their feet.\n\nThe women of Jerusalem approached the condemned Man with a pitcher. It\ncontained a mixture of wine, incense and myrrh, which the executioners,\nout of the goodness of their hearts, imagined would dull consciousness.\nThose very people who were making Him suffer pretended as a last insult\nthat they had mercy on that suffering, and by reducing it by the merest\ntrifle they thought they had the greater right to demand that the rest\nof the cup of suffering be drained. But Jesus, as soon as He had tasted\nthis mixture, bitter as gall, pushed it away. He would have accepted a\nsingle word in place of the wine, but the only one on that day who could\nfind the word to say was one of the thieves whom they had dragged up to\nthe place of the skull with Him.\n\nThe incense and the myrrh which they offered Him on that day were not\nperfumed like that incense and myrrh brought to Him in the stable by the\nWise Men from the distant Orient. And in place of the gold which had\nlighted the dingy darkness of the stable, there was the iron of the\nnails, gray now, waiting to be reddened. And that wine which seemed\npoisoned so bitter was it, was not the genial nuptial wine of Cana, nor\nthat which He had drunk the evening before, warm and dark as blood\ndripping from a wound.\n\n\n                               FOUR NAILS\n\n\nOn the top of the hill of the Skull the three crosses, tall, dark, with\noutspread beams like giants with outstretched arms, stood out against\nthe great sweep of the sweet spring sky. They threw no shadow, but they\nwere outlined by brilliant reflections from the sun. The beauty of the\nworld on that day in that hour was so great that tortures were\nunthinkable; could they not, those wooden branches, blossom out with\nfield flowers, and be wreathed with garlands of tender green, hiding the\nscaffold with verdure, in the shade of which reconciled and friendly\nbrothers might sit down?\n\nBut the Priests, the Scribes, the Pharisees, those who gloated over\nsuffering and over revenge, who had come there to satisfy their morbid\nappetites with the spectacle of three deaths, were stamping with\nimpatience, and jeeringly hastening on the Romans.\n\nThe Centurion gave an order. Two soldiers approached Jesus and with\nrapid, rough gestures removed all His clothes. The criminal condemned to\ncrucifixion must be entirely naked.\n\nAs soon as He was stripped, they passed two ropes under His armpits, and\nhoisted Him up on the cross. Half-way up on the upright was a rough\nwooden peg like a seat where the body was to find a precarious and\npainful support. Another soldier leaned the ladder against one of the\narms of the cross, climbed up on it, hammer in hand, seized the hand\nwhich had cured lepers and caressed little children\u2019s hair, spread it\nout on the wood and drove a nail into the middle of the palm. The nails\nwere long, and with a wide head so that they could be easily hammered.\nThe soldier struck a vigorous blow, which pierced the flesh at once, and\nthen another and a third so that the nail would hold firmly and so that\nonly the head would remain outside. A little blood spurted out from the\npierced hand upon the hammering hand, but the diligent workman paid no\nattention to it, and continued to hammer away vigorously until his work\nwas properly done. Then he came down the ladder and did the same to the\nother hand.\n\nAll the spectators had fallen silent, hoping to hear screams from the\ncondemned man. But Jesus was silent before His executioners as He had\nbeen silent before His judges.\n\nNow they turned their attention to the feet. This was work which could\nbe done standing on the ground, for the Roman crosses were set so low\nthat, if the bodies of the executed criminals were left on them too\nlong, prowling dogs and jackals could tear out their bowels and eat\nthem.\n\nThe soldier who was nailing Christ on the cross now lifted up His knees\nso that the soles of His feet should be flat against the wood, and\ntaking the measure so that the iron nail should be long enough to go\nthrough the instep, he pierced the first foot, and drove the nail home.\nHe did the same to the other foot, and at the end glanced up, still with\nhis hammer in his hand, to see if he had finished his work, and if\nanything was lacking. He remembered the scroll which they had taken from\nJesus\u2019 neck and flung down on the ground. He picked it up, climbed again\nup the ladder, and with two nails fastened it on the upright of the\ncross, above the thorn-crowned head.\n\nThen he came down the ladder for the last time, threw away his hammer,\nand looked to see if his companions had finished their work. The\nthieves, too, were now in place and all three crosses had their\nflesh-offerings. The soldiers could rest and divide the garments which\nhenceforth the men up there on the crosses needed no more. This was the\nperquisite of the executioners and came to them by law. Four soldiers\nhad a right to Jesus\u2019 clothes and they divided them into four parts.\nThis left the tunic, which was without seam, woven all in one piece. It\nwould be a sin to cut it, for after that it would be of no use to any\none; but one of them, an old gambler, took out his dice, threw them, and\nthe tunic was awarded by luck. From now on the only possession of the\nKing of the Jews was the thorns of His crown which, as a greater insult,\nthey had left on His head.\n\nAll was finished: the drops of blood fell slowly from His hands on the\nground and the blood from His feet reddened the cross. From now on He\nwas to flee no more; His blaspheming mouth was soon to be gaping in\nagony, but it was to teach no more forever. The assassins might be\nsatisfied with themselves and with the foreign executioners. The\npoisoner of the people, the enemy of the Temple and of business, was\nfastened with four solid nails on the tree of ignominy. From that night\non the lords of Jerusalem could sleep more peacefully.\n\nA clamor of demoniac laughter, of exultant exclamations, of ferocious\njests rose from the crowd about Golgotha. There He was, the bird of\nill-omen, nailed with outspread wings. The poor man, satisfied if He had\nbut a tunic, now was altogether naked; the vagabond, who had only a\nstone on which to lay His head, now had a fine pillow of wood; the\nimpostor who deceived with His miracles, no longer had His hands free to\nmold the clay which restored sight to the blind; the throne of the King\nwas a hard wooden peg; the hater of Jerusalem was hung up in sight of\nthe Holy City; the Master with so many disciples now had as companions\nonly two thieves who insulted Him, and four bored soldiers. \u201cCall on the\nFather now to save Thee, ask for a legion of angels to take Thee away\nfrom there and disperse us with flaming swords. Then even we will\nbelieve that Thou art the Christ, and we will fall down with our faces\nin the dust to adore Thee.\u201d\n\nAnd some of the priests, shaking their heads, said: \u201cThou that\ndestroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If\nthou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.\u201d\n\nThis challenge recalls that of Satan in the desert. They, like Satan,\nwished for a prodigy. They had asked so many times for a sign! \u201cIt would\nbe a fine sign if Thou couldst loosen the four nails and come down from\nthe cross, and if the power of the Father should flame out in the\nHeavens destroying us as God-killers. But Thou seest well that the nails\nare strong and are not loosened, and that no one appears to aid Thee\nfrom heaven or from earth.\u201d\n\nThe Scribes, the Elders, mocked Him in the same way, and so did even the\nsoldiers, although the affair was none of theirs, and even the thieves\nalso, suffering though they were in anguish with Him.\n\n\u201cHe saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel,\nlet him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He\ntrusted in God; let him deliver him now if he will have him: ... for he\nsaid, I am the Son of God.\u201d\n\nHe had announced that He came to give life, but now He could not save\nHimself from death! He had boasted that He was the Son of God, but God\ndid not move to save His firstborn from the scaffold. Therefore, He had\nalways lied; it was not true that He had ever saved any one. It was not\ntrue that God was His Father, and if He had lied about that, He had lied\nabout everything, and deserved this fate. There was no need of proof,\nbut the proof was there so clear that all could see it, and their\nconsciences were perfectly at rest. If any miracle were possible, He\nwould no longer be crucified there to agonize; but the sky was empty and\nthe sun, God\u2019s light, shone clearly that all men might see more clearly\nthe contractions of His face and the painful heaving of His chest.\n\n\u201cWhat a pity that the Romans do not allow our old punishment for\nblasphemers, for it would have relieved us to have stoned Thee one by\none. Thus every one would have had his share of pleasure, taking aim at\nthe head with well-directed stones, and covering Thee with bruises,\nclothing Thee in a tunic of stones. Once before when the adulteress was\nbrought before Thee we put down our stones, but to-day no one would be\nbackward, and Thou wouldst have paid for Thee and for her! The cross is\nwell enough, but how much less satisfying for the spectators! If only\nthese foreigners had permitted us to give a blow of the hammer on the\nnails! Thou answerest not? Hast Thou no longer any desire to preach?\nCanst Thou not come down? Why dost Thou not deign to convert us also? If\nwe ought to love Thee, show us first that God loves Thee enough to do a\ngreat miracle to save Thee from death!\u201d\n\nBut the divine Sacrifice was silent. The torture of the fever, which had\nbegun already, was not so terrible as those words of His brothers who\nwere crucifying Him a second time on the cross of their appalling\nignorance.\n\n\n                                 DISMAS\n\n\nThe thieves who had been crucified with Jesus had begun to be hostile to\nHim in the street when He was liberated from the weight of His cross.\nThey felt aggrieved because no one thought of them; they were to die the\nsame death, but no one seemed to think of this; people abused Him, but\nat least they recognized that He was there, they were all thinking about\nHim, running along for His sake as if He had been alone. It was for Him\nthat all those people were following along\u2014important people, educated\nand wealthy\u2014it was for Him that the women were weeping and that even the\nCenturion was moved to pity. He was the King of the occasion, this\ncountry cheat, and He drew every one\u2019s attention as if He had really\nbeen a King. Who knew, perhaps the wine with myrrh would never have been\noffered to them, if He had not been so fastidious as to refuse it.\n\nBut one of them, when he heard the great words of his envied companion,\n\u201cForgive them; for they know not what they do,\u201d suddenly fell silent.\nThat prayer was so new for him, summoned him to emotions so foreign to\nhis nature and all his life, that it carried him back at one stroke to\nhis almost forgotten childhood, when he also was innocent, and when he\nknew there was a God of whom one could ask for peace as poor men beg for\nbread at the rich man\u2019s door. But in no canticle could he remember\nhearing any such prayer as this, so extraordinary, so paradoxical in the\nmouth of one who was at that moment being killed. And yet those\nimpossible words found in the thief\u2019s withered heart an echo of\nsomething he would have liked to believe, above all at that moment when\nhe was about to appear before a Judge more awful than those of the\nlaw-courts. This prayer of Jesus\u2019 found an unexpected echo in his own\nthought, a thought beyond his power to formulate or express, but which\nnow seemed to him luminous in the darkness of his fate. Had he really\nknown what he was doing? Had other men ever thought of him? Had they\never done for him what they could to turn him from evil? Had there ever\nbeen any one who really loved him? Had any one given him food when he\nwas hungry and a cloak when he was cold, and a friendly word when\nsuddenly temptations laid siege to his lonely and dissatisfied soul? If\nhe had had a little more bread and love, would he have committed the\nactions which had brought him to Golgotha? Was he not also among those\nwho knew not what they do, distraught by poverty, abandoned among\nambushed passions? Were they not thieves like him, the Levites who\ntrafficked in the offerings of the faithful, the Pharisees who cheated\nwidows, the rich men, who by their usury drained dry the veins of the\npoverty-stricken? Those were the men who had condemned him to death; but\nwhat right had they to kill him if they had never done anything to save\nhim, and if they, too, were tainted with his guilt?\n\nAll these thoughts went through his distracted heart while he waited to\nbe fastened to the cross. The nearness of death\u2014and what a death!\u2014this\nunheard-of prayer of the man who was not a thief, but who was suffering\nthe penalty of thieves, the hate which deformed the faces of the men who\nhad condemned him also, moved his poor, maimed soul, and inclined him to\nemotions unfelt since his boyhood, to emotions the very name of which he\ndid not know, but which were very like to tenderness and repentance.\n\nWhen they were all on the cross, the other thief, although suffering\nterribly from his pierced hands and feet, began again to insult Jesus.\nHe also began to vomit out the challenge of the Jews, \u201cIf thou be\nChrist, save thyself and us.\u201d\n\nIf He were really the Son of God would He not have thought of freeing\nalso His companions in misery? Why was He not moved to compassion?\nHence, they were right, those men down there: He was a deceiver, a man\nof no account, an execrated outcast. And the anger of the raging thief\nwas intensified by his fury over a lost hope, an abortive hope, an\nimpossible dream of miraculous salvation; but a despairing man hopes\neven for the impossible, and this hope withdrawn seemed to him a\nbetrayal.\n\nBut the Good Thief who had been listening to him, and to the other\nraging voices shrieking down below, now turned to his companion. \u201cDost\nthou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we\nindeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man\nhas done nothing amiss.\u201d\n\nThe thief had passed from the doubt of his own blameworthiness to the\ncertainty of the innocence of that mysterious Pardoner at his side. \u201cWe\nhave committed deeds (he was not willing to call them crimes) which men\npunish, but this man has done nothing amiss, and yet He is punished as\nwe are; why, therefore, insult Him? Hast thou no fear that God will\npunish thee for having humiliated an innocent man?\u201d\n\nAnd he turned over in his mind what he had heard told about Jesus\u2014only a\nfew things and those not at all clear to him\u2014but he knew that Jesus had\nspoken of a Kingdom of Peace and that He himself was to be at the head\nof it. Then with impetuous faith as if he invoked the blood which fell\nat the same moment from his criminal hands and from those guiltless\nhands, he cried out these words, \u201cLord, remember me when thou comest\ninto thy kingdom.\u201d\n\nWe have suffered together; wilt Thou not recognize the man who was\nbeside Thee on the cross, the only man who defended Thee when all were\nattacking Thee?\n\nAnd Jesus, who had answered no man, turned His head as well as He could\ntowards the pitying thief and answered him, \u201cVerily I say unto thee,\nTo-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.\u201d\n\nHe could promise him nothing earthly: what would it have availed him to\nbe unnailed from the cross and to drag himself along the roads of the\nearth a few years more, crippled and needy? And unlike the other thief\nhe had not asked to be saved from death: he had asked only to be\nremembered after his death, if Jesus should return in glory. Jesus\ninstead of fleshly and uncertain life promised him the eternal life of\nParadise, and that without delay\u2014\u201cto-day.\u201d\n\nHe had sinned; in the eyes of men, he had gravely sinned, he had taken\naway from the rich a little of their riches, perhaps he had also stolen\na little from the poor, but for sinners ailing with an illness worse\nthan any bodily weakness, Jesus had always a tenderness of which He made\nno show, but which He was never willing to hide. Had He not come to\nbring back to the warmth of the stable the flock lost among the thorns\nof the countryside? Were not the wicked already sufficiently punished\nwith their own wickedness? And those who thought themselves righteous,\nwere they not perhaps often more corrupt than the wicked they condemned?