Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

226 ST. MATTHEW.
is to tempt God to depend upon receiving whatever
is necessary to salvation immediately from Christ
himself, because he gives it generally by the means
of his ministers. How many graces pass through
their hands ! It is their sanctification, as well as
that of others, if they know how to make a good use
of this advantage.
" 20. And they did all eat, and were filled : and
they took up of the fragments that remained twelve
baskets full. 21. And they that had eaten were
about five thousand men, besides women and chil-
dren."
Little or much is the same thing in the hand of
Jesus Christ. The more a man gives to the poor,
the more he is enriched one way or another. The
feeding and filling this people by the multiplication
of loaves, is an emblem of the holy communion,
which is the source of all graces and spiritual riches
to those souls which are truly filled and nourished
by it : but it is one thing to eat it, and another to
be truly nourished thereby.
" 22. ^ And straightway Jesus constrained his
disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him
unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes
away."
A person who is really humble does not continue
willingly, or without necessity, in a place where he
has done some remarkable good. That man runs
the risk of losinsr his reward from God, who waits for
the applause of men. How difficult is it to with-
stand this inclination, and what need is there of a
very powerful and constraining grace in order to do
it ! Jesus Christ makes haste to send away his