The Teaching of Jesus
Page 3: Evening 3
TAKEN FROM THE CATHOLIC BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE, Vol. 1:
The Coming of the King, Virtue and Co. LTD, London
Nihil Obstat Joannes Barton, D.D. F.S.A.
"I AM THE TRUE VINE"
"Uncle David---this is our very last night for ages and ages!" Alan remarked rather wistfully after dinner. "And tonight I'm going to remember to keep up the fire with logs. I've got permission to sit up until ten o'clock."
"That's grand!" replied his uncle; "but you sound as if I were going to Timbuktu at least. Rome is only a few hours' journey by plane you know, Alan, and I shall be back again quite soon."
Alan looked more cheerful as he followed his uncle into the library. "We can still go on talking about Jesus, can't we?" he asked.
"Yes," said his uncle, "and as it is my last evening for a little while, I have brought you a small gift." Alan gasped with pleasure as his uncle handed him a small, beautifully bound copy of the New Testament. "You may start using it straight away," he went on, "because there are going to be lots of things to look up!"
"How perfectly lovely, Uncle!" Alan exclaimed, gazing down at the cover. "It's real leather too, isn't it, and the lettering is gold?"
"The inside is much more important than the outside," his uncle remarked. "I want you to try to promise me to read just a verse or two each day from one of the Gospels."
"I can carry it about in my pocket," Alan said, "it's so small, and yet the print is quite easy to read. What shall I look up first, please?" "Matthew---Chapter Nineteen," his uncle replied promptly, "somewhere near the end---it's something Peter said, a question he asked Our Lord."
"Oh, I'm glad Peter is coming into it," Alan murmured, as he turned the pages carefully, "I like Peter!"
"Like you, Peter often asked questions, sometimes very blunt ones," his uncle went on. "Can you find Peter's question?"
"Yes, yes, I've got it," Alan exclaimed excitedly, "Listen, Uncle: 'Hereupon Peter took occasion to say, And what of us who have forsaken all, and followed Thee; what is left for us?' What did he mean, Uncle?"
"Just before Peter asked his question," Uncle David explained, "a rich young man had come to Jesus asking how he could win eternal life. Like the man we talked about last night he had great possessions, but unlike him, he had kept the Commandments and led a good life. Now he wanted to be perfect. Do you know what Jesus said to him? He said, 'If thou hast a mind to be perfect, go home and sell all that belongs to thee; give it to the poor, and so the treasure thou hast shall be in Heaven; then come back and follow Me!'
"Now can you see what Peter meant by his question? He was thinking that he and his friends had given up everything to follow Jesus, and he was wondering just exactly what their reward would be. It was just the sort of question Peter was likely to ask. He was very simple, remember, and in some ways, child-like. I think that is why everybody loves Peter---not only because Our Lord specially singled him out---but because he was so much like our very ordinary selves."
"Do let me read how Jesus answered him," Alan pleaded, "I've got the place, and it's such lovely, clear print. May I?"
His uncle nodded, and Alan read: "'Jesus said to them, I promise you, in the new birth, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you also shall sit there on twelve thrones, you who have followed Me, and shall be judges over the twelve tribes of Israel.'"
Alan stopped reading and looked up. "So that was Our Lord's answer to the question! Peter must have been terribly thrilled."
"Go on," his uncle instructed, "you have not yet finished." Alan read on carefully:
"'And every man that has forsaken home or brothers, or sisters, or father or mother, or wife or children, or lands for My name's sake, shall receive his reward a hundred fold, and obtain everlasting life. But many will be first that were last, and last that were first.'"
"Every man! That is meant for all of us isn't it?" Alan cried suddenly. "You and me and Mummy and Daddy, and kings and queens, and ..."
"Our Lord will never be outdone in generosity," Uncle David remarked. "If you make sacrifices to follow Him, He will repay a hundred fold, as He told Peter. But Jesus never made out that it would be easy to follow Him. Last night we saw how He said that He came with a sword. When Peter, on another occasion, was trying to prevent Him from going up to Jerusalem where His enemies were, He said again: 'If any man has a mind to come My way, let him renounce (that means give up) self, and take up his cross and follow me. The man who tries to save his life shall lose it. ..."
"Uncle David! I've found it," Alan exclaimed, his head bent over his New Testament. "I never knew before where these words of Jesus came from, 'though I often heard Father George preach his sermons on them; let me read the rest. ..."
Only the loud ticking of the clock could be heard in the hall outside, as Alan read what Jesus said:
"'It is the man who loses his life for My sake that will secure it. How is a man the better for it, if he gains the whole world at the cost of losing his own soul ...'"
