The Birth of the Precursor and His Circumcision

Continuing Fouard's Life of Christ Our Lord: Book I, Chapter II

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Chapter II: The Birth of the Precursor

I. The Vision of Zachary

Luke i. 5-25

For four centuries the world had waited for the fulfilment of these Prophecies.  The rain of Herod had almost reached its end; and the old King, beginning at last to realise that he was descending slowly, surely to the tomb, stands out a lonely figure in the palace which his blood stained hands had made so bare and empty.  Uneasy forebodings disturbed the souls of men.  Suddenly from Jerusalem, and from the Temple, a voice broke the silence of suspense in words that spoke deliverance and salvation.

Among the many Levites of that time, there was a priest named Zachary, of the family of Abia, the eighth of the divisions which, by turns, took part in the divine service.  Reduced as they were upon the return from captivity, the sons of Levi were not slow to increase in number; and thus they were soon forced to seek a residences outside of Jerusalem, in the ancient sacerdotal cities.  Hebron and Youttah had seen their levitical population returning to the old homes, and it was probably the latter of these towns which was the dwelling place of Zachary.  Situated to the south of Hebron, and at some considerable distance from it, Youttah stretches along the slope of the hill, in the heart of the mountains of Judea.  In this retreat Zachary lived with his wife Elizabeth, who was also of the sacerdotal tribe.  The sequestered pair "were just in the sight of god, and walked without reproach in the commandments and laws of the Lord." Yet they found their piety put to a severe test; for, childless while they were both far advanced in age, they had finally lost all hope of God's ever blessing them by raising up offspring to the barren daughter of Levi.

The time drew round for Zachary to join his associates of the Class of Abia, and to fulfil his functions in the Temple; he therefore took his way to Jerusalem.  Each Class was accustomed to decide the division of the various offices by lot; that of Incense-Burner fell to the husband of Elizabeth.  It was the highest of all the sacerdotal duties, and was performed with a solemnity of ritual which it behoves us to describe more in detail.

The altar of gold, whereron was offered the sacrifice of perfumes, stood in the midst of the Holy Place, between the Seven-branched Candlestick and the Table of the Bread of Proposition; only a single veil separated it from the Holy of Holies, despoiled in Zachary’s time of its Ark of the Covenant.  Everything about the Sanctuary must be made ready beforehand, the flames of the lamps trimmed and brightened, the ashes removed from the altar, and a fresh fire enkindled upon it before the entrance of the priest.  Upon his appearance all stood aside, and the people, crowding back beneath the porches, prayed there in silence. The officiating minister alone advanced within the Holy Place, and, at a signal given by the prince of the priesthood, must cast the precious perfumes upon the flame; then having bowed down before the Holy of Holies, he receded slowly, stepping backwards, that he might not turn his face away from the altar.  A bell gave warning of his withdrawal and the Benediction which he bestowed upon the people.  Immediately Levites intoned the sacred hymns, and the music of the Temple, combining with their voices, formed a symphony so powerful (the Rabbinical writers say) that it could be heard in Jericho.

Although this ceremonial was observed twice every day, in the morning and at evening, the Jews never assisted thereat without a secret tremor of anxiety; for the priest, who entered within the Sanctuary, was their Representative, and the incense burned beneath his hands was for a figure of the prayers of all.  Should Jehovah reject his offering, if He should strike him to the earth for some legal impurity, then indeed would Israel be overwhelmed by the same blow.  It was from this cause the impatience of the crowd arose, and the promptitude with which the Minister acquitted himself of his functions, that he might not prolong the general emotion.

But on this day these fears were quickened to terror; for Zachary tarried much longer than the wanted time in the Holy Place.  He appeared at last, trembling, dumb; his lips so suddenly sealed, his gesticulations, his agitation, all declared that some portentous spectacle had burst upon his sight.  Did he write down his marvellous vision at once?  "He remained dumb," it says; as if it was signify that his heart, as well as his tongue, refused to reveal immediately the celestial apparition, or that he would await that hour for disclosing it in which God Himself would open his lips.  This, then, is what Zachary at last made known.

He was about to enter within when, to the right of the altar from which arose white clouds of incense, of a sudden an Angel appeared.  Seeing this, terror overwhelmed the priest; but the Angel spoke to him: —

"Fear not at all, Zachary!  Your prayer is heard; your wife Elizabeth shall conceive a son, and you shall give him the name of John.  This child shall be your joy and your delight, and the multitude shall rejoice at his nativity.  For he shall be great before the Lord; he shall not drink of wine nor of aught that doth inebriate, and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb.  He shall convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God; and he himself shall walk before Him in the spirit and might of Elias; that he may turn the hearts of the fathers on to the children,9 the unbelieving unto to the wisdom of the righteous, and prepare for the Lord a perfect people."

Malachy, whose prediction the Angel here recalls, had foretold that two Forerunners should herald the Messiah’s appearance: one, John the Baptist, was to announce His first Advent;1 Elias, the other Envoy of Heaven, in the latter days of the world, shall descend from his chariot of fire to prepare men for the return of the Christ.  Yet in spite of the diversity of their missions, John was to be another Elias, because in him would be enkindled the very soul of the Thesbite, the same strong spirit, the same glowing genius, a fiery nature which should lead captive the sons of Israel by word and example, and bring them back to the virtues of their fathers.  Engrossed in the contemplation of so perfect a resemblance, the Jews had never, in their thoughts of them, separated these two forerunners of the Messiah.

God did not demand of Zachary a more illuminated intuition, nor that he should foresee clearly everything that the Angel’s announcement implied; all that was required of him was that he should believe implicitly in the Message, however mysterious it might seem.  Too haughty for such simple faith, the Levite still demurred; he dared to demand a sign before he would yield any credence to the divine communication.

"How shall I know the truth of these words?" he answered.  "I am old, and my wife is advanced in age."

To overcome and dissipate this incredulity, the Angel deigned to disclose his own dignity.

"I am Gabriel," he said, "one of the ministering Spirits, standing ever in the presence of God, whom the Lord has sent to speak to you and to announce to you these good tidings.  Look you, therefore, you shall be dumb and shall not be able to speak until the day wherein these things shall take place, because you have not believed my words, which shall be accomplished in the time."

Zachary must needs have humbled himself under the hand which chastised him.  He retreated from the Sanctuary dumb; only by his signs of awe and terror could he respond to the breathless throng, now quite disquieted by his long delay, and at once all the people knew that he had seen a vision in the Temple.

The days of his ministry being fulfilled, he betook himself to his home.  A little later Elizabeth, his wife, conceived, and for five months secluded herself, "because," as she said, "the Lord hath dealt thus with me, since he has willed to take away my reproach among men." Nothing could be more natural than this desire to retreat from the world.  It was but seemly, indeed, to prevent the curiosity and malice of rumour from busying itself with such a marvel as was this on hoped-for conception.

II. The Circumcision of John the Baptist

Luke i. 57-80

"The time being come for Elizabeth to be delivered,16 she brought forth a son; and her neighbours and kinsfolk being made aware that God had manifested His mercy towards her, shared in her joy, and on the eighth day they all gathered unto the circumcision of the infant."

This consecration to the God of Abraham was celebrated in every family with solemn festivity.  Ten witnesses surrounded the child; while the father, or some other of the relatives present, made with an instrument of stone the bloody incision.  Zachary did not perform the sacred rite in person, for his moveless lips could not pronounce the benedictions incidental to it.  So also, when at the close of the ceremony they desired, according to the ancient custom, to confer a name upon the child,17 and would have called him Zachary after the father, the latter neither heard nor comprehended.18

Elizabeth, however, withstood them.  "No," she said; "he shall be called John."

"But," it was objected, "non of your kindred bear that name."

She persisted nonetheless in her design.  Turning toward the father, who stood before them a mute and wistful spectator of this scene, she asked him by signs what name he wished to give the child.

Zachary, taking up his tablets, wrote thereon, "John is his name."

