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Sunday Bible Readings August 28 2011 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Thursday, August 25th, 2011 at 4:53 am 
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22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Official Readings available at http://www.usccb.org/bible/

Jeremiah 20:7-9
DR Challoner

Thou hast deceived me, O Lord, and I am deceived: thou hast been stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed.[1] I am become a laughingstock all the day, all scoff at me. For I am speaking now this long time, crying out against iniquity, and I often proclaim devastation: and the word of the Lord is made a reproach to me, and a derision all the day.[2] Then I said: I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name: and there came in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I was wearied, not being able to bear it.[3]

Responsorial Psalm 62:2-6, 8-9 (Ps 63 NAB/Hebrew)
DR Challoner Text Only

O God, my God, to thee do I watch at break of day.
For thee my soul hath thirsted;
for thee my flesh, O how many ways!
In a desert land, and where there is no way, and no water:
so in the sanctuary have I come before thee,
to see thy power and thy glory.
For thy mercy is better than lives:
thee my lips will praise.
Thus will I bless thee all my life long:
and in thy name I will lift up my hands.
Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness:
and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.
If I have remembered thee upon my bed,
I will meditate on thee in the morning:
Because thou hast been my helper.
And I will rejoice under the cover of thy wings:
My soul hath stuck close to thee:
thy right hand hath received me.

The Epistle of St. Paul, The Apostle, to the Romans 12:1-2
Haydock New Testament

I BESEECH[4] you, therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,[5] holy, pleasing to God, your reasonable service.[6] And be not conformed to this world: but be reformed in the newness of your mind: that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God.[7]

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Matthew 16:21-27
Haydock New Testament

Get Thee Behind Me, Satan

From that time forth Jesus began to shew to his disciples, that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients and the Scribes, and the chief priests, and be put to death, and the third day rise again.[8] And Peter taking him, began to rebuke him, saying:

Lord, be it far from thee; this shall not be unto thee.[9]

But he turning, said to Peter:

Go after me, Satan,[10] thou art a scandal unto me: because thou dost not relish the things that are of God, but the things that are of men.[11]

Then Jesus said to his disciples:

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.[12] For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it.[13] For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?[14] Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels:[15] and then will he render to ever man according to his works.

 

 

Footnotes    (↵ returns to text)
  1. Thou hast deceived, &c.  The meaning of the prophet is not to charge God with any untruth; but what he calls deceiving, was only the concealing from him, when he accepted of the prophetical commission, the greatness of the evils which the execution of that commission was to bring upon him.  Ch. — Heb. “thou hast enticed me,” when I declined the office.  T. — God never promised that he should suffer no persecution.  H. — Jeremias might also have supposed that he was to be sent to the Gentiles.  C. i. 5.  S. Jer. in C. xxv. 18. — The oriental languages are much more lofty than ours, and express common things in the strongest manner.  C. — We may perceive the different emotions of fear and joy (D.) with which the prophet was actuated, like S. Paul, and our Saviour himself.  The saints evince the weakness of man and the power of divine grace.  C. — Heb. “If thou, Lord, hast deceived me, I am,” &c.  Tournemine.↵
  2. Day.  They keep asking where are these enemies from the north, the plagues? &c.  C. — He is sorry to see the word of God despised, (Theod.) and is guilty of a venial pusillanimity, concluding that his words had no good effect.  M.↵
  3. And there, or “for,” &c.  I was grieved continually.  Sanctius. — I could not however refrain from speaking.  Acts xvii. 16. and 1 Cor. ix. 16.  Job xxxii. 18.↵
  4. With this chapter S. Paul begins his second part, in which he gives us most excellent lessons of morality, after which every Christian should aim to form his life, and thus resemble Jesus Christ and his saints.  A.↵
  5. That you present your bodies a living sacrifice.  And how must this be done? says S. Chrys. hom. xx.  Let the eye abstain from sinful looks and glances, and it is a sacrifice; the tongue from speaking ill, and it is a sacrifice, &c.↵
  6. Your reasonable service, or worship,[1] from you; nothing being more reasonable, than for men to serve God with their souls and bodies, &c.  Wi.↵
  7. Take care, lest you imitate the practices of worldlings.  Let your heart, your ambition, carry you to heaven: ever despise those things which the world admires, that every one may see by your actions that you are not of the society of worldlings, and have neither regard nor friendship for them.  Calmet. — Transform yourselves into new men, by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern on all occasions, what is most perfect, most pleasing and acceptable to God.  V.↵
  8. From that time, &c.  Now when the apostles firmly believed that Jesus was the Messias, and the true Son of God, he saw it necessary to let them know he was to die an infamous death on the cross, that they might be disposed to believe that mystery; (Wi.) and that they might not be too much exalted with the power given to them, and manifestation made to them.  A.↵
  9. Peter taking him, &c. out of a tender love, respect and zeal for his honour, began to expostulate with him, and as it were to reprehend him,[3] saying, Lord, far be it from thee, God forbid, &c.  Wi.↵
  10. Go after me, Satan.[4]  The words may signify, begone from me; but out of respect due to the expositions of the ancient fathers, who would have these words to signify come after me, or follow me, I have put, with the Rheims translation, go after me.  Satan is the same as an adversary: (Wi.) and is here applied to Peter, however, unknowingly or innocently, raised an opposition against the will of God, against the glory of Jesus, against the redemption of mankind, and against the destruction of the devil’s kingdom.  He did not understand that there was nothing more glorious than to make of one’s life a sacrifice to God.  V.↵
  11. Thou dost not, i.e. thy judgment in this particular is not conformable with that of God.  Hence our separated brethren conclude that Christ did not, in calling him the rock in the preceding verses, appoint him the solid and permanent foundation of his Church.  This conclusion, however, is not true, because, as S. Augustine and theologians affirm Peter could fall into error in points regarding morals and facts, though not in defining or deciding on points of faith.  Moreover, S. Peter was not, as S. Jerom says, appointed the pillar of the Church till after Christ’s resurrection.  T. — And it was not till the night before Christ suffered that he said to Peter: Behold, Satan hath desired to have thee; but I have prayed for thee, that “thy faith fail not,” and thou being once converted confirm thy brethren.  Luke xxii. 31.  A.↵
  12. If any man will come.  S. Chry. Euthymius, and Theophylactus, shew that free will is confirmed by these words.  Do not expect, O Peter, that since you have confessed me to be the Son of God, you are immediately to be crowned, as if this were sufficient for salvation, and that the rest of your days may be spent in idleness and pleasure.  For, although by my power, as Son of God, I would free you from every danger and trouble, yet this I will not do for your sake, that you may yourself contribute to your glory, and become the more illustrious.  S. Chry. hom. lvi.↵
  13. Whosoever will save his life.  Lit. his soul.  In the style of the Scriptures, the word soul is sometimes put for the life of the body, sometimes for the whole man.  Wi. — Whosoever acts against duty and conscience to save the life of his body, shall lose eternal life; and whoever makes the sacrifice of his life, or the comforts and conveniences of life for conscience sake, shall be rewarded with life eternal.↵
  14. And lose his own soul.  Christ seems in these words to pass from the life of the body to that of the soul.  Wi.↵
  15. Shall come in the glory.  Jesus Christ wishing to shew his disciples the greatness of his glory at his future coming, reveals to them in this life as much as it was possible for them to comprehend, purposely to strengthen them against the scandal of his ignominious death.  S. Chry.↵

Scripture Readings August 21 2011 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday, August 21st, 2011 at 2:10 am 
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21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Official Readings available at http://www.usccb.org/bible/

Isaiah 22:19-23
DR Challoner

And I will drive thee out from thy station, and depose thee from thy ministry. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliacim[1] the son of Helcias, And I will clothe him with thy robe, and will strengthen him with thy girdle,[2] and will give thy power into his hand: and he shall be as a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Juda.

