http://www.dailycatholic.org/issue/10Nov/24penhay.htm





Sewing the Seeds of Dissent

    Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

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

        Editor's Note: This special feature provided by John Gregory with the cogent comprehensive Catholic Commentary penned by Father George Leo Haydock found at the bottom of each page of the Douay-Rheims Bible continues during November. With the type so small in most bibles, we publish it here in larger type in conjunction with the Epistle and Gospel for the Sunday Mass. For the Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost the Propers are taken from the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany this year (2010). Father Haydock provides in his commentaries in St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians the essence of why holy Mother Church had, until Vatican II, so wisely and prudently guarded Sacred Scripture for fear of misinterpretation which led, as we know to Protestantism and heretical sects that today number over 33,000. While the Remnant has been whittled to but a few, God, in His mercy, will not separate the wheat from the chaff until that time when He will judge by placing the good wheat in His barn (Heaven) and the rest of the cockle, bundled into hell as Jesus relates via His parable in St. Matthew 13. Then many will realize that not all those who say 'Lord, Lord' will enter His kingdom, but only those who have done His holy will as Christ affirmed in St. Matthew 7 in assuring us we would know them by their fruits and the bad trees would be cast into the eternal fire.


Epistle: Colossians 3: 12-17

12 Put ye on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy, and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience:

13 Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if any have a complaint against another: even as the Lord hath forgiven you, so do you also.

14 But above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection:

    Commentary on Verse 14 Above all these things have charity, the love of God, and of your neighbor, which is the bond of perfection, the end of all virtues, which unites the hearts of all to God. (Witham)

15 And let the peace of Christ rejoice in your hearts, wherein also you are called in one body: and be ye thankful.

    Commentary on Verse 15 The peace of Christ rejoice: reign, conquer, bear away the prize. (Witham)

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, in all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing in grace in your hearts to God.

    Commentary on Verse 16 Employ yourselves in studying and reading the Scriptures; meditate on what our Savior has done and suffered for you. It is a calumny of our enemies, that we forbid the reading of the Testament. But the Church, fearing lest the faithful should read to their own destruction what was ordained for their salvation, wisely ordains that they should have recourse to their pastors, and receive from them those versions which she approves as most conformable to the Latin Vulgate, which has received the sanction of the holy Catholic Church, and at the same time forbids them those which might corrupt their faith. In this she acts the part of a good and provident mother, conducting her children to the rich and salutary pastures of peace and plenty, and carefully guarding them from others where tempting but noxious weeds luxuriantly grow up, watered with the baneful streams of polluted and poisoned sources.
        If pure be the steams from the fountain,
        As purely the river will flow;
        If noxious the stream from the mountain,
        It poisons the valley below.

17 All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.

    Commentary on Verse 17 Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let all be done for his honour and glory. See 1 Corinthians x. 31. (Witham)


Gospel: St. Matthew 13: 24-30

24 At that time, Jesus spoke to the multitudes this parable: The kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seeds in his field.

    Commentary on Verse 24 He spoke to the multitudes this parable. As in the preceding parable our Lord spoke of those who did not receive the word, so in this He speaks of those who receive the corrupted word; for it is a diabolical machination to confound error with truth. (St. John Chrysostom in St. Thomas Aquinas) --- There are three things worthy of observation in this parable. 1st. That the Church of God on earth consists of both good and bad; the 2nd, that God is not the author of evil; and the 3rd, that God does not always punish the wicked on the spot, but patiently bears with them. (Menochius)

25 But while men were asleep, his enemy came and oversowed cockle among the wheat, and went his way.

    Commentary on Verse 25 Were asleep. When the superiors or pastors of the Church were lulled asleep or negligent, or, when the apostles were dead, as St. Augustine expounds it, the devil spread the tares or error and sin amongst a great number of Christians. These falling from the state of grace, or becoming heretics, are yet mingled with the rest of the faithful in the same outward profession of Christianity, not unlike the good corn and cockle in the same field.

26 And when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle.

27 Then the servants of the master of the house came and said to him: 'Master, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it cockle?'

    Commentary on Verse 27 Then the servants. St. John Chrysostom observes, there are many circuмstances in the parables that have no connection with the instruction designed to be conveyed in the parables, and which are merely added to connect the different parts together.