Then while they were still filled with astonishment, suddenly the lips of the old man were opened, his tongue was loosed, and he spoke aloud in thanksgiving to the Lord.20  At this prodigy their wondering delight gave place to fear and awe.  From that dwelling, endeared to God, the thrill of emotion spread swiftly throughout the surrounding country; so that shortly, among the mountains of Juda, nothing else was spoken of beside these marvels; and those who heard the tale treasured it up in thoughtful silence, musing in their breasts, " What an one, think he, shall this child be?" For the hand of God was upon him.
With his hearing and speech Zachary recovered the divine favour, and, filled with the Spirit, he prophesied.  As sung every night in our churches, the Hymn of the holy old man is like an echo of the ancient prophecies of Israel.  Jehovah visits His people to save them from their enemies, from the hand of those who hate them; the Redemption is revealed under the eyes of this Levite, even as the dying Moses beheld it, and as Ezechiel and countless others had represented it, ‒ mighty and resistless as the horned frontal of the savage beast which spreads terror around about its path.  Yet, beneath this rude imagery, ‒  the last vestiges of an almost vanished era, ‒ there is a tenderer tone which predominates withal.  The salvation of Israel is no longer that which the carnal-minded Jews had fancied, ‒ the triumph of their race, the joys and riches of this world.  It is Salvation in righteousness and holiness, won by penitence and the remission of sins.  The God of Zachary is no longer a Jehovah who, as He moves among men, sows horror and death about Him, but the God with bowels of merciful compassion, shining upon the world like a holy beneficent Light.  It is as if, very different from the mornings of earth, this marvellous Orient, this great New Dawn, would be made visible, not on the horizon, but on high, within the heavens, thus to make it manifest to the world that He came, not to consume it with the scorching heat of noontide, but to spread about His pathway the pure light of a clear, cloudless daybreak.  Hence, though Jewish in its form, this chant is essentially Christian.  Struck with its beauty in the original Arameän, Saint Luke sought to reproduce, not only the thoughts, but the figures as well, foreign as they are to the genius of the Greek tongue.  To this fact is due the obscurity and, at the same time, the peculiar charm of this hymn:

The Benedictus

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
because He had looked down upon His people,
and hath wrought their Redemption;
He hath raised up, in the house of David His son,
an invincible power (as it were an horn),
to be our Salvation :
(according to that which He had promised us,
by the mouth of the holy Prophets,
from the beginning of Time;
a Salvation whereby He will preserve us
from our enemies,
out of the hands of them that hate us :
for the accomplishment of His Loving-Kindness
unto our fathers;
and as a remembrance of His holy Covenant,
the Oath which He swore to Abraham our father;
so that, delivered from the hands of our enemies,
and freed from fear, we may worship Him,
in righteousness and holiness in His sight,
even all the days of our life.
And thou, child, shall be called
the Prophet of the Most High.
Thou shalt walk before the Lord,
to prepare his ways,
to declare unto His people Salvation,
in the pardon of their sins,
pardon through the bowels of mercy
of our God:
whereby a Star, rising to the heights of heaven,
hath visited us;
illumining them that sit in the shadow
and in the darkness of death,
leading our steps within the paths of peace.

The halo which overhung the cradle of John might not last in all its early splendour; for the design of God was, in silence and in solitude, to form of him the greatest of the children of men.  The glorified dwelling place of Zachary disappears immediately from a range of vision.  All that we know is that God's Spirit came upon the Baptist even in his childhood and impelled him to retire to the Desert.  "The child grew," says Saint Luke, "and his soul was strengthened, and he was in the Desert until the day of his manifestation in Israel."

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam 

The Sanhedrin, the Sects and the Spiritual Remnant

Continuing Fouard's Life of Christ Our Lord: Book I, Chapter I

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The Sanhedrin


Amid this universal demolition of Judaic institutions, one body alone withstood the tempests and retained its authority; this was the Sanhedrin, the National Council, established by Moses according to some, while according to others it was first convened after the Captivity.  The ascendancy which the prophets and doctors possessed over the people in those days of exile, the absence of the priests and of all external surroundings of their worship, the debasement into which the royal family had fallen after the return from Babylon, the difficulties surrounding any political and religious restoration, all these considerations had led Jews to regard this sovereign assembly as a substitute for the monarchy.

The functions of the Sanhedrin were to interpret the Law, to adjudge more important cases, and to exercise an exact surveillance over the administration of affairs.  Hence it became at one and the same time Parliament, High Court of Justice, and the supreme resort of instruction in Judaea.  Its 71 members represented the three classes of the nation: the Priests, that is to say the chiefs of the 24 sacerdotal classes, with whom were associated, under Herod and the Romans, the Pontiffs who were in this manner deprived of any temporal authority by their foreign masters; and the Scribes, as doctors and interpreters of the Law; together with the Ancients, chosen from among the elders of each tribe and family.

During 400 years the authority of this Council had remained absolute.  Herod was the first to sap its strength; but shrewd as he showed himself in use her finger all other powers, he could not entirely cripple the Sanhedrin.  That mighty assembly continued its sittings in the very face of the tyrant, and survived his dynasty; for we see it, under the Romans, asserting its right to settle all questions of doctrine, to administer justice, and to direct and secret the movements of the people.

This, then, is the poor ghost of authority to which the power of Israel was finally reduced; yet what must be said of the deterioration of religion and manners?  The last of the Machabees had allowed the Pontificates to be dishonoured by permitting the Scribes to assume a predominant influence.  Relinquished to these doctors, so zealous to discuss in their elaborate commentaries the most trivial minutiae, the laws became mere matter for futile argument; and the numerous Sects, each one arrogating to itself the right of interpreting the Law, furnish a most striking proof of the decline of Israel.  The fame of three of these great parties has lived up to this day, the Pharisees, Saducees, and Essenes, and according to the testimony of Josephus, to be acquainted with this trio is to understand the ethics and the morals of all their contemporaries.

The Pharisees

As to the origin of Pharisees, we believe it sources should be sought in that isolation which the Law of Jehovah imposed upon the Jews as a nation.  To shun contact with idolatrous peoples, in order to preserve the worship of God in its purity, was one of the precepts constantly reiterated by Moses and the Prophets.  On the return from Babylon, Esdras and Nehemiah insisted upon this point with all the more earnestness because the defences which they could erect about the Holy Land were so feeble and so frequently infringed upon.  This exclusiveness became a duty still more rigorous when the Syrian Kings made apostasy obligatory, and when the High Priests Menelaus and Acimus betrayed the faith by becoming the allies of their persecutors.  All the generous hearts that Israel could count upon henceforth entrenched themselves in their despair, forming a band of picked souls whose zeal procured them the name of the Pietists, — the Assideans.

Under the leadership of Mathathias and his sons these children of Abraham had proved themselves invincible.  Nothing was wanting of all that goes to make true heroism, austere, indomitable courage, a noble scorn of death, a living faith in the God who was their Protector, and in the Angels, who were there ministers and His.  But peace once re-established, this impetuous virtue knew not how to restrain itself; zeal developed into fanaticism;; to fly from their impure contact became the law for these Assideans, a law which they desired to impose upon all Israel.  From this, in fact, came the Aramaic name of Parousch, Pharisee (that is to say, a separatist), which is given them by those Jews who oppose the teachings.

The Sadducees

Neither the Machabees nor the Priests who surrounded them followed the Pharisees in these views.  Obliged to maintain political relations with other countries, yielding moreover to the attractions of power and wealth, the new princes of Judea rejected the maxims prescribed by the zealots; they confined their observance to the letter of the law, to the sedacha, so highly praised in the holy Books, and it was from this trait that they got the name of Sadducees or the Just, to whom they were fond of likening themselves.  Such, in the days of the Machabees, were the diverse tendencies of the Pharisees and Sadducees; there to see how far they have developed their theories of the time of the birth of Jesus.

Each proceeded along the downward path it had marked out for itself.  The Pontiff Kings and the chiefs of the sacerdotal body fortify themselves in their holdings, endeavouring, in the administration of public business, to conserve the tottering forces by intrigue and shrewdly-planned alliances; while, with the neighbouring nations, they maintained their reciprocal relations with more rigour in proportion as the independence of Judea began to be more generally menaced.  From this habitual intercourse with the Pagan world the faith of the Sadducees grew weaker, and the Epicurean doctrines, which so largely on pertained at Rome, attained an influence over them also.  If they really retained their belief in the Creator, God, they did not concede to Him any active participation in the government of the world.  "The Law once given to the people," they said, "Jehovah withdrew into the repose of Eternity, and abandoned man to his own free will, unchecked and unheeded." Very soon they came to deny the Immortality of the Soul, the Resurrection of the body, and the existence of the Angels.  Priests of Jehovah, for the most part, they still continued to observe the laws, and acquitted themselves of the sacred functions; but, even so, they railed against the scrupulosity of the zealots.