And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder:[3] and he shall open, and none shall shut: and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a peg[4] in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to the house of his father.

Responsorial Psalm 137:1-3, 6, 8
DR Challoner Text Only

I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart:
for thou hast heard the words of my mouth.
I will sing praise to thee in the sight of the angels:
I will worship towards thy holy temple,
and I will give glory to thy name.
For thy mercy, and for thy truth:
for thou hast magnified thy holy name above all.
In what day soever I shall call upon thee, hear me:
thou shalt multiply strength in my soul.
For the Lord is high, and looketh on the low:
and the high he knoweth afar off.
The Lord will repay for me:
thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever:
O despise not the works of thy hands.

The Epistle of St Paul to the Romans 11:33-36
Haydock New Testament

O the depth of the riches, of the wisdom, and of the knowledge of God![5] How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor? Or who hath first given to him, and recompense shall be made him? For of him, and by him, and in him, are all things: to him be glory for ever. Amen.[6]

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Matthew 16:13-20
Haydock New Testament

And Jesus came into the parts of Cæsarea Philippi:[7] and he asked his disciples saying:

Whom do men say that the Son of man is?

But they said:

Some John the Baptist, and others Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.[8]

But Jesus saith to them:

But whom do you say that I am?[9]

Simon Peter answering said:[10]

Thou art Christ, the Son of the Living God.[11]

And Jesus answering, said to him:

Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona:[12] because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father, who is in heaven. And I say to thee:[13] That thou art Peter;[14] and upon this rock I will build my church,[15] and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.[16] And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.[17] And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven:[18] and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.[19]

Then he commanded his disciples, that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ.[20]

Footnotes    (↵ returns to text)
  1. Eliacim, who had been displaced, v. 15. He acted as regent after the departure of Manasses, who always followed his counsels at his return. Judith iv. 5. The priesthood was not then incompatible with civil and military functions.↵
  2. Girdle, the badge of power. Job xii. 18.↵
  3. Shoulder. Here the marks of dignity were worn. Eliacim was appointed master of the palace, over all the other servants. C. — Thus we may gather what power Christ conferred on S. Peter, when he gave him the keys of heaven. Mat. xvi. 19. Apoc. iii. 7. H.↵
  4. Peg, on which whatever is placed shall be secure. 1 Esd. ix. 8.↵
  5. O the depth, &c. After he hath spoken of the mysteries of God’s grace and predestination, of his mercy and justice, which we must not pretend to dive into, he concludes this part of his epistle, by an exclamation, to teach us submission of our judgment, as to the secrets of his providence, which we cannot comprehend.↵
  6. How incomprehensible are his judgments, &c. — Who hath first given to him, and recompense shall be made him? That is, no one, by any merit on his part, can first deserve God’s favours and mercy, by which he prevents us. — For of him, from God, or from Jesus Christ, as God, and by him, who made, preserves, and governs all things, and in him, is our continual dependance: for in him we live, we move, and exist. In the Greek, it is unto him,[3] to signify he is also our last end. See the notes, John c. i. Wi. — All things are from God, as their first cause and creator; all things are by God, as the ruler and governor of the universe; and all things are in God, or (as the Greek has it) for God, because they are all directed to his honour and glory. For the hath made all things for himself. Ps. xvi. S. Basil, lib. de Spiritu sto. c. 5.↵
  7. Cæarea Philippi, was first called Paneades, and was afterwards embellished and greatly enlarged by Philip the tetrarch, son of Herod the great, and dedicated in honour of Augustus, hence its name. There was moreover another Cæsarea, called Straton, situated on the Mediterranean: and not in this, but in the former, did Christ interrogate his disciples. He first withdrew them from the Jews, that they might with more boldness and freedom deliver their sentiments. S. Chry. hom. lv. — The Cæsarea here mentioned continued to be called by heathen writers Panea, from the adjoining spring Paneum, or Panium, which is usually taken for the source of the Jordan.↵
  8. Some say, &c. Herod thought that Christ was the Baptist, on account of his prodigies. S. Mat. xiv. 2. Others that he was Elias: 1st. because they expected he was about to return to them, according to the prophecy of Malachias; behold I will send you Elias; 2d. on account of the greatness of his miracles; 3d. on account of his invincible zeal and courage in the cause of truth and justice. Others again said he was Jeremias, either on account of his great sanctity, for he was sanctified in his mother’s womb; or, on account of his great charity and love for his brethren, as it was written of Jeremias: he is a lover of his brethren. Or, again, one of the prophets, viz. Isaias, or some other noted for eloquence; for it was the opinion of many of the Jews, as we read in S. Luke, that one of the ancient prophets had arisen again. Dion. Carth.↵
  9. Whom do you say that I am? You, who have been continually with me; you, who have seen me perform so many more miracles; you, who have yourselves worked miracles in my name? From this pointed interrogation, Jesus Christ intimates, that the opinion men had formed of him was very inadequate to the exalted dignity of his person, and that he expects they will have a juster conception of him. Chry. hom. lv.↵
  10. Simon Peter answering. As Simon Peter had been constituted the first in the college of apostles, (Matt. x. 2.) and therefore surpasseth the others in dignity as much as in zeal, without hesitation, and in the name of all, he answers: thou art the Christ, the Redeemer promised to the world, not a mere man, not a mere prophet like other prophets, but the true and natural Son of the living God. Thus SS. Chrys. Cyril, Ambrose, Austin, and Tirinus. When our Saviour inquired the opinion of him, Peter, as the mouth of the rest, and head of the whole college, steps forth, and prevents the others. Chrys. hom. lv.↵
  11. Tu es Christus, filius Dei vivi; or, as it is in the Greek, ο χριστος, ο υιος; The Christ, the Son, the Christ formerly promised by the law and the prophets, expected and desired by all the saints, the anointed and consecrated to God: ο υιοσ, the Son, not by grace only, or an adoptive filiation like prophets, to whom Christ is here opposed, but by natural filiation, and in a manner that distinguishes him from all created beings. — Thou art[1] Christ, the Son of the living God, not by grace only, or by adoption, as saints are the sons of God, but by nature, and from all eternity, the true Son of the living God. Wi.↵
  12. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona. Σιμον is undoubtedly Συμεων, as written 2 Pet. i. 1. Βαριωνα is son of Jona, or John, an abridgment for Βαριωαννα. Bar, in Chaldaic, is son; hence S. Peter is called, in John xi, 16. and 17, Simon, son of John. It was customary with the Jews to add to a rather common name, for the sake of discrimination, a πατρωνυμικον, or patronymic, as appears from Matt. x. 3. and xxiii. 35. Mark ii. 14. John vi. 42. P.↵
  13. Κἀγὼ. And I say to thee, and tell thee why I before declared, (John i. 42.) that thou shouldst be called Peter, for thou art constituted the rock upon which, as a foundation, I will build my Church, and that so firmly, as not to suffer the gates (i.e. the powers) of hell to prevail against its foundation; because if they overturn its foundation, (i.e. thee and thy successors) they will overturn also the Church that rests upon it. Christ therefore here promises to Peter, that he and his successors should be to the end, as long as the Church should last, its supreme pastors and princes. T. — In the Syriac tongue, which is that which Jesus Christ spoke, there is no difference of genders, as there is in Latin, between patra, a rock, and Petrus, Peter; hence, in the original language, the allusion was both more natural and more simple. V.↵
  14. Thou art Peter;[2] and upon this (i.e. upon thee, according to the literal and general exposition of the ancient Fathers) I will build my church. It is true S. Augustine, in one or two places, thus expounds these words, and upon this rock, (i.e. upon myself:) or upon this rock, which Peter hath confessed: yet he owns that he had also given the other interpretation, by which Peter himself was the rock. Some Fathers have also expounded it, upon this faith, which Peter confessed; but then they take not faith, as separated from the person of Peter, but on Peter, as holding the true faith. No one questions but that Christ himself is the great foundation-stone, the chief corner-stone, as S. Paul tells the Ephesians; (C. ii, v. 20.) but it is also certain, that all the apostles may be called foundation-stones of the Church, as represented Apoc. xxi. 14. In the mean time, S. Peter (called therefore Cephas, a rock) was the first and chief foundation-stone among the apostles, on whom Christ promised to build his Church. Wi. — Thou art Peter, &c. As S. Peter, by divine revelation, here made a solemn profession of his faith of the divinity of Christ, so in recompense of this faith and profession, our Lord here declares to him the dignity to which he is pleased to raise him: viz. that he, to whom he had already given the name of Peter, signifying a rock, (John i. 42.) should be a rock indeed, of invincible strength, for the support of the building of the church; in which building he should be next to Christ himself, the chief foundation-stone, in quality of chief pastor, ruler, and governor; and should have accordingly all fulness of ecclesiastical power, signified by the keys of the kingdom of heaven.↵
  15. Upon this rock, &c. The words of Christ to Peter, spoken in the vulgar language of the Jews, which our Lord made use of, were the same as if he had said in English, Thou art a rock, and upon this rock I will build my church. So that, by the plain course of the words, Peter is here declared to be the rock, upon which the church was to be built; Christ himself being both the principal foundation and founder of the same. Where also note, that Christ by building his house, that is, his Church, upon a rock, has thereby secured it against all storms and floods, like the wise builder. Matt. vii. 24, 25.↵
  16. The gates of hell, &c. That is, the powers of darkness, and whatever Satan can do, either by himself or his agents. For as the Church is here likened to a house, or fortress, the gates of which, i.e. the whole strength, and all the efforts it can make, will never be able to prevail over the city or Church of Christ. By this promise we are fully assured, that neither idolatry, heresy, nor any pernicious error whatsoever shall at any time prevail over the Church of Christ. Ch. — The gates, in the Oriental style, signify the powers; thus, to this day, we designate the Ottoman or Turkish empire by the Ottoman port. The princes were wont to hold their courts at the gates of the city. V.↵
  17. And I will give to thee the keys, &c. This is another metaphor, expressing the supreme power and prerogative of the prince of the apostles. The keys of a city, or of its gates, are presented or given to the person that hath the chief power. We also own a power of the keys, given to the other apostles, but with a subordination to S. Peter and to his successor, as head of the Catholic Church.↵
  18. And whatsoever thou shalt bind, &c. All the apostles, and their successors, partake also of this power of binding and loosing, but with a due subordination to one head invested with the supreme power. Wi.↵
  19. Loose on earth. The loosing the bands of temporal punishments due to sins, is called an indulgence: the power of which is here granted. Ch. — Although Peter and his successors are mortal, they are nevertheless endowed with heavenly power, says S. Chry. nor is the sentence of life and death passed by Peter to be attempted to be reversed, but what he declares is to be considered a divine answer from heaven, and what he decrees, a decree of God himself. He that heareth you, heareth me, &c. The power of binding is exercised, 1st. by refusing to absolve; 2d. by enjoining penance for sins forgiven; 3d. by excommunication, suspension or interdict; 4th. by making rules and laws for the government of the Church; 5th. by determining what is of faith by the judgments and definitions of the Church. T. — The terms binding and loosing, are equivalent to opening and shutting, because formerly the Jews opened the fastenings of their doors by untying it, and they shut or secured their doors by tying or binding it. V. — Dr. Whitby, a learned Protestant divine, thus expounds this and the preceding verse: “As a suitable return to thy confession, I say also to thee, that thou art by name Peter, i.e. a rock; and upon thee, who art this rock, I will build my making laws to govern my Church.” (Tom. i, p. 143.) Dr. Hammond, another Protestant divine, explains it in the same manner. And p. 92, he says: ” What is here meant by the keys, is best understand by Isaias xxii. 22, where they signified ruling the whole family or house of the king: and this being by Christ accommodated to the Church, denotes the power of governing it.”↵
  20. Tell no one that he was Jesus, the Christ. In some MSS. both Greek and Latin, the name Jesus is not here found, and many interpreters think it superfluous in this place. The Greek expressly says the Christ adjoining the article, which the Latin tongue does not express. V. — “In a preceding part of Scripture, Jesus sending his apostles, commanded them to publish his coming; but here he seems to give a contrary mandate, tell no one, &c. but in my opinion it is one thing to preach the Christ, and another to preach Christ Jesus; for Christ is a name of dignity, but Jesus is the particular name of the Redeemer.” S. Jer. — He did not forbid them to teach that there was a Messias a Redeemer, but to declare then that he was the person; 2d. the disciples (Matt. x,) are not sent to preach the gospel, strictly speaking, but only to prepare the minds and hearts of the people for the coming of the Messias, as is evident from Mat. x. 23. See Mark xiv. 61. and 62. John v. 18. and viii. 58. and x. 30. and xi. 27. But why did he lay this injunction? To avoid the envy of the Scribes, and not to appear to raise his own glory. He wished the people to be induced to own him for their Messias, not from the testimony of his retainers, but from his miracles and doctrines; and lastly, because as his time was not yet come, the apostles were not yet fit to deliver, nor the people to receive, this grand tenet. Mat. Polus. — It might moreover have proved a hinderance to his death.↵

