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

How dare thou anger God



    Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Comprehensive Catholic Commentary
by
Fr. George Leo Haydock
provided 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/2005.htm#article6

Article 6. Whether man attains happiness through the action of some higher creature?

Objection 1. It would seem that man can be made happy through the action of some higher creature, viz. an angel. For since we observe a twofold order in things--one, of the parts of the universe to one another, the other, of the whole universe to a good which is outside the universe; the former order is ordained to the second as to its end (Metaph. xii, 10). Thus the mutual order of the parts of an army is dependent on the order of the parts of an army is dependent on the order of the whole army to the general. But the mutual order of the parts of the universe consists in the higher creatures acting on the lower, as stated in the I, 109, 02: while happiness consists in the order of man to a good which is outside the universe, i.e. God. Therefore man is made happy, through a higher creature, viz. an angel, acting on him.

Objection 2. Further, that which is such in potentiality, can be reduced to act, by that which is such actually: thus what is potentially hot, is made actually hot, by something that is actually hot. But man is potentially happy. Therefore he can be made actually happy by an angel who is actually happy.

Objection 3. Further, Happiness consists in an operation of the intellect as stated above (Question 3, Article 4). But an angel can enlighten man's intellect as shown in the I, 111, 1. Therefore an angel can make a man happy.

On the contrary, It is written (Psalm 83:12): "The Lord will give grace and glory."

I answer that, Since every creature is subject to the laws of nature, from the very fact that its power and action are limited: that which surpasses created nature, cannot be done by the power of any creature. Consequently if anything need to be done that is above nature, it is done by God immediately; such as raising the dead to life, restoring sight to the blind, and such like. Now it has been shown above (Article 5) that Happiness is a good surpassing created nature. Therefore it is impossible that it be bestowed through the action of any creature: but by God alone is man made happy, if we speak of perfect Happiness. If, however, we speak of imperfect happiness, the same is to be said of it as of the virtue, in whose act it consists.

Reply to Objection 1. It often happens in the case of active powers ordained to one another, that it belongs to the highest power to reach the last end, while the lower powers contribute to the attainment of that last end, by causing a disposition thereto: thus to the art of sailing, which commands the art of shipbuilding, it belongs to use a ship for the end for which it was made. Thus, too, in the order of the universe, man is indeed helped by the angels in the attainment of his last end, in respect of certain preliminary dispositions thereto: whereas he attains the last end itself through the First Agent, which is God.

Reply to Objection 2. When a form exists perfectly and naturally in something, it can be the principle of action on something else: for instance a hot thing heats through heat. But if a form exist in something imperfectly, and not naturally, it cannot be the principle whereby it is communicated to something else: thus the "intention" of color which is in the pupil, cannot make a thing white; nor indeed can everything enlightened or heated give heat or light to something else; for if they could, enlightening and heating would go on to infinity. But the light of glory, whereby God is seen, is in God perfectly and naturally; whereas in any creature, it is imperfectly and by likeness or participation. Consequently no creature can communicate its Happiness to another.

Reply to Objection 3. A happy angel enlightens the intellect of a man or of a lower angel, as to certain notions of the Divine works: but not as to the vision of the Divine Essence, as was stated in the I, 106, 1: since in order to see this, all are immediately enlightened by God.