"The Pharisees," they would say ironically, "torment themselves to no purpose in this life of ours, since they will gain nothing for their pains in this world or any other."

The laxity of this aristocracy, full of disdain for the people and a friendly toleration for the Gentiles, had been at all times a scandal to the Pharisees, who therefore showed themselves the more ardent to protect the orthodoxy which was thus threaten.  According to the Rabbinical expression, they multiplied "hedge after hedge" about their Law, and would have had their prescriptions as strictly obligatory upon all as were the Precepts of the Lord.  To lend some show or reason to their pretensions, they asserted that there was no commandment of which Moses had not given an oral interpretation.  To collect these traditions and from them to construct a complement to the entire Mosaical ordinance, became their aim.  Colleges of learned doctors were formed to enter into the minutiae of these Rules, and the people who, since the Captivity, had ceased to understand the original Hebrew of the holy Books, received these decisions as the words of God himself.  The instruction which they received from the Pharisee-Scribes is, therefore, at this epoch, all the religion that Israel retained; to discover what that Doctrine was, it suffices simply to open the Talmud.

An intolerable yoke

No speculative theology, no considerations concerning the Divine Being, or the Soul, or the end of man, or the things of Eternity; only ardent discussions as to puerile observances; scrupulosity as to what was lawful pushed to the last extreme of absurdity, while but faintly and infrequently does some inspired sentence recall the God of Horeb and Sinai.  Past all doubt the Pharisees guarded the Law of their God most faithfully; yet, in that Law, the exact payment of Tithes interminable ablutions, and especially the observance of the Sabbath, absorbed all their attention.  It would be useless to enumerate the 1279 Rules which issue must have always before his eyes, if he would not violate the "Quiescence of Sanctity," the Precepts ordained for the conduct of guests at public banquets, the innumerable Contaminations to which all were declared to be exposed.

Such a yoke as this was intolerable; the Sadducees threw it off openly, the Scribes resigned themselves to enduring it, merely for the sake of appearances; but, for the most part, under their religious exterior, they concealed nothing but bigotry and hypocrisy.  The Talmudic writers have torn the mask from the true features of the Pharisaism of their times; nothing could be imagined more mind-deadening and wretched in its effects then the rules are observed by the zealots in order to regulate their comportment and to overawe the masses.  And so we see them, presently, in order to give an added gravity to their carriage, shortening their steps so that their feet might always meet in their mincing gait.  Again, that they might never look upon the woman, some kept their eyes so obstinately fixed upon the ground has often to result in sudden collisions with the walls, while others, preserving a still more exact modesty, enveloped their heads in sacks and walked the streets like blind men.

If disposed to believe that these are but satirical exaggerations, that this picture overdoes the reality, you need only turn over a few pages of the Talmud to discover how far hypocrisy was elaborated into a practical science.  Read the ten chapters devoted to the "Eroubin," that is, the expedients to which it was permissible to resort in evading the Law, in the event of its becoming too inconvenient.  For example, the " Sabattic Rest" forbade the transporting of any load or burden further than 2000 cubits.  In order to double this measure, it was enough to have deposited some food, the night before, at the furthest point in the legal distance.  By this act a presumptive domicile was conferred, from which it was allowed to proceed again for another to 2000 cubits in any direction.  Should the Pharisee perceive that one of these animals was about to die, he was permitted to kill the creature, without violating the holy Sabbath Rest, provided he swallowed a morsel, of the size of an olive, taken from the beast’s carcass, thus indicating that he had been obliged to butcher it for nourishment.  It was allowable for him to buy and sell also; the only precaution he must observe was not to pay until the morrow.  We would not venture to add to this list the licentious excesses tolerated by the rabbis, me on condition that they were concealed under an impenetrable mask of secrecy.

Noble exceptions

Is it necessary to mention the fact that, however widespread among the masses was this decadence, there were many noble exceptions still to be found in Israel, many Scribes who were were the descendants of the Assideans, true areas of their faith and virtues.  The Gospels speak the praises of more than one, the cap still more had names still others, and, among the first of all, stands Hillel.  His poverty, born with such dignified serenity, his steadfast, unswerving constancy, he's as zeal, his charity have rendered him justly celebrated.  It was he, indeed, who instructed the contemporaries of Jesus in maxims almost Christian in spirit:

"Love and strive after peace."
"Love mankind and reconcile it to the Law."
"He who magnifies is own worth debases it."
"What am I, if I neglect my soul?  If I have no care for heat, who will take care of it for me?  If I do not think of these things now, when shall I do so?"

Dazzled by his epic grammatical brilliancy, many have unreasonably exulted this Rabbi by attempting to make him an historical peer of the Christ.  They forget that Hillel never accomplished anything which can be compared to the works of the Saviour.  Like the other Doctors of his day, while commentating upon the Pharisaic laws, he confined his efforts to making that yoke bearable, and spoke only in the schools of Jerusalem to a small group of chosen disciples.  Indeed he even shared in the disdain of the Scribes for the poor and humble; this haughty saying comes from him: "no man without education can escape evil doing; no man of the common people has ever attained unto piety." In a word, Hillel was an illustrious Scribe, Jesus is God.  Between such there is no comparison possible.

The Essenes

And finally, we have still to speak of the strangest of all the Jewish sects, the Essenes.  On the western borders of the Dead Sea, where the streams of Engedi1 empty into the lake, a verdant gladdens the eye, wearied with those desert stretches of land, devastated by the fire of divine retribution. In its green recesses there lived quoting the words of Pliny "an eternal people, where there was never any one born." No woman, no child, was ever found among them; youths only were admitted, and only after longer probation.  The Essene, on the day of his reception, received the white garment in which he was robed at all the repasts of the community, the towel-cloth needed for his numerous submissions, and an instrument which served as axe or spade, and designed for cutting and digging trenches and sewers, in which all refuse was buried with the greatest care, lest by any uncleanness they should sully the purity of the sun's rays.  A rigorous discipline was imposed upon all; absolute obedience, perpetual abstinence and mortification were obligatory; the only punishment was excommunication, by which the condemned man was constrained to live upon herbs, and thus die slowly of hunger.

What were the hopes, what were the fanetic dreams which could sustain the Essene in his rude life?  It is hard indeed to tell, for the terrible law sealed their lips and on the rack of torture they refused to expose their mysteries.  All that anyone knows today is that they worshipped the Sun; that they believed, like the Pythagoreans, in an ethereal soul, which is, for a time, confined within the body.  Their aversion to the sacrifices of the Temple, and for the flesh of animals, their linen vestments, their prohibition of speech, all remind one of the Orphics whom Plato knew.  Yet what was, in reality, the teaching of this sect?  No one can say with any certainty, for it was not long-lived, and it kept its secret to the end inviolate.  However, it matters little or nothing so far as it affects the history of Jewish religions, since the doctrine of these ascetics was never popular; being confined to the initiated, it had but feeble influence upon the general populace of Israel.

Carnal Israel

If we wish to understand the feelings and thoughts of these average Jews, we must look to the writings of that period, so, listen to this paragraph, found in the Book of Enoch:
"In those days there shall be a wondrous change for the elect.  The light of day he shall shine for them without shadow and without night; all majesty, all honour shall attend upon them.  In those days the earth shall render up of the treasure which she possesses; the Kingdom of Death also, Hell itself, and all that has been entrusted unto them...  The elect shell build a dwelling within the land of delight; a new Temple shall be erected for the Great King, more spacious, more resplendent than the first, and all the flocks of the earth shall be led thither unto sacrifice." In that place, pursues the author of these Messianic dreams, “I see a never-failing fountain of justice, whence flow innumerable streams of wisdom on every side, and all those who have thirst shall come hither and drink....  From over that new Earth the ancient heavens shall fade away, to give place unto another heaven, wherein the stars shall give forth sevenfold more light than before; and thenceforth the innumerable days shall succeed each other in a happiness that shall know no end."