Daily Bible Readings Saturday August 20 2011 20th Week in Ordinary Time – Feast of St Bernard – Abbot and Doctor of the Church

Saturday, August 20th, 2011 at 1:06 am 
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Saturday 20th Week in Ordinary Time Cycle I
Official Readings available at http://www.usccb.org/bible/

Ruth 2:1-3, 8-11; 4:13-17
Douay-Rheims Challoner

Now her husband Elimelech had a kinsman, a powerful man, and very rich, whose name was Booz (Boaz)[1]. And Ruth, the Moabitess, said to her mother in law:

If thou wilt, I will go into the field, and glean the ears of corn that escape the hands of the reapers, wheresoever I shall find grace with a householder, that will be favourable to me.[2]

And she answered her:

Go, my daughter.

She went, therefore, and gleaned the ears of corn after the reapers. And it happened that the owner of that field was Booz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech. And Booz said to Ruth:

Ruth in the Field with Boaz - Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

Hear me, daughter, do not go to glean in any other field, and do not depart from this place: but keep with my maids, And follow where they reap. For I have charged my young men, not to molest thee:[3] and if thou art thirsty, go to the vessels, and drink of the waters whereof the servants drink.[4]

She fell on her face, and worshipping upon the ground, said to him:

Whence cometh this to me, that I should find grace before thy eyes, and that thou shouldst vouchsafe to take notice of me, a woman of another country?[5]

And he answered her:

All hath been told me, that thou hast done to thy mother in law after the death of thy husband: and how thou hast left thy parents, and the land wherein thou wast born, and art come to a people which thou knewest not heretofore.[6]

Booz therefore took Ruth, and married her: and went in unto her, and the Lord gave her to conceive, and to bear a son. And the women said to Noemi (Naomi):

Blessed be the Lord, who hath not suffered thy family to want a successor:[7] that his name should be preserved in Israel. And thou shouldst have one to comfort thy soul,[8] and cherish thy old age. For he is born of thy daughter in law: who loveth thee: and is much better to thee, than if thou hadst seven sons.

And Noemi taking the child, laid it in her bosom, and she carried it, and was a nurse unto it. And the women, her neighbours, congratulating with her, and saying,

There is a son born to Noemi, called his name Obed:[9]

He is the father of Isai (Jesse), the father of David.

