http://www.dailycatholic.org/9penthay.htm

How dare thou anger God



    Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Comprehensive Catholic Commentary by Fr. George Leo Haydockprovided by John Gregory

        Editor's Note: We continue with this special feature provided by John Gregory with the Haydock Commentary found at the bottom of each page of the Douay-Rheims Bible. We publish it here in conjunction with the Epistle and Gospel for the Sunday Mass, with the cogent comprehensive Catholic Commentary penned by Father George Leo Haydock. For the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost the theme is that one does not know the hour of one's visitation, in other words, when he has to make an account before God of all he has done on earth. That is why St. Paul warned not to tempt Christ and why our Lord wept and then, in righteous anger, chased those out of the house of God who put more weight in worldly things. How we see this today in the once Catholic churches that call themselves 'Catholic' but are anything but. The time will come when they will be chased out by means known only to God and they will be restored to true houses of God where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Mass of All Ages will once again summon the angels and His abundant graces for those willing to abandon a civilization currently in slavery to the world, the flesh and the devil.


Epistle: 1 Corinthians 10: 6-13

6 Now these things were done in a figure of us, that we should not covet evil things as they also coveted.

    Commentary on Verse 6 In a figure of us. That is, this was done and written to teach us, what we may expect, if we imitate the murmurs, infidelities, ingratitude, and disobedience of the Hebrew people. Unless we renounce our irregular desires, unless we mortify our passions, baptism and communion will prove our greater condemnation. The greatest graces are but subjects of alarm, unless our life correspond with them.

7 Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

9 Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents.

    Commentary on Verse 9 As some of them tempted Christ. This cannot but be understood of Christ, as God. (Witham)

10 Neither do you murmur: as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

11 Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

    Commentary on Verse 11Upon whom the ends of the world are come. The last age of the world, which Saint John calls the last hour. (W)

12 Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall.

    Commentary on Verse 12 Take heed lest he fall. This regards the doctors and teachers in the new Church of Corinth; who, relying upon their own learning, did not think themselves weak, and presuming too much upon their own strength, exposed themselves to the danger of falling. See Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Augustine, de dono. Persey. Self-diffidence is the foundation of our strength. We prevent many dangerous falls when we keep close to the earth by humility.

13 Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human. And God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it.

    Commentary on Verse 13Let no temptation take hold on you. Or, no temptation hath taken hold of you, or come upon you a yet, but what is human, or incident to man. (C) - The sense of these words is obscure: we may expound them by way of prayer, let no temptation, but such as are of human frailty, and not hard to be overcome, happen to you. See the Greek text. Will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it. The literal signification of the Latin, compared with the Greek is, that God will bring you off, and make you escape out of those dangers, when you are tempted. (W) The most violent temptations are occasions of merit and triumph to such as are in the hands of God; whilst the lightest are snares and a deep abyss to such as are in their own hands.


Gospel: St. Luke 19: 41-47

41 At that time, when Jesus drew near, seeing the city, He wept over it, saying:

    Commentary on Verse 41 He wept. Saint Epiphanius tells us, that some of the orthodox of his time, offended at these words, omitted them in their copies, as if to shed tears, were a weakness unworthy of Christ: but this true reading of the evangelist is found in all copies, and received by all the faithful; and the liberty which those who changed them took, was too dangerous ever to be approved of by the Church. Neither do these tears argue in Jesus Christ anything unworthy of His supreme majesty or wisdom. Our Savior possessed all the human passions, but not the defects of them. The Stoics, who condemned the passions in their sages, laboured to make statues or automata of man, not philosophers. The true philosopher moderates and governs his passions; the Stoic labors to destroy them, but cannot effect his purpose. And when he labors to overcome one passion, he is forced to have recourse to another for help. (C) Our Savior is said to have wept six times, during His life on earth: 1st, At His birth, according to many holy doctors; 2ndly, at His circuмcision, according to Saint Bernard and others; 3rdly, when He raised Lazarus to life, as is related in Saint John, chapter 11; 4thly, in His entry into Jerusalem, described in this place; 5thly, during His agony in the garden, just before His apprehension, when, as Saint Luke remarks, (Chapter 22) His sweat was as drops of blood trickling down upon the ground; and 6thly, during His passion, when He often wept, on account of His great distress of mind, occasioned principally by the knowledge He had of the grievousness of men's sins, and the bad use they would make of the redemption He was, through so many sufferings, procuring for them. (Dion.)

