Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings 8-October-2022

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

11:27–28

27. And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.

28. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

BEDE. While the Scribes and Pharisees were tempting our Lord, and uttering blasphemies against Him, a certain woman with great boldness confessed His incarnation, as it follows, And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, &c. by which she refutes both the calumnies of the rulers present, and the unbelief of future heretics. For as then by blaspheming the works of the Holy Spirit, the Jews denied the true Son of God, so in after times the heretics, by denying that the Evervirgin Mary, by the cooperating power of the Holy Spirit, ministered of the substance of her flesh to the birth of the only-begotten Son, have said, that we ought not to confess Him who was the Son of man to be truly of the same substance with the Father. But if the flesh of the Word of God, who was born according to the flesh, is declared alien to the flesh of His Virgin Mother, what cause is there why the womb which bare Him and the paps which gave Him suck are pronounced blessed? By what reasoning do they suppose Him to be nourished by her milk, from whose seed they deny Him to be conceived? Whereas according to the physicians, from one and the same fountain both streams are proved to flow. But the woman pronounces blessed not only her who was thought worthy to give birth from her body to the Word of God, but those also who have desired by the hearing of faith spiritually to conceive the same Word, and by diligence in good works, either in their own or the hearts of their neighbours, to bring it forth and nourish it; for it follows, But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. 44. in Matt.) In this answer He sought not to disown His mother, but to shew that His birth would have profited her nothing, had she not been really fruitful in works and faith. But if it profited Mary nothing that Christ derived His birth from her, without the inward virtue of her heart, much less will it avail us to have a virtuous father, brother, or son, while we ourselves are strangers to virtue.

BEDE. But she was the mother of God, and therefore indeed blessed, in that she was made the temporal minister of the Word becoming incarnate; yet therefore much more blessed that she remained the eternal keeper of the same ever to be beloved Word. But this expression startles the wise men of the Jews, who sought not to hear and keep the word of God, but to deny and blaspheme it.

Catena Aurea Luke 11

St. Pelagia

Feast day: Oct 08

St. Pelagia was head of a dance troupe in Palestinian Antioch, and lived a life of frivolity and prostitution. One day while she was still a dancer, Pelagia was passing by a church dressed with her very elegant and provocative clothing. Bishop Nonnus of Edessa was preaching at that moment. Even though the parishioners turned their faces away from the sinner, the Bishop noticed her great outer beauty and spiritual greatness. Later that day, he prayed in his cell for the sinner and learned that as she took care of the adornment of her body to appear beautiful, he and his fellow priests should put more work in adorning their wretched souls.

The following day Pelagia went to hear St. Nonnos preach. He was talking about the Last Judgement and its consequences. She was so moved and impressed with the sermon, that with tears of repentance in her eyes, she asked the Bishop to baptize her. Seeing the sincerity of her wishes and repentance, he agreed.

That same night the devil appeared to Pelagia urging her to return to her former life. She started praying and signed herself with the Sign of the Cross, after which the devil vanished.

She gave all her wealth and valuables to St. Nonnos so that he could distribute them and give them to aid the poor. The bishop then ordered their distribution and said: "Let this be wisely dispersed, so that these riches gained by sin may become a wealth of righteousness." She left Antioch dressed in man’s clothes.

After that, she journeyed to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where she became a hermitess and lived in a cell disguised as the monk Pelagius. There she lived in great austerity, performing many penances in a ascetic seclusion which helped her attain many spiritual gifts. At her death she was buried in her cell. She was known as “the beardless monk” until her sex was discovered when she died.

Even though a young teenager existed and suffered martyrdom at Antioch back in the fourth century, the story described here is a pious fiction that eventually helped arise more similar stories but under different names.