Psalm 127:1b-5 (Ps 128 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

Blessed are all they that fear the Lord: that walk in his ways.
For thou shalt eat the labours of thy hands:
blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee.
Thy wife as a fruitful vine, on the sides of thy house.
Thy children as olive plants, round about thy table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.
May the Lord bless thee out of Sion:
and mayst thou see the good things of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Matthew 23:1-12
Haydock New Testament

Then Jesus spoke to the multitude and to his disciples,[10] Saying:

The Scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses.[11] All therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not: for they say and do not.[12] For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens: and lay them on men’s shoulders: but with a finger of their own they will not move them.[13] And all their works they do to be seen by men: For they make their phylacteries[14] broad and enlarge their fringes. And they love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues, And salutations in the market-place, and to be called by men, Rabbi.[15]

But be not you called Rabbi.  For one is your master,[16] and all you are brethren. And call none your father upon earth: for one is your Father, who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, Christ.[17] He that is the greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself, shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself, shall be exalted.

Haydock Commentary Ruth 2:1-3, 8-11; 4:13-17
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

Footnotes    (↵ returns to text)
  1. Booz.  The Scripture does not specify how nearly they were related.  R. Josue says Elimelech, Salmon, and Tob (C. iii. 13,) were brothers, and Booz was the son of Salmon, which cannot be refuted, (Serar. q. 1.  M.) though the authority and proofs be very weak.  It is not, however, more probable that Booz was the brother of Elimelech.  Some think that he was not the immediate son of Salmon, as four persons seem too few to fill up the space of 366 years, from the marriage of Rahab till the birth of David.  But this is not impossible.  C.  See C. iv. 20.↵
  2. To me.  It was the privilege of the poor and of strangers to glean.  Deut. xxiv. 19.  Lev. xix. 9.  Yet Ruth asks leave, through civility.  C. — This law is no longer in force, but it would be inhuman for the rich to deny this liberty to those who are in distress, and willing rather to work than to beg.  T.↵
  3. Thee.  The men tied the corn after the female reapers, (C.) and Ruth was authorized to follow, close at their heels, without fear.  H.↵
  4. The waters.  This is not expressed in Heb. but it is in the Sept. and the Chal.  C. — The privilege of having water in those countries was very considerable.  M.↵
  5. Country.  S. Elizabeth was impressed with similar sentiments, when she was visited by the blessed Virgin; (H.) and so was David, when he considered the wonderful condescension of God.  Ps. viii. 5. cxliii. 3.  Job vii. 17.  C. — Frequent instances occur in Scripture of people worshipping, or shewing their gratitude to their fellow creatures, by this posture of the body.  M. — Yet no suspicion of idolatry attaches to them.  Gen. xxiii. 7. &c.  H.↵
  6. Heretofore, to embrace the same religion.  M.↵
  7. Successor.  Heb. “redeemer, that his (Booz, or the Lord’s) name,” &c.  C.↵
  8. Comfort.  Heb. “to make thy soul revive.”↵
  9. Obed; “serving,” to comfort the old age of Noemi, (v. 15,) who gave him this’ name.  (Serar. q. 14,) at the suggestion of her neighbours.  M.↵
  10. Then Jesus, &c.  Jesus thus spoke to the multitude a few days previous to his passion.  It is here observable that our Saviour, after he had tried all possible remedies, after he had taught and confirmed his doctrines by innumerable miracles, after he had secretly by his parables reprehended them for their wickedness, but without effect, now publicly upbraids their vices.  But before his reprehension of the Pharisees, he instructs the people, lest they should despise the authority of the priesthood.  Salmeron.↵
  11. The Scribes.  They, who professed the greatest zeal for the law of Moses, and gloried in being the interpreters of it, sat upon the chair of Moses, succeeded to his authority of governing the people of God, of instructing them in his law, and of disclosing to them his will.  Such, therefore, as did not depart from the letter of the law, were called Scribes.  But such as professed something higher, and separated themselves from the crowd, as better than the ordinary class of men, were called Pharisees, which signifies, separated.  Origen. — God preserveth the truth of the Christian religion in the apostolic See of Rome, which in the new law answers to the chair of Moses, notwithstanding the disedifying conduct of some few of its bishops.  Yes, though a traitor, as vile as Judas himself, were a bishop thereof, it would not be prejudicial to the integrity of the faith of God’s Church, or to the ready obedience and perfect submission of sincere good Christians, for whom our Lord has made this provision, when he says: do that which they say, but do not as they do.  S. Aug. Ep. clxv.↵
  12. All therefore whatsoever they shall say.  S. Augustine, in his defence of the Apostolic See, thus argues, contra lit. Petil. “Why dost thou call the apostolic chair the chair of pestilence?  If, for the men that sit therein, I ask: did our Lord Jesus Christ, on account of the Pharisees, reflect upon the chair, wherein they sat?  Did he not commend that chair of Moses, and, preserving the honour of the chair, reprove them?  For he sayeth: they have sat on the chair of Moses.  All therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do.  These points if you did well consider, you would not, for the men whom you defame, blaspheme the Apostolic See, wherewith you do not hold communion.”  l. ii. c. 51.  And again, c. 61.  Ibid.  “Neither on account of the Pharisees, to whom you maliciously compare us, did our Lord command the chair of Moses to be forsaken; (in which chair he verily figured his own) for he warned the people to do what they say, and not what they do, and that the holiness of the chair be in no case forsaken, nor the unity of the flock divided, on account of the wicked lives of the pastors.” — Christ does not tell them to observe every thing, without exception, that the Pharisees should say to them; for, (as it was observed in a previous chapter) many superstitions and false ordinances had obtained amongst them, corrupting the Scriptures by their traditions; but only such as were not contrary to the law of Moses.  We are taught to obey bad no less than good ministers, in those things that are not expressly contrary to the law of God.  Hence appears how unfounded and unreasonable is the excuse so often adduced by persons in justification of their misdeeds, viz. that they saw their pastors do the same.  Such must attend to the rule here given by Jesus Christ.  What they say, do: but according to their works, do ye not.  Dion. Carthus. — The words, all whatsoever, shew that nothing must be excepted, but what the supreme law orders to be excepted.  E.↵
  13. Heavy and insupportable burdens.  Some understand in general the ceremonies of the law of Moses; but Christ seems rather here to mean the vain customs, traditions, and additions, introduced by the Jewish doctors, and by their Scribes and Pharisees.  Wi. — They thus greatly increase the burden of others, by multiplying their obligations; whilst they will not offer themselves the least violence in observing them, or alleviating the burden, by taking any share upon their own shoulders.↵
  14. Phylacteries.[1]  These were pieces or scrolls of parchment, on which were written the ten commandments, or some sentences of the law, which the Jews were accustomed to fasten to their foreheads, or their arms, to put them in mind of their duty.  Thus they interpreted those words.  Deut. vi. 8.  Thou shalt tie them as a sign on thy hand: and they shall be, and move before thy eyes.  Perhaps all the Jews, and even our Saviour himself, wore them; and that he only blames the hypocrisy and vanity of the Scribes and Pharisees, who affected to have them larger than others; and they did the like as to the fringes which the Jews wore on their garments.  Wi. — That is, parchments, on which they wrote the ten commandments, and carried on their foreheads before their eyes: which the Pharisees affected to wear broader than other men: so to seem more zealous for the law.  Ch. — The word Phylacterion, which is found both in the Greek and Latin Vulgate, properly signifies a preservation.  It was a piece of parchment which the Jews carried round their heads from one ear to the other, and round their arms like bracelets, and upon which were written certain words of the law.  Since the origin of the sect of Pharisees, they began to attach to these bands of parchment chimerical virtues, such as preservatives of maladies, and preservations from the insults of devils; hence the name phylacterion.  V.↵
  15. Rabbi.  A title like that of master or doctor.  Judas gave it to our Saviour.  Matt. xxvi. 49.  And the disciples of S. John the Baptist call him so.  John iii. 26. — Christ blames their pride, and vanity in affecting such titles, rather than the titles themselves.  Wi. — Διδασκαλος (Didaskalos), properly a preceptor, as John iii. 10.  Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?  V.↵
  16. One is your master, or teacher, who is the Christ, and under him one vicar, the successor of S. Peter, with whom all Catholic teachers are one, because they all teach one and the same doctrine in every part of the Christian world; whereas in the multiplicity of modern sects, which are every day dividing and subdividing into fresh sects, no two leaders can be found teaching in all points exactly the same tenets; as each is not only allowed, but expected to follow his own private spirit, and to build his creed upon his own interpretation of Scripture.  A.↵
  17. Call none your father . . . Neither be ye called masters, &c.  The meaning is, that our Father in heaven is incomparably more to be regarded, than any father upon earth: and no master is to be followed, who would lead us away from Christ.  But this does not hinder but that we are by the law of God to have a due respect both for our parents and spiritual fathers, (1 Cor. iv. 15,) and for our masters and teachers.  Ch. — This name was a title of dignity: the presidents of the assembly of twenty-three judges where so called; the second judge of the sanhedrim, &c.  V. — Nothing is here forbidden but the contentious divisions, and self-assumed authority, of such as make themselves leaders and favourers of schisms and sects; as Donatus, Arius, Luther, Calvin, and innumerable other of very modern date.  But by no means the title of father, attributed by the faith, piety, and confidence of good people, to their directors; for, S. Paul tells the Corinthians, that he is their only spiritual Father: If you have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet not many Fathers.  1 Cor. iv. 15.↵

