Just as the young man had gone away Our Lord brings the meaning of the incident before His disciples. His solemn manner

of uttering the great truth, which has sent so many rich people into cloisters, and made those who were there content with their lot, is not without significance. It is one of His wonderings, like, "I have not found such faith in Israel," which were rarely uttered.

Since He came to teach maxims of poverty and self-abnegation, He wished to show how opposed riches were to these. A rich man is driven by circumstances to the opposite. If he does not feed well and invite his friends he is called a miser. If temptations come to him in any fascinating way-and where is the rich man to whom they do not ?-he finds the means of gratifying them at hand.

1A rich man.-Some ask what is meant by a rich man. It means not only a man who has a plentiful supply of the things of this world, but who is attached to them as well. This attachment need not be inordinate.

Easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.-Such similes were common in the East, and indeed the West is not without its supply of them. "Sooner will the wolf take a sheep to wife;" or, "Will you pour the ocean into a pot with the palm of your hand?" Some say camel is káμiλoç a cable; and others say that one of the low gates in Jerusalem (through which camels could pass only on their knees and with their loads off) was called the eye of a needle. These are fanciful and only destroy the beauty of the figure.

3Who then can be saved ?-The Apostles pitied the people of the world, seeing rich and poor so fond of pelf.

*With God all things are possible, even the passing of the camel.

Riches are dangerous.

Ist. They create pride and self-importance.

2nd. They cause the crowd. to worship.

3rd. They give the means of committing many sins.

In another way.

Ist. Riches can procure comforts in serving God. Chaplains

etc.

2nd. Rich men are seldom told the truth.

3rd. Rely too much on their charities.

27. Tunc respondens Petrus, dixit ei: "Ecce nos reliquimus, omnia et secuti sumus te: quid ergò erit nobis ? "

28. JESUS autem dixit illis: "Amen dico vobis quòd vos, qui secuti estis me, in regeneratione cùm sederit Filius Hominis in sede majestatis suæ, sedebitis et vos super sedes duodecim, judicantes duodecim tribus Israel.

29. "Et omnis qui reliquerit domum, vel fratres aut sorores, aut patrem aut matrem, aut uxorem aut filios, aut agros, propter nomen meum, centuplum accipiet, et vitam æternam possidebit.

30. "Multi autem erunt primi novissimi, et novissimi primi."

27. Then 'Peter, answering, said to him: Behold, we have left all things, and have followed thee: what, therefore, shall we have?

28. And Jesus said to them: Amen I say to you, that you, who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on 'twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

29. And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, shall receive a hundred-fold, and shall possess life everlasting.

30. But many that are "first shall be last: and the last shall be first.

Quite opposite to the rich man is the way of the man devoted to poverty. He goes through life with a hundred joys for the one he gave up, passes to his reward in heaven with confidence, and then sits as a judge upon those who turned him away from their doors. This is a singular passage, and is pregnant with meaning, consequently, the interpretations thereof vary a little, but all coincide in the main result, namely, a very great return, both here and hereafter, for those who leave all things.

The experience of all Religious Orders confirms this. Their When the bell rings members have no cares, and no concerns. they get their meals, when their dress grows old they get a new one. They have no charge of families, no children to cry after them when they die, no one to fight about their money, and they leave themselves to the charity of those who will all say masses This is the hundred-fold. Life for the repose of their souls. eternal, and being an assessor to the Great Judge, is another advantage. An ambitious man ought to be a Religious.

1Peter. He always speaks for his companions. He is now their acknowledged superior after our Lord.

2Left all things. He does not say they sold them and gave the produce to the poor. There was not much to sell, to begin with; and the poor were at their doors.

In the Regeneration.-One Father thinks this to be after baptism; but nearly all the others take it for the general Resurrection at the Day of Judgment.

4Twelve seats twelve tribes.-This definite number is supposed to represent the whole. All who do this thing shall sit to judge all others. Judge as assessors.

A hundred-fold.-The hundred-fold is for this life; it consists in the absence of care. A Religious has a thousand brothers for the few he left. Hundreds of fathers for the one he left, and so on. Tanquam nihil habentes et omnia possidentes.

First last, and last first.-Many, not all. The general interpretation is that those who are first in this world, shall often be last in the next, and vice versa.

CHAPTER XX.

The parable of the labourers in the vineyard. The ambition of the two sons of Zebedee. Christ gives sight to two blind men.