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NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY (RSV)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

From: Galatians 3:22-29

The Law and the Promise (Continuation)
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[22] But the scripture consigned all things to sin, that what was promised to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. [23] Now before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. [24] So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. [25] But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; [26] For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. [27] For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. [28] There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [29] And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

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Commentary:

21-25. "But the scripture consigned all things to sin": it is not easy to understand this phrase but its meaning becomes clearer in the context of the whole passage: God reveals that all men are under the power of sin, Jews as well as Gentiles, despite the Jews having received the Law (cf. Rom 3:10-18). The reason this is so is, again, the inability of the Law to confer justification; the Law had no power to free us from the devil, sin or death. But now, in the fullness of time, God's purpose in giving the Law is made manifest -- namely, to protect and guide mankind during its minority, rather as a governess or tutor looks after a child until he has grown up. The tutor keeps an eye on the child: the child cannot do whatever he likes but must be guided by his teacher. And so it is with mankind: it was a minor, of whom the Law was the custodian, so to speak; but when the fullness of time came God sent his son Jesus Christ, who set us free from sin, from death and from the Law itself, our tutor. That is why the Apostle says, "Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian." This faith is the new life which has taken over from the harsh discipline of the Law.

To us, centuries later, these arguments and teachings of St Paul's may seem irrelevant. We need to put ourselves in the position of a Jew of his time -- a zealous upholder of the Law, and yet unable to cope with the sheer weight of all its precepts and accretions -- who, now that he has converted to faith in Christ, has a real sense of liberation: he has been freed from all his old shackles and is now eager to show his former Jewish brothers that they too can attain the same freedom in Christ Jesus.

24. The Law, like the whole of the Old Testament, had this function in relation to the New -- to prepare the way for its promulgation. Everything in the books of the Old Testament refers directly or indirectly to our Lord Jesus Christ and his work of redemption: the two Testaments are intimately connected, as Tradition teaches and the Second Vatican Council reminds us: "God, the inspirer and author of the books of both Testaments, in his wisdom has so brought it about that the New should be hidden in the Old and that the Old should be made manifest in the New. For, although Christ founded the New Covenant in his blood (cf. Lk 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25), still the books of the Old Testament, all of them caught up into the Gospel message, attain and show forth their full meaning in the New Testament (cf. Mt 5:17, Lk 24:27; Rom 16:25-26; 2 Cor 3:14-16) and, in their turn, shed light on it and explain it" ("Dei Verbum", 16).

27. St John of Avila, commenting on this passage, says, "The Holy Spirit was not content with saying that we are bathed and anointed: here he says that we are clothed, and the clothing we are given is not just something beautiful and costly: it is Jesus Christ himself, who is the sum total of all beauty, all value, all richness, etc. What he means is that the beauty of Jesus Christ, his justice, his grace, his riches, his splendor, shine out from us with the splendor of the sun and is reflected as in the purest of mirrors" ("Lecciones Sobre Gal, ad loc.").

St Paul uses this metaphor of our being decked out in Christ in many other passages (cf. Rom 13:14; 1 Cor 15:43; Eph 4:24; 6:11; Col 3:10; etc.) to describe the intimate union between the baptized person and Christ, a union so intense that the Christian can be said to be "another Christ".

28. In the order of nature, it may be said, all men are radically equal: as descendants of Adam, we are born in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26-27). The different functions which people have in the life of society do not alter this basic, natural equality. From this point of view there is no real difference, nor should there be, between one person and another, no difference even between man and woman: both are made in the image and likeness of God.

In the order of grace, which the Redemption inaugurates, this essential, original equality was restored by Christ, who became man and died on the Cross to save all. John Paul II points out that this true meaning of the dignity of man is enhanced by the Redemption: "In the mystery of the Redemption man becomes newly 'expressed' and, in a way, is newly created. He is newly created! 'There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus' (Gal 3:28). The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly--and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being--must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into him with all his own self, he must 'appropriate' and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself" ("Redemptor Hominis", 10)

From this radical equality of all men is derived that universal fraternity which should govern human relations: "Our Lord has come to bring peace, good news and life to all. Not only to the rich, nor only to the poor. Not only to the wise, nor only to the simple. To everyone. To the brethren, for brothers we are, children of the same Father, God. So there is only one race, the race of the children of God. There is only one color, the color of the children of God. And there is only one language, the language which speaks to the heart and to the mind, without the noise of words, making us know God and love one another" (St J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 106).

