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

History of St. Wilfrid

Wilfrid (634-709) is one of the greatest and also one of the most controversial English Saints. Born to a wealthy family in Northumberland, Wilfrid was second generation Christian. He had an interest in the things of God from a young age and went to study in Lindisfarne, a centre of Celtic Christianity, under St Aidan.

Intent on continuing his education, Wilfrid set out to travel to Rome, but was beguiled by the high lifestyle of the Archbishop of Lyon and stayed for quite a while living the high-life. Eventually he arrived in Rome about 654, when he was about 20. He stayed for a short while, but returned to Lyon where he continued his education under the patronage of the Archbishop.

At the age of about 27, Wilfrid designed a magnificent new abbey at Ripon in Yorkshire with fine stonework using skilled men he had brought from France. He directly influenced the move away from Celtic to the more orderly Roman church practices and is best known for championing and winning the case for the Roman,
as opposed to the Celtic method of calculating the date of Easter at the famous Synod of Whitby in 664.

He became Bishop of York with a See covering the whole of Northumbria. During this time, he built magnificent stone churches at Ripon and Hexham, acquired vast landholdings and established monasteries in Northumbria, Mercia, Sussex and the Isle of Wight and converted Sussex, the last vestige of paganism, to
Christianity.

He was the confidant of kings and queens but, made many powerful enemies and was twice banished from Northumbria. He made three journeys on foot and horseback through Europe to Rome and was not afraid to seek papal jurisdiction over both crown and church when he felt badly treated. His life was threatened many times: being shipwrecked and nearly killed by natives off the coast of Sussex, imprisoned in Northumbria by the king and twice nearly murdered whilst travelling abroad.

The few remaining years of his life were spent in comparative retirement, principally at Hexham and Ripon. His last public act was the consecration of Evesham Abbey; he died on his way home at his monastery at Oundle in the year 709, and was buried at Ripon.

Wilfrid was one of the most versatile and accomplished men of his own or any other age. He was a great builder, a lover of learning, and a musician; he knew how to create splendid effects through art and through religious ceremonial. He was also a founder and a builder of people as well as stones. He was, in fact, a great creative artist.

www.st-wilfrids.org

NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY (RSV)

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

First Reading:

From: Galatians 3:7-14

Justification By Faith (Continuation)
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[7] So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham. [8] And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed." [9] So then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith.

[10] For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them." [11] Now it is evident that no man is justified before God by the law; for "He who through faith is righteous shall live" ; [12] but the law does not rest on faith, for "He who does them shall live by them." [13] Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree"--[14] that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

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Commentary:

6-9. The Apostle recalls the figure of Abraham in order to show that man's justification is not the result of the material works prescribed by the Mosaic Law, but rather the result of faith in God's word. According to Gen 15:6, when God promised Abraham that he would have a son even though he was already an old man and his wife Sarah was barren, Abraham immediately took God at his word. It was this faith that justified Abraham: God had not yet established circumcision or given the Law. Therefore, St Paul argues, "it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham".

God had given the Patriarch a promise whose implications were universal: "In you shall all the nations be blessed." That promise is now being kept through the entry of the Gentiles, through faith, into the new people of God. Abraham is in effect the father of those who believe, for in him all those who would believe in Jesus Christ were already blessed.

In the same way as he justified Abraham, God justifies every man--through faith (cf. Gen 15:6; Rom 4:2ff; Jas 2:21ff). Thus, people do not become sons of the Kingdom simply because they are descendants of Abraham according to the flesh: no, they must become like him by being men of faith like him. Therefore, man's greatness in God's eyes is not a matter of blood or descent, as the Jews believed, but of divine grace, which makes us children of the blessing, children of God (cf. Jn 1:12-13).

God grants the gift of justification by faith to all who believe in his word, as Abraham did. The true imitators of Abraham, St John of Avila says, are "those who believe with loving faith, with firm and constant faith, who are so well grounded in faith that nothing, no adversity, no temptation, no ill-treatment can disconsole them or dismay them" ("Lecciones Sobre Gal, ad loc.").

10-12. In what is called the Council of Jerusalem, St Peter had said, "Why do you make trial of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?" (Acts 15: 10): the Jews could not, despite their efforts, keep the Mosaic Law--the Law which they thought justified them in God's sight. Therefore, those who place their hope of salvation in the Law are subject to the curse which the Law itself places on those who infringe it: "Cursed be he who does not confirm the words of the Law by doing them" (Deut 27:26).

