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Wednesday
November 30, 2011
Feast of Saint Andrew, apostle
Romans 10:9-18 Matthew 4:18-22
Commentary for the first reading from the Aquinas Study Bible
10:9 For, if it is an inconsistency to pretend to religion outwardly, while we neglect it inwardly, it is also an inconsistency, surely, to neglect it outwardly while we pretend to it inwardly. It is wrong, surely, to believe and not to profess; wrong to put our light under a bushel. St. Paul says expressly, "If you shall confess with your mouth..." Belief is not enough; we must confess. Nor must we confess with our mouth only; but by word and by deed, by speech and by silence, by doing and by not doing, by walk and conversation, when in company and when alone, in time and in place, when we labor and when we rest, when we lie down and when we rise up, in youth and in age, in life and in death,—and, in like manner, in the world and in Church. (Cardinal John Henry Newman Sermon 21)
10:10 heart unto justice: believing gives salvation because it gives justice, which is the cause of salvation; in other words, a person is justified through the faith of his heart, that is, from being ungodly he becomes godly. (Interlinear Gloss) confession: To confess means to say what is in the heart; otherwise it is speaking but not confessing. (Glossa Ordinaria) in the mouth: that is, after faith of the heart, otherwise it is of no benefit. (Interlinear Gloss) salvation: that is, to reach eternal salvation. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
10:12 Jew and the Greek: Since you have been baptized in Christ, the rite from which you came to Christ, whether it was the Jewish or the Greek, is no ground for saying that anyone occupies a less honorable place in the faith. (St. Thomas Aquinas Com Gal 3:28)
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10:13 This is done by calling on Him through love and devout worship. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
10:14-15 how then shall they call on him: This is an objection raised by the Jews about the Gentiles, that they could not call upon God. without a preacher: Because the prophets were never sent to the Gentiles. (Pelagius) Unless they be sent: Here is an evident proof against all new teachers, who have all usurped to themselves the ministry without any lawful mission, derived by succession from the apostles, to whom Christ said, John 20:21, As my Father has sent me, I also send you. (Bishop Richard Challoner) beautiful are the feet: Meaning the apostles whose feet the Lord washed, that they are clean and fair for preaching and to run though the world, quickly filling the globe with the doctrine of Christ. (St. Jerome Com Is 52:7)
10:16 For while hearing comes from grace, there is also another grace necessary to move the heart. (Interlinear Gloss)
10:17 Faith comes by hearing: While God teaches inwardly, the preacher proclaims outwardly. by the word of God: That is, through the grace of Christ, who sends us teachers of the evangelical word. For unless something Is spoken, it cannot be heard or believed. (Glossa Ordinaria)
10:18 has gone out to all the earth: that is, the voice of the apostles whose fame has reached every land, both of Jews and of Gentiles. (St. Thomas Aquinas) |
Commentary for the Gospel Reading from the Aquinas Study Bible
4:18-19 These two had been disciples of John, and while John was still living they had approached Christ. But when they saw John arrested, they returned again to their fishing, and so Christ comes, fishing for them. (Theophylact) fishers: Had educated ones been chosen, he might have attributed the choice to the merit of their learning. (St. Augustine On Jn 8.7)
4:22 James and John are praised for leaving their parents and following our Lord, not that their father incited them to evil, but because they deemed it possible for him to find another means of livelihood, if they followed Christ. (St. Thomas Aquinas Sum Theo 2.101.4.1)
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Thursday
December 1, 2011
Isaiah 26:1-6 Matthew 7:21, 24-27
Commentary for the first reading from the Aquinas Study Bible
26:1-4 The divine Apostle recognized as a Jew not only one that is so outwardly, but also one that is so in his inward being: we know it clearly from Romans 2:28-29. Isaiah therefore teaches that the choir of godly people, seeing the destruction of their enemies, applaud God their benefactor in a hymn and he shows pious conduct to have invincibly. He also invites the heavenly gates to be opened to the people who have nourished themselves with justice, who have observed justice towards all men and the truth of divine precepts, who have acquired for themselves the peace of God to perfection and who have established themselves in their hope in Him. (Theodoret of Cyrus)
26:5-6 And therefore, in order the more to show His power, He set up the head of His Church in Rome itself, which was the head of the world, in sign of His complete victory, in order that from that city the faith might spread throughout the world; according to Is. 26:5-6: "The high city He shall lay low . . . the feet of the poor," that is, of Christ, "shall tread it down; the steps of the needy," that is, of the apostles Peter and Paul. (St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica 3.35.3.r7) This is also what the Holy Virgin said in her hymn: “He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly” (Lk 1:52). It is He also who has destroyed the arrogance of the cities which raged against the piety, the arrogance which made them contend with God, before subjecting them to the steps of the apostles and to those who have accepted their teaching. (Theodoret of Cyrus)
Commentary for the Gospel reading from the Aquinas Study Bible
7:21 Here Jesus shows that He is Lord by saying, "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord." Jesus in fact is saying that He is God. He teaches us that we derive no benefit from our faith if it is without works. "He that doeth the will of My Father." He did not mean, "that did the will of My Father on one occasion" but "that doeth the will of My Father continually until his death." (Theophylact)
7:24 Christ is the wise man who had built His house, that is, the Church, upon a rock, that is, upon the strength of the faith. (Opus Imperfectum)Upon this rock the Lord founded the Church; from this rock also the apostle Peter was allotted his name Mt 16:16-19. (St. Jerome)
7:25-27 The different elements denote the different kind of assaults, from above, beneath, and laterally assaults from all directions. They are differently explained or applied by the Church Fathers. (Bishop John McEvilly) This rain that tries to undermine the house is the Devil. The rivers are all the antichrists, who think contrary to Christ. The winds are the spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. (St. Jerome) Otherwise it could mean, rain, when it is put to denote any evil, is understood as the darkness of superstition; rumors of men are compared to winds; the flood signifies the lust of the flesh, as it were flowing over the land, and because what is brought on by prosperity is broken off by adversity. (St. Augustine)