\nJesus does not pardon all men. That would be injustice, holier than the\ninjustice of the world, but still unjust. But a single motion of\nrepentance, a single word of regret is enough. The prayer of the thief\nwas enough to absolve him.\n\nThe Good Thief was Jesus\u2019 last convert in His corporeal existence. He\nwas the last Disciple and at the same time the first of the martyrs, for\nPeter\u2019s Gospel tells us that when they heard his words, the Jews were\nangered against him and demanded that his legs should not be broken, in\norder that he might die in greater torment. The legs of crucified men\nwere broken out of mercy that their sufferings might end sooner; this\nshortening of his torture was refused to him because he had defended\nChrist and believed in Him: like his Master, he was forced to drink his\ncup to the dregs.\n\nWe know nothing more of him; only his name preserved in an apocryphal\nmanuscript. The Church has received him among her saints because of this\npromise of Christ, with the name of Dismas.\n\n\n                              THE DARKNESS\n\n\nJesus\u2019 breathing was more and more like the death-rattle. His chest\nheaved with convulsive efforts to breathe; loud, painful pulses hammered\nat His temples. His heart beat so rapidly and so violently that it shook\nHim as if it would tear Him loose; the feverish thirst of crucified men\nflamed all over His body, as if His blood had become a raging molten\nfire in His veins. Stretched in that painful position, nailed to the\nbeams and not able to move, held up by His hands, which were lacerated\nif He let Himself hang by them, but which, if He held them up, exhausted\nHis weak and worn-out frame, that young and divine body which had\nsuffered so many times because it contained too great a soul, was now a\nfuneral pyre of suffering where all the sufferings of the world burned\ntogether.\n\nAs ancient writers admitted, crucifixion was the cruelest and blackest\nof punishments. It gave the greatest torture for the longest time. If\ntetanus set in, a merciful torpor hastened death; but there were men who\nheld out, suffering always more and more, until the second day after\ncrucifixion, and even longer. The thirst of their fever, the congestion\nof their hearts, the rigidity of their veins, their cramped muscles, the\ndizziness and terrible pains in the head, the ever-greater agony\u2014all\nthese were not enough to make an end of them. But most men died at the\nend of twelve hours.\n\nThe blood from the four wounds of Jesus had clotted about the\nnail-heads, but every movement made fresh blood gush out, which fell\nslowly along the cross and dripped upon the ground. His head drooped on\nHis weary neck; His eyes, those mortal eyes, whence God had looked out\nupon the earth, were glazing over in the death stupor; and His livid\nlips, parched with suffering and thirst, drawn by His painful breathing,\nwere withered by that last kiss, the poisonous kiss of Judas.\n\nThus died a God, who had cooled the blood of the feverish, had given the\nwater of life to the thirsty, who had raised up the dead from their\ntombs, who had quickened the paralyzed, cast out demons from obsessed\nsouls, who had wept with the weeping, who, instead of punishing the\nwicked, had made them to be born again into a new life, who had taught\nwith poetic words and proved by miracles that glorious aspiration\u2014the\nlife of perfect love\u2014which raging beasts sunk in stupor and in blood\nwould never have been capable of discovering for themselves. He had\nhealed wounds and they wounded all His perfect body; He had pardoned\nevildoers, and evildoers nailed Him, an innocent man, between two\ncriminals; He had infinitely loved all men, even those unworthy of His\nlove, and hatred had nailed Him there where hatred punished and was\npunished; He had been more righteous than righteousness and they had\nwreaked upon Him the most iniquitous unrighteousness; He had called mean\nsouls to holiness and He had fallen into the hands of vilifiers and\ndemons. He had brought life, and in return they gave Him the most\nignominious death.\n\nAll this was necessary that men should learn again the road to the\nearthly Paradise; that they should mount above drunken bestiality and\nattain the exaltation of the saints; that they should be resurrected\nfrom their sluggish folly which seems life and is death, to the\nmagnificence of the Kingdom of Heaven.\n\nThe mind may bow before the dreadful mystery of this necessity, but the\nheart of men can never forget the price exacted as payment of our debts.\nFor nineteen hundred years, men born again in Christ, worthy to know\nChrist, to love Christ, and to be loved by Him, have wept, at least once\nin their lives, at the memory of that day and of that suffering. But all\nour tears gathered together like a bitter sea do not compensate for one\nof the drops which fell, red and heavy, on Golgotha.\n\nA barbarous king of barbarians pronounced the most vigorous words ever\nspoken by Christian lips about that blood. They were reading to Clovis\nthe story of the Passion, and the fierce King was sighing and weeping\nwhen suddenly, no longer able to contain himself, clapping his hand to\nthe hilt of his sword, he cried out, \u201cOh, that I had been there with my\nFranks!\u201d Ingenuous words, words of a soldier and of a violent man,\nopposed to Christ\u2019s words, spoken to Peter among the olives, but words\nbeautiful with all the na\u00efve beauty of a candid and virile love. For it\nis not enough to weep over Christ who gave more than tears; we must\nfight, fight in us everything that divides us from Christ, fight in our\nmidst all of Christ\u2019s enemies.\n\nFor, although millions of men have since wept when thinking of that day,\non that Friday around the cross, all except the women were laughing, and\nthose men who laughed have left sons and grandsons, many of them\nbaptized, and they still laugh and their descendants will continue to\nlaugh until the day when One alone will be able to laugh. If weeping\ncannot cancel that blood, what punishment can ever expiate that awful\nlaughter?\n\nLook at them therefore once more, those who are laughing about the cross\nwhere Jesus hangs pierced by the most agonizing pain. There they are,\nclustered on the slopes of Golgotha, dehumanized by hate! Look at them\nwell, look them in the face, one by one; you will recognize them all,\nfor they are immortal.\n\nSee how they thrust out their twitching muzzles, their scrawny necks,\ntheir noses humped and hooked, their rapacious eyes, gleaming under\ntheir bristling eyebrows. See how hideous they are, branded with the\nmark of Cain. Count them over well, for they are all there, just like\nthe men whom we now know, brothers of the men whom we meet every day in\nour streets. Not one is missing.\n\nIn the front row there are the priests, with crammed paunches, with arid\nhearts, with great hairy ears, with thick-lipped, gaping mouths, craters\nof blasphemy. And elbow to elbow with them, the arrogant Scribes,\nblear-eyed and scrofulous, their faces of an excremental yellow,\npiecers-together of lies, belching out pus and ink. And the Epulones,\nthrusting out before them the obscene heaviness of their stuffed\nbellies, brutes who trade on hunger, who fatten on famines, who convert\ninto money the patience of the poor, the beauty of virgins, the sweat of\nslaves. And the money-changers, expert in illicit traffic and in\noppression, who live to wrest unlawfully from others; and the knotty\nlawyers skillful at turning the law against the innocent. And behind\nthese high pillars of society, there is the mob of cheating scullions,\nof overbearing rascals, of foul-mouthed rogues, of whining beggars, of\nfilthy knaves, the lower dregs of the population, famished hounds who\neat under the tables and snarl between the legs of whoever does not give\nthem either a mouthful or a kick.\n\nThey are the eternal enemies of Christ\u2014they who celebrated on that day\ntheir infamous Saturnalia; and they have vomited out on Christ\u2019s face\ntheir poisonous saliva, the muddy lees of their souls. This miry dross\nof humanity, foul and polluted, vomited out from their filthy hearts\ntheir hatred for Him who was saving them; they howled against Him who\nwas forgiving them; they insulted Christ who was agonizing for them,\nChrist who was dying for them. The antithesis of good and evil,\ninnocence and infamy, light and darkness, was never presented with such\na dramatic and utter contrast as on that irreparable day.\n\nNature itself seemed to wish to hide the horror of that sight: the sky,\nwhich all the morning had been clear, suddenly grew dark. A thick cloud,\ndark as though it came from the marshes of hell, rose above the hills\nand little by little spread to every corner of the horizon. Black clouds\ngathered about the sun, that sweet, clear April sun, which had warmed\nthe hands of the murderers, encircled it, laid siege to it, and finally\ncovered it with a thick curtain of darkness ... \u201cand there was a\ndarkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.\u201d\n\n\n                            LAMA SABACHTHANI\n\n\nMany, alarmed by the falling of that mysterious darkness, fled away from\nthe Hill of the Skull, and went home, silenced. But not all; the air was\ncalm; no rain fell as yet, and in the obscurity, the three pallid bodies\nshone out whitely; many of the spectators wished to sate themselves to\nthe very last on His agony; why go away from the theater until the\ntragedy is finished to the last scream?\n\nAnd those who remained listened in the darkness to hear if the hated\nprotagonist would break by some word His groaning death-rattle. Christ\u2019s\nsufferings constantly became more intolerable. His body, sensitive and\ndelicate by nature, exhausted by the tension of these last days,\nconvulsed by the struggle of the last night, worn out by the tortures of\nthe last hours, could endure no more. And His spirit suffered even more\nthan the tortured body which still for a short time was its prison. It\nseemed to Him that His divinely youthful soul had become suddenly aged,\nand that He was old beyond memory. Everything seemed far-distant from\nHim, the companions of His happy days, the confidants of His tenderness,\nthe poor who looked lovingly at Him, the children whose heads He had\ncaressed, the healed men and women who could not bring themselves to\nleave Him, His Disciples for whom He had created a new soul\u2014they were\nall far away. Close to Him there were only a gang of cannibals,\npossessed by the devil, eager for Him to die.\n\nOnly the women had not deserted Him. On one side at some distance from\nthe cross, through fear of the howling men, Mary, His mother, Mary\nMagdalene, Mary of Cleofa, Salome, mother of James and John\u2014and perhaps\nalso Joanna of Cusa, and Martha\u2014were present, terrified witnesses of His\ndeath. He still had the strength to confide to John, the dearest and\nmost sacred inheritance which He left on earth\u2014the Virgin of Sorrows.\nBut after this, through the veil of His suffering, He saw no one and\nbelieved Himself alone with death, as He had ever been alone at the most\nsolemn moments of His life. Even the Father seemed suddenly remote,\ninexplicably absent. Where was that loving Father to whom He was wont to\nspeak, sure that He would be answered, would be helped? Why did the\nFather not help Him, give some sign of His presence, or at least show\nJesus the mercy of calling Him to God without cruel delay?\n\nAnd then there was heard in the thick air, in the silence of the\ndarkness, these words, \u201cEli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani?\u201d that is to say: \u201cMy\nGod, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?\u201d\n\nThis was the first verse of a psalm which He had repeated to Himself\nmany times because He had found there so many presages of His life and\nof His death. He no longer had the strength to cry it all aloud as He\nhad in the desert, but now into His troubled spirit those sorrowing\ninvocations came back one by one, \u201cMy God, my God, why hast thou\nforsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of\nmy roaring?... Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted and thou didst\ndeliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: ... but I am a\nworm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All\nthat see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the\nhead, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him\ndeliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me\nout of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother\u2019s\nbreasts. Be not far from me: for trouble is near; for there is none to\nhelp. Many bulls have compassed me: ... they gaped upon me with their\nmouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water,\nand all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in\nthe midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd: and my\ntongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of\ndeath. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have\nenclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet ... they look and stare\nupon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my\nvesture. But be thou not far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee\nto help me.\u201d\n\nThe supplications of this prophetic psalm, which recall so closely the\nMan of Sorrows of Isaiah, rose from the wounded heart of the crucified\nMan as the last expression of His dying humanity. But certain of the\nbrutes nearest to the cross thought that He was calling Elias, the\nimmortal prophet, who in the popular imagination was to appear with\nChrist. \u201cBehold, He calleth Elias.\u201d\n\nOne of the soldiers now took a sponge, soaked it in vinegar, put it on a\nreed and held it to the lips of Christ. But the Jews said, \u201cLet alone;\nlet us see whether Elias will come to take him down.\u201d\n\nThe legionary, not wishing to make trouble, laid down the reed. But\nafter a little\u2014and the time seemed infinitely long in that darkness, in\nthat suspense, that painful tension\u2014Christ\u2019s voice came down as if from\na great distance, \u201cI thirst.\u201d\n\nThe soldier took up the sponge again, dipped it once more in the vessel\nfull of the mixture of water and vinegar and once more held it to the\nparched mouth which had prayed for his forgiveness. And Jesus when He\nhad taken the vinegar said, \u201cIt is finished.\u201d\n\nChrist, who had satisfied so many times the thirst of others, and who\nleft in the world an ever-springing fountain of life, where the weary\nfind strength, the corrupt find their youth, and the restless find\npeace, Christ had always suffered with an unsatisfied thirst for love.\nAnd even now in the terrible burning of His fever, His thirst was not\nfor water but for a pitying word which would break the oppression of His\ndesolate solitude. Instead of the pure water of the Galilean brooks,\ninstead of the heart-warming wine of the Last Supper, the Roman soldier\ngave Him a little of his acid drink, but the prompt and kindly act of\nthat obscure slave quenched His thirst, because, although reeling in the\ndarkness of death, He felt that a human heart had pitied His heart.\n\nIf a stranger who had never seen Him before that day had done this,\nalthough so small a thing, through compassion for Him, it was a sign\nthat the Father had not abandoned Him. The cup was finished: all the\nbitterness was drunk. Eternity began. With His last strength He cried\nwith a loud voice in the darkness: \u201cFather, into thy hands I commend my\nspirit!\u201d\n\nI called Thee because it seemed to me in the darkness of my suffering\nthat Thou hadst left me. But now Thou hast answered. Thou hast answered\nby means of this poor soldier; Thou hast answered with the peace which\ndulls the last pangs of my death, the death which brings me to my\nawakening with Thee. It is not true that Thou hadst abandoned me. When I\ncalled Thee it was not I who spoke but that human blood burning in my\nveins, and dropping from the nails. I know that Thou art present with\nme, one with me to all eternity: Thou art my Father and I Thy Son. Into\nwhat dearer and surer hands could I commend my soul?\n\nAnd Jesus, after he had cried out with a loud voice, bowed His head and\ngave up the spirit. That loud cry, so powerful that it freed the soul\nfrom the flesh, rang out of the darkness and lost itself in the\nfurthermost ends of the earth. Matthew tells us that \u201cthe veil of the\ntemple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did\nquake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened, and many bodies\nof the saints which slept arose, and appeared unto many.