The merciful Redeemer wept then over the fall of the false city, which that city itself knew not was about to come upon it ".

If thou hadst known, even thou. The Jews were not worthy to receive the divinely inspired Scriptures, which relate to the mystery of Christ. For as often as Moses is read, "the veil is upon their heart," that they should not see what has been accomplished in Christ, Who being the truth, puts to flight the shadow. And because they regarded not the truth, they rendered themselves unworthy of the salvation which flows from Christ.

Christ here declares that His coming was to bring peace to the whole world. For unto this He came, that He should preach peace both "to them that were near, and to them that were afar offy." But as they did not wish to receive the peace that was announced to them, it was hid from them. And therefore the siege which was shortly to come upon them, He most expressly foretels, adding, For the day shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee 2.

By these words the Roman leaders are pointed out. For that overthrow of Jerusalem is described, which was accomplished by the Roman Emperors, Vespasian and Titus a

How these things were fulfilled we may gather from what is delivered to us by Josephus, who, though he was a Jew, related each event as it took place, in exact accordance with Christ's prophecies b.

I do not deny that the former Jerusalem was destroyed because of the wickedness of its inhabitants, but I ask whether the weeping might not, perhaps,

"St. Greg., Cat. Aur.

▾ Eph. ii. 17.

Eusebius, Cat. Aur.

2 Cor. iii. 15.

• Eusebius.

St. Cyril, Cat. Aur. St. Gregory, Cat. Aur.

concern this your spiritual Jerusalem. For if a man has sinned after receiving the mysteries of truth, he will be wept over.

Our Redeemer does not cease to weep through His elect, whenever He perceives any to have departed from a good life to follow evil ways. Who, if they had known their own damnation hanging over them, would together with the elect shed tears over themselves. But the corrupt soul has its day here, rejoicing in the passing time; to it things present are peace, seeing that it takes delight in that which is temporal. It shuns the foresight of the future, which may disturb its present mirth; and hence it follows, but now they are hid from thine eyes d.

Or else we may say, that the evil spirits lay siege to the soul, as it goes forth from the body; for being taken with the love of the flesh, they caress it with delusive pleasures; they surround it with a trench, bringing all its wickedness which it has committed before the eyes of its mind; they close confine it to the company of its own damnation, that being caught in the very extremity of life, it may see by what enemies it is blockaded, yet be unable to find any way of escape, because it can no longer do good works, since these which it might once have done it despised. On every side also they inclose the soul when its iniquities rise up before it, not only in deed, but also in word and in thought; that she, who in this life greatly enlarged herself in wickedness, should in the end be straitened in judgment. Then, indeed, the soul, by the very condition of its guilt, is laid prostrate on the ground, when its flesh which it believed to be its life is bid to return to dust. Then its children fall in death, when all unlawful thoughts proceeding from it are scattered in the last punishment.

These may also be signified by the stones. For the corrupt mind, when to a corrupt thought it adds one Origen, Cat. Aur. d St. Gregory, Cat. Aur.

still more corrupt, places one stone upon another. But when the soul is led to its doom, the whole edifice of its thoughts is rent asunder. And the wicked soul God ceases not to visit with His teaching, sometimes with the scourge, and sometimes with a miracle; that the truth which it knew not it may hear, and though still despising it, may return, pricked to the heart in sorrow, or, overcome with mercies, may be ashamed at the evil which it has done. But because it knows not the time of its visitation, at the end of life it is given over to its enemies, that with them it may be joined together in the bond of everlasting damnation.

And He went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.

When He had related the evils that were to come upon the city, He straightway entered the temple, that He might cast out them that bought and sold in it. Shewing that the destruction of the people arose chiefly from the guilt of the priests".

God wishes not His temple to be a house of traffic, but the dwelling-place of holiness. He does not fix the priestly service in a saleable performance of religion, but in a free and willing obedience f

Now mystically, you must understand by the temple Christ Himself, as man in His human nature, or with His Body united to Him, that is, the Church. But inasmuch as He is the Head of the Church, it was said, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days." Inasmuch as the Church is joined to Him, is the temple understood, of which He seems to have spoken in the same place, "Take these away from hence;" signifying that there would be those in the Church who would be pursuing their own interest, or find a shelter therein to conceal their wickedf St. Ambrose, Cat. Aur.

St. Gregory, Cat. Aur.

St. John ii. 19.

ness, rather than follow after the love of Christ, and by confession of their sins receiving pardon, be restored h. And He taught daily in the temple.

Our Redeemer does not withdraw His word of preaching even from the unworthy and ungrateful. Accordingly, after having by the ejection of the corrupt maintained the strictness of discipline, He now pours forth the gift of grace i.

h St. Augustine, Cat. Aur.

St. Gregory, Cat. Aur,

ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

THE EPISTLE.

1 CORINTHIANS XV. 1—11.

"Brethren, I declare unto you," &c.

Brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand.

Paul here uses great earnestness. For not now of morals was his discourse, but about the very sum of all good things. For to the very elements of godliness the mischief was proceeding, and the Corinthians were at variance touching the resurrection itself. Because, this being all our hope, against it did the devil make a vehement stand. At one time he was for wholly subverting it; at another his word was that it was "past already a." At one time they said this, at another that the body rises not again, but the purification of the soul is the resurrection.

But these things that wicked demon persuaded them to say, not wishing to overturn the resurrection only, but also to shew that all the things done for our sakes are a fable. For if they had been persuaded that there is no resurrection of bodies, after a little while he would have persuaded them that neither was Christ raised. And thereupon he would also introduce in due course that He had not come, nor had done what He did. For such is the "cunning craftiness b❞ of the devil. He doth not straightway shew what he intends to effect, but dressing himself up in a mask of one kind, he fabricates arts of another kind; and b Eph. iv. 14.

See 2 Tim. ii. 18.