Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you,

I lead you in the way that you must go.

If only you had been alert to my commandments,

your happiness would have been like a river,

your integrity like the waves of the sea.

Your children would have been numbered like the sand,

your descendants as many as its grains.

Never would your name have been cut off or blotted out before me.

Anyone who follows you, O Lord, will have the light of life.

Happy indeed is the man

who follows not the counsel of the wicked;

nor lingers in the way of sinners

nor sits in the company of scorners,

but whose delight is the law of the Lord

and who ponders his law day and night.

Anyone who follows you, O Lord, will have the light of life.

He is like a tree that is planted

beside the flowing waters,

that yields its fruit in due season

and whose leaves shall never fade;

and all that he does shall prosper.

Anyone who follows you, O Lord, will have the light of life.

Not so are the wicked, not so!

For they like winnowed chaff

shall be driven away by the wind:

for the Lord guards the way of the just

but the way of the wicked leads to doom.

Anyone who follows you, O Lord, will have the light of life.

See, the king, the Lord of the world, will come.

He will free us from the yoke of our bondage.

The Lord will come, go out to meet him.

Great is his beginning and his reign will have no end.

Jesus spoke to the crowds: ‘What description can I find for this generation? It is like children shouting to each other as they sit in the market place:

“We played the pipes for you,

and you wouldn’t dance;

and you wouldn’t be mourners.”

‘For John came, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He is possessed.” The Son of Man came, eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Yet wisdom has been proved right by her actions.’

If anyone wants to boast, let him boast of the Lord. It is not the man who commends himself that can be accepted, but the man who is commended by the Lord.

I only wish you were able to tolerate a little foolishness from me. But of course: you are tolerant towards me. You see, the jealousy that I feel for you is God’s own jealousy: I arranged for you to marry Christ so that I might give you away as a chaste virgin to this one husband.

Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

Be a rock of refuge for me,

a mighty stronghold to save me,

for you are my rock, my stronghold.

For your name’s sake, lead me and guide me.

Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

Into your hands I commend my spirit.

It is you who will redeem me, Lord.

As for me, I trust in the Lord:

let me be glad and rejoice in your love.

Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

My life is in your hands, deliver me

from the hands of those who hate me.

Let your face shine on your servant.

Save me in your love.

Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

This is the wise virgin whom the Lord found watching;

she went in to the wedding feast with him when he came.

Jesus told this parable to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of heaven will be like this: Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were sensible: the foolish ones did take their lamps, but they brought no oil, whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps. The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight there was a cry, “The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him.” At this, all those bridesmaids woke up and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, “Give us some of your oil: our lamps are going out.” But they replied, “There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves.” They had gone off to buy it when the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed. The other bridesmaids arrived later. “Lord, Lord,” they said “open the door for us.” But he replied, “I tell you solemnly, I do not know you.” So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.’

In England, Wales and Scotland, the translation of the readings used at Mass has changed. Your current calendar setting is “United States”, so you have not been affected by this change.

This message will disappear at the end of December.

For your reading, reflection, faith-sharing, comments, questions, discussion.

1 posted on 12/14/2024 12:44:40 PM PST by annalex

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2 posted on 12/14/2024 12:47:04 PM PST by annalex (fear them not)

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Matthew
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	Matthew 11
16.	But whereunto shall I esteem this generation to be like? It is like to children sitting in the market place.	Cui autem similem æstimabo generationem istam ? Similis est pueris sedentibus in foro : qui clamantes coæqualibus	τινι δε ομοιωσω την γενεαν ταυτην ομοια εστιν παιδιοις εν αγοραις καθημενοις και προσφωνουσιν τοις εταιροις αυτων
17.	Who crying to their companions say: We have piped to you, and you have not danced: we have lamented, and you have not mourned.	dicunt : Cecinimus vobis, et non saltastis : lamentavimus, et non planxistis.	και λεγουσιν ηυλησαμεν υμιν και ουκ ωρχησασθε εθρηνησαμεν υμιν και ουκ εκοψασθε
18.	For John came neither eating nor drinking; and they say: He hath a devil.	Venit enim Joannes neque manducans, neque bibens, et dicunt : Dæmonium habet.	ηλθεν γαρ ιωαννης μητε εσθιων μητε πινων και λεγουσιν δαιμονιον εχει
19.	The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say: Behold a man that is a glutton and a wine drinker, a friend of publicans and sinners. And wisdom is justified by her children.	Venit Filius hominis manducans, et bibens, et dicunt : Ecce homo vorax, et potator vini, publicanorum et peccatorum amicus. Et justificata est sapientia a filiis suis.	ηλθεν ο υιος του ανθρωπου εσθιων και πινων και λεγουσιν ιδου ανθρωπος φαγος και οινοποτης τελωνων φιλος και αμαρτωλων και εδικαιωθη η σοφια απο των τεκνων αυτης

