Catholic Culture
Collect: O God, who in the abasement of your Son have raised up a fallen world, fill your faithful with holy joy, for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin you bestow eternal gladness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
o Baked Potato Soup
o Pumpkin Orange Cake
o Confidence in God
o Family Rosary
o Religion in the Home for Elementary School: July
o Religion in the Home for Preschool: July
o Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel
· Ordinary Time: July 7th
· Monday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Old Calendar: Sts. Cyril and Methodius, bishops and confessors; St. Willibald, bishop; St. Pantaenus, Church father
According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Their memorial in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is celebrated on March 7. Today is also the historical feast of St. Willibald and St. Pantaenus, Father of the Church, (+ c. 216).
St. Willibard
St. Willibard was son of the holy king St. Richard, and was born about the year 704 in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, about the place where Southampton now stands. When he was three years old his life was despaired of in a violent sickness; but when all natural remedies proved unsuccessful, his parents carried him and laid him at the foot of a great cross which was erected in a public place near their house, according to the custom in Catholic countries to this day. There they poured forth their prayers with great fervor, and made a promise to God that in case the child recovered they would consecrate him to the divine service. God accepted their pious offering, and the child was immediately restored to his health. St. Richard kept the child two years longer at home, but only regarded him as a sacred depositum committed to him by God; and when he was five years old placed him under the Abbot Egbald, and other holy tutors in the monastery of Waltheim. The young saint, from the first use of his reason, in all his thoughts and actions seemed to aspire only to heaven, and his heart seemed full only of God and his holy love. He left this monastery about the year 721, when he was seventeen years old, and his brother Winibald nineteen, to accompany his father and brother in a pilgrimage of devotion to the tombs of the apostles at Rome, and to the Holy Land. They visited many churches in France on their road; but St. Richard died at Lucca, where his relics are still venerated in the church of St. Fridian, and he is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on the 7th of February. The two sons went on to Rome, and there took the monastic habit.
About two years after this, Winibald having been obliged to return to England, St. Willibald, with two or three young Englishmen, set out to visit the holy places which Christ had sanctified by his sacred presence on earth. They added most severe mortifications to the incredible fatigues of their journey, living only on bread and water, and at land using no other bed than the bare ground. They sailed first to Cyprus and thence into Syria. At Emesa St. Willibald was taken by the Saracens for a spy, was loaded with irons, and suffered much in severe confinement for several months, till certain persons, who were charmed with his wonderful virtue, and moved with compassion for his disaster, satisfied the caliph of his innocence, and procured his enlargement. The holy pilgrims expressed their gratitude to their benefactors, and pursued their journey to the holy places. They resolved in visiting them to follow our Divine Redeemer in the course of his mortal life; and therefore they began their devotions at Nazareth. Our saint passed there some days with his companions in the continual contemplation of the infinite mercies of God in the great mystery of the incarnation; and the sight of the place in which it was wrought drew from his eyes streams of devout tears during all the time of his stay in that town. From Nazareth he went to Bethlehem, and thence into Egypt, making no account of the fatigues and hardships of his journey, and assiduously meditating on what our Blessed Redeemer had suffered in the same. He returned to Nazareth, and thence traveled to Cana, Capharnaum, and Jerusalem. In this last place he made a long stay to satisfy his fervor in adoring Christ in the places where he wrought so many great mysteries, particularly on the mountains of Calvary and Olivet, the theaters of his sacred death and ascension. He likewise visited all the famous monasteries, lauras, and hermitages in that country, with an ardent desire of learning and imitating all the most perfect practices of virtue, and whatever might seem most conducive to the sanctification of his soul. The tender and lively sentiments of devotion with which his fervent contemplation on the holy mysteries of our redemption inspired him at the sight of all those sacred places, filled his devout soul with heavenly consolations, and made on it strong and lasting impressions. In his return a severe sickness at Acon exercised his patience and resignation. After seven years employed in this pilgrimage he arrived safe with his companions in Italy.
