hath engaged himself.1 Jesus Christ forbade the young man who wished to become one of his disciples to return home for the purpose of burying his father: Follow Me, and let the dead bury the dead .? This lesson was, as the same St. Ambrose writes, directed to all ecclesiastics, to teach them that it is their duty to prefer the concerns of the divine glory to all human affairs, which may be an obstacle to their belonging entirely to God.3

Even in the Old Law, God declared to the priests that he had chosen them from among the people that they might be his without reserve. Hence he told them that they should have no possession, no portion among seculars, because he himself wished to be their portion and inheritance: You shall possess nothing in their land, neither shall you have a portion among them: I am thy portion and inheritance in the midst of the children of Israel.4 On this passage Oleaster writes: "O priest! understand what great happiness God has conferred upon thee by wishing to have thee as his inheritance. And what can be wanting to thee if thou possessest God?"" The priest, then, should say with St. Augustine: "Let others choose for their portion temporal things; God is my portion." 6

1 " Nemo, militans Deo, implicat se negotiis sæcularibus, ut ei placeat, cui se probavit."-2 Tim. ii. 4.2 "Sequere me, et dimitte mortuos sepelire mortuos suos."- Matth. viii. 22.3 "' Hic paterni funeris sepultura prohibetur, ut intelligas humana posthabenda divinis."-In Luc. c. 9.4 " In terra eorum nihil possidebitis, nec habebitis partem inter eos; ego pars et hereditas tua in medio filiorum Israel."-Num. xviii. 20.5 " Magna dignatio Domini, si eam, Sacerdos, cognoscas: quod velit Deus esse pars tua. Quid non habebis, si Deum habeas ?"6 " Eligant sibi alii partes, quibus fruantur, terrenas et temporales; portio sanctorum, Dominus æternus est. Bibant alii mortiferas voluptates; portio calicis mei, Dominus est."- Enarr. in Ps. 15.

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The Dignity and Duties of the Priest

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