| Matthew 9:15
| And Jesus said to them: Can the children of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast.
| Can the children of the bridegroom.{ Ver. 15. Filii sponsi, uioi tou numphonos, so filius pacis, filius mortis, etc.|} This, by a Hebraism, signifies the friends or companions of the bridegroom, as a lover of peace, is called a child of peace: he that deserves death, the son of death, etc. (Witham) --- the disciples had not yet ascended to the higher degrees of perfection, they had not yet been renewed in spirit; therefore they required to be treated with lenity; for had the higher and more sublime mysteries been delivered to them without previous preparation, they would never, not even in the natural course of things, have been able to comprehend them. I have many things to say to you, said our Saviour, but you cannot bear them now. (St. John xvi.) Thus did he condescend to their weakness. (St. Chrysostom, hom. xxxi.)
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