What sinner can despair when he sees the Saviour of mankind seeking to save him; when he beholds even a publican and a rich man, at the same time, who, as our Saviour informs us in another place, are so seldom truly converted, brought to the light of faith, and the grace of a true conversion! (St. A... [ Continue Reading ]
Zacheus is here styled a son of Abraham; i.e. his spiritual son, a partaker of the promises made to Abraham concerning the Messias: not that he was actually born of his seed, but because he imitated his faith; and as Abraham at the voice of God, left the land and house of his father; so Zacheus reno... [ Continue Reading ]
_That the kingdom of God should immediately be manifested. The disciples were full of the expectation of the temporal kingdom of the Messias, though he had divers times told them he was to suffer and die on a cross. (Witham) --- Notwithstanding all that Jesus had said to them about his kingdom, his... [ Continue Reading ]
This parable is an exact prophetic history of what happened to Archelaus Antipas, son of Herod the great, about thirty-six years afterwards. Judea being then tributary, he was obliged to go to Rome to receive his kingdom from the hands of the emperor Augustus. The Jews, who hated him for his cruelty... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ten pieces of money, each of which was called a mna. To translate pounds, gives the English reader a false notion, the Roman coin called a mna not corresponding to our pound. (Witham) --- A mna was 12\'bd ounces, which, at five shillings per ounce, is \'a33 2s. 6d._... [ Continue Reading ]
All the disciples of Christ have not the same degree of honour in this world, not in the next; because all do not make an equal use of the graces they receive. Some are in the first rank, as apostles; then those, to whom the gift of prophecy has been committed; then doctors, &c. each exalted accordi... [ Continue Reading ]
It may here be asked, how the owners of the colt knew who _the Lord was, of whom the disciples spoke? It may be answered, that perhaps they had already heard that Jesus of Nazareth, who the Jews though was to be their temporal king, was coming about that time to Jerusalem, and that they saw from the... [ Continue Reading ]
_The stones. This is a proverb, as if he had said: God has resolved to glorify me this day, in order to fulfil the prophecies. Nothing can hinder the execution of his decrees; if men were silent, he would make even the stones to speak. (Calmet) --- At the crucifixion of our Redeemer, when his friend... [ Continue Reading ]
He wept. St. Epiphanius tells us, that some of the orthodox of his time, offended at these words, omitted them in their copies, as if to shed tears, were a weakness unworthy of Christ: but this true reading of the evangelist is found in all copies, and received by all the faithful; and the liberty w... [ Continue Reading ]
If thou also hadst known. It is a broken sentence, as it were in a transport of grief; and we many understand, thou wouldst also weep. Didst thou know, even at this day, that peace and reconciliation which God still offers to thee. (Witham) --- What can be more tender than the apostrophe here made u... [ Continue Reading ]
_And compass thee, &c. Christ's prophecy is a literal description of what happened to Jerusalem, under Titus. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_All the people, as they heard him with so great attention. So Virgil said: -----pendetque iterum narrantis ab ore. (Witham)_ --- The original Greek, _exekremato autou akouon, shews how eagerly they catched the words that dropped from his sacred lips, all enraptured with the wisdom of his answers,... [ Continue Reading ]