42 If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace; but now they are hidden from thy eyes.

    Commentary on Verse 42 If thou also hadst known. It is a broken sentence, as it were in a transport of grief; and we may understand, thou wouldst also weep. Didst thou know, even at this day, that peace and reconciliation which God still offers to thee? (W) What can be more tender than the apostrophe here made use of by our Savior!? Hadst thou but known, & c. that is, didst thou but know how severe a punishment is about to be inflicted upon thee, for the numberless transgressions of thy people, thou likewise wouldst weep; but, alas! hardness in iniquity, thou still rejoicest, ignorant of the punishment hanging over thy head.? Just men have daily occasion to bewail, like our blessed Redeemer, the blindness of the wicked, unable to see, through their own perversity, the miserable state of their souls, and the imminent danger they are every moment exposed to, of losing themselves for ever. Of these, Solomon cries out; (Proverbs 2:13) They leave the right way, and walk through dark ways. We ought to imitate this compassion of our blessed Redeemer; and, as He wept over the calamities of the unfortunate Jerusalem, though determined on his destruction; so we ought to bewail the sins not only of our friends, but likewise of our enemies, and daily offer up our prayers for their conversion. (Dion.)

43 For the days shall come upon thee, and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side,

    Commentary on Verse 43 And compass thee, & c. Christ's prophecy is a literal description of what happened to Jerusalem, under Titus. (W)

44 And beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee: and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone: because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation.

45 And entering into the temple, He began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought.

46 Saying to them: It is written: My house is the house of prayer. But you have made it a den of thieves.

47 And He was teaching daily in the temple. And the chief priests and the scribes and the rulers of the people sought to destroy Him:

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2013.htm#article6

Article 6. Whether man chooses of necessity or freely?

Objection 1. It would seem that man chooses of necessity. For the end stands in relation to the object of choice, as the principle of that which follows from the principles, as declared in Ethic. vii, 8. But conclusions follow of necessity from their principles. Therefore man is moved of necessity from (willing) the end of the choice (of the means).

Objection 2. Further, as stated above (01, ad 2), choice follows the reason's judgment of what is to be done. But reason judges of necessity about some things: on account of the necessity of the premises. Therefore it seems that choice also follows of necessity.

Objection 3. Further, if two things are absolutely equal, man is not moved to one more than to the other; thus if a hungry man, as Plato says (Cf. De Coelo ii, 13), be confronted on either side with two portions of food equally appetizing and at an equal distance, he is not moved towards one more than to the other; and he finds the reason of this in the immobility of the earth in the middle of the world. Now, if that which is equally (eligible) with something else cannot be chosen, much less can that be chosen which appears as less (eligible). Therefore if two or more things are available, of which one appears to be more (eligible), it is impossible to choose any of the others. Therefore that which appears to hold the first place is chosen of necessity. But every act of choosing is in regard to something that seems in some way better. Therefore every choice is made necessarily.

On the contrary, Choice is an act of a rational power; which according to the Philosopher (Metaph. ix, 2) stands in relation to opposites.

I answer that, Man does not choose of necessity. And this is because that which is possible not to be, is not of necessity. Now the reason why it is possible not to choose, or to choose, may be gathered from a twofold power in man. For man can will and not will, act and not act; again, he can will this or that, and do this or that. The reason of this is seated in the very power of the reason. For the will can tend to whatever the reason can apprehend as good. Now the reason can apprehend as good, not only this, viz. "to will" or "to act," but also this, viz. "not to will" or "not to act." Again, in all particular goods, the reason can consider an aspect of some good, and the lack of some good, which has the aspect of evil: and in this respect, it can apprehend any single one of such goods as to be chosen or to be avoided. The perfect good alone, which is Happiness, cannot be apprehended by the reason as an evil, or as lacking in any way. Consequently man wills Happiness of necessity, nor can he will not to be happy, or to be unhappy. Now since choice is not of the end, but of the means, as stated above (Article 3); it is not of the perfect good, which is Happiness, but of other particular goods. Therefore man chooses not of necessity, but freely.

Reply to Objection 1. The conclusion does not always of necessity follow from the principles, but only when the principles cannot be true if the conclusion is not true. In like manner, the end does not always necessitate in man the choosing of the means, because the means are not always such that the end cannot be gained without them; or, if they be such, they are not always considered in that light.

Reply to Objection 2. The reason's decision or judgment of what is to be done is about things that are contingent and possible to us. In such matters the conclusions do not follow of necessity from principles that are absolutely necessary, but from such as are so conditionally; as, for instance, "If he runs, he is in motion."

Reply to Objection 3. If two things be proposed as equal under one aspect, nothing hinders us from considering in one of them some particular point of superiority, so that the will has a bent towards that one rather than towards the other.