When the Apostles returned, they related to Jesus all that they had done. Then Jesus retired privately to a town called Bethsaida, taking the Apostles with him.

The day was drawing to a close, when the twelve came up to him, and said: "Send the crowd away, so that they may make their way to the villages and farms round about, and find themselves lodgings and provisions, for we are in a lonely spot here."

But Jesus said: "It is for you to give them something to eat." "We have not more than five loaves and two fishes," they answered; "unless indeed we are to go and buy food for all these people."

Afterwards, when Jesus was alone, praying, his disciples joined him, and he asked them this question-- "Who do the people say that I am?"

"John the Baptist," was their answer; "others, however, say that you are Elijah, while others say that one of the old Prophets has risen again."

"But you," he went on, "who do you say that I am?" And to this Peter answered: "The Christ of God."

He told them that the Son of Man must undergo much suffering, and be rejected by the Councillors, and Chief Priests, and Teachers of the Law, and be put to death, and rise on the third day.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, and whoever, for my sake, loses his life--that man shall save it.

And, as the voice ceased, Jesus was found alone. The Apostles kept silence, and told no one about any of the things that they had seen.

And all present were struck with awe at the majesty of God. In the midst of the general astonishment at all that Jesus was doing, he said to his disciples:

But the disciples did not understand the meaning of this; it had been concealed from them so that they did not see it, and they were afraid to question him as to what he meant.

And Jesus, knowing of the discussion that was occupying their thoughts, took hold of a little child, and placed it beside him,

And then said to them: "Any one who, for the sake of my Name, welcomes even this little child is welcoming me; and any one who welcomes me is welcoming him who sent me as his Messenger. For whoever is lowliest among you all--that man is great."

After this, the Master appointed seventy-two other disciples, and sent them on as his Messengers, two and two, in advance, to every town and place that he was himself intending to visit.

Remain at that same house, and eat and drink whatever they offer you; for the worker is worth his wages. Do not keep changing from one house to another.

'We wipe off the very dust of your town which has clung to Our feet; still, be assured that the Kingdom of God is close at Hand.'

I tell you that the doom of Sodom will be more bearable on 'That Day' than the doom of that town.

Yet the doom of Tyre and Sidon will be more bearable at the Judgment than yours.

Yet do not rejoice in the fact that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names have been enrolled in Heaven."

At that same time, moved to exultation by the Holy Spirit, Jesus said: "I thank thee, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, that, though thou hast hidden these things from the wise and learned, thou hast revealed them to the childlike! Yes, Father, I thank thee that this has seemed good to thee.

Then, turning to his disciples, Jesus said to them alone: "Blessed are the eyes that see what you are seeing;

"You have answered right," said Jesus; "do that, and you shall live."

As it chanced, a priest was going down by that road. He saw the man, but passed by on the opposite side.

But a Samaritan, traveling that way, came upon the man, and, when he saw him, he was moved with compassion.

"The one that took pity on him," was the answer; on which Jesus said: "Go and do the same yourself."

But Martha was distracted by the many preparations that she was making. So she went up to Jesus and said: "Master, do you approve of my sister's leaving me to make preparations alone? Tell her to help me."

Give us each day the bread that we shall need;

Jesus also said to them: "Suppose that one of you who has a friend were to go to him in the middle of the night and say 'Friend, lend me three loaves,

And suppose that the other should answer from inside 'Do not trouble me; the door is already fastened, and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything';

I tell you that, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is a friend, yet because of his persistence he will rouse himself and give him what he wants.

For he that asks receives, he that searches finds, and to him that knocks the door shall be opened.

If you, then, naturally wicked though you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those that ask him!"

So, too, if Satan is wholly divided against himself, how can his kingdom last? Yet you say that I drive out demons by the help of Baal-zebub.

But, if it is by Baal-zebub's help that I drive out demons, by whose help is it that your own sons drive them out? Therefore they shall themselves be your judges.

But, if it is by the hand of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God must already be upon you.

No sooner does a foul spirit leave a man, than it passes through places where there is no water, in search of rest; and finding none, it says 'I will go back to the home which I left';

Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in, and make their home there; and the last state of that man proves to be worse than the first."

At the Judgment the Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation, and will condemn them, because she came from the very ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon; and here is more than a Solomon!

At the Judgment the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation, and will condemn it, because they repented at Jonah's proclamation; and here is more than a Jonah!

No one sets light to a lamp, and then puts it in the cellar of under the corn-measure, but he puts it on the lamp-stand, so that any one who comes in may see the light.

Take care, therefore, that the inner Light is not darkness.

The Pharisee noticed, to his astonishment, that Jesus omitted the ceremonial washing before breakfast.

But Jesus went on: "Alas for you, too, you Students of the Law! You load men with loads that are too heavy to carry, but do not, yourselves, touch them with one of your fingers.

That is why the Wisdom of God said--"I will send to them Prophets and Apostles,

Some of whom they will persecute and kill, in order that the 'blood' of all the prophets 'that has been spilt' since the creation of the world may be exacted from this generation--

Laying traps for him, so as to seize upon anything that he might say.

Meanwhile the people had gathered in thousands, so that they trod upon one another, when Jesus, addressing himself to his disciples, began by saying to them: "Be on your guard against the leaven--that is, the hypocrisy--of the Pharisees.

Hence all that you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear, within closed doors, will be proclaimed upon the housetops.