The celebrated monastery of Mount Cassino having been lately repaired by Pope Gregory II., the saint chose that house for his residence, and his fervent example contributed very much to settle in it the primitive spirit of its holy institute during the ten years that he lived there. He was first appointed sacristan, afterwards dean or superior over ten monks, and during the last eight years porter, which was an office of great trust and importance, and required a rooted habit of virtue which might suffer no abatement by external employs and frequent commerce with seculars. It happened that in 738 St. Boniface, coming to Rome, begged of Pope Gregory III. that Willibald, who was his cousin, might be sent to assist him in his missions in Germany. The pope desired to see the monk, and was much delighted with the history of his travels, and edified with his virtue. In the close of their conversation, he acquainted him of Bishop Boniface’s request. Willibald desired to go back at least to obtain the leave and blessing of his abbot; but the pope told him his order sufficed, and commanded him to go without more ado into Germany. The saint replied that he was ready to go wheresoever his holiness should think fit. Accordingly he set out for Thuringia, where St. Boniface then was, by whom he was ordained priest. His labors in the country about Aichstadt, in Franconia and Bavaria, were crowned with incredible success, and he was no less powerful in words than in works.
In 746 he was consecrated by St. Boniface bishop of Aichstadt. This dignity gave his humility much to suffer, but it exceedingly excited his zeal. The cultivation of so rough a vineyard was a laborious and painful task; but his heroic patience and invincible meekness overcame all difficulties. His charity was most tender and compassionate, and he had a singular talent in comforting the afflicted. He founded a monastery which resembled in discipline that of Mount Cassino, to which he often retired. But his love of solitude diminished not his pastoral solicitude for his flock. He was attentive to all their spiritual necessities, he visited often every part of his charge, and instructed all his people with indefatigable zeal and charity. His fasts were most austere, nor did he allow himself any indulgence in them or in his labors on account of his great age, till his strength was entirely exhausted. Having labored almost forty-five years in regulating and sanctifying his diocese, he died at Aichstadt on the 7th of June, 790, being eighty-seven years old. He was honored with miracles, and buried in his own cathedral. Pope Leo VII. canonized him in 938. In 1270 the Bishop Hildebrand built a church in his honor, into which his relics were translated, and are honorably preserved to this day; but a portion is honored at Furnec in Flanders. See the three lives of St. Willibald, written by contemporary authors, especially that by a nun of his sister St. Walburga’s monastery. She gives from the saint’s own relation a curious and useful description of the Holy Land, as it stood in that age; which is rendered more curious by the notes of Mabillon, and those of Basnage in his edition of Canisius’s Lect. Antiquae.
Rev. Alban Butler (1711-73). Volume VII: July.
Excerpted from Butler's The Lives of the Saints
St. Pantaenus
This learned father and apostolic man flourished in the second century. He was by birth a Sicilian, by profession a Stoic philosopher. His esteem for virtue led him into an acquaintance with the Christians, and being charmed with the innocence and sanctity of their conversation, he opened his eyes to the truth. He studied the Holy Scriptures under the disciples of the apostles, and his thirst after sacred learning brought him to Alexandria, in Egypt, where the disciples of St. Mark had instituted a school of the Christian doctrine.
Pantænus sought not to display his talents in that great mart of literature and commerce; but this great progress in sacred learning was after some time discovered, and he was drawn out of that obscurity in which his humility sought to bury itself. Being placed at the head of the Christian school some time before the year 179, by his learning and excellent manner of teaching he raised its reputation above all the schools of the philosophers, and the lessons which he read, and which were gathered from the flowers of the prophets and apostles, conveyed light and knowledge into the minds of all his hearers.
The Indians who traded at Alexandria entreated him to pay their country a visit, whereupon he forsook his school and went to preach the Gospel to the Eastern nations. St. Pantænus found some seeds of the faith already sown in the Indies, and a book of the Gospel of St. Matthew in Hebrew, which St. Bartholomew had carried thither. He brought it back with him to Alexandria, whither he returned after he had zealously employed some years in instructing the Indians in the faith.
St. Pantænus continued to teach in private till about the year 216, when he closed a noble and excellent life by a happy death.
Excerpted from Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Vultus Christi
The Mass — You Can’t Live Without It, Part I
Monday, 07 July 2014 13:54
On Saturday, 5 July 2014, I gave the following talk at the Evangelium Ireland Conference for young people held at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. Part II of the same talk will follow.
