Josè returned with his Bible and seated himself again at the table. Opening the book, his eyes fell upon a verse of 153 Mark’s Gospel. He stopped to read it; and then read it again. Suddenly he looked up at the waiting girl.
“What is it, Padre? What does it say?”
He hesitated. He read the verse again; then he scanned the child closely, as if he would read a mystery hidden within her bodily presence. Abruptly he turned to the book and read aloud:
“‘Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.’”
The girl drew a long breath, almost a sigh, as if a weight had been removed from her mind. “Did Jesus say that?” she asked in glad, eager tones.
“Yes––at least it is so reported here,” he answered absently.
“Well––he knew, didn’t he?”
“Knew what, child?”
“Why, Padre, he told the people to know––just know––that they already had everything––that God had given them everything good––and that if they would know it, they would see it.”
Externalization of thought? Yes; or rather, the externalization of truth. Josè fell into abstraction, his eyes glued to the page. There it stood––the words almost shouted it at him! And there it had stood for nearly two thousand years, while priest and prelate, scribe and commentator had gone over it again and again through the ages, without even guessing its true meaning––without even the remotest idea of the infinite riches it held for mankind!