http://www.dailycatholic.org/issue/13Jun/2pentsun.htm#haydock

Comprehensive Catholic Commentary
by
Fr. George Leo Haydock
provided by
John Gregory

    John Gregory provides the commentary for the Second Sunday after Pentecost from Father George Leo Haydock found in many Douay-Rheims version of the New Testament. In the short, the powerfully poignant and pertinent words in today's paragraphs from our Lord's mouth give us knowledge that He reaches out to the most disadvantage of souls for His mercy knows no bounds, but those who reject Him, who decide they do not want to partake at His banquet will find no comfort nor a place at the table. Wise words for those who are starving for the true Faith and feel the emptiness in the novus ordo. Leave the scraps and rotting menu of misery and come to the true banquet - the Traditional Latin Mass where the Holy Sacrifice is celebrated by true priests, men who have not rejected Christ's invitation. True Catholics do not hate their neighbor but love him out of their love for God as St. Paul relates in today's Epistle and one who has such love wants his neighbor to partake in the banquet offered by the Lord.

    Second Sunday after Pentecost

    Epistle: 1 St. John 3: 13-18
    13 Wonder not, brethren, if the world hate you.

    14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not, abideth in death.

    15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in himself.
        Commentary on Verses 14-15: We know that we have passed from death to life; i.e. from the death of sin to the life of grace: we know it by a moral certainty, when we experience in our heart a love of our neighbor. He that loveth not God and his neighbor, abideth in death. He that hateth his brother with a mortal hatred, or to a considerable degree, is a murderer.

    16 In this we have known the charity of God, because He hath laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

        Commentary on Verse 16: The charity of God, because He hath laid down His life for us. Jesus Christ, therefore, who laid down His life for us, was God. It is true at present the words of God are wanting in most Greek MSS., yet the Prot. Translation has them.

    17 He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him: how doth the charity of God abide in him?

    18 My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth.


    Gospel: St. Luke 14: 16-24

    16 But He said to him: A certain man made a great supper, and invited many.
        Commentary on Verse 16: By this man we are to understand Christ Jesus, the great mediator between God and man. He sent his servants, at supper-time, to say to them that were invited, that they should come; i.e. He sent His apostles to call the people of Israel, who had been invited to His supper on almost innumerable occasions: but they not only refused the invitation, but also murdered the Lord who had invited them. We may remark, that the three different excuses exactly agree with what St. John says: All that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life. The one says, I have married a wife, by which may be understood the concupiscence of the flesh; another says, I have bought five yoke of oxen, by which is denoted the concupiscence of the eyes; and the pride of life is signified by the purchase of the farm, which the third alleges in his justification. S. Aug. de verb. Dei.

    17 And he sent his servant at the hour of supper to say to them that were invited, that they should come, for now all things are ready.

    18 And they began all at once to make excuse. The first said to him: I have bought a farm, and I must needs go out and see it: I pray thee, hold me excused.

    19 And another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to try them: I pray thee, hold me excused.

    20 And another said: I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

    21 And the servant returning, told these things to his lord. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant: Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the feeble, and the blind, and the lame.

    22 And the servant said: Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.

    23 And the Lord said to the servant: Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
        Commentary on Verse 23: Compel them to come in. This is almost the only expression in the New Testament, which can give to the intolerant a plea for persecution. The spirit of the gospel is the spirit of mildness, and the compulsion which it authorizes to bring infidels or heretics into the Church, is such as we use towards our friends, when we press them to accept of our hospitality. The great pope, St. Gregory, forbade the Jєωs to be persecuted in Rome, who refused to receive the faith of Christ "That is a new and unheard of kind of preaching," says he, "which demands assent by stripes."

    24 But I say unto you, that none of those men that were invited, shall taste of My supper.

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2004.htm#article7

Article 7. Whether any external goods are necessary for happiness?

Objection 1. It would seem that external goods also are necessary for Happiness. For that which is promised the saints for reward, belongs to Happiness. But external goods are promised the saints; for instance, food and drink, wealth and a kingdom: for it is said (Luke 22:30): "That you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom": and (Matthew 6:20): "Lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven": and (Matthew 25:34): "Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom." Therefore external goods are necessary for Happiness.

Objection 2. Further, according to Boethius (De Consol. iii): happiness is "a state made perfect by the aggregate of all good things." But some of man's goods are external, although they be of least account, as Augustine says (De Lib. Arb. ii, 19). Therefore they too are necessary for Happiness.

Objection 3. Further, Our Lord said (Matthew 5:12): "Your reward is very great in heaven." But to be in heaven implies being in a place. Therefore at least external place is necessary for Happiness.

On the contrary, It is written (Psalm 72:25): "For what have I in heaven? and besides Thee what do I desire upon earth?" As though to say: "I desire nothing but this,"--"It is good for me to adhere to my God." Therefore nothing further external is necessary for Happiness.

I answer that, For imperfect happiness, such as can be had in this life, external goods are necessary, not as belonging to the essence of happiness, but by serving as instruments to happiness, which consists in an operation of virtue, as stated in Ethic. i, 13. For man needs in this life, the necessaries of the body, both for the operation of contemplative virtue, and for the operation of active virtue, for which latter he needs also many other things by means of which to perform its operations.

On the other hand, such goods as these are nowise necessary for perfect Happiness, which consists in seeing God. The reason of this is that all suchlike external goods are requisite either for the support of the animal body; or for certain operations which belong to human life, which we perform by means of the animal body: whereas that perfect Happiness which consists in seeing God, will be either in the soul separated from the body, or in the soul united to the body then no longer animal but spiritual. Consequently these external goods are nowise necessary for that Happiness, since they are ordained to the animal life. And since, in this life, the felicity of contemplation, as being more Godlike, approaches nearer than that of action to the likeness of that perfect Happiness, therefore it stands in less need of these goods of the body as stated in Ethic. x, 8.

Reply to Objection 1. All those material promises contained in Holy Scripture, are to be understood metaphorically, inasmuch as Scripture is wont to express spiritual things under the form of things corporeal, in order "that from things we know, we may rise to the desire of things unknown," as Gregory says (Hom. xi in Evang.). Thus food and drink signify the delight of Happiness; wealth, the sufficiency of God for man; the kingdom, the lifting up of man to union of God.

Reply to Objection 2. These goods that serve for the animal life, are incompatible with that spiritual life wherein perfect Happiness consists. Nevertheless in that Happiness there will be the aggregate of all good things, because whatever good there be in these things, we shall possess it all in the Supreme Fount of goodness.

Reply to Objection 3. According to Augustine (De Serm. Dom. in Monte i, 5), it is not material heaven that is described as the reward of the saints, but a heaven raised on the height of spiritual goods. Nevertheless a bodily place, viz. the empyrean heaven, will be appointed to the Blessed, not as a need of Happiness, but by reason of a certain fitness and adornment.