Man’s True Self
In my long monastic life how often have I heard young men aspiring to become monks say, “I want to be myself”? And how often have I found myself saying to young men aspiring to become monks, “Be yourself”? The one thing I can say unreservedly about this need to be oneself is that man becomes his true self only on the way to the altar. God created man to be an offerer, a sacerdos, one who makes things over to God. God gave man all created things that they might become, in his sacerdotal hands, an offering of thanksgiving. Finally, God willed that this whole round world, created by him, should serve as man’s altar: a place from which man can reach into heaven to present there his sacrifice to God. Man becomes his true self, his best self, the self God intends him to be insofar as he recovers his own sacerdotal dignity and discovers in all things created matter for a holy oblation. Ultimate the search to become one’s true self leads one to the altar and to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Hence, the title of my talk: “The Mass — You Can’t Live Without It”.
Homo Sapiens
We refer to man as the homo sapiens: that is, one who tastes life, who experiences all things through his senses; who interprets what he has experiened, organises what he has interpreted, and finds meaning in what he has organised.
Homo Liturgicus
Man, however, is more than the homo sapiens. He is also the homo liturgicus, the homo hieraticus, the sacerdos. All that is good, beautiful, and true has been given into his hands. Delighting in what is good, true, and beautiful, man plays in the sight of the Most High. His play is, at once, both solemn and divine. It is an innocent play, bringing joy to the human heart and delighting the Heart of God. Thus is the word fulfilled in which Wisdom says, “I was at his side, a master-workman, my delight increasing with each day, as I made play before him all the while; made play in this world of dust, with the sons of Adam for my play-fellows” (Proverbs 8:30–31).
Homo Eucharisticus
Man is, morever, the homo eucharisticus: the one creature uniquely capable of offering thanksgiving to God. All that he has received from God, he lifts up and gives back to God in thanksgiving. Being the homo eucharisticus, man sees the liturgical potential of all created things; he recognises their doxological finality — for all things attain that for which they were created by uttering something of the glory of God.
Sursum Corda
There is something deep in the soul that stirs to life when one hears the solemn cry from the altar, rising over the earth in the age–old intoning of the Sursum corda, “Hearts on high!” And again, Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro, “Let us give thanks unto the Lord our God”. One becomes one’s true self only by saying to this solemn invitation: Dignum et iustum est, “It is right and just”.
Becoming an Offering
The human vocation is eucharistic, priestly, and victimal; that is to say that man becomes his true self by giving thanks, by making the holy offering and, finally, by offering not only things to God, but by making the oblation of himself. The Latin word for victim is hostia, from which we derive the English word host, signifying the bread set apart for the Holy Sacrifice. In the Eastern Churches, the same bread set apart for the Holy Mysteries is called the lamb. By offering himself to God, man becomes a sacrificial victim, a hostia (host), an offering made over to God and identified with “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Apocalypse 13:8).
In the Image of God
It is helpful to reflect, I think, on what Sacred Scripture means in saying: “And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Man is created in the image of God the Word, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was facing God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The Son, eternally begotten of the Father, finds Himself face–to–face with the Father and, in every moment of eternity, offers Himself to the Father in an oblation of self–giving love and of praise. The Father, for His part, holds the Son in the gaze of His love, and takes delight in the ceaseless offering that rises from the Son in the Holy Spirit. Already, even before His descent into the womb of His Virgin Mother as Priest and Victim, the Son exercises a divine priesthood, offering Himself to the Father.
Adam and Eve, a Royal Priestly Couple
Enchanted by the eternal priesthood of the Son, the Father willed to extend that priesthood to men and women created in His image. Adam and Eve emerged from the creating hands of the Father facing the Father, even as the Son faces Him from all eternity. Seeing the Father, their hearts leaped up in a surge of self–offering and of thanksgiving. Adam and Eve were, from the beginning, invested with a royal priesthood. Not only were they moved to make the spontaneous and gratuitous offering of themselves to God; they were given all of creation as matter for a grand priestly oblation of thanksgiving. Seeing all that God created for them in beauty, in goodness, and in truth, Adam and Eve were compelled to give back what they themselves had received. This was the sacrificial liturgy of the earthly paradise such as God intended it: a royal, priestly couple making over to God — that is sacrificing — what God had made over to them. In exercising this natural priesthood, Adam and Eve realised their highest vocation. Theirs it was to give back to God all that God has bestowed upon them.