Daily Bible Readings Friday August 19 2011 20th Week in Ordinary Time

Friday, August 19th, 2011 at 12:01 am 
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Friday 20th Week in Ordinary Time Cycle I
Official Readings available at http://www.usccb.org/bible/

Ruth 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22
Douay-Rheims Challoner

In the days of the judges, when the judges ruled, there came a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem Juda, went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons.[1] And Elimelech the husband of Noemi died: and she remained with her sons. And they took wives of the women of Moab, of which one was called Orpha, and the other Ruth.[2] And they dwelt their ten years, And they both died, to wit, Mahalon and Chelion: and the woman was left alone, having lost both her sons and her husband. And she arose to go from the land of Moab to her own country, with both her daughters in law: for she had heard that the Lord had looked upon his people, and had given them food.

Orpha kissed her mother in law, and returned:[3] Ruth stuck close to her mother in law. And Noemi said to her:

Behold thy kinswoman is returned to her people, and to her gods, go thou with her.[4]

She answered:

Be not against me, to desire that I should leave thee and depart: for whithersoever thou shalt go, I will go: and where thou shalt dwell, I also will dwell. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.

So Noemi came with Ruth, the Moabitess, her daughter in law, from the land of her sojournment: and returned into Bethlehem, in the beginning of the barley harvest.[5]

Psalm 145:5-10 (Ps 146 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

Blessed is he who hath the God of Jacob for his helper,
whose hope is in the Lord his God:
Who made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all things that are in them.
Who keepeth truth for ever:
who executeth judgment for them that suffer wrong:
who giveth food to the hungry.
The Lord looseth them that are fettered:
The Lord enlighteneth the blind.
The Lord lifteth up them that are cast down:
the Lord loveth the just.
The Lord keepeth the strangers,
he will support the fatherless and the widow:
and the ways of sinners he will destroy.
The Lord shall reign for ever:
thy God, O Sion, unto generation and generation.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Matthew 22:34-40
Haydock New Testament

And the Pharisees hearing that he had silenced the Sadducees, came together: And one of them, a doctor of the law, asked him, tempting him:[6]

Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law?

Jesus said to him:

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.[7]

The Pharisees and the Saduccees Come to Tempt Jesus - Tissot

 

Footnotes    (↵ returns to text)
  1. Of one.  Heb. “And it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled.”  H. — The and shews the connection with the former book.  C. — Land.  Chal. adds, “of Israel,” (M.) while the less fertile country of Moab had abundance.  God thus punished the idolatry of his people.  Some say the famine lasted ten years; but this is uncertain, though Noemi continued so long out of the country, v. 4.  Salien.↵
  2. Ruth was the wife of Mahalon; (C. iv. 10,) and signifies one “well watered, (M.) or inebriated,” &c.  H. — The sons of Noemi were excused by necessity in marrying idolaters, though they ought to have done their best to convert them.  The Chaldee greatly condemns their marriage, and thinks that their death was in punishment of their prevarication.  Deut. vii. 3. and xx. 11.  C. — Salien is of the same opinion.  So various have always been the sentiments of people on this head!  H.  See Serarius, q. 11.↵
  3. And returned, is not expressed in Heb.  But the Sept. have, “and she returned to her people.”  H..↵
  4. To her gods, &c.  Noemi did not mean to persuade Ruth to return to the false gods she had formerly worshipped; but by this manner of speech, insinuated to her, that if she would go with her, she must renounce her false gods, and turn to the Lord, the God of Israel.  Ch. — She wished to try her constancy.  Salien. — Most infer from this passage, that Orpha was never converted, or that she relapsed. — Her gods, may indeed be rendered in the singular, “god.”  But what god was peculiar to her and the Moabites, but Chamos!  C. — Noemi might well fear that Orpha would give way to the superstition of her countrymen, to which she had been addicted, even though she might have made profession of serving the true God, while she lived with her.  H.↵
  5. Harvest.  About the month of Nisan, or our March (C.) and April.  M.↵
  6. The Pharisees heard that he had silenced their adversaries, the Sadducees, &c.  Some of them, says S. Luke, (xx. 39.) applauded him, saying, Master, thou hast said well.  Wi. — The Pharisees assembled themselves together, that they might confound him by their numbers, whom they could not by their arguments.  Wherefore they said one to another: let one speak for all, and all speak by one, that if one be reduced to silence, he alone may appear to be refuted; and, if he is victorious, we may all appear conquerors.  Hence it is said, And one of them, a doctor of the law, (S. Chrysostom) asked him, tempting him, if he were really possessed of that wisdom and that knowledge which people so much admired in him.  V.↵
  7. On these two, &c.  Whereby it is evident that all dependeth not upon faith only, though faith be the first, but much more upon charity, which is the love of God and of our neighbour, and which is the sum of all the law and the prophets; because he that hath this double charity, expressed here by these two principal commandments, fulfilleth all that is commanded in the law and the prophets.  B.↵

Daily Scripture Readings Thursday August 18 2011 20th Week in Ordinary Time Cycle I

Thursday, August 18th, 2011 at 12:01 am 
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Thursday 20th Week in Ordinary Time Cycle I
Official Readings available at http://www.usccb.org/bible/

Judges 11:29-39a
Douay-Rheims Challoner

Jephthah's Daughter - Tissot

Therefore[1] the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephte, and going round Galaad, and Manasses, and Maspha of Galaad,[2] and passing over from thence to the children of Ammon, He made a vow to the Lord,[3] saying:

If thou wilt deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, Whosoever shall first come forth out of the doors of my house, and shall meet me, when I return in peace[4] from the children of Ammon, the same will I offer a holocaust to the Lord.

