XIV.  In another place it is also said and understood, and perhaps it is necessary that I should add it as follows to what has already been said, in order that I may impart to you also my wealth.  The Mother of the Sons of Zebedee, in an impulse of parental affection, asked a thing in ignorance of the measure of what she was asking,23    Matt. xx. 20, etc. but pardonably, through the excess of her love and of the kindness due to her children.  For there is nothing more affectionate than a Mother,—and I speak of this that I may lay down a law for honouring Mothers.  Their mother, then, asked Jesus that they might sit, the one on His right hand, the other on his left.  But what saith the Saviour?  He first asks if they can drink the Cup Which He Himself was about to drink; and when this was professed, and the Saviour accepted the profession (for He knew that they were being perfected by the same, or rather that they would be perfected thereby); what saith He?  “They shall drink the cup; but to sit on My right hand and on My left—it is not Mine, He saith, to give this, but to whom it hath been given.”  Is then the ruling mind nothing?  Nothing the labour?  Nothing the reasoning?  Nothing the philosophy?  Nothing the fasting?  Nothing the vigils, the sleeping on the ground, the shedding floods of tears?  Is it for nothing of these, but in accordance with some election by lot, that a Jeremias is sanctified, and others are estranged from the womb?

ΙΔʹ. Καὶ τοῦτο ἀλλαχοῦ λεγόμενον, καὶ νοούμενον, καὶ ἴσως ἀναγκαῖον προσθεῖναι καὶ τὸ ἐπελθὸν τοῖς εἰρημένοις, ἵνα τὸν ἐμὸν πλοῦτον καὶ ὑμῖν χαρίσωμαι. Ἤ|τησεν ἡ μήτηρ τῶν υἱῶν Ζεβεδαίου φιλότεκνόν τι παθοῦσα, καὶ τὸ μέτρον ἀγνοοῦσα τῶν αἰτουμένων, πλὴν συγγνωστὴ δι' ὑπερβολὴν φίλτρου, καὶ ὀφειλομένην εὔνοιαν τέκνοις. Οὐδὲν γὰρ μητρὸς εὐσπλαγχνότερον: καὶ τοῦτο λέγω, ἵνα τιμᾶσθαι νομοθετήσω τὰς μητέρας. Ἤ|τησεν οὖν τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἡ μήτηρ ἐκείνων, ἕνα ἐκ δεξιῶν καθίσαι, καὶ ἕνα ἐξ ἀριστερῶν. Ἀλλὰ τί ὁ Σωτήρ; Ἐρωτᾷ τὸ πρῶτον, εἰ τὸ ποτήριον δύνανται πιεῖν, ὃ αὐτὸς πίνειν ἤμελλεν. Ὡς δὲ καὶ τοῦτο ὡμολογήθη, καὶ ὁ Σωτὴρ ἐδέξατο (ᾔδει γὰρ κἀκείνους τῷ αὐτῷ τελειουμένους, μᾶλλον δὲ, τελεωθήσεσθαι μέλλοντας), τί φησι; Τὸ μὲν ποτήριον πίονται, τὸ δὲ καθίσαι ἐκ δεξιῶν μου καὶ ἐξ ἀριστερῶν, οὐκ ἔστιν ἐμὸν, φησὶ, τοῦτο δοῦναι, ἀλλ' οἷς δέδοται. Οὐδὲν οὖν ὁ ἡγεμὼν νοῦς; οὐδὲν ὁ πόνος; οὐδὲν ὁ λόγος; οὐδὲν ἡ φιλοσοφία; οὐδὲν τὸ νηστεῦσαι; οὐδὲν τὸ ἀγρυπνῆσαι; τὸ χαμευνῆσαι; τὸ πηγὰς στάξαι δακρύων; Τούτων οὐδὲν, ἀλλὰ κατά τινα ἀποκλήρωσιν, καὶ Ἱερεμίας ἁγιάζεται, καὶ ἄλλοι ἐκ μήτρας ἀλλοτριοῦνται;