Original Sin: Anti–Eucharistic
Then came the tragedy of original sin. Satan, hating the liturgy of the earthly paradise, despising the royal priesthood of Adam and Eve, and disgusted by the consecration of all things created to the Creator, laid his plans to destroy the liturgical, to defile the sacerdotal, and to stop the sacrifice. Deceived by Satan, Adam and Eve fixed their gaze upon one thing and refused to give it up to God. Instead of making an offering to God of the good, the true, and the beautiful things given them, they took what was given them to be sacrificed and left untouched for God — the fruit of the tree — and, grasping it, clutched it to themselves. In that terrible moment they sinned against their sacerdotal dignity. The temple of the earthly paradise was defiled; their royal priesthood was perverted; the earth, designed by God to be an altar, became instead a tomb. The original sin was, it is clear, anti–eucharistic, anti–sacerdotal, and anti–liturgical. Thus was the great and glorious plan of God frustrated; thus did man stop being himself as God intended him to be.
Cain and Abel
The divine spark of Adam’s natural priesthood survived, nonetheless, in the souls of their sons. In Abel, whose sacrifice is still recalled daily in the Roman Canon, it blossomed into a fair offering pleasing to God. In Cain it was troubled and perverse.
And Abel was a shepherd, and Cain a husbandman. And it came to pass after many days, that Cain offered, of the fruits of the earth, gifts to the Lord. Abel also offered of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat: and the Lord had respect to Abel, and to his offerings. But to Cain and his offerings he had no respect: and Cain was exceedingly angry, and his countenance fell. (Genesis 4:2–5)
Noah Builds an Altar
After the Great Flood, all things having been destroyed, Noah responds to the sacerdotal spark within him and builds an altar. Man cannot be himself without an altar, without a sacrificial oblation, and without exercising his natural priesthood. Man is, by God’s unchanging design, an altar–builder, a sacrificer, and an offering.
“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord” (Genesis 8:20). While both Cain and Abel brought offerings to the Lord (Genesis 4:3), they did so without presenting them upon an altar. Noah is the first altar-builder of the Bible. He builds an altar and offers burnt offerings upon it (cf. Genesis 8:20). Thus does the mystic triad of altar, offering, and offerer appear in the Bible for the first time. Noah, his altar, and his sacrifice already foreshadow the mystery of Christ sung in the reformed Roman Missal’s magnificent fifth Preface for Paschaltide:
Christ, by the offering of His own Body,
brought to perfection the ancient sacrifices in the truth of the cross
and, in commending Himself to you for our salvation,
showed Himself to be at once the priest, the altar, and the lamb.
Earth Rising Heavenward
After Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all built altars to the Lord. In addition to being the place of sacrifices and libations, the altars built by the patriarchs marked a place of divine intervention. They localized and memorialized the encounter of man with God. Originally a mound of rocks or elevation, the altar symbolizes the earth rising above itself and straining heavenward. It is, at the same time, the place where heaven bends low to touch the earth, to receive man’s offering.
The Meaning of Sacrifice
When, in a sacrificial action, a creature is placed upon an altar, it is made over to God and given up to His hands. Jesus Himself says in Matthew 23:19 that it is, “the altar that makes the offering sacred”. It is by virtue of being placed on the altar that the offering becomes a sacrifice. Saint Augustine (in Book X of The City of God) teaches that whatsoever is placed on the altar becomes sacrificium, a thing made over to God, a thing made sacred. When the same creature is set ablaze in a holocaust, its rising smoke carries the prayer of the offerer into heaven where God takes pleasure in its fragrance.
Communion with God
The altar is the place of a mysterious exchange. The altar of the sacrifice is, at the same time, the sacred table of a mysterious at-one-ment (adunatio) with God. Offerings of food and libations become the food and drink of God; food and drink received from the altar become the means of communion with God.
Blood–Bonding
The altar is also the place of a bonding in blood. Moses takes the blood of sacrifices, pours it upon altar, and throws it over the people (cf. Exodus 24:5-8). Altar-blood becomes the blood of a covenant, the blood-bond between God and the people. “And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. . . . And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with these words” (Exodus 24:6-8).
An Altar You Shall Make for Me
In Exodus, the Lord speaks to Moses amidst thunders, lightnings, thick cloud, and trumpet blast (Ex 20:18), giving instruction on how to build an altar: “An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. And if you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool upon it you profane it” (Ex 20:24-5). Later, the Lord requires a portable “tabernacle of the tent of meeting” (Ex 39:32), a sign that He dwells in the midst of His people even as they journey in the wilderness. At the center of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting stands the altar. The Lord prescribes the form of this portable altar. “You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad; the altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits” (Ex 27:1).