Their Sybilline Oracles have added to this description, so flattering to the senses, further promises of a felicity more terrestrial still.  "The people of the Mighty God shall bathe in seas of gold and of silver, their garments shall be of purple; all lands and oceans shall pour their treasures at their feet, and the Saints shall reign amid unceasing delights.  The tiger shall graze side by side with the kid; the olive tree shall be crowned with imperishable fruit; milk, whiter than the snow, shall spring up from the fountains, and the young child shall play with the asp and the serpent without fear." It would be easy to multiply quotations.  The Fourth Book of Esdras, the Psalms of Solomon, the Jewish writers of Alexandria, bear witness everywhere to the same longings; everywhere we find these dreams of a people aspiring to a higher destiny, to a fuller fruition, yet looking for it only amid the things of earth and from temporal pleasures.

Spiritual Israel and the true Messiah

All, indeed, as we have pointed out, did not partake of these material sentiments.  In this degenerate people, in the midst of this carnal Israel, the spiritual Israel was still alive, are chosen band, predestined to be of the Kingdom of the Christ, holy souls who, by piously pondering the inspired truths, had there been discovered the proper lineaments of the picture which Prophecy had painted of the true Messiah.

In the very hour of man's fall God had declared to Adam that One should be borne of the seed of the woman2; and thereafter He set apart, from the race of Sem, one people, of the stock of Abraham, and from that people one tribe, the tribe of Juda, — from which was to be born the Messiah.

That mysterious Figure stands for still more clearly, more perspicuously, as the years hasten on toward the realizing of all expectation of Him.  As Moses sees Him, He is a Prophet, his equal in power; in David's eyes He is a King, His Son, heir to his glorious, as well as his misfortunes.  His very name is discovered to the Psalmist; this King of all times to come and have the timeless Eternity is to be called the Anointed of God, the Christ, the Messiah.  One after another the prophets added each a line to the limning of this portraiture which foreshadowed the advent of Divinity.  Bethlehem is to be His birthplace, Galilee His native land, a Virgin His Mother.  He will preach the Good News to the pure and humble of heart.  He will enter Sion mounted upon the foal of an ass.  He shall be despised and rejected, led to the slaughter as a Lamb; His vestment shall be parted, lots shall be cast for His tunic, His hands and His feet pierced; vinegar shall moisten His lips.  Yet shall He become subject to the malefactor’s death only that He may show forth the glory of His resurrection; His soul snatched from the deep pit, and His body from corruption, that He may seat Himself upon the right hand of Jehovah, henceforth to reign for ever in the world of human hearts.

Prophecy had been advanced to this point of certainty when Malachy appeared, the last of the Seers.  It was he who finished the painting, by his foretelling of the precursor of Jesus.  This Herald of the Messiah would arise from among the children of Levi; so then the prophet fixes his gaze upon that tribe.  If he scourges the vices of the priesthood, their scandalous alliances with the daughters of Gentiles; if he proclaims the New Sacrifice, offered from the rising unto the setting of the sun,11 and casts aside as worthless the defiled oblations of Israel, it is to prefigure the Forerunner, has he was to separate himself from the Levites, going forth before the face of the Messiah, preparing the way for Him: "Presently shall He come to His Temple, the Saviour whom you see, and the Angel of the Testament whom you desire. Behold, He cometh, sayeth the Lord of Hosts."

Such was the Messiah for Whom are all true Israelites waited in expectation; such was the Precursor, to be sent before Him, and of whose birth Saint Luke will give us the account.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam 

Corpus Christi

The eyes of all hope in thee, O Lord:
and thou givest them meat in due season.

Today on this great Feast, we are launching a new project:

The Christ, The Son of God

This is a life of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ based on the original French text by the Abbé Constant Fouard.

Fouard (1837-1903) was a remarkable scholar known for his mastery of Greek, Latin and Hebrew. He was, moreover, personally familiar with the geography of the Holy Land. He was a man of deep faith and it was only fitting that his work should receive recognition at the highest levels. In 1881, for example, Pope Leo XIII conferred his Apostolic Benediction on Fouard and the Theologian's congratulations. Fouard himself was to write: (as quoted in Cardinal Manning's Introduction to the 1905 edition):

"This Life of Jesus is an act of faith."

I have used the English translation by George FX Griffith (1890). Fouard used Bossuet's French text for Scriptural excerpts and Griffith translated these excerpts into English rather than incorporating an official English version of the Sacred text.

I have added notes and a number of illustrations to the work. For those able to read French, you will find Fouard's original text here:

La Vie de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ.

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Book First: The Childhood of Jesus

Chapter One: Judea in the time of Jesus

The Machabees and Herod

Judea in the time of the Christ was despoiled of all her splendour. The Machabees,[1] Pontiffs and Kings of Israel during one century, had in that time seen their glories vanish, together with their virtues.  The power, so nobly exercised by Judas and his brothers, degenerated into despotism under their successors; their religious zeal became ambition; and the concord which had existed among the sons of Matthathias gave place to such profound divisions that, sixty-six years before the Christian era, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, two brothers sprung from this illustrious stock, were compelled to invoke the arbitration of Pompey [106-48 BC] to adjust their feuds and dissensions.  The Roman general, already master of Syria, solemnly adjudged their differences at Damascus, and pronounced in favour of Hyrcanus.  Resorting to arms, Aristobulus hazarded a desperate defence from the Mountain of the Temple; but in vain, the defeat was inevitable.  Hyrcanus remained sovereign of Judea, but under the authority of the governors of Syria and with a simple title of Ethnarch.  Jerusalem for the first time saw the eagles within her walls.  Pompey crossed the threshold of the Holy of Holies, and gazed in astonishment upon that Sanctuary, devoid of idol or image.  The sovereignty of Juda had run its course; the servitude of Israel was begun.

Very soon Hyrcanus lost even the shadow of command which had been spared him.  Caesar,[100-44 BC] the conqueror of Pompey, united Palestine to the kingdom of Edom, and he gave the government of these countries to an Idumean of noble race, Antipater.  Phasaël and Herod, two sons of this prince, lent him their aid in the administration of affairs, one assuming the government of Galilee, the other that of Judea; but their united efforts were ineffectual for the maintaining of a peace of any long duration.  A descendant of the Machabees, Aristobulus, the brother of Hyrcanus, made his escape from Rome, where he was held as a captive, and essayed to regain the throne of his fathers, aided by his sons, Alexander and Antigonus.  The arms of the last-named prince alone achieved any success; he made Phasaël a prisoner, and constrained him to take his own life.  Herod, more fortunate than his brother, eluded their conqueror, hurried to Rome, and was declared by the senate King of Judea.  After three years of conflict, the victorious Latin legions re-established his rule in Jerusalem.  This was in the year 37 before Jesus Christ.

The patronage of Rome, which never belied its promises, Herod's own native genius for ruling, his union with Mariamne, the daughter of Hyrcanus, there former ethnarch, all seemed to insure him a tranquil reign.  Yet the Idumean found in his nationality, his unhoped-for successes, his own restless and suspicious nature, too many sources of disquiet to permit of any peaceable enjoyment of his power.  He could take no repose while the remnant of the Machabean line remained alive.  Two princes of that family, as well as his father-in-law, Hyrcanus himself, broken down by years and misfortunes, were the first victims of Herod’s distrust; then came the turn of Mariamne, the only one of his wives whom he had really loved; and finally, neither the two children he had had by her, nor Antipater (son of Doris and his first-born), was spared the penalty of such suspicions.  Only the death of the tyrant could set a limit to these cruelties.

In vain did Herod beautify Judea with splendid monuments, in order to divert attention from the bloody tragedies which encrimsoned his marble palaces.  To the Jews, his vast amphitheatres were the scenes of spectacles as detestable as they were abhorred.  The Baths and the Porticoes introduced novel customs; and the Roman eagle which spread its wings within the Temple profaned its sanctity.  During thirty-four years the prince wearied himself in fruitless endeavours to make the people forget his origin and their servitude.  Everything did but remind this nation, shuddering under his yoke, that the sceptre had indeed passed from the sons of Jacob to those of Esau.

[1]  From the Hebrew word for "hammer," because they were said to strike hammer blows against their enemies. Jews refer to the Maccabees, but the family is more commonly known as the Hasmoneans.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam 

The Ascension

Acts of the Apostles - Chapter 1

The Ascension from the Mount of Olives. J-J Tissot 

[8] sed accipietis virtutem supervenientis Spiritus Sancti in vos, et eritis mihi testes in Jerusalem, et in omni Judaea, et Samaria, et usque ad ultimum terrae.
But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth.

