Page:The Eternal Priesthood - Manning.djvu/161

Rh most malicious. Because so much has been done for them, they exact more; and because more cannot be done, they break out in jealousy and vindictiveness. It would be but a little thing if enemies who do not know us speak against us; but when familiar friends, who have been freely admitted to our confidence and within our guard, who have lived under our roof and broken bread with us—when they turn and accuse us, it is far more bitter. Inimici hominis domestici ejus. The care and kindness and forbearance we have shown to them is all lost. Some passion of jealousy or self-interest has mastered them. They first turn from us, and then turn upon us. If they had been strangers and unknown, we could have better borne it; but from them it has a manifold ingratitude. They know us better than other men. Their accusations are not from ignorance or mistake. They know the falseness, because they know the truth: and that galls them. They can find nothing against us truly; therefore they are irritated, and go to Satan's forge for lies. Sister Emmerich says that Satan in Gethsemane asked our Lord what He had done with all the money that came from the lands that Mary sold at Magdala.

4. And the false accusation against our Divine Master was believed by, not a few, but by the majority of men. The bad believed it readily,