A History of Altars
In some way, the history of the Chosen People is a history of altars. The building of multiple altars marks a movement toward the one altar of the the one God that, in the temple of Jerusalem, will be the sign of the one worship offered by God’s one people. The religious life of Israel revolves around the altar. The prophet Ezekiel describes in detail the temple altar and its fittings (cf. Ezechiel 43:13-17). While the Levites will be charged with ordering the service of God in a more general way, the Aaronic priesthood will be centered exclusively on the service of the altar (cf. Numbers 3:6-10 and 1 Chronicles 6:48-49).
The Body of Christ
The one altar of the one temple, in turn, points to Christ. The true and indestructible altar is the Body of Christ Himself, covered with the outpouring of His Precious Blood. True God and true Man, Jesus, raised high on the wood of the Cross, fulfills the mystery signified in every mound of rock and earth straining heavenward to receive the descending glory of God. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself” (John 12:32). Christ, being our true Communion Sacrifice, establishes in the blood-bond of His new and everlasting covenant those who drink from the chalice offered in thanksgiving to God at the altar.
Christ the Altar
It is in this sense that the tradition speaks of the altar as Christ. The altar signifies Christ because His Body is the one altar of Christians, the one altar of the Church, the one altar of the cosmos, covered with the Blood of the Lamb. The altars we build are sacred signs pointing to Christ, the one altar upon which all men can be consecrated, the one altar from which ascends the “worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24) that the Father seeks.
Consecration of the Altar
The consecration of the altar is the high point of the rite of the Dedication of a Church. The altar is anointed lavishly with Holy Chrism, making it a sign of Christ, the Anointed of the Father. The smoke of burning incense rises from the altar itself; it is the prayer of Christ and of the Church ascending to the Father in the sweet fragrance of the Holy Spirit. The altar is clothed in holy vesture; more than merely functional or even festive table linens, the altar cloth signifies the splendor of the risen Christ in the midst of the Church. “The Lord has reigned; He is clothed with beauty” (Psalm 92:1). The illumination of the altar with candles evokes the gladsome radiance of Christ; all who look to the altar and all who approach it reflect something of the light of Christ. “Look towards Him” says the psalm, “and be radiant” (Psalm 33:6). Worked into the base of the altar, beneath the holy table itself, is a miniature sepulchre prepared for the relics of the saints. Thus does the altar signify Christ the Head’s indissoluble union with the members of His Mystical Body.
Overshadowed by the Holy Spirit
The altar is often considered in relation to Christ; less frequently is it seen as the rock from which the Holy Spirit flows to irrigate the Church and make her fruitful. In every celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Holy Spirit overshadows the altar, the offerings placed on it, and the people assembled around it. Even outside of Mass the altar remains a sign and pledge of the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.
Theology of the Altar
A primary source for any theology — and for any spirituality — of the altar is the proper Mass given in the Roman Missal for the Dedication of an Altar. The Preface, in particular, deserves to be studied, repeated, and held in the heart:
It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God,
through Christ our Lord.
He is the true priest and He is the victim
who offered Himself to you on the altar of the cross
and commanded us ceaselessly to celebrate
the memorial of that sacrifice.
And so your people have built this altar
which we dedicate to you with surpassing joy.
Here is the true high place
where the sacrifice of Christ is continually offered in mystery;
here perfect praise is given to you;
here our redemption is set forth.
Here is made ready the table of the Lord
where your children are refreshed by the Body of Christ
and gathered into the Church one and holy.
Here your faithful drink deeply of the Spirit
from the streams of water flowing from Christ the spiritual rock;
through Him they themselves become a holy oblation, a living altar.
Therefore, Lord, with all the Angels and Saints,
we praise you, singing in joy.
Veneration of the Altar
We express this rich significance of the altar and impress it upon ourselves by means of certain prescribed gestures. Clergy and laity alike, passing before the altar, venerate it with a profound bow; if the Blessed Sacrament is reserved there, one genuflects. The priest and deacon kiss the altar upon arriving in the sanctuary and before leaving it. In the traditional rite of Holy Mass the priest kisses the altar frequently; these repeated kisses signify the desire of the priest — representing both Christ the Bridegroom and the whole bridal Body of His Church — for the fruitful consummation of their sacramental union. The suppression of the repeated kissing of the altar in the Novus Ordo is a cold rationalistic innovation foreign to the language of love in which one or even two kisses are not enough.