[9] Et cum haec dixisset, videntibus illis, elevatus est : et nubes suscepit eum ab oculis eorum.
And when he had said these things, while they looked on, he was raised up: and a cloud received him out of their sight.

This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven. J-J Tissot

[10] Cumque intuerentur in caelum euntem illum, ecce duo viri astiterunt juxta illos in vestibus albis,
And while they were beholding him going up to heaven, behold two men stood by them in white garments.

[11] qui et dixerunt : Viri Galilaei, quid statis aspicientes in caelum? Hic Jesus, qui assumptus est a vobis in caelum, sic veniet quemadmodum vidistis eum euntem in caelum.
Who also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven.

[12] Tunc reversi sunt Jerosolymam a monte qui vocatur Oliveti, qui est juxta Jerusalem, sabbati habens iter.
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount that is called Olivet, which is nigh Jerusalem, within a sabbath day's journey.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam 

The Ascension (Notes)

Acts of the Apostles - Chapter 1

The Ascension from the Mount of Olives. J-J Tissot 

[8] sed accipietis virtutem supervenientis Spiritus Sancti in vos, et eritis mihi testes in Jerusalem, et in omni Judaea, et Samaria, et usque ad ultimum terrae.
But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth.

[9] Et cum haec dixisset, videntibus illis, elevatus est : et nubes suscepit eum ab oculis eorum.
And when he had said these things, while they looked on, he was raised up: and a cloud received him out of their sight.

This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven. J-J Tissot

[10] Cumque intuerentur in caelum euntem illum, ecce duo viri astiterunt juxta illos in vestibus albis,
And while they were beholding him going up to heaven, behold two men stood by them in white garments.

[11] qui et dixerunt : Viri Galilaei, quid statis aspicientes in caelum? Hic Jesus, qui assumptus est a vobis in caelum, sic veniet quemadmodum vidistis eum euntem in caelum.
Who also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven.

[12] Tunc reversi sunt Jerosolymam a monte qui vocatur Oliveti, qui est juxta Jerusalem, sabbati habens iter.
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount that is called Olivet, which is nigh Jerusalem, within a sabbath day's journey.

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)

The Resurrection of Jesus is to a certain extent incomplete so long as His glorious Ascension is still an accomplished.  He has resumed His body, He has still to take His own place again, and that He is about to do.  After He had given His last instructions to His disciples, Saint Luke tells us that "He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and bless them.  And it came to pass, while He placed them He was parted from them and carried up to Heaven." The same disciple, in the Acts of the Apostles, adds a few characteristic details about the luminous cloud and the angels which appeared.  It is evident that the cloud did not resemble a chariot destined to bear the glorified body of Jesus to Heaven, but was simply a veil hiding from the disciples what became of that body, endowed as it now was with special powers.  It may perhaps have undergone a kind of dematerialization, fading away in the light, to take form again where He was to reign eternally.  Or perhaps he may have been merely transported to Heaven in the twinkling of an eye, by virtue of His divinity.  However that may have been, He suddenly faded from sight, and where He had been, a cloud stretched like a veil, hiding the mysteries of God.  The apotheosis is complete.  Jesus is gone to sit down at the right hand of His father, from whence He shall some day come, according to His promise, to judge the world.
The Ascension is not merely the personal glorification of Jesus, it is also an event of the last importance to the human race.  It is the completion of the Creation, interrupted by the fall of the first man.  The design of God in creating man was to make of him the conscious and free agent of his own salvation, the sharer in the divine bliss and glory.  Man by his sin had hindered the realisation of this plan, but he could not frustrate it.  By the Resurrection of Christ we see man set free from death and restored to his first hopes of eternal life, but his salvation is not yet completed.  By the Ascension God permits man, redeemed through Christ, to share with Him in the divine Glory, and thus realises in Him the original idea of the Creation.  Only thus can that idea achieve the completion.
Not yet, however, is the end of all things.  The Ascension not only completes the works of our redemption through Christ, it lays the foundations of its realisation in every one of us who is of Christ.  In this consists its importance for the Church.  There remain over two promises to be fulfilled; the sending of the Holy Spirit, which shall continuously supply the church on earth with the grace of the risen Savior, and that last prophecy uttered in the Judgment Hall of Caiaphas: "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven", a coming which will summon the elect to share the Ascension of the Master and to become partakers of His Glory, even as Jesus prayed in the sublime petition offered up on the eve of His death.  "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world".  It is not for us to dwell now on this last subject, these final chords of the divine symphony.  We have been relating the life on earth of Jesus, that life ends for us in the apotheosis of the Ascension.  The cloud which "received Christ from sight" is like the curtain which falls at the close of a drama.  We will not attempt to raise it, but let us each and all withdrawal to "ponder", as the Virgin did, these things in our hearts.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam 

Feed my sheep

Saint John - Chapter 21

Simon, son of John, lovest thou me?  J-J Tissot

[15] Cum ergo prandissent, dicit Simoni Petro Jesus : Simon Joannis, diligis me plus his? Dicit ei : Etiam Domine, tu scis quia amo te. Dicit ei : Pasce agnos meos.
When therefore they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter: Simon son of John, lovest thou me more than these? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs.

[16] Dicit ei iterum : Simon Joannis, diligis me? Ait illi : Etiam Domine, tu scis quia amo te. Dicit ei : Pasce agnos meos.
He saith to him again: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs.

[17] Dicit ei tertio : Simon Joannis, amas me? Contristatus est Petrus, quia dixit ei tertio : Amas me? et dixit ei : Domine, tu omnia nosti, tu scis quia amo te. Dixit ei : Pasce oves meas.
He said to him the third time: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because he had said to him the third time: Lovest thou me? And he said to him: Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee. He said to him: Feed my sheep.

[18] Amen, amen dico tibi : cum esses junior, cingebas te, et ambulabas ubi volebas : cum autem senueris, extendes manus tuas, et alius te cinget, et ducet quo tu non vis.
Amen, amen I say to thee, when thou wast younger, thou didst gird thyself, and didst walk where thou wouldst. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou wouldst not.

[19] Hoc autem dixit significans qua morte clarificaturus esset Deum. Et cum hoc dixisset, dicit ei : Sequere me.
And this he said, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had said this, he saith to him: Follow me.

[20] Conversus Petrus vidit illum discipulum, quem diligebat Jesus, sequentem, qui et recubuit in coena super pectus ejus, et dixit : Domine, quis est qui tradet te?
Peter turning about, saw that disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also leaned on his breast at supper, and said: Lord, who is he that shall betray thee?

[21] Hunc ergo cum vidisset Petrus, dixit Jesu : Domine, hic autem quid?
Him therefore when Peter had seen, he saith to Jesus: Lord, and what shall this man do?

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam 

Feed my sheep (Notes)

Saint John - Chapter 21

Simon, son of John, lovest thou me?  J-J Tissot

[15] Cum ergo prandissent, dicit Simoni Petro Jesus : Simon Joannis, diligis me plus his? Dicit ei : Etiam Domine, tu scis quia amo te. Dicit ei : Pasce agnos meos.
When therefore they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter: Simon son of John, lovest thou me more than these? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs.

[16] Dicit ei iterum : Simon Joannis, diligis me? Ait illi : Etiam Domine, tu scis quia amo te. Dicit ei : Pasce agnos meos.
He saith to him again: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs.

[17] Dicit ei tertio : Simon Joannis, amas me? Contristatus est Petrus, quia dixit ei tertio : Amas me? et dixit ei : Domine, tu omnia nosti, tu scis quia amo te. Dixit ei : Pasce oves meas.
He said to him the third time: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because he had said to him the third time: Lovest thou me? And he said to him: Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee. He said to him: Feed my sheep.

[18] Amen, amen dico tibi : cum esses junior, cingebas te, et ambulabas ubi volebas : cum autem senueris, extendes manus tuas, et alius te cinget, et ducet quo tu non vis.
Amen, amen I say to thee, when thou wast younger, thou didst gird thyself, and didst walk where thou wouldst. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou wouldst not.

[19] Hoc autem dixit significans qua morte clarificaturus esset Deum. Et cum hoc dixisset, dicit ei : Sequere me.
And this he said, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had said this, he saith to him: Follow me.