To you who are my friends I say, Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but after that can do no more.

No, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

And Jesus said to his disciples: "That is why I say to you, Do not be anxious about the life here--what you can get to eat; nor yet about your body--what you can get to wear.

For life is more than food, and the body than its clothes.

Think of the ravens--they neither sow nor reap; they have neither storehouse nor barn; and yet God feeds them! And how much more precious are you than birds!

These are the things for which all the nations of the world are seeking, and your Father knows that you need them.

Sell what belongs to you, and give in charity. Make yourselves purses that will not wear out--an inexhaustible treasure in Heaven, where no thief comes near, or moth works ruin.

And be like men who are waiting for their Master's return from his wedding, so that, when he comes and knocks, they may open the door for him at once.

Happy are those servants whom, on his return, the Master will find watching. I tell you that he will make himself ready, and bid them take their places at table, and will come and wait upon them.

Whether it is late at night, or in the early morning that he comes, if he finds all as it should be, then happy are they.

This you do know, that, had the owner of the house known at what time the thief was coming, he would have been on the watch, and would not have let his house be broken into.

"Who, then," replied the Master, "is that trustworthy steward, the careful man, who will be placed by his master over his establishment, to give them their rations at the proper time?

Happy will that servant be whom his master, when he comes home, shall find doing this.

But should that servant say to himself 'My master is a long time coming,' and begin to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk,

That servant's master will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour of which he is unaware, and will flog him severely and assign him his place among the untrustworthy.

There is a baptism that I must undergo, and how great is my distress until it is over!

Do you think that I am here to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but to cause division.

And when you see that the wind is in the south, you say 'It will be burning hot,' and so it proves.

Hypocrites! You know how to judge of the earth and the sky; how is it, then, that you cannot judge of this time?

When, for instance, you are going with your opponent before a magistrate, on your way to the court do your best to be quit of him; for fear that he should drag you before the judge, when the judge will hand you over to the bailiff of the court, and the bailiff throw you into prison.

Just at that time some people had come to tell Jesus about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.

"Do you suppose," replied Jesus, "that, because these Galileans have suffered in this way, they were worse sinners than any other Galileans?

Or those eighteen men at Siloam on whom the tower fell, killing them all, do you suppose that they were worse offenders than any other inhabitants of Jerusalem?

But the President of the Synagogue, indignant that Jesus had worked the cure on the Sabbath, interposed and said to the people: "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come to be cured on one of those, and not on the Sabbath."

As he said this, his opponents all felt ashamed; but all the people rejoiced to see all the wonderful things that he was doing.

But Jesus answered: "Go and say to that fox 'Look you, I am driving out demons and shall be completing cures to-day and to- morrow, and on the third day I shall have done.'

But to-day and to-morrow and the day after I must go on my way, because it cannot be that a Prophet should meet his end outside Jerusalem.

And he said to them: "Which of you, finding that his son or his ox has fallen into a well, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath Day?"

And they could not make any answer to that.

Observing that the guests were choosing the best places for themselves, Jesus told them this parable--

"When you are invited by any one to a wedding banquet, do not seat yourself in the best place, for fear that some one of higher rank should have been invited by your host;

No, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place, so that, when he who has invited you comes, he may say to you 'Friend, come higher up'; and then you will be honored in the eyes of all your fellow-guests.

Then Jesus went on to say to the man who had invited him: "When you give a breakfast or a dinner, do not ask your friends, or your brothers, or your relations, or rich neighbors, for fear that they should invite you in return, and so you should be repaid.

While the next said 'I am just married, and for that reason I am unable to come.'

'Go out,' the master said, 'into the roads and hedgerows, and make people come in, so that my house may be filled;

For I tell you all that not one of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.'"

For fear that, if he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, every one who sees it should begin to laugh at him,

So, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in Heaven over one outcast that repents, than over ninety-nine religious men, who have no need to repent.

So, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of God's angels over one outcast that repents."

A few days later the younger son got together all that he had, and went away into a distant land; and there he squandered his inheritance by leading a dissolute life.

After he has spent all that he had, there was a severe famine through all that country, and he began to be in actual want.

So he went and engaged himself to one of the people of that country, who sent him into his fields to tend pigs.

But, when he came to himself, he said 'How many of my father's hired servants have more bread than they can eat, while here am I starving to death!

'No,' he said to his father, 'look at all the years I have been serving you, without ever once disobeying you, and yet you have never given me even a kid, so that I might have a merry-making with my friends.

But, no sooner has this son of yours come, who has eaten up your property in the company of prostitutes, than you have killed the fattened calf for him.'

'Child,' the father answered, 'you are always with me, and everything that I have is yours.

So the master called him and said 'What is this that I hear about you? Give in your accounts, for you cannot act as steward any longer.'

'What am I to do,' the steward asked himself, 'now that my master is taking the steward's place away from me? I have not strength to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.

I know what I will do, so that, as soon as I am turned out of my stewardship, people may welcome me into their homes.'

His master complimented this dishonest steward on the shrewdness of his action. And indeed men of the world are shrewder in dealing with their fellow-men than those who have the Light.

And I say to you 'Win friends for yourselves with your dishonest money,' so that, when it comes to an end, there may be a welcome for you into the Eternal Home.

It would be easier for the heavens and the earth to disappear than for one stroke of a letter in the Law to be lost.