Volume 2

224 Life of Jesus Christ
was not yet baptized. Bethsaida was full of people from
the surrounding towns and villages, along with strangers
from the other side of the lake, from the country of
Corozain and Bethsaida-Julias.
Jesus taught in the synagogue, which was not a very
large building. He spoke of the nearness of God's
Kingdom, saying in very plain words that He Himself
was the Monarch of that Kingdom, and arousing the
usual amount of wonder in His disciples and hearers. As
on the preceding days, He taught in general terms and
cured many sick who had been brought and laid outside
the synagogue. Several possessed cried after Hinl: "Jesus
of Nazareth! Prophet, King of the Jews!" He commanded
them silence, for the time had not yet come to make Him
known.
When Jesus had finished teaching and healing, He
went with His disciples to Andrew's to get something to
eat. But He did not go in-He said that He had another
kind of hunger. Taking with Him Saturnin and another of
the disciples, they went up the shores of the lake about
seven minutes' walk fron1 Andrew's. There in a lonely
hospital were some poor lepers, simpletons, and other
miserable, forlorn creatures languishing, quite forgotten
by the rest of the world; some of them were entirely
nude. No one from Bethsaida had followed Jesus for fear
of contracting impurity. The cells of these poor creatures
were built around a court. They never left them, their
food being given them through an aperture in the door.
Jesus commanded the superintendent of the hospital to
bring out the miserable patients. The disciples covered all
in need with the clothing they had brought with them.
Then Jesus instructed and consoled them, going from one
to another around the circle, and healing many by the
imposition of His sacred hands. He passed some in
silence, others He commanded to bathe or fulfill different
prescriptions. The cured sank on their knees before Him,