28 And he said to them: 'An enemy hath done this.' And the servants said to him: 'Wilt thou that we go and gather it up?'

29 And he said: 'No, lest perhaps while ye gather up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it.'

    Commentary on Verse 29 No, lest, &c. The prayers of repenting sinners are never despised. We are taught also by this example not to cut off too hastily a fallen brother; for, whatever he may be today, tomorrow perhaps he may see his error and embrace the truth. (St. Jerome). --- Jesus Christ exhorts us to bear with infidels and heretics, not on our own account only, as wicked men are frequently of use to the virtuous, but also on their account; for sometimes the persons who have been corrupted and perverted, will return to the paths of virtue and truth. Let, therefore, both grow until the harvest, i.e. to the day of judgment, when the power of rectifying another's error shall be no more. (St. Augustine in St. Thomas Aquinas) --- When many are implicated in one misfortune, what remains but to bewail their condition. Let us then be willing to correct our brethren to the utmost of our power, but let it be always with mercy, charity and compassion; what we cannot correct, let us bear with patience, permitting what God permits, and interceding with Him to move and convert their hearts. But when an opportunity offers, let us publicly advocate the truth, and condemn error. (St. Jerome) --- St. Augustine affirms, that no one should be compelled by force to an unity of religious tenets: such as dissent for us must be persuaded by words, overcome by argumentation, and convinced by reason. (St. Thomas Aquinas)

30 'Let both grow until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but gather the wheat into my barn.'

Article 1. Whether command is an act of the reason or of the will?

Objection 1. It would seem that command is not an act of the reason but of the will. For command is a kind of motion; because Avicenna says that there are four ways of moving, "by perfecting, by disposing, by commanding, and by counselling." But it belongs to the will to move all the other powers of the soul, as stated above (Question 9, Article 1). Therefore command is an act of the will.

Objection 2. Further, just as to be commanded belongs to that which is subject, so, seemingly, to command belongs to that which is most free. But the root of liberty is especially in the will. Therefore to command belongs to the will.

Objection 3. Further, command is followed at once by act. But the act of the reason is not followed at once by act: for he who judges that a thing should be done, does not do it at once. Therefore command is not an act of the reason, but of the will.

On the contrary, Gregory of Nyssa [Nemesius, De Nat. Hom. xvi.] and the Philosopher (Ethic. i, 13) say that "the appetite obeys reason." Therefore command is an act of the reason.

I answer that, Command is an act of the reason presupposing, however, an act of the will. In proof of this, we must take note that, since the acts of the reason and of the will can be brought to bear on one another, in so far as the reason reasons about willing, and the will wills to reason, the result is that the act of the reason precedes the act of the will, and conversely. And since the power of the preceding act continues in the act that follows, it happens sometimes that there is an act of the will in so far as it retains in itself something of an act of the reason, as we have stated in reference to use and choice; and conversely, that there is an act of the reason in so far as it retains in itself something of an act of the will.

Now, command is essentially indeed an act of the reason: for the commander orders the one commanded to do something, by way of intimation or declaration; and to order thus by intimating or declaring is an act of the reason. Now the reason can intimate or declare something in two ways. First, absolutely: and this intimation is expressed by a verb in the indicative mood, as when one person says to another: "This is what you should do." Sometimes, however, the reason intimates something to a man by moving him thereto; and this intimation is expressed by a verb in the imperative mood; as when it is said to someone: "Do this." Now the first mover, among the powers of the soul, to the doing of an act is the will, as stated above (Question 9, Article 1). Since therefore the second mover does not move, save in virtue of the first mover, it follows that the very fact that the reason moves by commanding, is due to the power of the will. Consequently it follows that command is an act of the reason, presupposing an act of the will, in virtue of which the reason, by its command, moves (the power) to the execution of the act.

Reply to Objection 1. To command is to move, not anyhow, but by intimating and declaring to another; and this is an act of the reason.

Reply to Objection 2. The root of liberty is the will as the subject thereof; but it is the reason as its cause. For the will can tend freely towards various objects, precisely because the reason can have various perceptions of good. Hence philosophers define the free-will as being "a free judgment arising from reason," implying that reason is the root of liberty.

Reply to Objection 3. This argument proves that command is an act of reason not absolutely, but with a kind of motion as stated above.