The incensation of the altar at Lauds during the Benedictus (Canticle of Zechariah), at Vespers during the Magnificat (Canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary), and at several key moments during Mass evokes the mystery of Christ through whom every prayer of ours ascends to the Father and through whom every “grace and heavenly blessing” (Roman Canon) descend to us.
The Heart of Ecclesial and Missionary Life
The altar at the heart of our churches is, in the deepest sense, the heart of the Church. Man becomes his true self only in relation to the altar of the Holy Sacrifice. “I will come to the altar of God, the God of my joy” (Ps 42:4). Man cannot become his true self, his best self, the eucharistic, sacerdotal, and oblative self that God wills him to be, apart from actual participation in the Holy Sacrifice of Mass.
To be continued.
18. While he spoke these things to them, behold, there came a certain ruler; and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay your hand upon her, and she shall live.
19. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.
20. And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:
21. For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
22. But Jesus turned him about, and when He saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; your faith has made you whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.
CHRYS; After His instructions He adds a miracle, which should mightily discomfit the Pharisees, because He who came to beg this miracle, was a ruler of the synagogue, and the mourning was great, for she was his only child, and of the age of twelve years, that is, when the flower of youth begins; While he spoke these things to them, behold there came one of their chief men to him.
AUG; This narrative is given both by Mark and Luke, but in a quite different order; namely, when after the casting out of time demons and their entrance into the swine, he had returned across the lake from the country of the Gerasenes. Now Mark does indeed tell us that this happened after He had crossed the lake, but how long after He does not determine. Unless there had been some interval of time, that could not have taken place that Matthew relates concerning the feast in his house. After this, immediately follows that concerning the ruler of the synagogue's daughter. If the ruler came to Him while He was yet speaking that of the new patch, and the new wine, then no other act of speech of his intervened. And in Mark's account, the place where these things might come in, is evident. In like manner, Luke does not contradict Matthew; for what he adds, And behold a man, whose name was Jairus, is not to be taken as though it followed instantly what had been related before, but after that feast with the Publicans, as Matthew relates. While he spoke these things to them, behold, one of their chief men, namely, Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, came to him, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, my daughter is even now dead. It should be observed, lest there should seem to be some discrepancy, that the other two Evangelists represent her as at the point of death, but yet not dead, but so as afterwards to say that there came afterwards some saying, She is dead, trouble not the Master, for Matthew for the sake of shortness represents the Lord as having been asked at first to do that which it is manifest He did do, namely, raise the dead. He looks not at the words of the father respecting his daughter, but rather his mind. For he had so far despaired of her life, that he made his request rather for her to be called to life again, thinking it impossible that she, whom he had left dying, should be found yet alive. The other two then have given Jairus' words; Matthew has put what he wished and thought. Indeed had either of them related that it was the father himself that said that Jesus should not be troubled for she was now dead, in that case the words that Matthew has given would not have corresponded with the thoughts of the ruler. But we do not read that he agreed with the messengers. Hence we learn a thing of the highest necessity, that we should look at nothing in any man's words, but his meaning to which his words ought to be subservient; and no man gives a false account when he repeats a man's meaning in words other than those actually used.
CHRYS; Or; The ruler says, she is dead, exaggerating his calamity. As it is time manner of those that prefer a petition to magnify their distresses, and to represent them as something more than they really are, in order to gain the compassion of those to whom they make supplication; whence he adds, But come and lay your hand upon her, and she shall live. See his dullness. He begs two things of Christ, to come, and to lay His hand upon her. This was what Naaman the Syrian required of the Prophet. For they who are constituted thus hard of heart have need of sight and things sensible.
REMIG; We ought to admire and at the same time to imitate the humility and mercifulness of the Lord; as soon as ever He was asked, He rose to follow him that asked; And Jesus rose, and followed him. Here is instruction both for such as are in command, and such as are in subjection. To these He has left an example of obedience; to those who are set over others He shows how earnest and watchful they should be in teaching; whenever they hear of any being dead in spirit, they should hasten to Him; And his disciples went with him.