\u201d But the hearts\nof the spectators were harder than rocks; none of those dead souls who\nwore the outward aspect of life were reanimated at that supreme summons.\n\nNineteen hundred years have passed from the day when the earth echoed to\nthat cry, and men have intensified the tumult of their lives that they\nmay drown it out. But in the fog and smoke of our cities, in the\ndarkness, ever more profound where men light the fires of their\nwretchedness, that despairing cry of joy and of liberation, that\nprodigious cry which eternally summons every one of us, still rings in\nthe heart of every man who has not forced himself to forget.\n\nChrist was dead. He had died on the cross in the manner which men had\nwilled, which the Son had chosen, to which the Father had consented. The\ndeath-struggle was over and the Jews were satisfied. He had expiated all\nup to the last, and now He was dead. Now our own expiation begins\u2014and it\nis not yet finished.\n\n\n                            WATER AND BLOOD\n\n\nChrist was dead, as the leaders of His people had wished, but not even\nHis last cry had awakened them. Some of them, says Luke, went away\nsmiting their breasts; but were there within those breasts hearts which\ntruly felt for the great heart which had stopped beating? They did not\nspeak, they hurried home to their supper,\u2014perhaps it was more terror\nthan love which they were feeling.\n\nBut a foreigner, the Centurion, Petronius, who had been the silent\nwitness of the execution, was moved, and from his pagan mouth came the\nwords of Claudia Procula, \u201cCertainly this was a righteous man.\u201d\n\nHe did not even know the true name of the man who was dead, but he was\nsure at least that He was no evildoer. He was the third Roman witness in\nfavor of the innocence of Christ, who was to become, through the\nApostles, eternally Roman.\n\nThe Jews had no thought of recantations. What was in their minds was the\nthought that the Passover would be spoiled if the bloody corpses were\nnot carried away at once. Evening was close at hand and with the setting\nof the sun the great Sabbath began. Therefore they sent word to Pilate\nto have the condemned men\u2019s legs broken at once and to have them buried.\nThe breaking of the legs was one of the cruel discoveries of cruelty to\nshorten the sufferings of crucified men,\u2014a sort of grace useful in cases\nof haste. The soldiers, when they had received the order, came up to the\nbad thief, who, more robust than his companions, was still alive, and\nthey broke his legs with a club.\n\nThey had seen Jesus die, and they could save themselves the trouble of\nusing the club, but John says that one of them, to make quite sure,\npierced His side with a spear, and saw with astonishment that water and\nblood came out from the wound. The name of this soldier according to an\nold tradition was Longinus, and it is said that some drops of that blood\nfell upon his eyes which had been infected, and immediately cured them.\nThe history of martyrs tells of him that Longinus believed in Christ\nfrom that day on, and was a monk for twenty-eight years at C\u00e6sarea until\nhe was murdered because of his faith. Claudia Procula, the pious\nlegionary, who for the last time wet the lips of the dying man, the\nCenturion, Petronius, and Longinus were the first Gentiles who accepted\nJesus on the very day when Jerusalem had cast Him out.\n\nBut not all the Jews had forgotten Him. Now that He was dead, really\ndead, now that He was cold like all dead men, and motionless like any\nother corpse, now that He was a silent, harmless, quiet corpse, a body\nwith no soul, a silent mouth, a heart which beat no more, see how they\ncome out from the houses where they had shut themselves in, the friends\nof the twenty-fifth hour, the tepid followers, the secret disciples, the\nanonymous admirers, who at night hide their light under a bushel, and\nwhen the sun shines, disappear. We have all known friends like these,\ncautious souls, trembling at the idea of what people will say, who\nfollow you but from afar; receive you\u2014but when no one can see you\ntogether; esteem you\u2014but do not so much as admit this esteem to others;\nlove you\u2014but not so much as to lose a single hour of sleep or a single\nmiserable penny to help you! But when death comes, even when it comes\nthrough the fault or the avarice, or the cowardice of such despicable\nmen, then their celebration begins. They are the ones who weep more\ntears and more glittering tears than any one else. They are the ones who\nweave together with busy hands the flowers of the wreaths and the\nflowers of funereal rhetoric; and with enthusiasm and ardor become\nnecrologists, epitaph writers, and memorialists. To see them you would\nthink that the deceased had had no more faithful, no more loving\ncompanions than they, and good-hearted people are moved to compassion\nfor those unfortunate survivors who seem to have lost a half, or at the\nvery least, a quarter of their souls.\n\nTo His sorrow in life and in death Christ had many friends of this sort,\nand two of them stepped forward in that Good Friday twilight. They were\ntwo serious and worthy citizens, two notables of Jerusalem and of the\nCouncil, two rich lords, in short two members of the Sanhedrin; Joseph\nof Arimathea and Nicodemus.\n\nIn order not to stain their hands with the blood of Jesus, they had kept\naway from the meeting of the Sanhedrin and had hidden themselves in\ntheir houses, heaving regretful sighs, perhaps, and thinking that they\ncould thus save their reputation and their conscience. But they did not\nreflect that even passive complicity was active help to the assassins,\nand that to abstain from opposition, not even to voice their opposition,\nwas equivalent to consenting. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had\ntherefore taken part in the murder of Christ, although they had been\nabsent and invisible, and their posthumous grief can diminish but by no\nmeans cancel their responsibility.\n\nBut in the evening when they ran no risk of offending their colleagues,\nwhen the Elders had received full satisfaction and had left Golgotha,\nwhen there was no danger of compromising themselves in the eyes of high\nclerical and middle-class society, since the dead man was dead and could\nharm no one, the two nocturnal disciples, hidden, \u201cfor fear of the\nJews,\u201d thought that they would diminish their remorse by providing for\nthe burial of the executed man.\n\nThe bolder of the two, Joseph, \u201c... went in boldly unto Pilate\u201d (Mark\nnoted the fact as remarkable for that toga-clad rabbit) and asked for\nthe body of Jesus. Pilate was astonished that He should already be dead,\nsince crucified men often lived for two days\u2014and called in Petronius,\nwho had been charged with the execution. After Pilate had heard his\nreport, he \u201cgave\u201d the body to the Sanhedrist. The Procurator was\ngenerous on that day because as a rule the Roman officers forced the\nfamilies of condemned men to pay for the corpses. He could not say no to\na person so respectable, and rich into the bargain. Possibly, too, this\nfree gift came as much from weariness as from generosity. They had\nannoyed him all the morning with that troublesome King, and now he had\nno peace even when He was dead!\n\nWhen Joseph had received permission he took a fine white winding-sheet\nand linen bands, and went towards the Hill of the Skull. There, or on\nthe way there, he met Nicodemus, who, having the same character, may\nhave been his friend, and who had come with the same thought. Nicodemus\nalso had not spared expense, and had brought with him on the shoulders\nof a servant a hundred pounds of a mixture of myrrh and aloes.\n\nAnd when they came to the cross, while the soldiers were taking down the\ntwo thieves to throw them into the common grave of condemned men, they\nprepared themselves to take down the body of Jesus.\n\n\n                          PERFUMES IN THE ROCK\n\n\nWhat little light had penetrated the dark cloud disappeared with the\nsetting of the sun. The darkness was thick and sinister. A black night\nwas shutting down on the world which on that day had lost the only Being\nwhich could give it light. Against the scarcely visible whiteness of the\nHill of the Skull, the naked corpses glimmered dimly. They were obliged\nto work by the red light of torches, flaming without smoke in that\nwindless air, and by that blood-red light they could see clearly, even\nto the long streaks of blood which had run down the foot of the cross,\nto the newly stirred earth.\n\nJoseph, aided by Nicodemus and by a third helper, was scarcely able to\ndraw out the deep-driven nails which held the feet. The ladder was still\nthere. One of them, climbing up on it, took out the nails from the\nhands, supporting the loosened body with his shoulder. The others helped\nhim to lower down the corpse, and the body was placed on the knees of\nthe Virgin of Sorrows who had borne Him. Then they all made their way\ntowards a garden near by where there was a sepulcher destined for Jesus.\nThe garden belonged to the rich Joseph, who had had the sepulcher hewn\nout of the stone for himself and his family, for in those days every\nwell-to-do Jew had a family sepulcher far from all the others, and the\ndead were not condemned to the promiscuity of our administrative\ncemeteries; temporary, geometric, and democratic like all our modern\nmagnificent barbarisms.\n\nAs soon as they had arrived at the garden, the two bearers of the dead\nhad water brought from the well, and washed the body. Until then the\nwomen, the three Marys\u2014the Virgin Mary, the contemplative Mary, the\nliberated Mary\u2014had not moved from the place where He whom they loved had\ndied. Now, defter and more skillful than men, they began to help in\norder that this burial, performed thus at night and in haste, would not\nbe unworthy of Him for whom they wept. They lifted from His head the\ninsulting crown of Pilate\u2019s legionaries, and plucked out the thorns\nwhich had penetrated the skin: they were the ones to smooth and arrange\nthe hair clotted with blood; and to close the eyes into which they had\nlooked so many times with pure tenderness, and that mouth which they had\nnever kissed. Many loving tears fell upon that face where in the calm\npaleness of death the old sweetness shone once more, and their tears\nwashed it with water purer than that from Joseph\u2019s well.\n\nAll His body was sullied with sweat, with dust, with blood; bloody serum\noozed out from the wounds of the hands, of the feet, of the chest. When\nthe washing was finished, the corpse was sprinkled with Nicodemus\u2019\nspices, and that without sparing, for they were abundant; even the black\nwounds left by the nails were filled with spices. The body of Jesus had\nreceived nothing but insults and blows after the evening when the\nsinning woman with a premonition of this day had poured nard upon the\nfeet and upon the head of the Pardoner. But now, as then, the murdered\nwhite body was covered with perfumes and with tears sweeter than\nperfumes.\n\nThen, when the hundred pounds of Nicodemus had covered Jesus with a\nfragrant pall, the winding sheet was tied about the body with long linen\nbands, the head was wrapped in a napkin and another white cloth was\nspread over the face, after they had all kissed Him on the forehead.\n\nThere was space but for one body in the open sepulcher. Recently made,\nit had never been used. Joseph of Arimathea, not able to save Christ\nalive in any of his houses, now that the fury of the world had died\ndown, gave up to Him the dark subterranean habitation hewn in the rock,\nand intended for his own dead body. According to the ritual the two\nSanhedrists recited aloud the mortuary psalm, and finally, after they\nhad placed the white-wrapped body in the cave, they closed the opening\nwith a great stone and went away silently, followed by the others.\n\nBut the women did not follow them. They could not bring themselves to\nleave that rock which separated them forever from Him whom they loved\nmore than their beauty. How could they leave Him alone in the darkness,\ndoubly black, of the night and of the tomb, He who had been so\ndesperately alone in His long death agony? They whispered prayers, and\nrecalled to each other the memory of a day, or a gesture, or a word of\nthe loved one, and if one of them tried to comfort another, the second\nbut sobbed more bitterly. Sometimes they called Him by name as they\nleaned against the rock, and spoke lovingly to Him now that His ears\nwere closed in death, as they had not dared while He was alive. They\npoured out, at last in the damp black shade of the garden, that love\ngreater than love, which their poor, limited human hearts could no\nlonger hold back.\n\nThen finally, chilled and terrified by the night\u2019s blackness, they too\nwent away, their eyes burning, stumbling amid the bushes and the stones,\npromising one another to return there as soon as the feast-day had\npassed.\n\n\n                             HE IS NOT HERE\n\n\nThe sun had not yet risen on the day which for us is Sunday, when the\nwomen once more drew near to the garden; but over the eastern hills a\nwhite hope, light as the distant reflection of an earth clothed with\nlilies and silver, rose slowly in the midst of the throbbing\nconstellations, vanquishing little by little the sparkling brilliance of\nthe night. It was one of those calm dawns, suggesting innocents asleep,\nand the clear benign air seemed stirred as by a recent stir of angels\u2019\nwings. It seemed one of the virginal days, ushered in with transparent\npallor, shy and cheerful with cool breezes.\n\nIn the half light, the women advanced, breathed upon by wandering airs,\nlost in their sadness, under the spell of an emotion they could not have\nexplained. Were they returning to weep upon the rock? Or to see Him once\nmore, He who had captured their hearts without laying them waste? Or to\nput about the body of the Immaculate One spices stronger than those of\nNicodemus? And speaking among themselves, they said, \u201cWho shall roll us\naway the stone from the door of the sepulchre?\u201d\n\nThere were four of them, since Joanna of Cusa and Salome had joined Mary\nof Magdala and Mary of Bethany, but they were women and weakened by\ntheir sorrow.\n\nBut when they came to the rock they stood still, astounded. The opening\ninto the sepulcher showed black against the darkness. Not believing her\neyes, the boldest of them touched the sill with her trembling hands. In\nthe daylight, brightening now with every moment, they saw the stone\nthere beside them, leaning against the rocks.\n\nThe women, struck into silence by their fright, turned around as if\nexpecting some one to come to tell them what had happened in those two\nnights which had passed. Mary of Magdala feared at once that the Jews,\nnot satisfied with what they had made Him suffer when He was alive, had\nstolen away the body of Christ; or perhaps, unwilling to have the\nhonorable sepulcher used by a heretic, they had thrown Him into the\nshameful common grave used for men stoned and crucified.\n\nBut this was no more than a presentiment. Perhaps Jesus was still lying\ninside in His perfumed wrappings. Enter they dared not, yet they could\nnot bear to go away, not knowing what had happened. As soon as the sun,\nrisen at last above the summit of the hills, shone into the opening of\nthe sepulcher, they took courage and entered.\n\nAt first they saw nothing, but they were shaken by a new fear. At their\nright, seated, was a young man clothed in a long white garment, showing\nin that darkness like snow. He seemed to be awaiting them.\n\n\u201cBe not affrighted: he is not here: for he is risen. Why seek ye the\nliving among the dead? Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in\nGalilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of\nsinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.\u201d\n\nThe women listened, terrified and trembling, not able to answer, but the\nyouth went on, \u201cGo quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from\nthe dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye\nsee him.\u201d\n\nAll four of them, quivering with terror and joy, left the grotto to\nhasten where they had been sent. But after a few steps, when they were\nalmost outside the garden, Mary of Magdala stopped, and the others went\nalong the road towards the city without waiting for her. She herself did\nnot know why she had remained behind. Perhaps the words of the unknown\nyouth had not convinced her, and she remembered that they had not even\nmade sure that the sepulcher was really empty; perhaps the youth in\nwhite was an accomplice of the priests who wished to deceive them?