crucified head downwards. His request was granted. On the spot where the vision occurred we have the Church called

Domine quo

vadis?

Peter's love is unmistakable and so also is the opinion he has of his own bravery. He meant every word he said; but had no idea of his weakness. We read in the other Evangelists how he refused to believe Our Lord's prophecy concerning his denial, and how he placed himself before the rest. We read also, in all the Evangelists, how miserably he failed and how lamentably were Our Lord's words verified.

1Simon Peter.-Peter so loved Our Lord that he did not like the idea of being separated from Him. Our Lord foretold this separation and Peter at once felt sad and courageous.

2Whither goest Thou ?-Is there any place in this world, no matter how disagreeable, into which I am not prepared to follow you?

Thou canst not follow Me now.-Peter had other work to do for thirtyfour years which he little thought of when he volunteered his companionship. He knew this in its own good time.

Thou shalt follow Me.-Peter did follow Him from the moment he shed his first tear of sorrow until his soul went to its reward.

I will lay down my life for Thee.-Peter thinks he could, and really loves Our Lord to the extent of every word he says: but it is rashness.

Lay down thy life for Me?—Our Lord has a sad forecast depicted in His countenance and words.

Shall not crow.-We have examined the theories about the crowing of the cock. The dawn crow was the crow among the Jews. Before that crow came, on that very night, Peter was cursing and swearing that he never knew the Man!

Natural love :

Ist. Is very fervid in the beginning.

2nd. The hotter it is the shorter it lasts.

3rd. It never keeps its promises.

Peter's Love:

Ist. Was very sincere.

2nd. Too natural and fervid.

3rd. Still it survived his fall and proved to be excellent.

P

The Apostles were depressed by everything which occurred that evening, and there were many more things to occur to them before the next morning.

Our Lord tries to raise their spirits whilst He Himself is sad. They were sad because of Judas, of Peter, and the impending troubles of which they were yet ignorant. Our Lord was sad for a great deal more. He knew their coming defection, the scattering of the flock, and the horrors He would have to endure before He went to His Father.

There is scarcely anything so affecting as this beautiful discourse after the first Mass and Communion, when He already dwelt spiritually in each of His children.

The putting before them ideas of heaven, to sustain them through their trials on earth, was not new. This plan has been

followed by His Apostles, and preachers since their time, who have striven to walk in their footsteps.

It is difficult for us to form an idea of a place which those who know describe as such that neither hath eye seen nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived what it is like. S. Paul, who had a glimpse of it, which he calls being taken up to the third heaven, finds human language insufficient to express what he saw. S. John's language in the Apocalypse is all figurative.

The idea underlying our notion of heaven is one very deeply imbedded in human nature-the desire of Happiness. We are born with this and die with it. We look for it in pleasures and sins, and seek it in penance and privations. That it awaits us beyond the grave if we are faithful in the few things commanded us here, is a truth Our Lord was continually placing before the minds of His followers.

There are various ways in which the idea of plenary happiness could be conveyed to such minds as were to be enlightened at the Last Supper. At one time heaven is likened to a banqueting hall in which a marriage feast is being celebrated. Outside all is darkness and gnashing of teeth. At another time they are promised reclining couches in the celestial banqueting hall. Seats as judges over the twelve tribes of Israel is another figure. Again, He tells them that His Father has prepared a kingdom.

Now they perceive a difference made between them, and that all have not, and cannot have, the highest place.

Our Divine Lord gives them a new figure of heaven, more complete than any which He yet gave. The essential beatitude is like to the penny which each workman received, but the accidental, which is altogether personal, is very different in each case.

No two things in creation are exactly alike; and not two souls going heavenwards ever resembled each other so perfectly as not to be distinguishable.

The many mansions is a well chosen expression. Each soul will have a mansion, a possession perfectly satiating it according to its merits and the peculiar nature of those merits. Every soul in heaven will be so content with its own beatitude that it would not like to exchange it with any other saint. Hence each saint rejoices in every other saint's glory, and likes best his own, which admirably suits him. IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE THERE ARE MANY

MANSIONS.

1Heart be troubled.-That is, do not allow this sadness to afflict you too deeply.

2Believe also in Me.-Let there be the same faith, for it will be sorely tested very soon.

Father's house. This is the inheritance of heaven, for which He has been preparing them so long and carefully.

I would have told you.-He wants to impress upon them the divine attribute He possesses of neither deceiving nor being deceived. He knoweth all things and hath no need that anyone should tell him.

Prepare a place.—This is a figure taken from a mansion not inhabited for a long time. The owner and family are coming; but the rooms must be furnished and put in order for their reception. The mansions in heaven had been vacant since the fall of man.

I will come again.-This may mean after His Resurrection or at the last Judgment. The death of each person is but a foretaste of the Judgment. That is one of His comings.

"You also may be.-They loved His society, and heaven would not be heaven without it.

8You know. You are in the way of learning. Hence they begin to ask Him questions to get information.

7. "Si cognovissetis me, et Patrem meum utiquè cognovissetis et amodò cognoscetis eum; et vidistis eum."

7. If you had known me, you would surely have known my Father also: and from henceforth you shall know him; and you have seen him.

We see from the manner in which Thomas puts his question that at least, in his notion, the Father was visible like the Son, in human form, and had those mansions in some sort of Eastern fairyland. Those who read Eastern tales know how full people's minds are there of enchanted dwellings to which good people are brought by genii.

The knowledge which the Apostles had, as far as we can judge from their words and manner, was some crude thing like this, and remained in a state of imperfection until the Holy Ghost came to teach them all truth, as it is significantly put by Our Lord Himself.

Now the film is disappearing gradually. Our Lord does not answer their questions directly, but He awakens their curiosity to make them ask more; just as a wise preceptor would do with children who could only take in a very limited amount of knowledge at a time.

1Thomas saith to him.-S. John gives the name of each questioner.

We know not.-Thomas had heard Peter several times speak on behalf of the others, and now he speaks on his own in the plural number or on theirs as if he had been commissioned.

The way. They might wait until He had gone and then follow Him by taking the same road.

The Way, and the Truth, and the Life.-This sentence of Our Lord has had commentators from the day it was uttered even until now. The Way all must go to the heavenly end of their journey through Him. Truth: this is the unerring way. The Life: Eternal life is only to be had by a right faith in Him and a practice of His virtues.

But by me.-The Father is the term, or the end of the journey to heaven. The Vision of God is Heaven.

Known me.-There is a slight reproof here; as their ideas of His Divinity were still hazy and became hazier.

"You shall know Him.-He forecasts the Day of Pentecost.

"You have seen Him.-The germs of faith are sown in you and wil. soon sprout and flourish.