[20] Conversus Petrus vidit illum discipulum, quem diligebat Jesus, sequentem, qui et recubuit in coena super pectus ejus, et dixit : Domine, quis est qui tradet te?
Peter turning about, saw that disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also leaned on his breast at supper, and said: Lord, who is he that shall betray thee?

[21] Hunc ergo cum vidisset Petrus, dixit Jesu : Domine, hic autem quid?
Him therefore when Peter had seen, he saith to Jesus: Lord, and what shall this man do?

[15] Cum ergo prandissent, dicit Simoni Petro Jesus : Simon Joannis, diligis me plus his? Dicit ei : Etiam Domine, tu scis quia amo te. Dicit ei : Pasce agnos meos.
When therefore they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter: Simon son of John, lovest thou me more than these? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs.

When therefore they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter—“Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these?” When Christ was about to go away into heaven, He here appoints Peter His vicar upon earth, and creates him Chief Pontiff, that the one church might be ruled by one shepherd. Christ had promised the same thing to Peter—Matt. 16:18—but in this place He confers the gift, and constitutes him prince and ruler of the whole Church, lest any one, on account of Peter’s threefold denial, should say that Christ had changed His decree concerning him. So Cyril. Mystically, Alcuin here says the Hebrew Simon means—obedient. John is grace. Peter is thus spoken of as obeying the grace of God; because, indeed, he embraces Him with a burning love—the effect, not of human merit, but of a Divine gift.

Lovest thou Me more than these? 
First, because this office of feeding and ruling all the faithful which I design to confer upon thee demands the very greatest love of Christ and of the faithful. “Love,” says S. Augustine, “is asked, and labour is commanded, because where love is there is no labour.”

Secondly, that Christ may show how greatly He loved His sheep, forasmuch as He was unwilling to entrust them to any but to one who loved Himself, and consequently His sheep, with a supreme love. Thus S. Chrysostom, Hom. 87, That which especially gains for us the divine favour is the care of our neighbour. Now the Lord, passing over the others, speaks to Peter concerning such things, for he was the chief of the Apostles, and the mouth of the disciples, and the head of the college. Whence also He commits to him precedence over his brethren, as much as to say, The life which thou saidst thou wouldst lay down for Me, this give for My sheep.

Thirdly, because Peter, a little before, had thrice denied Christ, and this triple denial had been forgiven him on his repentance by Christ; hence He rightly demands greater love from him on whom He had bestowed greater indulgence. “For to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little:” Luke 7:47. So Cyril.

Moreover, Jesus asks, though He knew that Peter loved Him more than they all, says S. Augustine, for although John loved Jesus more tenderly, yet Peter loved Him with a stronger and more ardent love, as is plain from all his deeds and words about Jesus. Thus parents love their little children with a tender love, but those who are youths, or grown up, with a stronger and more solid love; whence also they give greater gifts to them than to the little ones. Listen to S. Augustine (Serm. on the Passion): “When the Lord died, Peter feared and denied; the risen Lord rekindled his love, drove away his fear. He denied fearing to die—when the Lord had risen again why should he fear? Since in Him he found death had died.”

He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. “Hence it is plain,” says S. Augustine, “ ‘amo’ and ‘diligo’ here signify the same thing, although in Latin amo means more than diligo. Peter does not dare to say, I love Thee more than the others do, but I love Thee; both because he did not know the hearts of the others—secondly, because his fall had made him more modest and cautious. For he had put himself before the others when he said, ‘Lord, although all should be offended in Thee, yet will I never be offended,’ and yet a little afterwards be fell more shamefully than the others, and denied Christ, which they did not. He saith unto him, ‘Feed My lambs.’ Feed, like as a shepherd feeds sheep by leading them to pasture, and by feeding them, rules and guides them that they may not stray from the flock, nor approach noxious pastures, nor be seized by the wolf. Hence to feed in Scripture signifies to rule, and kings are called shepherds, because, if they would rightly rule their subjects, they ought to do what shepherds do when they feed their sheep. Whence—Psalm 23:1—where the Vulgate has ‘the Lord rules me,’ the Hebrew is ‘Adonai roi,’ i.e. the Lord is my shepherd, or feedeth me. Wherefore it goes on, ‘He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.’ Thus David, from a keeper of sheep, was made by God a king of men—to feed, i.e. to rule, Jacob His servant, and Israel His inheritance. (Ps. 78:71.) Thus Cyrus is called a shepherd, i.e. a prince and king appointed by God—Is 44:28—that saith of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd.’ And Ps. 2:9, ‘Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron.’ Hebrew Tirem, i.e. thou shalt feed them. And generally speaking, the Hebrew raa, the Greek ποίμαινω, and the Latin pasco, signify ‘to rule,’ as may be seen from Mic. 5:2; Act. 20:28; Rev. 2:7, and 12:5, 19:15. Thus Homer calls the Grecian king Agamemnon ποίμενα λαῶν—i.e. a shepherd of the people.”

My lambs. Christ, as the first Shepherd of the sheep, calls here His faithful people at one time sheep, at another, more tenderly, lambs. And that—Firstly, because of the newness of their life, for being regenerate by Baptism they are made as it were young lambs of God. Secondly, because of their lamblike innocence, which by baptism they have obtained, and also on account of their following Christ, who was called by John the Baptist, “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.” Therefore the word sheep signifies that Christ is the Shepherd of Christians; the word—lambs—signifies that Christ is their Father, yea indeed their Mother, forasmuch as they are those whom He hath by baptism begotten unto God, and adopted as His own children. Jansen says lambs and sheep, are the same. Whence the Æthiopic version, instead of lambs, has sheep, repeating sheep thrice. Theophylact adds that they are called lambs in order that the very name might indicate those recently converted, and who were tenderer in the faith, of whom there was about to be a great multitude, when the Apostles began to preach. And because these would require greater care, and must be brought up and nourished with greater labour, therefore the Lord saith twice (according to the Vulgate), “feed My lambs,” that by this repetition He might show that He wished Peter to bestow the very greatest care upon them: but those who were stronger in the faith He calls sheep. Again, by lambs He understands simple, faithful souls; by sheep—teachers, pastors, bishops, and apostles, who are, as it were, mothers of the faithful. Thus Bellarmine.

From this place then it is plain that S. Peter and his successor, the Roman Pontiff, is the head and prince of the Church, and that all the faithful, even bishops, patriarchs, and apostles, are subject to him, and ought by him to be fed and ruled. We gather this, first because Christ here interrogates Peter only, and this thrice, as the chief and mouth of the Apostles. So SS. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius. Moreover Christ here tacitly signifies that Peter loved Him more than the other Apostles, and therefore that he was worthy to succeed Him in the love and care of the flock—that is, of the Church and the faithful. For that power which is not founded upon love comes to naught.

Secondly—this is plain from the word feed, i.e. rule, as I have shown, and from the terms lambs and sheep, for by these words Christ signifies all the members of the Church as it were subject to Himself, the chief Shepherd, for He excepts no one. They therefore who are the sheep of Christ, are likewise the sheep of Peter, for Christ here commits them to him, to be fed and ruled. They therefore who are not Peter’s sheep—namely, heretics—neither are they the sheep of Christ. So all the other Apostles, forasmuch as they were Christ’s sheep, so likewise are they also Peter’s sheep. From whence it was Peter’s right to direct them, to compose their differences, and to govern them in all things. For Christ instituted the most excellent government in His Church, that is the monarchic, both that there might be one Church, and that occasions of schism might be cut off, as S. Cyprian teaches in his book on the unity of the Church. “The primacy,” he says, “is given to Peter, to show that there is one Church of Christ and one chief See;” and S. Jerome says, “Among twelve, one is chosen, that unity might be preserved.” Hear also S. Leontius (Ser. 3, de Assum.): “From the whole world, one Peter is chosen, who is set over the Church, called out of all nations, and over all the Apostles, and all the Fathers of the Church, that although there be in the people of God many priests and many pastors, still Peter may rightly rule all whom Christ also rules in the chief place. A great and wonderful association in His own power, beloved brethren, the Divine condescension gave to this man, and if He wished that anything should be common with him to the other princes of the church, He only gave through him that which He denied not to the rest.”