\n\nSuddenly she turned and saw a man near her, outlined against the green\nof the garden, and the sunlight; but she did not recognize Him even when\nHe spoke. \u201cWoman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?\u201d\n\nMary thought that it might be Joseph\u2019s gardener come early to his work.\n\u201cBecause they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have\nlaid him. Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast\nlaid him, and I will take him away.\u201d\n\nThe unknown man, touched by this impassioned candor, by this child-like\nsimplicity, answered only one word, spoke only one name, her name,\npronounced longingly, wistfully in the touching and unforgettable voice\nwhich had called her so many times: \u201cMary!\u201d\n\nAt this, as if awakened with a start, the despairing woman found her\nlost Master: \u201cRabboni, Master!\u201d And she fell at His feet in the dewy\ngrass and clasped in her hands those bare feet still showing the two red\nmarks of the nails.\n\nBut Jesus said to her, \u201cTouch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my\nFather: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my\nFather, and your Father; and to my God, and to your God.\u201d\n\nAnd at once, He withdrew from the kneeling woman, and moved away among\nthe plants, crowned with sunshine.\n\nMary watched Him until He had disappeared; then she lifted herself up\nfrom the grass, her face convulsed, wild, blind with joy, and ran after\nher companions.\n\nThey had but just come to the house where the Disciples were in hiding\nand they had told hastily and breathlessly the incredible news: the\nsepulcher opened, the youth clad in white, the things which he had said,\nthe Master risen, the message to His brothers.\n\nBut the men, still stunned by the catastrophe, and who in these\ndangerous days had shown themselves more torpid and passive than the\nweaker women, were not willing to believe this wildly improbable news.\nHallucinations, women\u2019s dreams, they said. How could He be risen from\nthe dead after only two days? He had said that He would return, but not\nat once: so many terrible things were to be seen before that day of His\nreturn!\n\nThey believed in the resurrection of the Master, but not before the day\nwhen all the dead would rise again, and He would come in glory to rule\nHis kingdom. But not now: it was too soon, it could not be true: waking\ndreams of hysteric women!\n\nBut in the meantime, Mary of Magdala rushed in, breathless with haste\nand agitation. What the others had said was all true. But there was\nmore: she herself had seen Him with her own eyes, and He had spoken to\nher, and she had not known Him at once, but had recognized Him as soon\nas He had called her by name: she had touched His feet with her hands,\nhad seen the wounds on His feet; it was He, alive once more; and He had\ntold her, as had the unknown youth, to go to His brethren, so that they\nshould know that He had risen from the dead as He had promised.\n\nSimon and John, finally aroused, rushed out of the house and began to\nrun towards Joseph\u2019s garden. John, who was younger, outran Peter and\ncame first to the sepulcher. He looked through the door, saw the linen\ncloths lying on the ground, but did not go in. Simon came up panting and\nrushed into the grotto. The linen cloths were lying on the ground, but\nthe napkin which had been about the head of the corpse was folded and\nwrapped together in a place by itself. John also went in, saw, and\nbelieved. And without another word they returned in all haste towards\nthe house, still running, as if they expected to find the Risen One in\nthe midst of the others whom they had left.\n\nBut Jesus, after He had left Mary, withdrew from Jerusalem.\n\n\n                                 EMMAUS\n\n\nAfter the solemn interval of the Passover, plain, ordinary everyday life\nbegan again for all men.\n\nTwo friends of Jesus, among those who were in the house with the\nDisciples, were to go that morning on an errand to Emmaus, a hamlet\nabout two hours\u2019 journey from Jerusalem. They left as soon as Simon and\nJohn had returned from the sepulcher. All these amazing tales had shaken\nthem somewhat, but had not really convinced them of an event so\nportentous and unexpected. Serious-minded men, they could not understand\nor believe what they had heard: if the body of the Master was no longer\nthere, might it not have been taken away by men\u2019s hands?\n\nCleopas and his companion were good Jews, men who left a place for the\nideal in their minds, burdened with many material cares. But this place\nfor the ideal was not to be too large, and this ideal must be\ncommensurate with their own natures if it were not to be expelled as an\nunwelcome guest. Like almost all the Disciples, they too expected the\ncoming of a Liberator, but of one who would come to liberate Israel\nfirst of all,\u2014a Messiah, in short, who should be the son of David rather\nthan the Son of God, a warrior on horseback rather than a poor\npedestrian, a scourge of His enemies and not a lover of sick people and\nchildren. The words of Christ had almost given them a glimpse of higher\ntruths, but the crucifixion disheartened them. They loved Jesus, and\nthey suffered in His suffering, but this sudden, shameful ending without\nglory and without resistance was too great a contrast to what they had\nexpected, and especially to much of what they had hoped. They could\nunderstand that He might be a humble Saviour, riding on gentle asses\ninstead of on warlike chargers, and a little more spiritual and gentle\nthan they would have liked; they could understand this, although with\ndifficulty, and endure it although grudgingly. But that the Liberator\nhad not known how to free either Himself or others, that the Messiah of\nthe Jews should have died through the will of so many Jews on the\nscaffold of murderers and parricides, was too great a disappointment,\u2014an\ninexcusable scandal. They pitied the crucified leader with all their\nhearts, but at the same time they were tempted to believe that they had\nbeen deceived about His real nature. His death\u2014and what a death!\u2014looked\nto their narrow, practical minds sadly like a failure.\n\nThey were reasoning together of all these things as they went along\nunder the warm noonday sun and at times the discussion grew hot, for\nthey did not always agree. Then suddenly they caught a glimpse of a\nshadow on the ground near them. They turned around. The shadow was that\nof a man who was following as if he wished to hear what they were\nsaying. They stopped, as was the custom, to greet him, and the traveler\njoined them. His did not seem an unknown face to the two men, but look\nat him as they might, they could not think who it was. The newcomer,\ninstead of answering their silent questions, asked them, \u201cWhat manner of\ncommunications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk?\u201d\n\nCleopas, who must have been the older, answered with a wondering\ngesture, \u201cArt thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the\nthings which are come to pass there in these days?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat things?\u201d asked the unknown man.\n\n\u201cConcerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and\nword before God and all the people: And how the chief priests and our\nrulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.\nBut we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel:\nand beside all this, to-day is the third day since these things were\ndone. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished,\nwhich were early at the sepulchre; And when they found not his body,\nthey came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which\nsaid that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to\nthe sepulchre and found it even so as the women had said: but him they\nsaw not.\u201d\n\n\u201cO fools, and slow of heart,\u201d exclaimed the stranger, \u201cto believe all\nthat the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these\nthings, and to enter into his glory?\u201d Do you not remember how He was\npredicted from Moses down to our own time? Have you not read Ezekiel and\nDaniel? Do you not even know our songs of the Lord and His promises?\n\nAnd almost indignantly He recited the old words and the prophecies,\nrecalled the description of the Man of Sorrows given by Isaiah. The two\nlistened, docile and attentive, without answering, because the newcomer\nspoke with so much heat, and the old admonitions in His mouth took on\nnew warmth and a meaning so clear that it seemed almost impossible that\nthey had not understood them before. The talk of the newcomer gave them\nthe impression of being the echo of other talks like those heard in\ntimes past, but confusedly, like a voice from the other side of a wall.\n\nIn the meantime they had arrived at the entrance of Emmaus, and the\npilgrim made as though He would have gone further. But now the two\nfriends were not willing to part with their mysterious companion, and\nthey begged Him to stay with them. The sun was going down, throwing a\nwarmer golden light on the countryside, and their three shadows had\nlengthened on the dusty road.\n\n\u201cAbide with us,\u201d they said, \u201cfor it is toward evening, and the day is\nfar spent.\u201d Also thou art tired and it is the hour for food. And they\ntook Him by the hand and made Him come into the house where they were\ngoing.\n\nWhen they were at table, the guest who sat between them took bread, and\nbroke it and gave a little to one of His friends. At this action, the\neyes of Cleopas and the other man were opened, as when we are suddenly\nwakened and find the sun shining. Both of them sprang to their feet,\ntrembling with emotion, pale, amazed, and finally knew Him, the murdered\nman whom they had misunderstood and slandered. But they had no time even\nto run to kiss Him, for Jesus vanished out of their sight.\n\nThey had not recognized Him when they had seen Him, not even by His\nspeech, although that was so like His speech in His lifetime; they had\nnot recognized Him even by the light of His eyes while He spoke, nor by\nthe sound of His voice! But when He took the bread in His hands, like a\nfather who shares it with His children in the evening after a day of\nwork or of travel, in that loving action which they had seen Him perform\nso many times in their hastily arranged intimate suppers, they had\nrecognized His hands, His blessed and wounded hands, and the cloud\nlifted and they found themselves face to face with the splendor of\nChrist risen from the dead. In His first life when He was their friend\nthey had not understood Him; when on the road to Emmaus He had taught\nthem, they had not recognized Him, but at the moment when He became the\nloving Master, serving His servants and giving them bread which is life\nand the hope of life, then for the first time they saw Him.\n\nAnd tired and fasting as they were, they went back over the road which\nthey had come, and after nightfall arrived at Jerusalem.\n\nAnd as they went along they said almost shamefacedly, \u201cDid not our heart\nburn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened\nto us the scriptures?\u201d\n\nThe Disciples were still awake. Without drawing breath the newcomers\ntold of their encounter and what had been said along the way, and how\nthey had recognized Him only at the moment when He broke the bread. And\nin answer to this new confirmation, three or four voices cried out\ntogether, \u201cThe Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon!\u201d\n\nBut not all the Apostles were convinced even by these four appearances,\nby the fourfold testimony. To some, this prompt, this extraordinary\nresurrection, which had taken place by night in a secret and suspicious\nmanner, seemed more the hallucination of grief and of yearning than\nactual truth. Who were the people who claimed to have seen Him? A\nhysterical woman who had been possessed by a devil; a distraught man who\nhad not seemed himself from the moment when he had denied his Master;\nand two plain fellows who were not even His real Disciples, and whom\nJesus had thus chosen, no one knew why, in preference to His closer\nfriends. Mary might have been deceived by a phantom; Simon, to win back\nhis self-respect after his baseness, was determined to do no less than\nMary; the others were perhaps impostors or, at the most, visionaries. If\nChrist were really risen, would not He have been seen by them all while\nthey were together? Why these preferences? Why this appearance at\nthree-score furlongs from Jerusalem?\n\nThey believed in His resurrection, but they thought of it as one of the\nsigns of the ending of the world, when everything would be fulfilled.\nBut now that they found themselves confronted with the fact that He\nalone had risen from the dead while everyday life went on as usual, they\nrealized that the return into life of human flesh (and of human flesh\nwhich had not gone to sleep peacefully in the last sleep, but whose life\nhad been torn away by violence), that this idea of rising from the dead\nnot in the distant future but in the immediate present, contradicted all\nthe other concepts which made up the tissue of their minds. They\nrealized that this contradiction had always existed, but their doubt had\nnot risen to consciousness until this brusque encounter of two\nimpossible elements: a remote miracle and an actual fact.\n\nIf Jesus had risen from the dead, that would mean that He was really\nGod; but would a real God, a Son of God, ever have been reconciled to\nallow Himself to be killed, and in so shameful a way? If He could\nconquer death, why had He not stricken down the judges, put Pilate to\nconfusion, paralyzed the arms of those about to nail Him to the cross?\nThrough what paradoxical mystery had the Omnipotent allowed Himself to\nbe dragged through the ignominy of the weak?\n\nThey were reasoning thus among themselves, some of the Disciples who had\nheard but had not understood. Prudent like all sophists, they did not\nventure openly to deny the resurrection in the presence of those exalted\nhearts, but they reserved judgment, turning over in their minds the\nreasons for its possibility and impossibility, wishing for a manifest\nconfirmation, but unable to hope for one.\n\nIn the excitement of the day no one had eaten. But the women had\nprepared supper, and now all sat down to the table. Simon remembered the\nLast Thursday: \u201cThis do in remembrance of me.\u201d\n\nAnd a flood of tears dimmed his eyes while he broke the bread and gave\nit to his friends.\n\n\n                         HAVE YE HERE ANY MEAT?\n\n\nThey had scarcely eaten the last mouthfuls when Jesus appeared in the\ndoorway, tall and pale. He looked at them one by one, and in His\nmelodious voice greeted them: \u201cPeace be unto you.\u201d\n\nNo one answered. Their astonishment overcame their joy, even for those\nwho had already seen Him since His death. On their faces the Man risen\nfrom the dead read the doubt which He knew they all felt, the question\nwhich they did not dare express in words, \u201cArt Thou really Thyself a\nliving man, or a spirit which comes from the caverns of the dead to\ntempt us?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy are ye troubled?\u201d said the Man who had been betrayed, \u201cand why do\nthoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is\nI, myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as\nye see me have.\u201d\n\nAnd He stretched out His hands towards them, showed them the marks still\nbloody left by the nails, opened His garment over His breast so that\nthey could see the mark of the lance in His side. Some of them, rising\nfrom their couches, knelt down and saw on His bare feet the two deep\nwounds, each with its livid ring around it.\n\nBut they could not bring themselves to touch Him, for they feared to see\nHim disappear suddenly as He had come suddenly. If one of them had\nembraced Him, would he have felt the warm solidity of a body, or would\nhis arms have passed through the emptiness of a mere shadow?\n\nIt was He with His face, with His voice, with the irrefutable traces of\nthe crucifixion, and yet there was something changed in His aspect which\nthey could not have described, even if they had been calm. The most\nreluctant were forced to believe that the Master stood before them with\nall the appearance of life begun anew, but their thoughts whirled in the\nlast of their doubts and they were silent as if they were afraid to\nbelieve in their senses, as if they expected to wake up, from one moment\nto another. Even Simon was silent. What could he have said without\nbetraying himself by tears to Him who had looked at him with those same\neyes in the courtyard of Caiaphas while he swore that he had never known\nHim?