And Jephte passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them: and the Lord delivered them into his hands. And he smote them from Aroer[5] till you come to Mennith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel, which is set with vineyards,[6] with a very great slaughter: and the children of Ammon were humbled by the children of Israel. And when Jephte returned into Maspha, to his house, his only daughter[7] met him with timbrels and with dances:[8] for he had no other children. And when he saw her, he rent his garments, and said:

Alas![9] my daughter, thou hast deceived me, and thou thyself art deceived: for I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I can do no other thing.[10]

And she answered him:

My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth to the Lord, do unto me whatsoever thou hast promised, since the victory hath been granted to thee, and revenge of thy enemies.

And she said to her father:

Grant me only this, which I desire: Let me go, that I may go about the mountains for two months, and may bewail my virginity[11] with my companions.

And he answered her:

Go.

And he sent her away for two months. And when she was gone with her comrades and companions, she mourned her virginity in the mountains.[12] And the two months being expired, she returned to her father,[13] and he did to her as he had vowed, and she knew no man.[14]

Psalm 39:5, 7-10 (Ps 40 NAB)
DR Challoner

Blessed is the man whose trust is in the name of the Lord;
and who hath not had regard to vanities, and lying follies.
Sacrifice and oblation thou didst not desire;
but thou hast pierced ears for me.
Burnt offering and sin offering thou didst not require:
Then said I, Behold I come.
In the head of the book it is written of me
That I should do thy will: O my God,
I have desired it, and thy law in the midst of my heart.
I have declared thy justice in a great church,
lo, I will not restrain my lips: O Lord, thou knowest it.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Matthew 22:1-14
Haydock New Testament

And Jesus answering,[15] spoke to them again in parables, saying:

The kingdom of heaven is like to a man being a king, who made a marriage for his son.[16] And he sent his servants,[17] to call them that were invited to the marriage; and they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying:

Tell them that were invited: Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my beeves and fatlings are killed,[18] and all things are ready: come ye to the wedding.

But they neglected, and went their ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise.[19] And the rest laid hands on his servants, and having treated them contumeliously, put them to death.[20] But when the king heard of it, he was angry, and sending his armies, he destroyed those murderers, and burnt their city.[21] Then he saith to his servants:

The wedding indeed is ready; but they that were invited, were not worthy.[22] Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as you shall find, invite to the wedding.[23]

And his servants going out into the highways, gathered together all that they found, both bad and good:[24] and the wedding was filled with guests. And the king went in to see the guests: and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding-garment.[25] And he saith to him:

Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding-garment?[26]

But he was silent. Then the king said to the waiters:

Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

For many are called, but few are chosen.

 

 