"Uncle David, what was Jesus saying---was He saying that it didn't matter how rich or famous you became---all such things were not important? Your soul is the most important thing?"
His uncle nodded. "Our Lord wanted some of these hard-headed Jews to understand that in the end---when they came to die---God would be their judge, and if they had spent the years on material things, and neglected their spiritual life, then they would not be able to enter His Kingdom."
"He said something else, too, which the Jews found difficult to understand, something about Himself. It was just at the time when a mother came to Him with a question about her two sons. Like all mothers she was ambitious for them, and she wanted them to have the first places in this wonderful kingdom Jesus talked about. The disciples were annoyed by the question, and Jesus gave them a little lecture on humility. He said that if any of them really wanted to be great, he must first learn to be a servant to the others. And then He took Himself as an example, saying that He had not come to have service done to Him, but that He had come to serve others, to give His life for others. 'He that shall lose his life, shall save it!' It is a very hard and difficult lesson for men to learn, Alan, and Jesus never stopped teaching it---all during His public life."
"When He talked about being the Good Shepherd," Alan began, after a short silence, "He said then, didn't He, that the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep? He said: 'I am the Good Shepherd. My sheep are known to Me and know Me!'"
"I've found the place," Alan went on, running his finger down the page, "in St. John. It goes on: 'Just as I am known to My Father, and know Him. And for these sheep I am laying down My life. ...'"
"Uncle, it's terribly exciting, being able to find everything for myself, isn't it? And now I begin to see much, much better just what Jesus did teach, and why. I remember now that He said something about being the door of the sheepfold. Shepherds don't walk behind their flocks in Palestine, do they? The shepherd walks in front and the sheep follow him just like dogs following their master. They know his voice, too, and when he calls them they gather round him, as they come out of the sheepfold. I think they come through a kind of door built into the wall. If ever I go to Palestine I shall look for shepherds and their sheep especially," Alan concluded.
"I hope you will," his uncle remarked, smiling. "Now let us see what else Jesus said about Himself. Once He was in the Temple surrounded by all the ordinary people of the city, and to them He said: 'I am the light of the world. He who follows Me can never walk in darkness: he will possess the light which is life.'"
Speaking slowly and gently, Alan's uncle went on: "To the listening Pharisees, it sounded too ridiculous for words, and so conceited---they could not keep back their sneers. Then Jesus spoke sternly to them---if they refused to follow Him, take Him for their example---then they must be told how ignorant and sinful they really were."
"But to His friends and disciples, Our Lord spoke gently, in words which showed them that they could not do without Him, that He was always with them and would be enough for them. He said 'Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.'"
"So it is with all men, Alan, with us today, as it was with them yesterday. 'Come to me all you that labour and are burdened; I will give you rest,' said Our Lord. 'Take My yoke upon yourselves, and learn from Me; I am gentle and humble of heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.'"
"Wonderful words, Alan, which have been carved in letters of gold on the hearts of all His friends ever since He spoke them."
Alan looked at his uncle with shining eyes. He did not understand everything, but there was something deep inside him which reached out to all the beauty and glory of Jesus' teaching. "I think," he said at last, "that Jesus was the most wonderful teacher. ..."
"He was God made Man," his uncle finished quietly. "He told us: 'It is I Who am the Bread of life. ... I Myself am the living bread that has come down from Heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live for ever. ...'"
"Read the Sixth Chapter of St. John, sometime, Alan, when you want to try to grasp the wonder of Jesus coming among men. In it, He promises us the Blessed Sacrament. 'I myself am the living bread.' The Jews could not understand what He meant, and argued among themselves about it. We, who have the gift of faith, know very well, though we do see through the glass darkly! Our Lord told his listeners that those who believed in Him would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit after He had gone back to His Father. ..."
But Alan was scarcely listening, so busy was he turning over the pages of St. John's Gospel. "Uncle David! I've just found something else Jesus said about Himself. I found it myself, listen! I'll read it slowly so that we can think about it."
Alan tried to keep his voice low and solemn like Father George's "sermon" voice, as he began to read:
"'I am the true vine, and it is My Father Who tends it. The branch that yields no fruit in Me, He cuts away; the branch that does yield fruit, He trims clean, so that it may yield more fruit.' You, through the message I have preached to you, are clean already; you have only to live on in Me, and I will live on in you. The branch that does not live on in the vine can yield no fruit of itself; no more can you, if you do not live on in Me. I am the vine, you are its branches; if a man lives on in Me, and I in him, then he will yield abundant fruit; separated from me, you have no power to do anything. If a man does not live on in Me, he can only be like the branch that is cast off and withers away, such a branch is picked up; and thrown into the fire, to burn there. As long as you live on in Me, and My words live on in you, you will be able to make what request you will, and have it granted. ...'"