"προσφωνουσιν τοις εταιροις αυτων" ("crying to their companions") begins verse 17 in Douay.

4 posted on 12/14/2024 12:48:24 PM PST by annalex (fear them not)

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

Matthew CHAP. 11

11:16–19

16. But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows,

17. And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.

18. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.

19. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of Publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.

HILARY. The whole of this speech is a reproach of unbelief, and arises out of the foregoing complaint; that the stiff-necked people had not learned by two different modes of teaching.

CHRYSOSTOM. Whence He puts this question, shewing that nothing had been omitted that ought to be done for their salvation, saying, To whom shall I liken this generation?

GLOSS. (ap. Anselm.) By this generation He means the Jews together with Himself and John. As though He had said; John is thus great; but ye would believe neither him nor Me, and therefore to whom shall I liken you?

REMIGIUS. And straightway He answers Himself, saying, It is like unto children sitting in the market-place, crying unto their fellows, and saying, We have played music to you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned, and ye have not lamented.

HILARY. By the children are meant the Prophets, who preached as children in singleness of meaning, and in the midst of the synagogue, that is in the market-place, reprove them, that when they played to those to whom they had devoted the service of their body, they had not obeyed their words, as the movement of the dancers are regulated by the measures of the music. For the Prophets invited them to make confession by song to God, as it is contained in the song of Moses, of Isaiah, or of David.

JEROME. They say therefore, We have flayed music to you, and ye have not danced; i. e. We have called on you to work good works to our songs, and ye would not. We have lamented and called you to repentance, and this ye would not, rejecting both preaching, as well of exhortation to virtue, as of repentance for sin.

REMIGIUS. What is that He says, To their fellows? Were the unbelieving Jews then fellows of the Prophets? He speaks thus only because they were sprung of one stock.

JEROME. The children are they of whom Isaiah speaks, Behold I, and the children whom the Lord has given me. (Is. 8:18) These children then sit in the market-place, where are many things for sale, and say,

CHRYSOSTOM. We have played music to you, and ye have not danced; that is, I have shewed you an unrestricted life, and ye are not convinced; We have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented; that is, John lived a hard life, and ye heeded him not. Yet does not he speak one thing, and I another, but both speak the same thing, because both have one and the same object. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a dæmon. The Son of man came &c.

AUGUSTINE. (Cont. Faust. xvi. 31.) I would that the Manichæans would tell me what Christ ate and drank, who here speaks of Himself as eating and drinking in comparison of John, who did neither. Not indeed that John drank nothing at all, but that he drank neither wine nor strong drink—but water only. Not that he dispensed altogether with food, but that he ate only locusts and wild honey. Whence then is it said of him that he came neither eating nor drinking, except that he used not that food which the Jews used? Unless therefore the Lord had used this food, He would not have been said to have been, in comparison of John, eating and drinking. It would be strange that he who ate locusts and honey, should be said to come neither eating nor drinking, and that he who ate only bread and herbs, should be said to come eating and drinking.

CHRYSOSTOM. He says therefore, Jesus came, as much as to say, I and John came opposite ways, to do the same thing; as two hunters chasing the same animal from opposite sides, so that it might fall into the hands of one of them. But all mankind admire fasting and severity of life; and for this reason it was ordained from his infancy that John should be so brought up, that the things that he should say should receive credit. The Lord also walked in this way when He fasted forty days; but He had other means of teaching men to have confidence in Him; for it was a much greater thing that John who had walked in this way should bear witness to Him, than that He Himself should walk in that way. Again, John had nothing to shew besides his life, and his righteousness; whereas Christ had also the witness of His miracles. Leaving therefore to John the representation of fasting, He Himself walked in a contrary way, entering to the table of the publicans, and eating and drinking with them.