Footnotes    (↵ returns to text)
  1. Therefore.  Heb. “then.”  Sept. “and.”  The refusal of the king of Ammon was not precisely the reason why God endued Jephte with shuch wisdom and courage, though we may say that it was the occasion.  H.↵
  2. Jephte summoned the troops in Galaad, and in the two tribes of Manasses, to attend his standard.  He also invited Ephraim, (C. xii. 2.  C.) and we may reasonably suppose the other tribes also, who were near enough to be ready for  the day of battle.  Having collected what force he could in so short a time, he returned to Maspha, and thence proceeded to attack the enemy.  H.↵
  3. He.  Heb. and Sept. “And he vowed.”  A new sentence commences; (Cajet.) so that it is not clear that Jephte was moved to make this vow by the spirit of the Lord; else it could not be blamed.  H.↵
  4. Whosoever, &c.  Some are of opinion, that the meaning of this vow of Jephte, was to consecrate to God whatsoever should first meet him, according to the condition of the thing; so as to offer it up as a holocaust, if it were such a thing as might be so offered by the law; or to devote it otherwise to God, if it were not such as the law allowed to be offered in sacrifice.  And therefore they think the daughter of Jephte was not slain by her father, but only consecrated to perpetual virginity.  But the common opinion followed by the generality of the holy fathers and divines is, that she was offered as a holocaust, in consequence of her father’s vow: and that Jephte did not sin, at least not mortally, neither in making nor in keeping his vow; since he is no ways blamed for it in scripture; and was even inspired by God himself to make the vow, (as appears from ver. 29, 30.) in consequence of which he obtained the victory; and therefore he reasonably concluded that God, who is the master of life and death, was pleased, on this occasion, to dispense with his own law; and that it was the divine will he should fulfil his vow.  Ch. — S. Thomas (2. 2. q. 88. a. 2.) acknowledges that  Jephte was inspired to make a vow, and his devotion herein is praised by the apostle.  Heb. xi. 32.  But he afterwards followed his own spirit, in delivering himself, without mature deliberation, and in executing what he had so ill engaged himself, to perform.  This decision seems to be the most agreeable to the Scripture, and to the holy fathers.  S. Jerom (in Jer. vii.) says, non sacrificium placet, sed animus offerentis.  “If Jephte offered his virgin daughter, it was not the sacrifice, but the good will of the offerer which deserves applause.”  Almost all the ancients seem to agree that the virgin was really burnt to death; and the versions have whosoever, which intimates that Jephte intended to offer a human victim; particularly as he could not expect a beast fit for such a purpose, would come out of the doors of his house to meet him.  C. — Yet many of the moderns, considering how much such things are forbidden by God, cannot persuade themselves that Jephte should be so ignorant of the law, or that the priests and people of Israel should suffer him to transgress it.  The original may be rendered as well, “whatsoever proceedeth…shall surely be the Lord’s, and (Prot.) or I will offer it up for a holocaust.”  Pagnin. &c. — The version of Houbigant is very favourable to this opinion.  See Hook’s Principia. — It is supposed that the sacrifice of Iphigenia, which took place about this time, (Aulis. v. 26,) was only in imitation of this of Jephte’s daughter.  But the poets say, that Diana saved her life, and substituted a doe in her place; (Ovid Met. xii.) which, if true, would make the conformity more striking, if we admit that the sacrifice of Jephte’s daughter was not carried into effect. Iphigenia was made a priestess of Dians, to whom human victims were immolated.  The daughter of Jephte, whom the false Philo calls Seila, was consecrated to the Lord, and shut up (H.) to lead a kind of monastic life; as the wives of David, (2 K. xx. 3.  Grotius) after they had been dishonoured, were obliged to live in a state of continency.  Although (H.) forced chastity be not a virtue, (C.) yet Jephte had no reason to believe that his daughter would not enter into the spirit of his vow, and embrace that state for God’s honour and service.  We know that she gave her entire consent to whatever might be the nature of his vow; and surely she would be as ready to refrain from marriage, however desirable at that time, as to be burnt alive, which would effectually prevent her from becoming a mother, v. 37.  To require this of her, was not, at least, more cruel in her father than to offer her in sacrifice.  Then Chaldee paraphrast says, “Jephte did not consult Phinees, the priest, or he might have redeemed her;” and Kimchi gives us a very mean idea, both of Jephte and of the high priest, the great Phinees, whom the Rabbins foolishly suppose was still living, and of course above 300 years old, v. 26. — “Phinees said, He wants me, let him come to me.  But Jephte, the head of the princes of Israel, shall I go to him?  During this contest the girl perished.”  To such straits are those reduced who wish to account for the neglect of Jephte in redeeming his daughter, as the Targum observes, was lawful for a sum of money.  Lev. xxvii. 2. 3. 28. — But H. his vow was of the nature of the cherom, which allowed of no redemption, and required death.  C. — On this point, however, interpreters are not agreed, and this manner of devoting to death, probably, regarded only the enemies of God, or such things as were under a person’s absolute dominion.  H. — If a dog had first come out to meet Jephte, could he have offered it up for a holocaust?  Certainly not, (Grot.) because it was prohibited, (Deut. xxiii. 18,) to offer even its price, (H.) and only oxen, sheep, goats, turtles and doves, were the proper victims.  If, therefore, a person made a vow, of a man, he was to be consecrated to the Lord, (Grot.) like Samuel, and he might marry.  But a woman could not, as she was already declared the servant of the Lord, and was not at liberty to follow her husband.  Amama. — We need not herein labour to defend the conduct of Jephte.  The Scripture does not canonize him on this account.  If he did wrong, his repentance, and other heroic acts of virtue, might justly entitle him to be ranked among the saints of the old law.  S. Aug. q. 49. — “Shew me the man who has not fallen into sin…Jephte returned victorious from the enemy, but in the midst of his triumph, he was overcome by his own vow, so that he thought it proper to requite the piety of his daughter, who came out to meet him, by parricide.  In the first place, what need was there of making a vow so hastily, to promise things uncertain, the event of which he knew not, instead of what was certain?  Then why did he perform so sorrowful a vow to the Lord God, by shedding blood?”  S. Amb. Apol. Dav. i. 4. — This saint adopts the common opinion that Jephte really  immolated his daughter.  But he is far from thinking that he was influenced by the holy spirit to make the vow, otherwise he would never represent it in such odious colours.  If God had required the life of Jephte’s daughter, as he did formerly command Abraham to sacrifice his son, the obedience and faith of the former would have been equally applauded, as the good will of the latter.  But most of those who embrace the opinion that Jephte sacrificed his daughter, are forced to excuse or to condemn the action.  They suppose that he was permitted to fulfil his vow, that others might be deterred from making similar promises, without the divine authority.  S. Chrys. hom. xiv. ad pop. Ant.  S. Jer. c. Jov. i.  “I shall never, says S. Amb. (Off. iii. 12,) be induced to believe that Jephte, the prince, did not promise incautiously that he would immolate whatever should meet him “at the door of  his own house;” whence he seems to take whosoever in the same latitude as we have given in the Hebrew.  He concludes, “I cannot accuse the man who was obliged to fulfil his vow,” &c.  We may imitate his moderation, (H.) rather than adopt the bold language of one who has written notes on the Prot. Bible, (1603) who says, without scruple, that by this rash vow and wicked performance, his victory was defaced; and again, that he was overcome with blind zeal, not considering whether the vow was lawful or not.  W. — If Jephte was under the immediate influence of the Holy Ghost in what he did, as Salien believes, and the context by no means disproves, we ought to admire the faith of this victorious judge, though he gave way to the feelings of human nature, v. 35.  We should praise his fidelity either in sacrificing or in consecrating his daughter to God’s service in perpetual virginity: but if he followed his own spirit, we cannot think that he was so ill-informed or so barbarous as to murder his daughter, nor that she would consent to an impiety which so often disgraced the pagan superstition, though she might very well agree to embrace that better part, which her father and God himself, by a glorious victory, seems to have marked out for her.  Amid the variety of opinions which have divided the learned on this subject, infidels can derive no advantage or solid proof against the divine authority of the Scripture, and of our holy religion.  The fact is simply recorded.  People are at liberty to form what judgment of it they think most rational.  If they decide that Jepthe was guilty of an oversight, or of a downright impiety, it will in the first place be difficult for them to prove it to the general satisfaction; and when they have done so, they will only evince that he was once a sinner, and under this idea the word of God gives him no praise.  But if he did wrong in promising, as many of the Fathers believe, he might be justified in fulfilling his vow, as God might intimate to him both interiorly, and by granting him the victory, that he dispensed  with his own law, and required this sort of victim in order to foreshew the bloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins, (Serarius and Salien, A. 2850) or the state of virginity which his blessed Mother and so many nuns and others in the Christian Church embrace with fervour. Peace, with victory. — Same.  Heb. “it shall be the Lord’s, and (or) I will make it ascend a whole burnt offering.”  H. — The particle ve often signifies or as well as and, and it is explained in this sense here by the two Kimchis, by Junius, &c.  See Ex. xxi. 17.  Piscator says, the first part of the sentence determines that whatever the thing was it should be consecrated to the Lord, with the privilege of being redeemed, (Lev. xxvii. 11,) and the second shews that it should be immolated, if it were a suitable victim.  Amama.↵
  5. Aroer, upon the Arnon, belonged to the tribe of Gad.  Menith was four miles from Hesebon, towards Rabbath.↵
  6. Abel was noted for its vineyards, 12 miles east of Gadara, so that Jephte pursued the enemy, as they fled towards the north for about 60 miles, and during the course of the war destroyed 20 of their cities, (C.) to punish them for their unjust revenges and usurpation of another’s property.  H.↵
  7. Daughter.  It seems the vow had been kept secret, as no precautions were taken to prevent the affliction of the general; (C.) and indeed to  have done so, would have been injurious to God’s providence, and childish in Jephte, as he meant to offer whatever should come to meet him.  It would have been very mean, and contrary to the meaning of the vow, for him to procure something for which he had no great value, to present itself.  H.↵
  8. Dances, as it was customary on such occasions.  1 K. xviii. 6.↵
  9. Alas.  These indications of grief are the effects of nature.  Salien. — S. Amb. considerst them as the marks of repentance; (v. 31,) and we might hence infer that the vow was not dictated by the holy spirit, who would have endued Jepthe with fortitude, as he did Abraham, though all may not possess the virtue of that great father of believers.  Gen. xxii.  H. — Deceived.  We mutually expected comfort, from each other’s presence: but we must both experience the reverse.  Heb. may signify, “depressed, terrified,” &c.↵