Hear likewise S. Bernard (L. 3, de Consid. to Pope Eugen: towards the end): “They,” i.e. bishops, “have each their own flocks assigned to them, to thee all have been entrusted,—one shepherd for one flock; nor art thou only the one shepherd of all the sheep, but of all the shepherds. Do you ask how I prove this?—from the word of the Lord: for to whom were absolutely and without distinction all the sheep—I say not merely of Bishops, but of Apostles, committed? ‘If thou lovest Me, O Peter, feed My sheep;’ which?—the people of this or that city or region or kingdom? ‘My sheep,’ He saith: to what man is it not plain that He did not indicate some only, but assigned all? Nothing is excepted where no distinction is made;” and (III. Cap. Solit. De Major, et Obed.) he says, “Now to us the sheep of Christ were committed through Blessed Peter, as the Lord saith, ‘Feed my sheep,’ making no distinction between these sheep and others, that He might show that that sheep-fold which did not recognise Peter and his successors as pastors and masters, did not belong to Him.” See what has been said on S. Matt. 16; see also Bellarmine, who teaches that Christ, by this precept which He gave to Peter, saying, “Feed My sheep,” at the same time founded the Popedom as the Ecclesiastical Head, and gave it to S. Peter and his successors the Bishops of Rome. In chap. xiv. de Pont., he proves that these words were spoken by Christ to Peter only. In chap. xv. he proves that the word—feed—signifies government and power of ruling. In chap. xvi. that sheep signify all the faithful, even the Apostles, and the whole Church: all which things Calvin, Luther, and the heretics deny.

From this passage theologians generally, and especially Suarez on Indulgences, show that the power of granting Indulgences was given by Christ to Peter and the Pontiffs who succeed him. For under that word—feed—is included every act of jurisdiction which may pertain to shutting or opening the kingdom of heaven, that so the gift may be equal to the promise; but the remission of penalties by means of Indulgences is one of the acts by which the kingdom of heaven is opened; it therefore is also comprehended under the general charge of feeding the sheep of Christ.

[16] Dicit ei iterum : Simon Joannis, diligis me? Ait illi : Etiam Domine, tu scis quia amo te. Dicit ei : Pasce agnos meos.
He saith to him again: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs.

He saith to him the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. Hear S. Chrysostom: “Again he dreads the former things, lest perchance, thinking himself to love, he should be corrected if he did not love, like as before he was corrected for thinking himself strong, and therefore he takes refuge in Christ Himself.”

He saith unto him the second time, Feed My lambs. Thus the Arabic has it. But the Greek and Syriac instead of lambs have sheep, but it is very probable that the Vulgate, together with the Arabic, read the Greek προβατία inserting iota, i.e. little sheep, or lambs: because the shepherd’s chief care must be for them; and therefore Christ repeats and doubles His injunction concerning them.

As S. Augustine says, “Let it be love’s office to feed the Lord’s flock, like as it was the mark of fear to deny the Shepherd.” Hence S. Gregory (1 Part. Pastor. c. v.) says, “He who is strong in virtue and refuses to feed the flock of God is proved not to love his Pastor.”

[17] Dicit ei tertio : Simon Joannis, amas me? Contristatus est Petrus, quia dixit ei tertio : Amas me? et dixit ei : Domine, tu omnia nosti, tu scis quia amo te. Dixit ei : Pasce oves meas.
He said to him the third time: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because he had said to him the third time: Lovest thou me? And he said to him: Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee. He said to him: Feed my sheep.

He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest Thou Me? Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time lovest thou Me, and he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My sheep (Syriac, My lambs). Why does Christ thrice ask Peter if he loved Him, and thrice repeat, Feed My sheep? I answer, the first reason is, that Peter, by a triple and constant profession of his singular love, might expiate and change his three-fold denial of Christ. So Cyril, Leontius, Theophylact, Bede, and S. Augustine, which last thus writes (Tract. 123): “For a threefold denial a threefold confession is rendered, that the tongue might not seem to serve love less than fear, and that impending death might not seem to elicit more speech than Present Life. Let it be the office of love to feed the Lord’s flock, if it was the mark of fear to deny the Shepherd. If any feed Christ’s sheep with this disposition, that they wish them to be their own sheep rather than His, they are proved to love not Christ but themselves, either from the desire of boasting, or ruling, or acquiring, not from the love of obeying, and helping, and pleasing God. Against such, therefore, the Word of Christ, many times enjoined, gives warning, and of them the Apostle complains that they seek their own, not the things which be of Jesus Christ. For to say, ‘If thou lovest Me, feed My sheep,’ what else is it but to say, If thou lovest Me, do not study to feed thyself, but My sheep; feed them as Mine, not as thine: seek My glory in them, not thine: My dominion, not thine own? “From hence let bishops learn to examine suspended priests and others a second and third time, concerning their amendment, that they may be safe in restoring them to their office.”

The second cause is that Christ might show what a value He set upon His sheep, and how in the day of judgment He will examine bishops and pastors as to their care for, but especially as to their love for, the sheep. Wherefore S. Bernard (Ser. 18 in Cant.) inveighs against those who, though having little love, are ambitious of being set over others, and so lose themselves and others; or if they save those under them, lose themselves. “Thou, brother,” he says, “whose salvation is not yet strong, who as yet hast not love, or that so weak and like a reed as to yield to every blast, believe every spirit, be carried about with every wind of doctrine, thou, I say, who hast such an opinion of thine own self in what pertains to thine own self, by what madness, I ask, art thou ambitious to have the care of others, or even acquiesce in having it?”

Thirdly—that He may show that pastors ought to feed their sheep, as it were, in a threefold manner—viz.,

1. by the word of truth, 
2. by example of life, and 
3. by temporal assistance (see S. Greg.)

And S. Bernard (Ser. 2 on the Resurr.) says, that feed was repeated by Christ thrice, in order that a pastor may feed his sheep by mind, by tongue, and by hand. “Feed” he says, “by mind, feed by mouth, feed by works. Feed by mental prayer, by verbal exhortation, by showing example.” The same (Ep. 201) says, “Feed by word, feed by example, feed by the fruit of holy prayers.” Hence that wonderful love and zeal for souls in S. Peter, as well as in S. John, who in his Gospel, and his Epistles, everywhere breathes love and Divine fire. A memorable instance of this was that young man who had been converted by S. John and committed to a certain bishop by whom he had been neglected, and so had become a chief of robbers, whom S. John, when an old man, brought back to repentance and a holy life. Eusebius (L. 3, Hist. c. 23) gives a full account of this matter from Clemens Alexandrinus. Also S. Chrysostom (Ep. 5, to Theodorus, a lapsed person).

Peter was grieved—because from the thrice-repeated question it seemed to him as if his love for Christ were suspected, or verily he was afraid that he had no part in the Passion; and like as he then denied, so now also he did not love Christ. So S. Chrysostom, &c. Whence the Lord consoles him in his grief, and says that Peter, from the love and example of Christ, should, like a true shepherd, be crucified for the sheep.

Feed My sheep, as Mine, not as thine; seek My glory in them, not thine; My profit, not thine. Hear S. Augustine: “Let us not therefore love ourselves but Him, and in feeding His sheep let us seek the things of Christ, not our own: he who loves himself, not God, does not really love himself; for he who is not able to live by himself, dies by loving himself: when He is loved from whom is life, by not loving himself a man the more loves himself, forasmuch as he loveth not himself in order that he may love Him by whom he liveth.” Such a shepherd was S. Paul, the colleague of S. Peter, who said, “for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:3). Where S. Chrysostom says, “Broader than any sea, more vehement than any flame was this love, and no speech can worthily express it.” In the first place, this I myself is emphatic. What does this I myself mean? Says S. Chrysostom, “It is I who have been made a teacher of all, I who have collected offices and merits infinite, I who expect infinite crowns.” And then some remarks intervening, he thus explains S. Paul’s wish of anathema: “Willingly would I lose the kingdom of heaven, and be cut off from the hidden glory, considering that it would afford me the highest consolation if only I might no more hear Him reviled, with love of Whom I so greatly burn.”

[18] Amen, amen dico tibi : cum esses junior, cingebas te, et ambulabas ubi volebas : cum autem senueris, extendes manus tuas, et alius te cinget, et ducet quo tu non vis.
Amen, amen I say to thee, when thou wast younger, thou didst gird thyself, and didst walk where thou wouldst. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou wouldst not.