JEROME. If fasting then pleases you, why were you not satisfied with John? If fulness, why not with the Son of man? Yet one of these ye said had a dæmon, the other ye called a gluttonous man, and drunkard.

CHRYSOSTOM. What excuse then shall be given for them? Therefore He adds, And wisdom is justified of her children; that is, though ye were not convinced, yet have ye nothing whereof to accuse me, as also of the Father the Prophet speaks, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings. (Ps. 51:4.) For though nought be effected in you by that goodness which is extended to you, yet He fulfils all His part that you may not have the shadow of excuse for your ungrateful doubt.

JEROME. Wisdom is justified of her children, i. e. The dispensation or doctrine of God, or Christ Himself who is the power and wisdom of God, is proved by the Apostles, who are His children, to have done righteously.

HILARY. He is wisdom itself not by His acts, but by His nature. Many indeed evade that saying of the Apostle’s, Christ is the wisdom and power of God, (1 Cor. 1:24) by saying, that truly in creating Him of a Virgin the Wisdom and Power of God were shewn mightily. (e.g. Paul of Samosata, &c.) Therefore that this might not be so explained, He calls Himself the Wisdom of God, shewing that it was verily He, and not the deeds relating to Him, of whom this was meant. For the power itself, and the effect of that power, are not the same thing; the efficient is known from the act.

AUGUSTINE. (Quæst. Ev. ii. 11.) Or, Wisdom is justified of her children, because the holy Apostles understood that the kingdom of God was not in meat and drink, but in patient enduring; such persons neither does abundance lift up, nor want cast down, but as Paul spoke, I know how to abound, and to suffer want. (Phil. 4:12)

JEROME. Some copies read, Wisdom is justified of her works, for wisdom does not seek the witness of words, but of works.

CHRYSOSTOM. You should not be surprised at His using trite instances, such as that respecting the children; for He spoke to the weakness of His hearers; as Ezekiel spoke many things adapted to the Jews, but unworthy of the greatness of God.

HILARY. Mystically; Neither did the preaching of John bend the Jews, to whom the law seemed burdensome in prescribing meats and drinks, difficult and grievous, having in it sin which He calls having a dæmon—for from the difficulty of keeping it they must sin under the Law. Nor again did the preaching of the Gospel with freedom of life in Christ please them—by which the hardships and burdens of the Law were remitted, and publicans and sinners only believed in it. Thus, then, so many and so great warnings of all kinds having been offered them in vain, they are neither justified by the Law, and they are cast off from grace; Wisdom, therefore, is justified of her children, by those, that is, who seize the kingdom of heaven by the justification of faith, confessing the work of wisdom to be just, that it has transferred its gift from the rebellious to the faithful.

Catena Aurea Matthew 11

5 posted on 12/14/2024 12:48:51 PM PST by annalex (fear them not)

Sophia the Divine Wisdom

The Museum of Russian Art, Minneapolis

6 posted on 12/14/2024 12:49:21 PM PST by annalex (fear them not)

St. Lucy, Virgin and Martyr, Pray For Us!

Jacobello del Fiore,
“Eutychia and Lucy at the Tomb of St. Agatha,” 1410 (photo: Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain)

The Roman Emperor Diocletian’s persecution was brief but intense. St. Lucy was one of its victims.

John Grondelski, December 13, 2021 – National Catholic Register

“Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia, and all your saints …”

Lucy or Lucia is one of the seven women martyrs mentioned by name in the Roman Canon, the First Eucharistic Prayer. She and her connection with Agatha, who immediately precedes her in that list, is the subject of our painting.

Lucy died at about age 21. She lived from around 283-304, making her a contemporary of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who reigned from 284-305 and is very relevant to her life.

Diocletian unleashed the last major persecution of Christianity under the Roman Empire, before Constantine’s Edict of Milan of 313 legalized the faith. Diocletian’s persecution was brief — perhaps three years — but very intense. St. Lucy was one of its victims.