\n\nTo make an end of their last doubts, Jesus asked, \u201cHave ye here any\nmeat?\u201d\n\nHe needed no longer any food except that for which He had vainly asked\nall His life. But these men of the flesh needed a fleshly proof, a\nmaterial demonstration as was befitting those who believed only in\nmatter and nourished themselves only on matter. They had eaten together\non their last evening; this evening also, now that they were again\ntogether, He would eat with them. \u201cHave ye here any meat?\u201d\n\nA piece of broiled fish was left in a dish. Simon put it before the\nMaster, who sat down at the table and ate the fish with a piece of bread\nwhile they all stared at Him as though it were the first time they had\never seen Him eat.\n\nAnd when He had finished, He raised His eyes towards them, and, \u201cAre you\nconvinced now, or do you still not understand: does it seem possible to\nyou that a spirit can eat as I have eaten here in your presence? So many\ntimes I have been forced to reprove your hardness of heart, and your\nlittle faith! And behold you are still as you were at first, and you\nwere not willing to believe those who had seen me, and yet I had hid\nnothing of what was to happen in these days. But you, deaf and\nforgetful, hear and then forget, read and do not understand. When I was\nwith you, did I not tell you that all things which were written and\nwhich I announced must be fulfilled; that it behooved Christ to suffer\nand to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and\nremission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations,\nbeginning at Jerusalem? Now you are witnesses of these things, and\nbehold I send the promise of my Father upon you. Go ye into all the\nworld and preach the gospel to every creature. All power is given unto\nme in heaven and on earth, and as the Father sent me, I send you. Go ye\ntherefore and teach all nations, teaching them to observe all things\nwhatsoever I have commanded you. He that believeth and is baptized shall\nbe saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. I will remain here\na little and we shall meet again in Galilee, but I am with you always\neven unto the end of the world.\u201d\n\nLittle by little as He spoke, His Disciples\u2019 faces lighted up with a\nforgotten hope, and their eyes shone with exaltation. This was the hour\nof consolation after the gloom of those dreadful days just passed. His\nindubitable presence showed that the impossible was assured, that God\nhad not abandoned them and never would abandon them. Their enemies,\napparently victorious, were conquered; the visible truth bore out all\nthe prophecies. It was true that they had known already everything He\nwas then saying, but those truths really lived in them only when His\nlips repeated them.\n\nTheir King had come back, the Kingdom was near at hand, and His\nbrothers, instead of being derided and persecuted, would reign with Him\nthrough all eternity. These words had fired again the most tepid, had\nbrightened the memory of other words, of other sunnier days, and\nsuddenly they felt an exaltation, an ardor, a greater desire to embrace\neach other, to love each other, never more to be separated from each\nother. If the Master was risen from the dead, they themselves could not\ndie; if He could leave the sepulcher, His promises were the promises of\na God and He would fulfill them to the uttermost. Their faith was not in\nvain, and they were no longer alone: the crucifixion had been the\ndarkening of one day in order that the light might shine out more\nsplendidly for all the days to come.\n\n\n                             THOMAS DIDYMUS\n\n\nThomas, called Didymus, was not present when Jesus appeared, but the day\nafter, his friends ran to seek him, still agitated by what Jesus had\nsaid. \u201cWe have seen the Lord!\u201d they said. \u201cIt was really He. He talked\nwith us. He ate with us like a living man.\u201d\n\nThomas was one of those who had been profoundly shaken by the shame of\nGolgotha. He had said once that he was ready to die with his Master, but\nhe had fled away with the others when the lanterns of the guard had\nappeared on the Mount of Olives. His faith had been darkened by the\ngloom which had shut down on Golgotha. In spite of Christ\u2019s warnings, he\nhad never once thought that the end of his Master could be thus. To\nthink of the shame into which Jesus let himself be led, with the\npassivity of a feeble sheep, made him suffer, almost more than the loss\nof Him who had loved him. This disappointment of all his hopes had\nshocked him almost as though he had discovered that he had been cheated,\nand in his eyes his disappointment excused even the shame of their\nabandoning Him. Thomas, like Cleopas and his comrades, was a sensualist,\nwhom the exalted example of Christ had lifted high into a world which\nwas not his own. Faith had taken him unawares, like a contagious fervor.\nBut as soon as the flame which had kindled him anew every day was\nburied, or seemed buried, under the shameful stoning of hate, the light\nof his soul burned low, and grew cold. He took on again his first\ncharacter, his real character, which sought tangible things with the\nsenses, hoped for material changes in matter, and expected to find only\nin material things material certainties and consolations. His eyes\nrefused to look at the things which his hands could not touch, and for\nthis he was condemned never to see the invisible,\u2014a grace reserved only\nfor those who believe it possible. He hoped for the Kingdom, especially\nwhen the words and the presence of Jesus brightened his earthly heart\nwith the light of Heaven, but not for a purely spiritual Kingdom\nfloating in the firmament among the unsubstantial islands of the clouds,\nbut a kingdom where living, warm-blooded men might have eaten and drunk\nat solid and tangible tables, might govern with new laws a fairer earth\nassigned to them by God.\n\nThomas, after the scandal of the crucifixion, was not at all disposed to\nbelieve a hearsay report of the resurrection. He had seen his first\nbeliefs too roughly disabused to put any faith now in his equally\ndeceived companions. And he answered to those who joyfully brought him\nthe news, \u201cExcept I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and\nput my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his\nside, I will not believe.\u201d\n\nHe had said at first, \u201cExcept I shall see.\u201d But he corrected himself at\nonce: even his eyes could deceive him, and many men were cheated by\nvisions. And his thoughts went on to a material test, to the coarse,\nbrutal proof of fact,\u2014to put his finger there where the nails had been,\nto put his hand, his whole hand, where the lance had penetrated. To do\nas a blind man does who sometimes is less mistaken than men who see.\n\nHe rejected faith which is the higher vision of the soul. He even\nrefused to have faith in the sight of his eyes, the most divine of our\nbodily senses. He put his faith only in his hands, flesh handling flesh.\nThis double denial left him in the dark, groping like a blind man, until\nthe Light made Man, through a supreme loving concession, gave him back\nlight for his eyes and for his heart.\n\nBut this answer of Thomas has made him one of the most famous men in the\nworld: for it is Christ\u2019s eternal characteristic to immortalize even\nthose men who affronted Him. All those afraid to touch spiritual\nconcepts for fear of breaking them, all cheap skeptics, all the misers\nin academic chairs, all tepid half-wits stuffed with prejudices, all the\nfaint-hearted, sophists, the cynics, the beggars and the retort-cleaners\nof science; in short all rush-lights jealous of the sun, all geese\nhissing at the flight of soaring falcons, have chosen for their\nprotector and patron Thomas called Didymus. They know nothing of him\nexcept this: he does not believe in what he cannot touch. This answer\nseems to them the sum-total of perfect good sense. Let anybody who\nwishes claim that he sees in the darkness, hears in the silence, speaks\nin solitude, lives in death; the followers of Thomas can get no such\nidea into their thick, dense heads. So-called \u201creality\u201d is their\nstronghold, and they will not budge from it. They prefer to fill their\nlives with gold which satisfies no hunger, with land in which they will\noccupy so small a cavity, with glory so fleeting a whisper in the\nsilence of eternity, with flesh which is to become worm-eaten\ncorruption, and with those noisy, magic discoveries which after\nenslaving men hurry them towards the formidable discovery of death.\nThese and other things like them are \u201creal things,\u201d beloved by the\ndevotees of Thomas. But perhaps if they had ever had the idea of reading\nwhat happened after that answer made by Thomas, they would have their\ndoubts even of him who doubted the resurrection.\n\nA week later, the Disciples were in the same house as on the first\noccasion and Thomas was with them. He had hoped all that week that he\nalso might be permitted to see the risen Master, and sometimes he had\ntrembled, thinking that his answer might be the reason for Christ\u2019s\nabsence; but suddenly there came a voice at the door, \u201cPeace be unto\nyou.\u201d\n\nJesus entered, his eyes seeking out Thomas: He came for Thomas, for him\nalone, because Christ\u2019s love for him was greater than any affront. And\nHe called him by name and came up to him so that he could see Him\nclearly, face to face, \u201cReach hither thy finger, and behold my hands;\nand reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not\nfaithless, but believing.\u201d\n\nBut Thomas did not obey Him. He dared not put his finger in the nail\nprint nor his hand in the wound. He only said to him: \u201cMy Lord and my\nGod.\u201d\n\nWith these words which seemed an ordinary greeting, Thomas admitted his\ndefeat, fairer than any victory; and from that moment he was wholly\nChrist\u2019s. Up to that time he had revered Him as a man more perfect than\nothers, now he recognized Him as God, as his God.\n\nThen Jesus, who could not forget Thomas\u2019 doubt, answered, \u201cThomas,\nbecause thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that\nhave not seen, and yet have believed.\u201d\n\nThis is the last of the Beatitudes and the greatest: blessed are they\nthat have not seen and yet have believed, for in spite of the theories\nof the dissectors of corpses, the only truths which have an absolute\nvalue in reality are those which the eyes of the flesh cannot see and\nhands of flesh and blood can never handle. These truths come from on\nhigh and reach the soul directly: the man whose soul is locked shut\ncannot receive them, and will see them only on the day in which his\nbody, with its five limited doorways, is like a shabby worn-out garment\nleft upon a bed, in the interval before men hide it underground like a\nnoisome afterbirth.\n\nThomas is one of the saints and yet he was not one of those blest by\nthat Beatitude. An old legend relates that up to the day of his death\nhis hand was red with blood, a legend true with all the truth of a\nterrible symbolical meaning, if we understand from it that incredulity\ncan be a form of murder. The world is full of such assassins who have\nbegun by assassinating their own souls.\n\n\n                   THE REJECTION OF THE RESURRECTION\n\n\nChrist\u2019s first companions were at last convinced that His second and\neternal life had begun. He who had been killed, who had slept as a\ncorpse sleeps, covered with the perfumes of Nicodemus and the\nwinding-sheet of Joseph, had after two days awakened like a God. But how\nlong it took them to admit the reality of His return!\n\nAnd yet the enemies of Christ, to make an end to the greatest obstacles\nin the way of their other negations, have accused those very astonished,\nperplexed Disciples with having willingly or unwillingly invented the\nmyth of the resurrection. Caiaphas and his followers claimed that the\nDisciples carried off the body by night and then spread around the news\nof the empty sepulcher in order that weak-headed mystics might more\nreadily believe that Christ was risen and thus allow those cheats to\ncontinue their pestiferous trickery in the name of the dead Trickster.\nAnd Matthew says that the Jews bought some witnesses with \u201clarge money\u201d\nthat if needful they should report that they had seen Simon and his\naccomplices violate the sepulcher and carry away on their shoulders a\nheavy burden wrapped in white.\n\nBut His modern enemies, through a last remnant of respect for those who\nfounded with their blood the indestructible Church, or rather through\ntheir profound conviction of the simple-mindedness of the first martyrs,\nhave given up this idea of deceit. Neither Simon nor the others could\nhave acted out such a deception; they never could have kept such a piece\nof trickery straight in their poor thick heads. But if they were not\nconsciously deceiving, they were certainly stupid victims of their own\nfancy or of the knavery of others.\n\nThese enemies of Christ affirm that the Disciples hoped so vividly to\nsee Jesus rise from the dead as He had promised, and that the\nresurrection was so urgently needed to counteract the disgrace of the\ncrucifixion, that they were induced, almost forced, to expect it and to\nannounce it as imminent. Then in that atmosphere of superstitious\nsuspense, the vision of a hysterical woman, the hallucination of a\ndreamer, the delusion of an unbalanced man sufficed to spread the news\nof the appearance of Christ about the little circle of the desolate\nsurvivors. Some of them, unable to believe that the Master had deceived\nthem, easily put their faith in the affirmations of those who claimed to\nhave seen Him after His death. And, by dint of repeating the fantasies\nof these wild dreams, they ended by taking them seriously themselves and\nby convincing the more candid souls. Only on condition of such a\nposthumous confirmation of the divinity of the dead man was it possible\nto hold together those who had followed Him and to create the first\nstable organization of the universal Church.\n\nBut those who with their accusations of stupidity or fraud try to\nundermine the certainty of the first Christian generation, forget too\nmany things and too many essential things.\n\nFirst of all is the testimony of Paul. Saul the Pharisee had been to\nschool to Gamaliel, and might have been present, even though at a\ndistance and as an enemy, at Christ\u2019s death, and certainly knew all the\ntheories of his early teachers, the Jews, about the pretended\nresurrection. But Paul, who received the first Gospel from the lips of\nJames, called the brother of the Lord, and from Simon, Paul famous in\nall the churches of the Jews and the Gentiles, wrote thus in his first\nletter to the Corinthians: \u201cChrist died for our sins according to the\nscriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day\naccording to the scriptures; and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the\ntwelve: After that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once;\nof whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen\nasleep.\u201d The Letter to the Corinthians is recognized as authentic even\nby the most disdainful and suspicious nosers-out of falsification. The\nfirst Letter to the Corinthians cannot have been written later than the\nspring of the year 58, and hence it is older than the oldest Gospel.\nMany of those who had known the living Christ were still living at that\ntime and could easily have contradicted or undeceived the Apostle.\nCorinth was at the gates of Asia, inhabited by many Asiatics, in close\nrelation with Judea; Paul\u2019s letters were public messages which were\npublicly read at gatherings, and copies of them were made to send to\nother churches. The solemn and specific testimony of Paul must have come\nto Jerusalem, where the enemies of Jesus, many of them still alive,\nwould have found some way to controvert them by other witnesses. If Paul\ncould have thought a valid confutation possible, he never would have\ndared write those words. That he was able therefore, so short a time\nafter the event, publicly to affirm a prodigy so contrary to ordinary\nbeliefs and to the interests of Christ\u2019s watchful enemies, shows that\nthe resurrection was not merely a phantasy of a few fanatics, but a\ncertainty denied with difficulty, easily proved. We have no other record\nexcept this letter of Paul\u2019s of the appearance of Christ to the five\nhundred brothers, but we cannot even for a moment imagine that Paul, one\nof the greatest and purest souls of early Christianity, could have\ninvented it,\u2014he who had so long persecuted those who believed in the\nreality of the resurrection. It is extremely probable that the\nappearance of Christ to the five hundred happened in Galilee on the\nmountain spoken of by Matthew, and that the Apostle had known one of\nthose who had been present at that memorable meeting.