CHRYS; Mark and Luke say that He took with Him three disciples only, namely, Peter, James, and John; He took not Matthew, to quicken his desires, and because he was yet not perfectly minded; and for this reason He honors these three, that others may become like-minded. It was enough meanwhile for Matthew to see the things that were done respecting her that had the issue of blood, concerning whom it follows; And, behold, a woman who had suffered an issue of blood twelve years, came behind and touched the hem of his garment.
JEROME; This woman that had the flux came to the Lord not in the house, nor in the town, for she was excluded from them by the Law, but by the way as He walked; thus as He goes to heal one woman, another is cured.
CHRYS; She came not to Christ with an open address through shame concerning this her disease, believing herself unclean; for in the Law this disease was esteemed highly unclean. For this reason she hides herself.
REMIG; in which her humility must be praised, that she came not before His face, but behind, and judged herself unworthy to touch the Lord's feet, yea, she touched not His whole garment, but the hem only; for the Lord wore a hem according to the command of the Law . So the Pharisees also wore hems which they made large, and in some they inserted thorns. But the Lord's hem was not made to wound, but to heal, and therefore it follows, For she said within herself, If I can but touch his garment, I shall be made whole. How wonderful her faith, that though she despaired of healing from the physicians, on whom notwithstanding she had exhausted her living, she received that a heavenly Physician was at hand, and therefore bent her whole soul on Him; whence she deserved to be healed; But Jesus turning and seeing her, said, Be of good cheer, daughter, your faith has made you whole.
RABAN; What is this that He bids her, Be of good cheer, seeing if she had not had faith, she would not have sought healing of Him? He requires of her strength and perseverance, that she may come to a sure and certain salvation.
CHRYS; Or because the woman was fearful, therefore He said, Be of good cheer. He calls her daughter, for her faith had made her such.
JEROME; He said not, Your faith shall make you whole, but, has made you whole; for in that you have believed, thou art already made whole.
CHRYS; She had not yet a perfect mind respecting Christ, or she would not have supposed that she could be hid from Him; but Christ would not suffer her to go away unobserved, not that He sought fame, but for many reasons. First, He relieves the woman's fear, that she should not be pricked in her conscience as though she had stolen this boon; secondly, He corrects her error in supposing she could be hid from Him; thirdly, He displays her faith to all for their imitation; and fourthly, He did a miracle, in that He showed He knew all things, no less than in drying the fountain of her blood. It follows, And the woman was made whole from that hour.
GLOSS; This must be understood as the time in which she touched the hem of His garment, not in which Jesus turned to her; for she was already healed, as the other Evangelists testify, and as may be inferred from the Lord's words.
HILARY; Herein is to be observed the marvelous virtue of the Lord, that the power that dwelt in His body should give healing to things perishable, and the heavenly energy extended even through the hems of His garments; for God is not comprehensible that He should be shut in by a body, for His taking a body to Him did not confine His power, but His power took upon it a frail body for our redemption. Figuratively, this ruler is to be understood as the Law, which prays the Lord that He would restore life to the dead multitude which it had brought up for Christ, preaching that His coming was to be looked for.
RABAN; Or; The ruler of the synagogue signifies Moses; he is named Jairus, ' illuminating,' or, ' that shall illuminate,' because he received the words of life to give to us, and by them enlightens all, being himself enlightened by the Holy Spirit. The daughter of the ruler, that is, the synagogue itself, being as it were in the twelfth year of its age, that is, in the season of puberty, when it should have borne spiritual progeny to God, fell into the sickness of error. While then the Word of God is hastening to this ruler's daughter to make whole the sons of Israel, a holy Church is gathered from among the Gentiles, which while it was perishing by inward corruption, received by faith that healing that was prepared for others. It should be noted, that the ruler's daughter was twelve years old, and this woman had been twelve years afflicted; thus she had begun to be diseased at the very time the other was born, so in one and the same age the synagogue had its birth among the Patriarchs, and the nations without began to be polluted with the pest of idolatry. For the issue of blood may be taken in two ways, either for the pollution of idolatry, or for obedience to the pleasures of flesh and blood. Thus as long as the synagogue flourished, the Church languished; the falling away of the first was made the salvation of the Gentiles. Also the Church draws nigh and touches the Lord, when it approaches Him in faith. She believed, spoke her belief; and touched, for by these three things, faith, word, and deed, all salvation is gained. She came behind Him, as He spoke, If any one serve me, let him follow me; or because, not having seen the Lord present in the flesh, when the sacraments of His incarnation were fulfilled, she came at length to the grace of the knowledge of Him. Thus also she touched the hem of His garment, because the Gentiles, though they had not seen Christ in the flesh, received the tidings of His incarnation. The garment of Christ is put for the mystery of His incarnation, wherewith His Deity is clothed; the hem of His garment are the words that hang upon His incarnation. She touches not the garment, but the hem thereof; because she saw not the Lord in the flesh but received the word of the incarnation through the Apostles. Blessed is he that touches but the uttermost part of the word by faith. She is healed while the Lord is not in the city, but while the Lord is yet on the way; as the Apostles cried, Because you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. And from the time of the Lord's coming the Gentiles began to be healed.