The curse of the Law falls on anyone who fails to keep it, given that every commandment involves a penalty for its transgressor. That is why the Apostle argues that those who rely only on the Law are subject to the risk of being cursed, of being punished--"are under a curse". He then goes on to recall once more the passage in Habakkuk which says that "the righteous shall live by his faith" (2:4; cf. note on Rom 1:17). If the righteous or justified man lives by faith, the Apostle concludes, he does not live by the Law, for the Law does not call for faith but for fulfillment of its precepts.

13-14. Christ, who was innocent, wished to offer the Father perfect atonement and thereby blot out our sin. To this end he voluntarily turned upon himself the curse which the Law laid on its transgressors. He bore the curse of the Law on our behalf and thereby set us free from the curse. What was for our Lord punishment was for men salvation. As St Jerome puts it, "the injury suffered by the Lord is our glory. He died so that we might live; he descended into hell so that we might ascend into heaven. He became folly so that we might be reaffirmed in wisdom. He emptied himself of the fullness and form of God, taking the form of a slave, so that this divine fullness might dwell in us and we might be changed from slaves into lords. He was nailed on the Cross so that the sin committed at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil might be blotted out, once he was hung on the tree of the Cross" ("Comm. in Gal, ad loc.").

With our Lord's death, the world's redemption is achieved, God's promise is fulfilled and the blessing he gave to Abraham multiplies his posterity, making them more numerous than the stars of heaven or the sand of the seashore (cf. Gen 15:5-6; 22:17).

Gospel Reading

From: Luke 11:14-26

The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan
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[14] Now Jesus was casting out a demon that was dumb; when the demon had gone out, the man spoke, and the people marvelled. [15] But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons"; [16] while others, to test Him, sought from Him a sign from Heaven. [17] But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and house falls upon house. [18] And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. [19] And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. [20] But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. [21] When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; [22] but when one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoil. [23] He who is not with Me is against Me, and He who does not gather with Me scatters."

[24] "When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest; and finding none he says, `I will return to my house from which I came.' [25] And when he comes he finds it swept and put in order. [26] Then he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first."

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Commentary:

14-23. Jesus' enemies remain obstinate despite the evidence of the miracle. Since they cannot deny that He has done something quite extraordinary, they attribute it to the power of the devil, rather than admit that Jesus is the Messiah. Our Lord answers them with a clinching argument: the fact that He expels demons is proof that He has brought the Kingdom of God. The Second Vatican Council reminds us of this truth: The Lord Jesus inaugurated His Church by preaching the Good News, that is, the coming of the Kingdom of God, promised over the ages in the Scriptures [...]. The miracles of Jesus also demonstrate that the Kingdom has already come on earth: "If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you (Luke 11:20); cf. Matthew 12:28). But principally the Kingdom is revealed in the person of Christ Himself, Son of God and Son of Man, who came `to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many' (Mark 10:45)" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 5).

The strong man well-armed is the devil, who has enslaved man; but Jesus Christ, one stronger than he, has come and conquered him and is despoiling him. St. Paul will say that Christ "disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them" (Colossians 2:15).

After the victory of Christ the "stronger one", the words of verse 23 are addressed to mankind at large; even if people do not want to recognize it, Jesus Christ has conquered and from now on no one can adopt an attitude of neutrality towards Him: he who is not with Him is against Him.

18. Christ's argument is very clear. One of the worst evils that can overtake the Church is disunity among Christians, disunity among believers. We must make Jesus' prayer our own: "That they may be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they may also be one in us, so that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me" (John 17:21).

24-26. Our Lord shows us that the devil is relentless in his struggle against man; despite man rejecting him with the help of grace, he still lays his traps, still tries to overpower him. Knowing all this, St. Peter advises us to be sober and vigilant, because "your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith" (1 Peter 5:8-9).

Jesus also forewarns us about the danger of being once more defeated by Satan--which would leave us worse off than were before. The Latin proverb puts it very well: "corruptio optimi, pessima" (the corruption of the best is the worst.) And St. Peter, in his inspired text, inveighs against corrupt Christians, whom he compares in a graphic and frightening way to "the dog turning back to his own vomit and the sow being washed and then wallowing in the mire" (cf. 2 Peter 2:22).

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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!'

Universalis podcast: The week ahead – from 13 to 19 October

Christian Art

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

History of St. Wilfrid