\n\nBut this is not all. The Evangelists, who set down with some\nincoherence, but with the greatest frankness, the recollections of\nJesus\u2019 first companions, admit, perhaps without wishing to, that the\nApostles themselves did not expect the resurrection and found it hard to\nbelieve. When we read the four Gospels with attention we see that they\ncontinued to doubt even with the risen Christ before them. When on\nSunday morning the women ran to tell the Disciples that the sepulcher\nwas empty and Christ alive, the Disciples accused them of raving. When\nlater He appeared to many in Galilee: \u201cAnd when they saw him, they\nworshipped him:\u201d said Matthew; \u201cbut some doubted.\u201d And when He appeared\nat evening in the room where they were taking supper, there were some\nwho could not believe their own eyes and hesitated until they had seen\nHim eating. Thomas still doubted after this, until the moment when his\nLord\u2019s body was actually before his own.\n\nSo little did they expect to see Him rise again that the first effect\nupon them of His appearance was fright. \u201cThey were affrighted and\nsupposed that they had seen a spirit.\u201d They were therefore not so\ncredulous and easily fooled as their defamers would have them. And they\nwere so far from the idea of seeing Him return a living man among the\nliving that when they first saw Him they mistook Him for another. Mary\nof Magdala thought that He was the gardener of Joseph of Arimathea;\nCleopas and his companions were not able to recognize Him all along the\nroad; Simon and the others when He came to them upon the shore of the\nlake, \u201cknew not that it was Jesus.\u201d If they had really been expecting\nHim, Himself, their minds on the alert, burning with longing, would they\nhave been frightened, would they not have known Him at once? When we\nread the Gospels, we get the impression that Christ\u2019s friends, far from\ninventing His return, accepted it almost because they were forced, by\nexternal coercion, and after much hesitation; the exact contrary, in\nshort, of what is desired to be proved by those who accuse Christ\u2019s\nfriends of being deceived or of having deceived.\n\nBut why this hesitation? Because the warnings of Christ had not been\nable to dislodge from those slow and indocile minds the old Jewish\nrepugnance to the idea of immortality. The belief in the resurrection of\nthe dead was for centuries and centuries foreign to the wholly material\nmentality of the Jews. In a few prophets like Daniel and Hosea there are\nsome passing traces of the idea, but it does not appear explicitly\nexcept in one passage of the story of the Maccabees. At the time of\nChrist the common people had a confused idea of it as a distant miracle,\na part of the conceptions of the Apocalyptic writers, but they did not\nthink it possible before the final upheaval of the great day: the\nSadducees denied it firmly and the Pharisees admitted it as the remote\nand common reward of all righteous men. When the superstitious Antipas\nsaid that Christ was John risen from the dead, he meant to say with a\nvigorous figure of speech that the new Prophet was like a second John.\n\nReluctance to admit such an extraordinary infraction of the laws of\ndeath was so profoundly rooted in the Jewish people that the very\nDisciples of Christ were not disposed to admit the possibility of the\nresurrection without reiterated proofs, although they had seen Him raise\nothers from the dead and had heard Him predict His own resurrection. And\nyet they had seen Him bring to life with His powerful summons the son of\nthe Widow of Nain, the daughter of Jairus, the brother of Martha and\nMary: the three sleepers whom Jesus had awakened because of His\ncompassion for the grief of a mother, of a father, of a sister. But it\nwas the habit and the fate of the Twelve to misunderstand and to forget.\nThey were too set upon their material thoughts to be ready to believe at\nonce such a victory over death. But when they were convinced, their\ncertainty was so firm and strong that from the sowing of those first\nenforced witnesses has sprung up an enormous harvest of men born again\nin the faith of the resurrected One\u2014which the centuries have not yet\nmowed down.\n\nThe calumnies of the Jews, the accusations of false witnesses, the\ndoubts of the Disciples, the plots of implacable enemies, the fallacious\nsophistry of the progeny of Thomas, the fantasies of heresiarchs, the\ndistorted conceptions of men eager to prove Christ definitely dead, the\nturns and twists of the myth-spinners, the mines and assaults of the\nhigher and lower criticism have not availed to wrench from the millions\nof human hearts the certainty that the body taken down from the cross of\nGolgotha reappeared on the third day to die no more. The people chosen\nby Christ condemned Him to death, hoping to have done with Him, but\ndeath refused Him as the Jews had refused Him, and humanity has not yet\nfinished its accounting with that assassinated Man who came out from the\nsepulcher to show that breast where the Roman lance had forever made\nvisible the heart which loves those who hate Him.\n\nThe cowardly souls who will not believe in His first life, in His second\nlife, in His eternal life, cut themselves off from true life: from life\nwhich is generous acceptance, spontaneous love, hope in the invisible,\ncertainty of the truth which passeth understanding. They themselves are\ndead, although they seem living, those who refuse Him, as death refused\nHim. Those who drag the weight of their still warm and breathing corpses\nover the patient earth laugh at the resurrection. The second birth in\nthe spirit will not be granted to those who reject life, but an\nappalling and inevitable resurrection will be granted to them on the\nlast day.\n\n\n                         THE RETURN BY THE SEA\n\n\nWhen the tragedy had drawn to a close with its greatest sorrow, its\ngreatest joy, every one turned again to his own destination, the Son to\nthe Father, the King to His Kingdom, the High Priest to his basins of\nblood, the fishermen to their nets.\n\nThese water-soaked nets, with broken meshes, torn by the unaccustomed\nweight of the great draughts, so many times mended, patched, knotted\ntogether again, which had been left by the first fishers of men without\none backward look, on the shores of Capernaum, had finally been mended\nand laid on one side, by some one with the prudence of the stay-at-home\nwho knows that dreams are soon over and hunger lasts for all one\u2019s\nlifetime. The wife of Simon, the father of James and John, the brother\nof Thomas, had saved the casting nets and the drag-nets as tools which\nmight be useful, in memory of the exiles, as if a voice had said to\nthose who had remained at home: \u201cThey too will come back; the Kingdom is\nfair, but far distant, and the lake is fair now, to-day, and full of\nfish. Holy is holiness, but no man lives by the spirit alone. And a fish\non the table now is worth more to a hungry man than a throne a year from\nnow.\u201d\n\nAnd for a time the wisdom of the stay-at-homes, taken root in their\nnative countryside like moss on a stone, was vindicated. The fishermen\nreturned. The fishers of men appeared again in Galilee and once more\ntook the old nets into their hands. They had received the order of Him\nwho had drawn them away from there that they should be witnesses to His\nshame and to His glory. They had not forgotten Him and they could never\nforget Him: they always talked of Him among themselves and with all\nthose who were willing to listen to them. But Christ on His return had\nsaid, \u201cWe will meet again in Galilee.\u201d And they had gone away from\nill-omened Judea, from the mercenary city ruled by its murderous\nmasters, and they had trod once more the road back to their sweet, calm\nfatherland, whence the loving ravisher of souls had snatched them away.\nThe old houses had a mellow beauty, with the white banners of newly\nwashed linen, and the young grass greening along the old walls, and the\ntables cleaned by humble old hands, and the oven, which every week spat\nout sparks from its flaming mouth. And the quiet fishing-town had\nbeauty, too; with its tanned naked boys, the sun high over the level\nmarket-place, the bags and baskets in the shadow of the inns, and the\nsmell of fish which at dawn was wafted over it, with the morning breeze.\nBut more beautiful than all was the lake: a gray-blue and slate-colored\nexpanse on cloudy afternoons: a milky basin of opal with lines and\npatches of jacinth on warm evenings; a dark shadow flecked with white on\nstarry nights: a silvery, heaving shadow in the moonlight. On this lake\nwhich seemed the very spirit of the quiet, happy countryside, the\nfishermen\u2019s eyes had for the first time discovered the beauty of light\nand of water, nobler than the heavy unlovely earth and kinder than fire.\nThe boat with its slanting sails, its worn seats, the high red rudder,\nhad from their childhood been dearer to them than that other home which\nawaited them, stationary, whitened, four-square on the bank. Those\ninfinitely long hours of tedium and of hope as they gazed at the\nbrilliant water, the swaying of the nets, the darkening of the sky, had\nfilled the greater part of their poor and homely lives.\n\nThen came the day when a Master, poorer and more powerful than they, had\ncalled them to Himself to be workers with Him in a supernatural,\nperilous undertaking. The poor souls uprooted from their usual\nsurroundings had done their best to be lighted by that flame, but the\nnew life had trodden them out like grapes in the wine-press, like olives\nin the olive crusher in order that their rough hearts should yield up\ntears of love and pity.\n\nIt was only after the Cross had been raised on Golgotha that they had\nwept with true sorrow: and only after the Crucified Leader had returned\nto break bread with them that they had been kindled anew to hope.\n\nAnd now they had come home, bringing back only a few recollections, and\nyet those recollections were enough to transform the world. But before\nbeginning the work which He had commanded, they were waiting to see Him\nwhom they loved in the place which He had loved. They were different men\nfrom the men who had gone away, more restless, sadder, almost estranged,\nas if they had come back from the land of the lotus-eaters and saw from\nbeyond with purer eyes a new earth indissolubly united with Heaven. But\nthe nets were there, hung up on the walls, and the boats at anchor\nswayed up and down on the water. Once more the fishers of men, perhaps\nout of nostalgia, perhaps out of material need, began to be lake\nfishermen.\n\nSeven Disciples of Christ were together one evening in the harbor of\nCapernaum, Simon called Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael of Cana,\nJames, John and two others. Simon said, \u201cI go afishing.\u201d\n\nHis friends answered, \u201cWe also go with thee.\u201d\n\nThey went into the boat and put off, but all that night they caught\nnothing. When day came, a little depressed because of the wasted night,\nthey came back towards the shore. And when they were near they saw in\nthe faint light of the dawn a man standing on the shore, who seemed to\nbe waiting for them. \u201cBut the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.\u201d\n\n\u201cChildren, have ye any meat?\u201d called the unknown man.\n\nAnd they answered, \u201cNo.\u201d\n\n\u201cCast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.\u201d\n\nThey obeyed and in a moment the net was so full that they were scarcely\nable to draw it in. And they all began to tremble because they had\nguessed who it was awaiting them.\n\n\u201cIt is the Lord,\u201d said John to Simon.\n\nPeter answered nothing, but hastily drew on his fisher\u2019s coat (for he\nwas naked), and cast himself into the sea that he might be first on\nshore. The boat was scarcely two hundred cubits from the land and in a\nfew moments the seven Disciples were about their Lord. And no one asked\nHim, \u201cWho art thou?\u201d\u2014because they had recognized Him.\n\nOn the shore there were bread and a lighted brazier with fishes broiling\non it, and Jesus said, \u201cBring of the fish which ye have now caught.\u201d\n\nAnd for the last time He broke the Bread and gave to them and the fish\nlikewise. After they had finished eating Jesus turned to Simon and under\nHis look the unhappy man, silent till then, turned pale: \u201cSimon, son of\nJonas, lovest thou me more than these?\u201d\n\nThe man who had denied Him, when he heard this question full of\ntenderness, but for him so cruel, felt himself carried back to another\nplace beside another brazier with other questions put to him, and he\nremembered the answer he had made then, and the look from Christ about\nto die and his own great lamentation in the night. And he dared not\nanswer as he wished: \u201cYes\u201d in his mouth would have been boasting and\nshamelessness: \u201cNo\u201d would have been a shameful lie.\n\n\u201cYea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.\u201d\n\nHe made no claim for himself but \u201cthou knowest that I love thee,\u201d Thou\nwho knowest all and seest into the most hidden hearts. \u201cI love thee\u201d:\nbut he had not the courage to add \u201cmore than these\u201d in the presence of\nthe others, who knew what he had done.\n\nChrist said to him, \u201cFeed my lambs.\u201d\n\nAnd for the second time He asked him: \u201cSimon, son of Jonas, lovest thou\nme?\u201d\n\nAnd Peter in his trouble found no other answer than, \u201cYea, Lord; thou\nknowest that I love thee.\u201d\n\nWhy dost Thou still make me suffer? Dost Thou not know without my\ntelling Thee that I love Thee, that I love Thee more than at first, as I\nhave never loved Thee, and that I will give up my life to affirm my\nlove?\n\nThen Jesus said, \u201cFeed my sheep.\u201d\n\nAnd for the third time He insisted, \u201cSimon, son of Jonas, lovest thou\nme?\u201d\n\nHe was drawing from Peter three affirmations, three new promises to\ncancel his three denials at Jerusalem. But Peter could not endure this\nrepeated suffering. Almost weeping, He cried out, \u201cLord, thou knowest\nall things; thou knowest that I love thee!\u201d\n\nThe terrible ordeal was over, and Jesus went on, \u201cFeed my sheep. Verily,\nverily I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and\nwalkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt\nstretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry whither\nthou wouldest not.\u201d\n\nThat is, to the cross, like the cross where they nailed me. Know,\ntherefore, what it means to love me. My love is brother to death.\nBecause I love you, they have killed me: for your love for me, they will\nkill you. Think, Simon, son of Jonas, what is the covenant which you\nmake with me, and the fate which is before you. From now on, I shall not\nbe at hand to take you back, to give you the peace of forgiveness, after\ncoward fallings from grace. From now on defections and desertions will\nbe a thousand times more serious. You must answer for all the lambs\nwhich I leave in your care and as reward at the end of your labors you\nwill have two crossed beams, and four nails as I had, and life eternal.\nChoose: it is the last time that you can choose and it is a choice for\nall time\u2014irrevocable. For an account will be asked of you as a servant\nleft in the place of his master: and now that you know all and have\ndecided, come with me.\n\n\u201cFollow me!\u201d\n\nPeter obeyed, but turning about saw John coming after him and said,\n\u201cLord, and what shall this man do?\u201d\n\nJesus said to him, \u201cIf I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to\nthee? follow thou me!\u201d\n\nFor Simon the primacy and martyrdom; for John immortality and endless\nwaiting. He who bore the same name as the precursor of Christ\u2019s first\ncoming was to prophesy His second coming. The historian of the end was\nto be persecuted, a solitary prisoner, but he was to live longer than\nall the others and to see with his own eyes the crumbling of the stones,\nnot one left upon another, of the ill-omened hill of Jerusalem. In his\nsonorous blue desert, in the midst of the blinding light and the immense\nblackness of the midnight sea, in his vision of the great deeds of the\nlast day he will rejoice and suffer. Peter followed Christ, was\ncrucified for Christ and left behind him the eternal dynasty of the\nVicars of Christ: but John was not permitted to find rest in death: he\nwaits with us, the contemporary of every generation, silent as love,\neternal as hope.