23. And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,
24. He said to them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleeps. And they laughed him to scorn.
25. But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.
26. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.
GLOSS; After the healing of the woman with the issue of blood, follows the raising of the dead; And when Jesus was come into the ruler's house.
CHRYS; We may suppose that He proceeded slowly, and spoke longer to the woman whom He had healed, that He might suffer the maid to die and thus an evident miracle of restoring to life might be wrought. In the case of Lazarus also He waited till the third day And when he saw the minstrels and the people making a noise; this was proof of her death.
AMBROSE; For by the ancient custom minstrels were engaged to make lamentation for the dead.
CHRYS; But Christ put forth all the pipers, but took in the parents, that it might not be said that He had healed her by any other means; and before the restoring to life He excites their expectations by His words. And he said, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleeps.
BEDE; As though He had said To you she is dead, but to God who has power to give life, she sleeps only both in soul and body.
CHRYS; By this saying, He soothes the minds of those that. were present, and shows that it is easy to Him to raise the dead; the like He did in the case of Lazarus, Our friend Lazarus sleeps. This was also a lesson to them not to be afraid of death; forasmuch as He Himself also should die, He made His disciples learn in the persons of others confidence and patient endurance of death. For when He was near, death was but as sleep. When He had said this, They mocked him. And he did not rebuke their mocking; that this mocking, and the pipes and all other things, might be a proof of her death. For often times at His miracles when men would not believe, He convicted them by their own answers; as in the case of Lazarus when He said, Where have you laid him? so that they that answered, Come and see, and, He stinks, for he has now been dead four days, could no longer disbelieve that He had raised a dead man.
JEROME; They that had mocked the Reviver were not worthy to behold the mystery of the revival; and therefore it follows, And when the multitude was put forth, he entered, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.
CHRYS; He restored her to life not by bringing in another soul, but by recalling that which had departed, and as it were raising it from sleep, and through this sight preparing the way for belief of the resurrection. And He not only restores her to life, but commands food to be given her, as the other Evangelists relate, that that which was done might be seen to be no delusion. And the fame of it went abroad into all that country.
GLOSS. The fame, namely, of the greatness and novelty of the miracle, and its established truth; so that it could not be supposed to be a forgery.
HILARY; Mystically; The Lord enters the ruler's house, that is, the synagogue, throughout which there resounded in the songs of the Law a strain of wailing.
JEROME; To this day the damsel lays dead in the ruler's house; and they that seem to be teachers are but minstrels singing funeral dirges. The Jews also are not the crowd of believers, but of people making a noise. But when the fullness of the Gentiles shall come in, then all Israel shall be saved.
HILARY; But that the number of the elect. might be known to be but few out of the whole body of believers, the multitude is put forth; the Lord indeed would that they should be saved, but they mocked at His sayings and actions, and so were not worthy to be made partakers of His resurrection.
JEROME; He took her by the hand, and the maid arose; because if the hands the Jews which are detailed with blood be not first cleansed, their synagogue which is dead shall not revive.
HILARY; His fame went about into all that country; that is the salvation of the elect, the gift and works of Christ are preached.
RABAN; Morally; The damsel dead in the house is the soul dead in thought. He says that she is asleep, because they that are now asleep in sin may yet be roused by penitence. The minstrels are flatterers who cherish the dead.
GREG; The multitude are put forth that the damsel may be raised; for unless the multitude of worldly cares is first banished from the secrets of the heart, the soul which is laid dead within, cannot rise again.
RABAN; The maiden is raised in the house with few to witness, the young man without the gate, and Lazarus in the presence of many; for a public scandal requires a public expiation; a less notorious, a lesser remedy; and secret sins may be done away by penitence.
Catena Aurea Matthew 9