There are lots of legends surrounding Lucy, but one basic fact: the man who wanted to marry Lucy, who had consecrated herself to virginity, denounced her to the Roman governor, and she was martyred by sword in Sicily. She received Holy Communion (Viaticum) just before she died. The rest of the traditions associated with her include:

– When brought before the Roman Governor, he immediately ordered her placed in a Roman brothel. She refused, and tradition has it the soldiers could not move her. Virginity was a sure sign of being a Christian, a practice deemed “sick” and “repressed” in the Graeco-Roman world. (Sound familiar?) Then, as now, brooking Caesar’s sexual mores gets you into trouble.

– To make herself less attractive in any brothel, Lucy disfigured herself, gouging out her eyes. Another tradition holds that gouging her eyes out was among the ways Lucy was tortured. A pair of eyes on a plate are among the symbols of St. Lucy in Christian art, and that is why she is also regarded as a patroness of those with afflictions of the eye.

– She is said to have prophesied, at her sentencing to death, that Diocletian’s reign would soon be over. The next year, it was.

– It is said that the young Lucy, who came from an affluent home but had already committed herself to virginity, wanted to convince her mother, Eutychia, to give away the money she had set aside as Lucy’s dowry. Mother and daughter made a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Agatha, another Sicilian virgin martyr who died in the mid-third century during the persecution of Decius. Cured of a long-term hemorrhage (cf. Luke 8:43-48), Eutychia followed her daughter in giving to the poor. Eutychia had initially still hesitated, hoping to put the donation off, but Lucy is said to have reminded her that postmortem bequests do not show the same generosity of spirit since, in the end, you can’t take it with you, anyway, and therefore sacrifice nothing of its loss.

Today’s painting, by Jacobello del Fiore (c. 1370-1439), is entitled “Eutychia and Lucy at the Tomb of St. Agatha.” Del Fiore came from Venice, where Western and Eastern Byzantine traditions intermingled. This late Gothic painting, characteristic of that style (limited elements focused on the main theological point of the work, relatively flat, suggesting an entry to the heavenly realms by the golden background), depicts mother and daughter praying at St. Agatha’s tomb. Lucy’s affluence is noted by her gold dress, her holiness already by a halo. Eutychia’s pose is one of petition; Lucy’s, more of contemplation. St. Agatha is depicted as reaching out to touch and bless her young devotee, who already followed her in virginity and would soon follow her in death at the hands of an overweening state.

The work is one of eight scenes from the Life of St. Lucy, for which del Fiore received a commission from a church in Fermo, also show her giving her property to the poor; refusing to worship idols at the governor’s command; resisting the pull of oxen attempting to take her to a whorehouse; being burned at the stake; being pierced in the throat by a sword; receiving Viaticum; and her entombment.

“Lucy” or “Lucia” is etymologically related to “light,” and she brought the light of her faith to bear against her persecutors. It is also why, on this day, there is a tradition in Sweden of the daughter of a family rising early and, dressed in white to symbolize the virgin Lucy and wearing a crown of blazing candles, brings breakfast (usually buns or cookies) to her parents and other household members. Remember that we are among the shortest days of the year, and mornings in Scandinavia are dark. (I can attest by personal experience — I landed once in Helsinki, Finland, on Dec. 23 at 9 a.m. Dawn was just breaking.) The light of “Lucia” is a welcome sight in the dark of night.

A cultural note: the popular Italian song, “Santa Lucia,” is not directly about the saint but about the waterfront area of Naples called “Santa Lucia.” The neighborhood, however, got its name from the Minor Basilica of Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr, located there.

For further reading, see the Catholic Encyclopedia and Wikipedia.

John Grondelski (Ph.D., Fordham) is former associate dean of the School of Theology, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey. He is especially interested in moral theology and the thought of John Paul II. [Note: All views expressed in his National Catholic Register contributions are exclusively the author’s.]

ewtn.co.uk

7 posted on 12/14/2024 12:53:38 PM PST by annalex (fear them not)

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Readings at Mass

If you had been alert to my commandments, your happiness would have been like a river

They heed neither John nor the Son of Man

I arranged for you to marry Christ

The wise and foolish virgins

Nothing has changed

Universalis podcast: The week ahead – from 15 to 21 December

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

Matthew CHAP. 11

St. Lucy, Virgin and Martyr, Pray For Us!