\n\n\n                               THE CLOUD\n\n\nOnce more they returned to Jerusalem, leaving their nets, this time\nforever, travelers setting out upon a journey, the stages of which were\nto be marked by blood.\n\nIn the same place where He had gone down to the city glorified by men,\nin the shade of blossoming branches, He was to rise again after the\ninterval of His dishonor and His resurrection, in the glory of Heaven.\nHe remained in the midst of men, for forty days after the resurrection,\nfor as long a time as He had remained in the desert after His symbolic\ndeath by water. Although His body seemed human, His life was\ntransfigured into the ultimate sublimination of humanity and He was\nready to enter as pure spirit, into the spirit of the Father from whom\nHe had been separated thirty years before, that He might cast a gleam of\nheavenly light upon the shadow-darkened world.\n\nHe did not, as before, lead a life in common with the Disciples, because\nHe was separated now from the life of living men; but He reappeared to\nthem more than once to confirm His great promises, and perhaps to\nexplain to those most capable of receiving them those mysteries which\nwere not written down in any book but were passed on, under the seal of\nsecrecy, through all the apostolic period and the following periods, and\nwere imperfectly set down later under the title of Arcana Disciplina.\n\nThe last time they saw Him was on the Mount of Olives, where before His\ndeath He had prophesied the ruin of the Temple and of the city and the\nsigns of His return, and where, in the darkness of night and of anguish,\nSatan, before his final defeat, had left Him wet with sweat and blood.\nIt was one of the last evenings of May and the clouds in that golden\nhour, like golden celestial islands in the gold of the setting sun,\nseemed to rise from the warm earth towards near-by Heaven, like incense\nfrom great fragrant offerings. In the fields of grain, the birds began\nto call back the fledglings to the nests, and the cool breeze lightly\nshook the branches and their drooping, unripened fruit. From the distant\ncity, still inact, from the pinnacles, the towers and the white squares\nof the Temple rose a smoky cloud of dust.\n\nAnd once again the Disciples asked Jesus the question which they had put\nto Him in the same place on the evening of the two prophecies. Now that\nHe had come back as He had promised, what else were they to await?\n\n\u201cLord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?\u201d\n\nThey may have meant the Kingdom of God, which in their minds, as in the\nminds of the Prophets, was one with the Kingdom of Israel, since the\ndivine restoration of the earth was to begin with Judea.\n\nChrist answered: \u201cIt is not for you to know the times or the season,\nwhich the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power,\nafter that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses\nunto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto\nthe uttermost parts of the earth.\u201d\n\nAnd having said this, He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And while\nthey beheld, He was taken up from the earth and suddenly a shining cloud\nas on the morning of the Transfiguration wrapped Him about and hid Him\nfrom their sight. But they could not look away from the sky and\ncontinued to gaze steadfastly up in their astonishment, when two men in\nwhite apparel spoke to them: \u201cYe men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up\ninto heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven,\nshall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.\u201d\n\nThen having prayed in silence, they returned to Jerusalem, glowing with\nmelancholy joy, thinking of the day just begun: the first day of a task\nwhich, after two thousand years, is not yet accomplished. They were\nalone now, alone against that innumerable enemy called the World. But\nHeaven is not so cut off from the earth as before the coming of Christ;\nthe mystic ladder of Jacob is no longer a lonely man\u2019s dream, but is set\nup on the earth, on this earth which we tread, and above there is an\nIntercessor who does not forget the ephemeral beings destined to eternal\nlife who, for a time, were His brothers. \u201cLo, I am with you alway, even\nunto the end of the world\u201d had been one of His last promises and the\ngreatest. He had ascended into Heaven, but Heaven was no longer merely\nthe barren dome where swift, tumultuous storm-clouds appear and\ndisappear; where the stars shine out silently, like the souls of saints.\n\nHe is still with us, the Son of Man, who to be nearer Heaven ascended\nmountains, who was light made manifest, who died, raised above the earth\ntowards the blackness of Heaven, and rose from the dead to ascend into\nHeaven in the peacefulness of evening, and who will return again on the\nclouds of Heaven. He is still present in the world which He meant to\nfree. He is still attentive to our words, if they truly come from the\ndepths of our hearts, to our tears if they are tears of blood in our\nhearts before being salt drops in our eyes. He is with us, an invisible,\nbenignant guest, never more to leave us, because by His wish our earthly\nlife is an anticipation of the Kingdom of Heaven, and is a part of\nHeaven from this day on. Christ has taken to Himself as His eternal\npossession that rough foster-mother of us all, that sphere which is but\na point in the infinite and yet contains hope for the infinite; and\nto-day He is closer to us than when He ate the bread of our fields. No\ndivine promise can be blotted out: the May cloud which hid Him from\nsight, still hovers near the earth, and every day we raise our weary and\nmortal eyes to that same Heaven from which He will descend in the\nterrible splendor of His glory.\n\n\n\n\n                                 INDEX\n\n\n Abba, Father, 302\n\n Abnegation, 309\n\n Abraham, 42\n\n Achilles, 100;\n   Priam and, 117, 120\n\n Adam, 127\n\n Adulteress, 223\n\n Adultery, 101, 210\n\n Adversary. _See_ Satan\n\n Agrapha, 12\n\n Aim of this book, 13, 14, 17, 20\n\n Ajax of Sophocles, 118\n\n Alabaster box, 224\n\n Alms, 109\n\n Andrew, 82\n\n Angels, 62, 74, 212\n\n Anger, 100\n\n Animality, 98, 123\n\n Animals, 22\n\n Annas, 251, 313\n\n Anointing, 224\n\n Anti-Christ, 4\n\n Anxiety for the morrow, 109\n\n Apostles, 85, 178. _See also_ Disciples\n\n Aquinas, Thomas, 185\n\n Arcana Disciplina, 406\n\n Aristophanes, 198, 199\n\n Aristotle, 119, 136\n\n Art, 124\n\n Ascension, 241, 405, 407\n\n Asking and receiving, 156\n\n Ass, 22, 116;\n   Jesus riding on, 244\n\n Augustus, 204\n\n Author of this book, his coming to Christ, 18\n\n Authority, 13\n\n Avarice, 111\n\n Awakened one, 30\n\n\n Babylon, 44\n\n Balaam, 22, 23\n\n Banks and bankers, 250\n\n Banquet of the Kingdom, 153, 154\n\n Baptism, of blood, 300;\n   of Jesus, 57, 60;\n   John the Baptist, 54;\n   second baptism of Jesus\u2014the tears of the woman who was a sinner, 228\n\n Barabbas, 341\n\n Barns, new, 174\n\n Beatitudes, 87, 93;\n   last and greatest, 395\n\n Beauty, 15\n\n Beggars, 80, 154, 193\n\n Behold the man!, 346\n\n Belief, 73, 74, 395\n\n Benevolence, 113\n\n Bestiality, 62, 73, 92, 323\n\n Bethany, 140\n\n Bethlehem, 24, 25;\n   babies, 28\n\n Bethpage, 244\n\n Betrayal, 281\n\n Betrayal of women, 102\n\n Birth of Jesus, 21\n\n Blasphemy, 322\n\n Blindfolding Jesus, 325\n\n Blindness, 133\n\n Blood, scourging of Jesus, 345;\n   sweat and blood of Jesus in Gethsemane, 306;\n   water and, from body of Jesus, 375;\n   wine and, 298\n\n Blood-offering, 29\n\n Boyhood, 32\n\n Bread, as the body of Christ, 296, 298;\n   breaking, 297;\n   eating, as communion with God, 295;\n   fishes and, 146;\n   material and spiritual, 66, 133, 146;\n   unleavened, 295, 297\n\n Bridegroom, 155\n\n Brothers, 161, 168, 207;\n   anger toward, 100;\n   love for, 114\n\n Buddha, 95, 198\n\n Buddhism, 114\n\n Burial of Jesus, 379\n\n Business as a God, 250\n\n Business men, 79\n\n But I say unto you, 100\n\n\n C\u00e6sar, faith, 148;\n   images, 327;\n   things which are C\u00e6sar\u2019s, 202, 204, 330\n\n C\u00e6sarea, 233\n\n Cain, descendants of, 255\n\n Cainites, 282\n\n Caiaphas, 243, 251, 278, 287, 310, 315, 318, 348;\n   adjuration of Jesus, 321;\n   rends his garment, 322\n\n Caligula, 270, 271\n\n Camel and needle\u2019s eye, 181\n\n Cana, 141\n\n Canaan, 43\n\n Capernaum, 74, 76\n\n Capital punishment, 356\n\n Carpenter, 35;\n   Jesus as, 36\n\n Catalepsy, 139\n\n Catholic Church, 12\n\n Celibacy, 211\n\n Centurion, 352, 355, 356\n\n Cerinthus, 268\n\n Chaldea, 24\n\n Charity, 173, 265\n\n Chastity, 211, 212\n\n Children, 216;\n   Bethlehem, 28;\n   Jesus\u2019 love of, 217;\n   Moses and, 215;\n   old law and its reversal by Jesus, 218\n\n\n Christ, Jesus declares himself, 247;\n   living to-day, 6, 408;\n   memory, 5;\n   modern opinion of, 19;\n   second coming, 259, 262;\n   Thou art the Christ, 235.\n   _See also_ Jesus;\n     Second coming\n\n Christian era, 6, 71\n\n Christian martyrs, 269\n\n Christianity, precedents for, 119\n\n Christs, false, 260, 267\n\n Church, 396;\n   Catholic, 12;\n   Peter and, 237\n\n Circe, 122\n\n Claudia Procula, 333, 376\n\n Cleopas, 384, 385, 387\n\n Cloud, Jesus\u2019 glorification, 405\n\n Clovis, 369\n\n Cock crow, 315, 317\n\n Commerce, 250\n\n Communion with God, 295\n\n Confucius, 113\n\n Conversion, 73;\n   in Jesus\u2019 life, 58\n\n Converted sinner, 59\n\n Corinthians, letter to the, 397\n\n Cost, counting, 153\n\n Country, 39\n\n Courage, 106\n\n Court of the Gentiles, 248\n\n Courtesy, 113\n\n Covenants, 40\n\n Crates, 198, 199\n\n Criticism, 8, 12\n\n Cross, 304, 305, 352;\n   Jesus and the two thieves carrying, 353;\n   Jesus nailed to, 360;\n   superscription, 351.\n   _See also_ Crucifixion\n\n Crown of thorns, 346\n\n\n Crucifixion, 359, 367\n\n Crucify him!, 338, 340, 343, 347\n\n Cynics, 198\n\n Cyrenian, 353, 355\n\n\n Daniel, 271\n\n Darkness, at the crucifixion, 367, 370;\n   Jesus\u2019 hour of, 310\n\n David, 43, 116\n\n Day of the Lord, 262\n\n Dead, raising, 138\n\n Death, 133;\n   Egypt\u2019s obsession, 31;\n   Jewish views, 399\n\n Death of Jesus, authors and accomplices, 242, 243;\n   foreknowledge, 241;\n   His prayer, Abba, Father, 302.\n   _See also_ Crucifixion\n\n Deborah, 43\n\n Debts, forgiving, 171, 230\n\n Defilement, 104\n\n Demons, 137, 175\n\n Desert, 61, 68, 69\n\n Devil. _See_ Satan\n\n Didymus, 392\n\n\n Disciples, 176;\n   duty, 189;\n   earliest, 75;\n   first four, 82;\n   foretold of Jesus\u2019 death, 242;\n   instructions to, 188;\n   mystic identity with Jesus, 192;\n   persecutions, 268;\n   reappearance of Jesus to, after the resurrection, 403;\n   at resurrection of Jesus, 388, 389;\n   speaking in the light, 190;\n   warnings to, 180\n\n Discord, 206\n\n Dismas, 363, 367\n\n Divinity, 123\n\n Divorce, 210\n\n Doing versus hearing, 158\n\n Dositheus, 268\n\n Doubt of Thomas, 392\n\n\n Earthly kingdoms, 63, 65, 67, 72\n\n Earthquakes, 270\n\n Easter, 243, 295\n\n Edification, 14\n\n Education of the human race, 98\n\n Egypt, character, 31;\n   death and mud, 31;\n   exile in, 32;\n   flight into, 30;\n   Jews in, 42\n\n Egyptians, 114\n\n Elder son, 167, 169\n\n Elders, 242\n\n Elias, 240, 373\n\n Eloquence, 16\n\n Elxai, 268\n\n Emmaus, 384\n\n End of the world, 262, 266\n\n Enemies, Egyptians and, 114;\n   Greeks and, 117;\n   hatred of, 126;\n   Jewish treatment of, 115;\n   love of, 121\n\n Enn\u0153a, 267\n\n Entreaty, 156\n\n Epileptics, 135\n\n Erudition, 13\n\n Eternal life, 264, 400\n\n Eternal punishment, 264\n\n Eternity, 71\n\n Evangelists on the Resurrection, 398\n\n Evil, flight from, 105;\n   root of, 100\n\n Evil for evil, 105\n\n Exaggeration, 100\n\n Exile in Egypt, 32\n\n Expiation, 279\n\n\n Faith, 132, 133, 136, 148\n\n False Christs, 260, 267\n\n False witnesses, 319\n\n Family, 103\n\n Farmers, 79\n\n Father, real, 34;\n   universal, 45\n\n Fatherhood of God, 37\n\n Father\u2019s business, 33\n\n Fathers and sons, 213\n\n Fatted calf, 167\n\n Feast, 153\n\n Feed my sheep, 404\n\n Feet, washing of, 292\n\n Fig tree, accursed, 144\n\n Fire, 207;\n   from heaven, 184;\n   prophet of fire, 54\n\n First and last, 180\n\n First covenant, 40\n\n Fishermen, 78;\n   earliest disciples, 82, 84;\n   return to the sea, 400\n\n Fishers of men, 83\n\n Flesh, conquest of, 212;\n   one flesh, 209\n\n Flight from evil, 105\n\n Flight into Egypt, 30\n\n Flogging, 343, 344\n\n Flood, 41\n\n Florence, 20\n\n Forgive them, 356, 358, 363\n\n Forgiveness, 170;\n   of sin, 231\n\n Forsaken, on the cross, 372\n\n Forty days, 62\n\n Fourth Covenant, 43\n\n Frankincense, 25\n\n Friends, Jesus and Judas, 285;\n   laying down life for, 294;\n   posthumous, 376\n\n Friendliness, 75\n\n Fulvia, 334\n\n\n Galilee, 69, 71, 401\n\n Gardeners, 78\n\n Garments of Jesus, division, 361\n\n Gate, narrow, 156\n\n Gentiles and Jerusalem, 262\n\n Gethsemane, 181, 183, 302\n\n Gnostics, 268\n\n God, 122;\n   as Father, 37;\n   imitation of, 123;\n   likeness to, 123;\n   reign of, 71;\n   will of, 309\n\n Gods of Greece, 64\n\n Gold, frankincense and myrrh, 25\n\n Golgotha, 357\n\n Good Friday, 350\n\n Good thief, 363\n\n Good tidings, 74\n\n Gospel, 74\n\n Gospels, 6;\n   authenticity, 11\n\n Greatness, 177\n\n Greek gods, 64\n\n Greeks, treatment of enemies, 117\n\n\n Happiness, 95, 97, 154\n\n Harvest, 175\n\n Hasmon\u00e6ans, 27\n\n Hatred, of enemies, 126;\n   of others, 111;\n   of ourselves, 124, 125\n\n He is risen, 381\n\n Health, 134, 138;\n   of soul, 102\n\n Hearing versus doing, 158\n\n Heaven, 73, 407.\n   _See also_ Kingdom of Heaven\n\n Heights, 130\n\n Heresies, 267\n\n Hermon, Mount, 238\n\n Herod Antipas, 335;\n   Jesus before, 337\n\n Herod the Great, 27, 325\n\n Herodias, 336\n\n High Priests, 242;\n   plot against Jesus, 277, 278\n\n Hillel, 117\n\n Holiness, 122, 205\n\n Horace, 26\n\n Hosannas, 246\n\n Hosea, 274\n\n House on a rock, 158\n\n Human nature, mystery, 234\n\n Human race, education, 98\n\n Humility, 125, 172, 293\n\n Hungering after justice, 90\n\n Husbandman, good, 175\n\n Hypocrites, 255\n\n\n Ideas of Jesus, antiquity of, 112\n\n Imagination, 15, 16\n\n Immortality, 399\n\n Inasmuch, 264\n\n Incest, 336\n\n Inferno, 35\n\n Inheriting the earth, 88\n\n Injustice, 91\n\n Innocents, slaughter of, 28\n\n Insults, 92, 314, 324, 354\n\n Intellectualism, 124\n\n Intelligence, 87\n\n Introduction, 3\n\n\n Jairus\u2019 daughter, 139\n\n James, 83, 183, 184\n\n Jericho, 172\n\n Jerusalem, desolation, 261;\n   destruction, 44, 45, 271, 272;\n   last journey to, 244;\n   Passover 32;\n   worldly, 69\n\n\n Jesus, attempts on his life, 241;\n   baptism of, 57, 60;\n   birth, 21;\n   blindfolded, 325;\n   as the Christ, 233;\n   condemnation, 322;\n   crucifixion, 359, 367;\n   deeds, 130;\n   foreknowledge, 49;\n   foreknowledge of death, 241;\n   friendliness, 75;\n   hatred and condemnation for, 275;\n   healer, 138;\n   Herod Antipas and, 334;\n   liberator, 299, 384;\n   nailed to the cross, 360;\n   nature, 233;\n   Pilate and, 329, 338;\n   Pilate\u2019s question, 330, 332;\n   poverty, 193;\n   prosecution, 315;\n   resurrection, 381;\n   road to Emmaus, 384;\n   second crucifixion, 3;\n   sinlessness, 58;\n   spat on and struck, 324;\n   under the cross, 353;\n   the wanderer, 75, 76;\n   what men said of him, 233, 235.