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, &c., whither thou wouldst not, i.e. by thy natural will of sense, or feeling. For by the rational will Peter desired this above all things. S. Chrysostom says, Christ predicts his martyrdom, showing him in what way and how much he ought to love Christ and His sheep, even unto His cross.

When thou wast young: by this is shown, says S. Chrysostom, that Peter was neither a young, nor an old, but a perfect man. For such a one it behoved the Pontiff and prince of the Apostles to be, that his age might win him authority, and yet be apt and strong for apostolic labours.

The meaning is, When thou wast young, and hadst bodily strength, thou wast free, and didst rise from thy couch, and clothedst thyself, and walkedst at thine own pleasure whither thou wouldest; but when thou shalt be old, at the time when men seek rest and ease, thou shalt by no means rest, but shalt have harder labours. For they shall bind thee, and bring thee to the cross, where thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, i.e. shalt be crucified.

Less correctly, therefore, Lyia explains shall gird thee to mean, Another shall bind thee with cords, not nail thee, to the cross. For the words, shall gird, refer not to the cross, but, as the Arabic and Syriac translate, to the loins of Peter, and to his hands and feet. Another, i.e. a lictor or a hangman, shall bind thy loins and thine arms, and carry thee as a criminal to the cross. Besides, S. Peter was not fastened to the cross with cords but with nails, as S. Chrysostom says expressly (Hom. in Princ. Apost.), “Rejoice, O Peter, who hast enjoyed the wood of the cross, and who wouldst not be crucified upright after the example of thy Master, but with thy head downwards, as it were ready for thy journey from earth to heaven. O blessed nails, which passed through those most holy limbs.”

Admirably says S. Augustine, “That denier and lover, puffed up by presumption, cast down by denial, purified by tears, approved by confession, crowned by enduring, found such an end, that he died for perfect love of Christ’s name, with Whom in his perverse precipitance he had promised to die. Made strong by His resurrection, he does what in his weakness he had rashly promised. And now he fears not the destruction of this life, because the Lord having arisen, had shown him the pattern of another life.”

[19] Hoc autem dixit significans qua morte clarificaturus esset Deum. Et cum hoc dixisset, dicit ei : Sequere me.
And this he said, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had said this, he saith to him: Follow me.

This He spake, signifying, &c. Peter therefore by his death upon the cross glorified God, and so his death was not shameful, as Nero and the Romans thought, but was for the honour and glory both of God and Peter. The first reason was because Peter was crucified for the truth of the Faith. And this was glorious.

2. He glorified God, because for God and His Son Jesus Christ, whom he preached, he suffered crucifixion. But what is more glorious than to die for God?

3. Because in the death of the cross he was like Christ, so that as he was like Him in his life and pontificate, he might also be like Him in his cross and death. As S. Chrysostom observes, Christ does not say, thou shalt die, but thou shalt glorify, because to suffer for Christ is honour and glory. Hence the martyrdom of the cross is more honourable than other kinds of martyrdom, for which reason it was desired by many who were crucified. S. Maximus (Serm. 1, de Natal. Apost.) says, “Such was Peter, who when as a disciple of Christ he was brought to the cross, asked that he might be crucified upside down. He feared not the suffering, but he shrunk from equality with the Lord’s cross, manifesting unto all men the power of his marvellous humility, and preserving amidst his torments the discipline of the mystery (of the cross).”

4. Because Peter, dying upon the cross for Christ, has from Him obtained great glory, as well in heaven as upon earth where he glorified God, who was, as it were, the origin and author of his glory. Hence the faithful throughout the world, even kings and princes, flock to Rome, that they may visit and venerate the place of Peter’s crucifixion and burial, and his basilica in the Vatican, which is the wonder of the world. As S. Augustine says (Serm. 28, de Sanct.), “Now at the memory of the Fisherman the emperor bends his knees; there sparkle the gems of his diadem, where shine the benefits of the Fisherman.” And S. Chrysostom says, “Even kings and governors, leaving all things, run to the sepulchres of the Fisherman and the Tent-maker. And at Constantinople our princes deem it a great favour if their bodies may be buried, not near the Apostles, but outside the porches (of their churches). And kings become the doorkeepers of fishermen.”

Morally, learn from hence to glory with SS. Peter and Paul in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to congratulate thyself when Christ makes thee a partaker of it, and sends thee some little portion of His cross, whether by sickness, or persecution, or reproach, of by any other affliction. For by no other thing is God more glorified than by martyrdom and the cross, if they be borne patiently and joyfully. The cross therefore is the honour and glory of Christ and Christians, not their shame and disgrace.

And when He had thus said, &c. Observe, with Cyril, Chrysostom, Maldonatus, and others, that Christ here by His action signified to Peter the same thing which He had spoken in word. He therefore rising, and going from the place to the dinner, invites Peter to follow Him, going before him on foot, and to signify that he was to follow Him as his lawfully appointed Vicar, in those things which He had already said to him, namely, in the pastoral care of His sheep, and the punishment of the cross. Therefore He saith to him, Follow Me (1.) As in going, so also by succeeding Me in the government of the Church. Be thou therefore My successor as the Pastor and Ruler of My whole Church.

2. Follow Me, that as I have gone before thee to the cross, so do thou follow Me to the same. And let not the cross seem to thee too hard to undergo for Me, for I first endured it for thee. For thee and for the rest of the faithful I went before to it, and smoothed the way. For it behoves thee to follow Me, as well in thy life and pastoral office, as in death and the cross, that thou shouldest lay down thy life for the sheep, and be a guide to the rest of the faithful to the cross and martyrdom. Whence the Gloss says, “if the Shepherd has been sacrificed as a sheep, let not those who from sheep have become shepherds fear to be sacrificed.” Hence when Peter was shut up in the Mamertine prison at Rome, the Christians were persuading him, and by their entreaties almost compelling him, to flee. To please them he did so. But outside the gate, which is now called the gate of S. Sebastian, Christ met him. Peter asked Him, Lord, whither goest Thou? The Lord answered him, I am going to Rome to be crucified a second time. Peter understood that Christ willed to be crucified, not in His own person, but in the person of Peter, His Vicar. Therefore he immediately returned to prison, and shortly afterwards underwent the death of the cross. The place where Christ thus met and conversed with Peter is still to be seen just outside Rome. It is adorned with a chapel, and is religiously visited, and is commonly known as Domine, quo vadis?

3. Follow Me, in the pastoral care, that thou mayest feed the faithful both by word and example, and especially by super-abounding charity.

Listen to Theophylact: in that He saith, Follow Me, He made him the Prelate of all the faithful. Lastly, He manifested His affection towards him. For we wish those who are more strictly bound to us to follow us.

Admirably saith S. Irenæus, “To follow the Saviour is to partake of salvation: to follow the light is to partake of light: now they who are in the light do not themselves illuminate the light, but are enlightened by it.”

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)

After the repast, the Saviour rose and moved away, the Apostles following Him with Saint Peter at their head.  Jesus then led the latter apart and asked the searching question: "Simon, lovest thou me more than these?" He wished to remind him of his former protestation: "Though all these should be offended because of thee, yet will I not be offended." But He was also anxious to give him a chance of expressing his repentance and receiving forgiveness.  Peter, with the humility which came from the remembrance of his fall, replied " Yea, Lord; there are knowest that I love thee." He does not say "More than these", and he does not dare use the word love in its highest and spiritual sense as Jesus Himself had used it; he uses the term signifying rather to cherish or to be personally attached to, than to love.  Receiving this answer, Jesus confides to him the care of His sheep.  "He trusts those He loves to him who loves Him", says a certain author.  It was a repetition of that earlier charge to Peter: "And when thou art converted, strengthened thy brethren".  But it was not enough: a second, a third time Jesus asked the same question, substituting the last time the word signifying to cherish for that meaning to love, as if He would assure Himself even of that minimum of affection which is all that Peter in his humility claims.  Then "Peter was grieved".  He was moved to the very depth of his soul, and, daring no longer to trust his own heart, of which he remembers the weakness all too bitterly, he appeals to Christ Who knows everything, and it is only on meeting His gaze, which is the unmistakable guarantee of His love, that he ventures to say: "Lord, thou knowest that I love thee".  And Jesus said to him yet again: "Feed my sheep," thus making him the shepherd of souls.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam