Page:Ninety-nine homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the epistles and gospels for forty-nine Sundays of the Christian year (IA ninetyninehomili00thom).pdf/151

 all things .... whatsoever I have said unto you,” S. John xiv. 26. “And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,” S. John i. 16, 17. (4) In enduring the bitterness of His passion for sinners: “ and set Him on His own beast.” Gloss. The beast is His flesh, in which He places the wounded, because He “ bare our sins in His own Body on the tree,” 1 S. Peter ii. 24.

III. On the third head it is to be noted, that we ought to show a four-fold compassion to the penitent. (1) In succouring him: “ Bear ye one another’s burdens,” &c. Gal. vi. 2. (2) In praying for him: “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it,” 1 S. John v. 16. “Pray one for another, that ye may be healed,” S. James v. 16. (3) In instructing him : “ If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness,” Gal. vi. 1. “ Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know,” &c., S. James v. 19, 20. “If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone,” S. Matt, xviii. 15. (4) In the gift of pardon : “ Then came Peter to Him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? .... Until seventy times seven,” S. Matt, xviii. 21, 22. “Reproach not a man that turneth from sin,” i.e., turning from sin to repentance; “But remember that we are all worthy of punishment,” Ecclus. viii. 5.

It is certain that man ought to possess those fruits chiefly for three reasons. Firstly, on account of necessity, “Every