\n   _See also_ Christ\n\n Jewish State, re\u00ebstablishment, 274\n\n Jews, dispersal, 44, 272;\n   history, 40;\n   in Egypt, 42;\n   wanderings, 43\n\n Job, 116\n\n John, 83, 183, 184, 185, 315, 318;\n   at the crucifixion, 371;\n   at the sepulcher, 383\n\n John the Baptist, 54;\n   beheading of, 336;\n   imprisonment and death, 69;\n   Jesus\u2019 answer to him in prison, 137, 138\n\n Jonah, 131\n\n Jordan and John the Baptist, 54\n\n Joseph, 34, 286\n\n Joseph of Arimathea, 318, 377\n\n Joshua, 43\n\n Judas, 186, 202, 243;\n   Jesus\u2019 understanding of, 284;\n   kiss of, 311;\n   at the Last Supper, 290, 301;\n   mystery of, 281;\n   sinning woman and, 229;\n   wasted ointment and, 232\n\n Judea, outbreak, 270\n\n Judging others, 110\n\n Judgment Day, 263, 265\n\n Justice, 118, 122, 124, 155;\n   hunger for, 90\n\n\n King of the Jews, 330, 346, 351\n\n\n Kingdom of Heaven (of God), 66, 68, 71, 93;\n   chief places in, 157, 184;\n   children\u2014of such is the Kingdom, 217;\n   definition, 72;\n   force and, 205;\n   like mustard seed, 151\n\n Kingdom of Satan, 72, 196\n\n Kingdoms of the earth, 63, 65, 67, 72\n\n Kings, at the birth of Jesus, 25;\n   of the nations, 204\n\n Kiss of Judas, 311\n\n Knowledge, 25\n\n\n Lama sabachthani, 372\n\n Lamps, 156\n\n Land of Promise, 42\n\n Lao-Tse, 113\n\n Last and first, 180\n\n Last judgment, 263, 265\n\n Last Supper, 288\n\n Last things, 259\n\n Law, 122, 124;\n   old and new, 99\n\n Lazarus, 140, 220\n\n Lazarus, the beggar, 173\n\n Legs, breaking, 366, 375\n\n Leopardi, Giacomo, 95\n\n Lepers, 135\n\n Liberator, 299, 384\n\n Life, 5;\n   eternal, 264, 400;\n   Jesus\u2019 knowledge of, 60;\n   revaluation of, 93;\n   true, 110\n\n Light, Jesus\u2019 Transfiguration, 239\n\n Lives of Christ, kind we need, 10;\n   two kinds, 7\n\n Logia, 12, 186\n\n Longinus, 375\n\n Lord\u2019s Prayer, exposition, 128\n\n Losing one\u2019s soul, 196\n\n Lost found, 32\n\n Lost sheep, 170\n\n Love, antiquity and, 111-121;\n   Christ\u2019s command, 121;\n   Christ\u2019s for sinners, 59;\n   experiment of, 125;\n   filial, 103;\n   mutual and universal, 113;\n   for one another, 294;\n   perfect, 37;\n   self, 111, 125;\n   woman who loved much, 229\n\n Lovest thou me?, 403\n\n Luke-warmness, 188\n\n\n Malchus, 311\n\n Mammon, 193, 196;\n   Temple at Jerusalem and, 249\n\n Man, early rules, 98;\n   perfectibility, 97\n\n Manger, 21\n\n Maranatha, 243\n\n Mariamne, 27\n\n Mark, 313\n\n Marriage, 142, 209;\n   Cana, 141, 143\n\n Martha, 138, 140, 219\n\n Martyrs, 269\n\n Mary (of Bethany), 138, 140, 219, 379\n\n Mary (Virgin Mother), 13, 222, 371, 378, 379;\n   flight into Egypt, 30\n\n Mary Magdalene, 220, 224, 379;\n   risen Lord and, 382\n\n Masons, 78\n\n Massacre of the Innocents, 29\n\n Matthew, 185, 186, 282\n\n Meander, 268\n\n Meekness, 88\n\n Memory of Christ, 5\n\n Mental diseases, 136\n\n Merciful, 90\n\n Mercy, 263, 265\n\n Messiah, 183;\n   material, 53, 65\n\n Messiahship, 49\n\n Messianic prophecies, 50\n\n Metals, 189, 201\n\n Miracles, 66, 67, 131, 136\n\n Money, banks, exchange, etc., 250;\n   curse of, 220;\n   Jesus and, 201, 202;\n   Judas and, 282\n\n Money-changers, 249\n\n Mosaic law, 115\n\n Moses, 30;\n   deliverance of Jews from Egypt, 42;\n   law and love, 115;\n   sprinkling of blood, 299;\n   with Christ on Hermon, 240\n\n Moslems, 274\n\n Mount, Sermon on the, 85, 94, 186\n\n Mountain, Jesus praying on, 239\n\n Mourning, 89\n\n M\u2019-Ti, 112, 113\n\n Mud, 31\n\n Murder, 100\n\n Mustard seed, 151\n\n Myrrh, 25\n\n Mysteries, 406;\n   Gethsemane, 306;\n   human nature, 234;\n   of the Kingdom, 149\n\n\n Nails, four, 359, 361\n\n Names, secret and real, 234\n\n Nard, 224\n\n Narrow gate, 156\n\n Nathaniel, 186\n\n Nature, 95;\n   antagonism of Jesus and, 109;\n   Jesus and, 38;\n   overturning, 108\n\n Nazarene, 351\n\n Nazareth, any good thing out of?, 186;\n   boyhood of Jesus, 32;\n   foreknowledge of Jesus, 49;\n   Joseph\u2019s shop, 34\n\n Nazir, 54\n\n Negative command, 117\n\n Neighbor, 172\n\n Nero, 269\n\n New Covenant, 71, 299\n\n Nicodemus, 187, 278, 318, 377\n\n Nicolatians, 268\n\n Nirvana, 114\n\n Noah, 41\n\n Nomads, 41\n\n Nonresistance, 104, 107\n\n\n Oaths, 103\n\n Octavius Augustus, 26\n\n Old Adam, 59, 125\n\n Old Covenant, 40, 299\n\n Old ideas, 112\n\n Old law, 117\n\n Old Testament morality, 116\n\n Older son, 167, 169\n\n Olives, Mount of, 244, 245, 252, 259, 302\n\n Ophir, 44\n\n Opinion of Christ, modern, 19\n\n Other cheek, 105, 106\n\n Overturnings of opinion, 94\n\n Ox, 22\n\n\n Paganism, 169\n\n Palazzo Vecchio, 20\n\n Palm branches, 246\n\n Parables, 131, 149, 151\n\n Paradise, 40, 43, 127, 213, 219;\n   for the penitent thief on the cross, 356\n\n Paradox, 93\n\n Parasceve, 352\n\n Parusia, 259, 262, 267, 273\n\n Passion, beginning, 243\n\n Passover, 32, 288, 295;\n   night before, 352\n\n Paternoster, 128, 215\n\n Patriarchs, 41\n\n Paul, 269;\n   testimony as to the resurrection, 397\n\n Peace, 208\n\n Peace and war, 190, 205\n\n Peacemakers, 91\n\n Peasants, 79\n\n Persecutions, 26, 91, 260, 268\n\n Peter, 268, 269;\n   the Rock, 181, 237.\n   _See also_ Simon Peter\n\n Petronius, 375\n\n Pharaoh, 42\n\n Pharisees, 55, 104, 147, 253;\n   condemnation in the Temple, 255;\n   at Jesus\u2019 entry into Jerusalem, 246;\n   prayer of, and Publican, 171\n\n Philip, 186\n\n Philo, 117\n\n Pilate, Pontius, 243, 325;\n   fate, 350;\n   Jesus before, 329, 338;\n   last recorded words, 351;\n   personality, 326;\n   subterfuges, 342, 347, 348, 349;\n   washing of hands, 346, 349;\n   wife\u2019s dream, 333\n\n Pitcher, man with, 288, 289\n\n Pity, 171, 265, 354\n\n Plato, 118, 198, 199\n\n Pluto, 198, 199\n\n Poet, Jesus as, 150\n\n Poetry, 15\n\n Poor, the, Jesus\u2019 love of, 200;\n   Jesus\u2019 teaching, 77;\n   rich and, 173, 189, 194;\n   in spirit, 87.\n   _See also_ Poverty\n\n Possession by devils, 136\n\n\n Poverty, 79, 109, 174;\n   disciples, 189;\n   Jesus, 193;\n   voluntary, 197\n\n Prayer, 128;\n   Father, forgive them, 356, 358, 363;\n   Jesus in Gethsemane, 303, 309;\n   Jesus on the mountain, 239;\n   Lord\u2019s prayer, 128;\n   Pharisee and Publican, 171\n\n Priam, 117, 120\n\n Priestly caste, 276\n\n Primacy, 405\n\n Prodigal son, 160-169\n\n Prophecy of Jesus on Last Things, 259, 266\n\n Prophets, 44, 45;\n   character, 47;\n   definitions, 47, 48;\n   description, 46\n\n Prostitutes, 230\n\n Proverbs, 116\n\n Psalms, imprecations on enemies, 116\n\n Publicans, 56;\n   prayer of Publican and Pharisee, 171\n\n Punishment, eternal, 264\n\n Pure in heart, 90\n\n Purification, 104\n\n Purity, 110;\n   of Jesus, 58\n\n\n Rabboni, 382\n\n Readiness, 155\n\n Reed, 346, 373\n\n Religion, as a business in Jerusalem, 276;\n   Roman, 327\n\n Religions for the irreligious, 4\n\n Renan, J. E., 9\n\n Renunciation, 152, 180, 196, 200, 201\n\n Repentance, 59, 73, 363, 366\n\n Resurrection, 381;\n   doubts about, 388;\n   Evangelists\u2019 testimony, 398;\n   Paul\u2019s testimony, 397;\n   rejection, 395\n\n Resurrections from the dead, 138\n\n Retaliation, 90, 99;\n   Jesus\u2019 repudiation of the old law, 105\n\n Revenge, 105\n\n Rich and poor, 173, 189, 194\n\n Rich man, 194\n\n Righteousness, 114\n\n Risen from the dead, 381\n\n Rock, Caiaphas and Peter, 318;\n   house built on, 158;\n   Peter, 237\n\n Roman Emperor, 327\n\n Roman Empire, 204;\n   upheaval, 269\n\n Roman soldiers, 344, 356\n\n Rome and the Christian martyrs, 269\n\n\n Sabbath, Jesus and, 254;\n   Jesus at Capernaum, 77\n\n Sacrifice, of the innocent for the guilty, 279;\n   pagan examples, 279\n\n Sadducees, 55, 147\n\n Saints, 256, 351\n\n Salome, 336\n\n Salvation, 194\n\n Samaritan, the good, 172\n\n Samaritans, 172, 184\n\n Sanhedrin, 187, 278;\n   Jesus before, 318\n\n\n Satan, Jesus and, 63;\n   Jesus and\u2014Gethsemane, 303\n\n Saul, 43, 116\n\n Savonarola, 20\n\n Scarlet cloak, 346\n\n Scourging, 343, 344\n\n Scribes, 242, 253;\n   condemnation in the Temple, 255\n\n Second birth, 73, 187, 188\n\n\n Second coming, 259, 262, 267;\n   date, 273;\n   imminence, 274\n\n Second covenant, 41\n\n Secret name, 234\n\n Secretiveness, 149\n\n Self-justification, Socrates and Jesus, 320\n\n Self-love, 111, 125, 126\n\n Self-preservation, 110\n\n Sell all, 197\n\n Selling Jesus, 286\n\n Seneca, 119\n\n Sepulcher, Jesus and, 378\n\n Sepulchers, 257\n\n Sermon on the Mount, 85, 94, 186\n\n Sermon on the Mount, second, 259\n\n Sermons, 17\n\n Servant of all, 109\n\n Service, 185\n\n Sheba, Queen of, 44\n\n Sheep, lost, 170\n\n Sheep and goats, 260, 263\n\n Shepherds, 23, 79\n\n Sickness, 134\n\n Signs, 131\n\n Simon of Cyrene, 353, 355\n\n Simon Magus, 267\n\n Simon Peter, 82, 148, 180;\n   confession of Christ, 236;\n   contradictory acts, 311, 312;\n   denial, 315;\n   primacy and martyrdom granted to, 403, 405;\n   at the sepulcher, 383;\n   sinning woman and, 229\n\n Simplicity, 110, 178, 219\n\n Sin, 101, 126;\n   against the spirit, 255;\n   forgiveness of, 231;\n   he that is without sin, 223;\n   in Jesus\u2019 life, 58;\n   parables of, 170;\n   sacrifice of the innocent for, 279\n\n Sinlessness of Jesus, 58\n\n Sinners, 175;\n   converted, 59\n\n Skull, Hill of the, 357, 359, 371\n\n Sleep, 181;\n   infant Jesus and, 30;\n   of the three disciples on the Mount of Olives, 306, 310\n\n Smiths, 78\n\n Snow and sun, 238\n\n Socrates, 320;\n   on enemies, 118\n\n Solitude, 61;\n   of Jesus, 307\n\n Solomon, 44\n\n Son of David, 246\n\n Son of God, 236, 238;\n   question put to Jesus, 321\n\n Son of Man, 236, 238, 262, 263, 273, 274\n\n Sons, 160;\n   fathers and, 213\n\n Sons of Thunder, 183\n\n Sonship, 37\n\n Soul, losing, 196\n\n Sower, parable of, 158\n\n Spinoza, 185\n\n Spirit, 62, 196, 406;\n   sin against, 255;\n   victory over the flesh, 308\n\n Spitting on Jesus, 324\n\n Sponge soaked in vinegar, 373\n\n Stable, 21\n\n Stephen, 268\n\n Steward, 160, 174\n\n Stoics, 198\n\n Stones, crying out, 247;\n   disciples compared to, 266;\n   not one upon another, 258\n\n Suffering, 134\n\n Sun and snow, 238\n\n Sunday, 380\n\n Superiority, 185\n\n Supper, last, 288\n\n Swearing, 102\n\n Sweat of Jesus, 306\n\n Swine-herds, 164\n\n Sword, fire and, 205, 208;\n   not peace but a sword, 206\n\n\n Talents, parable of, 159\n\n Talitha qumi, 138\n\n Tares and wheat, 175\n\n Teachers of Jesus, 34\n\n Teaching of Jesus, at Capernaum, 77;\n   earliest, 71, 74\n\n Tebutis, 268\n\n Temple, 45;\n   description, 247;\n   destruction, 272;\n   destruction foretold, 258, 261;\n   Jesus\u2019 entry and purpose, 248;\n   Jesus lost and found in, 33;\n   place of business in Jewish life, 275;\n   ramification, 250;\n   veil, 374\n\n Temptations of Jesus, 64, 303\n\n Ten Commandments, 43\n\n Theology, 12, 25\n\n Theudas, 267\n\n Thief on the cross, penitent, 363\n\n Thieves, two, 352, 356, 363\n\n Third Covenant, 42\n\n Thirst of Jesus on the cross, 373\n\n Thomas, 133, 185;\n   doubts, 392\n\n Thomas Aquinas, 185\n\n Thorns, 346\n\n Tiberius, 326, 331\n\n Time, fullness of, 71\n\n Titus, 272\n\n Too late, 155, 156\n\n Transfiguration, 182, 183, 239, 241\n\n Transformation of soul, 73, 74, 95, 97, 108, 189\n\n Truth, 15;\n   sin against, 255;\n   what is truth?, 329, 332\n\n Turning the other cheek, 105, 106\n\n Twelve, the, 176. _See also_ Disciples\n\n\n Ulysses, 118\n\n\n Vaddhamana, 198\n\n Vagabondage of Jesus, 76\n\n Vanity, 109, 177\n\n Veil of the temple, 374\n\n Vespasian, 272\n\n Vinegar, 373\n\n Vineyard, laborers in, 155\n\n Violence, 205, 208;\n   possible ways of meeting, 105;\n   solving the problem, 107\n\n Vipers, 252, 256\n\n Virgil, 26, 27\n\n Virgin Mother, 13, 222, 371, 378, 379\n\n Virgins, wise and foolish, 156\n\n\n Walking on the water, 182\n\n Wandering Jew, 76\n\n War, 91, 122, 206, 209;\n   wars and rumors of wars, 269\n\n Warnings, 260\n\n Washing of the feet, 292\n\n Washing of the hands, 346, 349\n\n Watch and pray, 307\n\n Water, blood and, from body of Jesus, 375;\n   of truth, 192;\n   turned into wine, 143;\n   walking on, 182\n\n Wealth, 124, 174, 194;\n   ancient feeling toward, 199\n\n Weddings, 141\n\n What I have written, 351\n\n Wheat and tares, 175\n\n White cloak, 335, 337, 344\n\n Whited sepulchers, 257\n\n Who am I?, 233\n\n Will of God, 309\n\n Wind and sea obedient, 147\n\n Wine, 143, 295, 301;\n   as the blood of Christ, 299;\n   mixture offered Jesus on the cross, 358\n\n Wise men, 24\n\n Witnesses, false, 319\n\n Women, Jesus and, 219;\n   with Jesus on Golgotha, 371;\n   old law and, 222;\n   Roman, 334;\n   at the sepulcher, 380;\n   woman who was a sinner, 224\n\n Woodworker, 34\n\n Work, 35\n\n Writing on the sand, 223\n\n\n Ye have heard, 98\n\n Yeast, 151\n\n\n Zarathushtra, 5, 114\n\n Zealots, 268, 271, 272, 341\n\n Zebedee\u2019s sons, 83\n\n Zeus, 120, 121\n\n\n\n\n                          THE EUROPEAN LIBRARY\n                        Edited by J. E. SPINGARN\n\n\nThis series is intended to keep Americans in touch with the intellectual\nand spiritual ferment of the continent of Europe to-day, by means of\ntranslations that partake in some measure of the vigor and charm of the\noriginals. No attempt will be made to give what Americans miscall \u201cthe\nbest books,\u201d if by this is meant conformity to some high and illusory\nstandard of past greatness; any twentieth-century book which displays\ncreative power or a new outlook or more than ordinary interest will be\neligible for inclusion. Nor will the attempt be made to select books\nthat merely confirm American standards of taste or morals, since the\nseries is intended to serve as a mirror of European culture and not as a\nglass through which it may be seen darkly. All forms of literature will\nbe represented, and special attention will be paid to authors whose\nworks have not hitherto been accessible in English.\n\n    \u201cThe first organized effort to bring into English a series of the\n    really significant figures in contemporary European literature....\n    An undertaking as creditable and as ambitious as any of its kind on\n    the other side of the Atlantic.\u201d\u2014_New York Evening Post._\n\n\n    THE WORLD\u2019S ILLUSION. By JACOB WASSERMANN. Translated by Ludwig\n    Lewisohn. Two volumes.\n\nOne of the most remarkable creative works of our time, revolving about\nthe experiences of a man who sums up the wealth and culture of our age\nyet finds them wanting.\n\n\n    PEOPLE. By PIERRE HAMP. Translated by James Whitall. With\n    Introduction by Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant.\n\nIntroducing one of the most significant writers of France, himself a\nworking man, in whom is incarnated the new self-consciousness of the\nworker\u2019s world.\n\n\n    DECADENCE, AND OTHER ESSAYS ON THE CULTURE OF IDEAS. By REMY DE\n    GOURMONT. Translated by William Aspenwall Bradley.\n\nAn introduction to Gourmont\u2019s theory of the \u201cdisassociation of ideas,\u201d\nwhich has been called \u201cthe most fruitful and provocative theory since\nNietzsche.\u201d\n\n\n    HISTORY: ITS THEORY AND PRACTICE. By BENEDETTO CROCE. Translated by\n    Douglas Ainslie.\n\nA new interpretation of the meaning of history, and a survey of the\ngreat historians, by one of the leaders of European thought.\n\n\n    THE NEW SOCIETY. By WALTER RATHENAU. Translated by Arthur Windham.\n\nOne of Germany\u2019s most influential thinkers and men of action presents\nhis vision of the new society emerging out of the War.\n\n\n    THE REFORM OF EDUCATION. By GIOVANNI GENTILE. With an Introduction\n    by Benedetto Croce. Translated by Dino Bigongiari.\n\nAn introduction to the philosophy of a great contemporary thinker who\nhas an extraordinary influence on Italian life to-day.\n\n\n    THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE. By C. F. RAMUZ. Translated by James\n    Whitall. With an Introduction by Ernest Boyd.\n\n\u201cA rural fantasia comparable to Synge\u2019s \u2018Playboy,\u2019\u201d introducing an\ninteresting French-Swiss novelist.\n\n\n    THE GOOSE MAN. By JACOB WASSERMANN, author of \u201cThe World\u2019s\n    Illusion.\u201d Translated by Allen W. Porterfield.\n\nA novel which raises the question whether genius can ignore the common\nrules of humanity without self-destruction.\n\n\n    RUB\u00c8. By G. A. BORGESE. Translated by Isaac Goldberg.\n\nA novel which has had a sensational success in Italy, centering on the\nspiritual collapse since the War.\n\n\n    THE PATRIOTEER. By HEINRICH MANN. Translated by Ernest Boyd.\n\nA German \u201cMain Street,\u201d describing the career of a typical product of\nmilitarism, in school, university, business, and love.\n\n\n    MODERN RUSSIAN POETRY: AN ANTHOLOGY. Translated by Babette Deutsch\n    and A. Yarmolinsky.\n\nCovers the whole field of Russian verse since Pushkin, with the emphasis\non contemporary poets.\n\n\n    LIFE OF CHRIST. By GIOVANNI PAPINI. Translated by Dorothy Canfield\n    Fisher.\n\nThe first biography of Christ by a great man of letters since Renan\u2019s.\n\n\n    CONTEMPORARY GERMAN POETRY: AN ANTHOLOGY. Translated by Babette\n    Deutsch and A. Yarmolinsky. _In preparation._\n\nCovers the whole field of twentieth century poetry in Germany down to\nthe latest \u201cexpressionists.\u201d\n\n\n    SONATAS. By RAM\u00d2N DEL VALLE-INCL\u00c0N. _In preparation._\n\nA romance by the most finished artist of modern Spain.\n\n\n        OTHER BOOKS ON FOREIGN LITERATURE BY THE SAME PUBLISHERS\n\n\n    BENEDETTO CROCE: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS PHILOSOPHY. By RAFFAELLO\n    PICCOLI.\n\nThe first adequate account of Croce\u2019s life and thought.\n\n\n    A GUIDE TO RUSSIAN LITERATURE. By M. J. OLGIN.\n\nA popular handbook describing the life and works of some sixty Russian\nauthors.\n\nHARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY\n\nPublishers New York\n\n\n\n\n \u25cf Transcriber\u2019s Notes:\n    \u25cb Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).","title":"Life of Christ","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":160269}