  10. Thing.  Heb. “I cannot recede.”  H. — It appears that he could not redeem what he had promised, (C.) as the condition had been fulfilled on the part of God.  He might consider that he as no longer at liberty to use the privilege which the law allowed, when no condition had been specified.  Lev. xxvii. 4.  H.↵
  11. Bewail my virginity.  The bearing of children was much coveted under the Old Testament, when women might hope that from some child of theirs the Saviour of the world might one day spring.  But under the New Testament virginity is preferred.  1 Cor. vii. 35.↵
  12. Mountains.  Such places were frequented in times of mourning.  Jer. xxxi. 15.  Is. xv. 2.  C. — Jepthe allowed his daughter this short respite, without any offence, (Deut. xxiii. 21,) before he immolated her, (M.) or before he debarred her from the society of men.  Grot. &c.↵
  13. Father.  Her fortitude is commended by S. Ambrose (Off. iii. 12,) as more worthy of admiration than that of the two Pythagorean friends, one of whom, being sentenced to die, procured the other to stand bond for his return; and, at the time appointed, came freely to deliver himself up; an instance of generosity which made the tyrant who had sentenced him to die, beg that they would admit him into the society of their friendship.  H. — Whatever we may think of Jephte, “we cannot sufficiently admire the dutiful behaviour, and amiable simplicity of the daughter, who voluntarily submitted to her parent’s will, and exhorted him to do as he had vowed.  To die to sin, to resign the pomps of a licentious world, to renounce those pleasures and incentives to vice, which are inconsistent with a clean heart, is a sacrifice truly meritorious, and acceptable to God; it is a sacrifice which was solemnly begun at the font of baptism.”  Reeves, A. 2817.↵
  14. No man.  It is remarked by those who believe that she was not slain, that this observation would be very unnecessary in the contrary opinion.  No mention of death is made.  The virgin only deplores, with pious resignation, that she cannot be the happy mother of the Messias.↵
  15. Jesus answered, and spoke to them again in parables, and concludes his discourse with again describing, 1st. the reprobation of the Jews; 2d. the calling of the Gentiles to the true faith; and 3d. the final judgment of both the one and the other.  In this parable of the marriage feast, says S. Chrysostom, our Saviour again declares to the Jews their reprobation, and the vocation of the Gentiles, their great ingratitude, and his tender solicitude for them.  For he did not send them a single invitation only; he repeatedly invited them.  Say, says he, to the invited; and afterwards, call the invited; thus evincing the greatness of their obstinacy, in resisting all the calls and pressing invitations of the Almighty.  Hom. lxx. — This parable is certainly not the same as that mentioned in S. Luke xiv. 16, as every one that will be at the pains to examine and compare all the circumstances of each, will easily discover, though they are very much alike.  M.↵
  16. Is like to a man being a king, &c.  This parable seems different from that of Luke xiv. 16.  See S. Aug. l. ii. de Cons. Evang. c. lxx.  The main design in this parable, is to shew the Jews that they were all invited to believe in Christ; though so few of them believed.  The king is God; his son is Jesus Christ; the spouse is the Church; the marriage is Christ’s incarnation; the feast, the grace of God in this life, and his glory in the next.  His servants were the prophets; and lastly his precursor, S. John.↵
  17. His servants.  John the Baptist and Christ himself, who took the form of a servant, to call such as had been formerly invited to the nuptials that were to be celebrated in his time.  The Jews were invited by Moses and the prophets, and were instructed to believe that the Messias would celebrate this happy feast.  On the predetermined day, they were again called by his servants, saying: Do penance; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand: come to the feast, i.e. become members of his Church, by believing in Christ.  Jans. — In the same manner, S. Chrysostom says that the Jews had been invited by the voice of the prophets, and afterwards by the Baptist, who declared to all, that Christ should increase, but that he himself should decrease.  At length, they were invited by the Son in person, crying aloud to them: come to me all you that labour, and are heavily laden, and I will refresh you.  Mat. xi. 28.  And again: if any man thirst, let him come to me and drink.  S. John vii. 37. — And not by his words only, but by his actions also did he call them; and after his resurrection, by the ministry of Peter and the rest of the apostles (hom. lxx,) he informed the invited Jews that the banquet was ready; because the Christian religion being now established, the way to eternal happiness was laid open to mankind.↵
  18. My fatlings, which I have prepared, and made fat for the feast: but this is but an ornament of the parable.  Wi. — The same takes place in the kingdom of heaven, as when a king makes a marriage feast for his son.  Jesus Christ seems to have had two things in view in this parable: 1st. that many are called to the kingdom of heaven, i.e. his Church, and that few come, as he concludes, v. 14, many are called, &c; 2d. that not all that come when called will be saved, i.e. will be reputed worthy of the celestial feast; because some have not on the wedding-garment, as he shews, v. 11.  M. — Thus the conduct of God in the formation of his Church, and in the vocation of men to glory which himself has prepared for them in the kingdom of heaven, is like to that of a king, wishing to celebrate the marriage of his son.  V. — Marriage is here mentioned, says S. Chrysostom to shew there is nothing sorrowful in the kingdom of God, but all full of the greatest spiritual joy.  S. John Baptist likewise calls our Saviour the spouse; and S. Paul says, I have espoused thee to one man, 2 Cor. xi.  S. Chrys. hom. lxx.  See also Eph. v. 25. and Apoc. xxi. 2. and 9.  The nuptials in this place do not signify the union of marriage, or the incarnation of Jesus Christ, by which the Church is made his spouse; but the marriage feast, to which men are said to be invited.  This is no other than the doctrines, the sacraments and graces, with which God feeds and nourishes our souls, united to him by faith in this life, and by eternal joy and glory in the next.  Jans. — This union is begun here on earth by faith, is cemented by charity in all such as are united to Christ in the profession of the one true faith he came down to establish, and will be consummated and made perpetual hereafter by the eternal enjoyment of Christ in his heavenly kingdom.↵
  19. One to his farm.  After they had put to death the Son of God, still did the Almighty invite them to the marriage-feast; but they with futile excuses declined and slighted the proffered favour, wholly taken up with their temporal concerns and sensual enjoyments, their oxen, lands and wives.  From the punishment inflicted on these, we learn, that no consideration, how specious soever it may appear, can prove a legitimate excuse for neglecting our spiritual duties.  S. John. Chrys. hom. lxx. — Such as refuse to be reconciled to the holy Catholic Church, allege vain pretexts and impediments; but all these originating in pride, indolence, or human respects, will not serve at the day of general retribution and strict scrutiny.↵
  20. Put them to death.  Thus the Jews had many times treated the prophets.  Wi. — These were by far the most impious and the most ungrateful; tenuerunt Servos ejus, as is related in the Acts, with regard to the death of James, and Stephen, and Paul.  M.↵
  21. Sending his armies.  Here our Redeemer predicts the destruction of Jerusalem, by the armies of Vespasian and Titus, sent against them by the Almighty, in punishment of their incredulity and impiety.  S. Chrys. hom. lxx. — Thus the king destroyed those murderers, and burnt their city; for sooner or later God is observed to exert his vengeance on all such as despise his word, or persecute his ministers.  See the miseries to which the Jews were reduced in Josephus, book the 6th, c. ix, Hist. of the Jewish war; who declares, that in the last siege of Jerusalem 1,100,000 persons perished, and that the city was completely destroyed.  Other interpreters suppose that the evil spirits are here meant, by whom God punishes man, according to Psalm lxxvii, v. 49.  M. and Maldonatus.↵
  22. Were not worthy.  The Almighty knew full well that they were not worthy; he still sent them these frequently repeated invitations, that they might be left without any excuse.  S. Chry. hom. lxx. — More is signified here than the bare letter conveys; they were not only less worthy of the nuptials, but by their very great obstinacy, ingratitude and impiety, quite unworthy.  Not so the Gentiles.  Jans. — Hence Christ says: Go ye therefore into the highways.↵
  23. Go ye therefore into the highways.  The apostles first kept themselves within the precincts of Judea, but the Jews continually sought their destruction.  Therefore S. Paul said to them, (Acts xiii. 46.) to you it behoved us first to speak the word of God, but seeing you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold we turn to the Gentiles.  S. Chrys. hom lxx.↵
  24. Both bad and good.  Christ had before told the Jews that harlots and publicans should, in preference to them, inherit the kingdom of heaven, and that the first should be last, and the last first, which preference of the Gentiles, tormented the Jews more than even the destruction of their city.  Chrys. lxx. — Good and bad, persons of every tribe, tongue, people, nation, sex and profession, without any exception of persons or conditions.  Hence it is evident that the Church of God doth not consist of the elect only; and, that faith alone, without the habit of charity and good works, will not suffice to save us.  B.↵
  25. Wedding garment, which Calvin erroneously understands of faith, for he came by faith to the nuptials.  S. Augustine says it is the honour and glory of the spouse, which each one should seek, and not his own; and he shews this, in a sermon on the marriage feast, to be charity.  This is the sentiment of the ancients, of S. Gregory, S. Ambrose, and others.  What S. Chrysostom expounds it, viz. an immaculate life, or a life shining with virtues, and free from the filth of sin, is nearly the same; for charity cannot exist without a good life, nor the purity of a good life, without charity.  In his 70th homily on S. Matthew, he says that the garment of life is our works; and this is here mentioned, that none might presume, (like Calvin and his followers) that faith alone was sufficient for salvation.  When, therefore we are called by the grace of God, we are clothed with a white garment, to preserve which from every stain, from every grievous sin, depends upon the diligence (the watching and praying) of every individual.  S. John. Chrys. — It was the custom then, as it still is in every civilized nation, not to appear at a marriage feast, or at a dinner of ceremony, except in the very best attire.  V.↵
  26. Not having a wedding garment.  By this one person, are represented all sinner void of the grace of God.  Wi. — To enter with unclean garments, is to depart out of this life in the guilt of sin.  For those are no less guilty of manifesting a contempt for the Deity, who presume to sit down in the filth of an unclean conscience, than those who neglected to answer the invitations of the Almighty.  He is said to be silent, because having nothing to advance in his own defence, he remains self-condemned, and is hurried away to torments; the horrors of which words can never express.  S. Chrys. hom. lxx.↵
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