Alan stopped reading. "It isn't really very hard to understand, Uncle---I mean I think I see what Jesus is teaching us. I hope I shall always be like the branch of the vine which has fruit. That is why I wanted so much to understand all about Our Lord's teaching, because you said once that you have to understand so as to be able to love."
Uncle David smiled gently as Alan stopped speaking. "Remember, Alan, that Jesus was also the Victim," he said, his eyes serious, "offered in atonement for our sins. You must try to hold on to these two thoughts at the same time. Jesus is the true vine, and yet at the same time, the victim. He said: 'This My Father loves in Me, that I am laying down My life, to take it up again afterwards.'"
"Sometimes we forget how clearly Our Lord spoke of what would happen after His death on the Cross," Uncle David continued. "Do you remember the scene of the Last Supper---we have talked of it already on one of my other visits, but let us just see again what Jesus said then, when He spoke to all His disciples for the last time before His death. It was towards the end of the Supper. Jesus took bread and blessed it. Then breaking it He gave it to the Apostles ..."
"And He said," Alan broke in, "'Take ye and eat, this is my Body
...' Oh, Uncle, He really and truly said that we would have His Body in the Blessed Sacrament. I know we have had a big talk about it already, but I'm glad we have talked about it again. He told us in actual words, didn't He, so it is something we should always be thinking about when we go to Holy Communion. At first, I was puzzled when you began to talk about the Blessed Sacrament again, but that was just to help me to remember that Jesus Himself spoke of it, wasn't it?"
But Uncle David was staring into the glowing embers of the fire and did not answer. Alan rose quietly and picked up one of the logs lying inside the fender. He hesitated. Should he throw it on the flames? Uncle David looked as if he were far, far away. Perhaps, Alan thought wistfully, he is wishing he could be in Rome, in the great cathedral there, or in a monastery where the monks live their whole lives round the Blessed Sacrament.
"What are you thinking about, Uncle?" Alan suddenly asked, "and, please, may I put this log on the fire?"
"Yes, of course," his uncle said, coming alive again, and smiling warmly into Alan's slightly anxious eyes. "I was thinking about God the Son. How He said, 'Believe Me, before even Abraham came to be, I am.' How plainly Our Lord told them Who He was! 'My Father and I are One,' He told them, and when the Jews would have stoned Him for blasphemy, He still went on with fearless courage, telling them about Himself. 'My Father has enabled Me to do many deeds of mercy in your presence. ...' The Jews, you know, asked Him point-blank who He was and He answered them by telling them that God, His Father, had sent Him, and still they refused to believe."
His uncle lapsed into silence again, and Alan knew that he was sad---sad because of the Jews, and not only because of the Jews. He waited for a moment, then he opened his New Testament again, and began to read quietly to himself. At last, his uncle looked up.
"What have you found this time, Alan?"
"It's all about the Holy Spirit," Alan answered promptly. "Listen, Uncle David, this will make you happy again." And he began to read:
"'If you have any love for Me, you must keep the Commandments which I give you,. and then I will ask the Father, and He will give you another to befriend you, One Who is to dwell continually with you forever. It is the truth-giving Spirit, for Whom the world can find no room, because it cannot see Him, cannot recognize Him. But you are to recognize Him. He will be continually at your side, nay, he will be in you. I will not leave you friendless. I am coming to you. It is only a little while now, before the world is to see Me no more; but you can see Me, because I live on, and you too will have life ...'"
"Jesus was comforting His disciples, wasn't He?" Alan asked. "He was telling them about the Holy Spirit and of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. He promised them that the Holy Ghost, the Third Person in the Blessed Trinity would come to them and strengthen them after He had left them. ..."
"Yes," said Uncle David. "He told them that the Holy Spirit would dwell in their hearts and help them to understand the meaning of all His teaching; and help them, too, to spread it among men. Then Our Lord told them that He would come to them again after His death; this promise was to give them courage to face the agony of seeing their beloved Master on Calvary, Calvary was not to be the end---it was to be the beginning ... And there, Alan, we must stop. It is long past ten o'clock if my watch is correct, and a little boy who misses too many hours' sleep cannot be expected to do his lessons well the next day. My visits will be becoming unpopular with your masters at school, and that would never do! You will not remember all we have talked about tonight, Alan, but I shall ask the Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts along the right paths until we meet again."
Alan got up reluctantly, It had been such a wonderful talk! "Thank you, Uncle David," he said, "and all the time you are away in Rome, I shall be thinking up lots and lots of questions---just you wait and see!"
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