From: Luke 11:27-28

Responding to the Word of God
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[27] As He (Jesus) said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts that You sucked!" [28] But He said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

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Commentary:

27-28. These words proclaim and praise the Blessed Virgin's basic attitude of soul. As the Second Vatican Council explains: "In the course of her Son's preaching she [Mary] received the words whereby, in extolling a Kingdom beyond the concerns and ties of flesh and blood, He declared blessed those who heard and kept the word of God (cf. Mark 3:35; Luke 11:27-28) as she was faithfully doing (cf. Luke 2:19_51)" ("Lumen Gentium", 58). Therefore, by replying in this way Jesus is not rejecting the warm praise this good lady renders His Mother; He accepts it and goes further, explaining that Mary is blessed particularly because she has been good and faithful in putting the word of God into practice. "It was a complement to His Mother on her "fiat", `be it done' (Luke 1:38). She lived it sincerely, unstintingly, fulfilling its every consequence, but never amid fanfare, rather in the hidden and silent sacrifice of each day" (St J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 177). See the note on Luke 1:34-38.

[Note on Luke 1:34-38 states: 34-38. Commenting on this passage John Paul II said: "`Virgo fidelis', the faithful Virgin. What does this faithfulness of Mary mean? What are the dimensions of this faithfulness? The first dimension is called search. Mary was faithful first of all when she began, lovingly, to seek the deep sense of God's plan in her and for the world. `Quomodo fiet?' How shall this be?, she asked the Angel of the Annunciation [...]."

"The second dimension of faithfulness is called reception, acceptance. The `quomodo fiet?' is changed, on Mary's lips, to a `fiat': Let it be done, I am ready, I accept. This is the crucial moment of faithfulness, the moment in which man perceives that he will never completely understand the `how': that there are in God's plan more areas of mystery than of clarity; that is, however he may try, he will never succeed in understanding it completely [...]."

"The third dimension of faithfulness is consistency to live in accordance with what one believes; to adapt one's own life to the object of one's adherence. To accept misunderstanding, persecutions, rather than a break between what one practises and what one believes: this is consistency [...]."

"But all faithfulness must pass the most exacting test, that of duration. Therefore, the fourth dimension of faithfulness is constancy. It is easy to be consistent for a day or two. It is difficult and important to be consistent for one's whole life. It is easy to be consistent in the hour of enthusiasm, it is difficult to be so in the hour of tribulation. And only a consistency that lasts throughout the whole life can be called faithfulness. Mary's `fiat' in the Annunciation finds its fullness in the silent `fiat' that she repeats at the foot of the Cross" ("Homily in Mexico City Cathedral", 26 January 1979). ]

Source: Daily Word for Reflection—Navarre Bible Commentary

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Luke
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	Luke 11
27.	And it came to pass, as he spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck.	Factum est autem, cum hæc diceret : extollens vocem quædam mulier de turba dixit illi : Beatus venter qui te portavit, et ubera quæ suxisti.	εγενετο δε εν τω λεγειν αυτον ταυτα επαρασα τις γυνη φωνην εκ του οχλου ειπεν αυτω μακαρια η κοιλια η βαστασασα σε και μαστοι ους εθηλασας
28.	But he said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.	At ille dixit : Quinimmo beati, qui audiunt verbum Dei et custodiunt illud.	αυτος δε ειπεν μενουνγε μακαριοι οι ακουοντες τον λογον του θεου και φυλασσοντες αυτον

Readings at Mass

There are no more distinctions: all are one in Christ Jesus

'Happy the womb that bore you and the breasts you sucked!'

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

St. Pelagia

Feast day: Oct 08