Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings 11-May-2025

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

John CHAP. 10

10:22–30

22. And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.

23. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.

24. Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly,

25. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.

26. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.

27. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

28. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

29. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

30. I and my Father are one.

AUGUSTINE. (Tract. xlviii. 2) And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication. Encænia is the feast of the dedication of the temple; from the Greek word καινὸν, signifying new. The dedication of any thing new was called encænia.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxi. 1) It was the feast of the dedication of the temple, after the return from the Babylonish captivity.

ALCUIN. Or, it was in memory of the dedication under Judas Maccabeus. The first dedication was that of Solomon in the autumn; the second that of Zorobabel, and the priest Jesus in the spring. This was in winter time.

BEDE. Judas Maccabeus instituted an annual commemoration of this dedication.

THEOPHYLACT. The Evangelist mentions the time of winter, to shew that it was near His passion. He suffered in the following spring; for which reason He took up His abode at Jerusalem.

GREGORY. (i. Mor. e. 11) Or because the season of cold was in keeping with the cold malicious hearts of the Jews.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxi. 1.) Christ was present with much zeal at this feast, and thenceforth stayed 1in Judæa; His passion being now at hand. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.

ALCUIN. It is called Solomon’s porch, because Solomon went to pray there. The porches of a temple are usually named after the temple. If the Son of God walked in a temple where the flesh of brute animals was offered up, how much more will He delight to visit our house of prayer, in which His own flesh and blood are consecrated?

THEOPHYLACT. Be thou also careful, in the winter time, i. e. while yet in this stormy wicked world, to celebrate the dedication of thy spiritual temple, by ever renewing thyself, ever rising upward in heart. Then will Jesus be present with thee in Solomon’s porch, and give thee safety under His covering. (τῇ σκέπῃ αὐτοῦ) But in another life no man will be able to dedicate Himself.

AUGUSTINE. (Tract. xlviii. 3) The Jews cold in love, burning in their malevolence, approached Him not to honour, but persecute. Then came the Jews round about Him, and said unto Him, How long dost Thou make us to doubt? If Thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. They did not want to know the truth, but only to find ground of accusation.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxi) Being able to find no fault with His works, they tried to catch Him in His words. And mark their perversity. When He instructs by His discourse, they say, What sign shewest Thou? When He demonstrates by His works, they say, If Thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Either way they are determined to oppose Him. There is great malice in that speech, Tell us plainly. He had spoken plainly1, when up at the feasts, and had hid nothing. They preface however with flattery: How long dost Thou make us2 to doubt? as if they were anxious to know the truth, but really only meaning to provoke Him to say something that they might lay hold of.

ALCUIN. They accuse Him of keeping their minds in suspense and uncertainty, who had come to save their soulsa.

AUGUSTINE. (Tract. xlviii) They wanted our Lord to say, I am the Christ. Perhaps, as they had human notions of the Messiah, having failed to discern His divinity in the Prophets, they wanted Christ to confess Himself the Messiah, of the seed of David; that they might accuse Him of aspiring to the regal power.

ALCUIN. And thus they intended to give Him into the hands of the Proconsul for punishment, as an usurper against the emperor. Our Lord so managed His reply as to stop the mouths of His calumniators, open those of the believers; and to those who enquired of Him as a man, reveal the mysteries of His divinity: Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not; the works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxi. 2) He reproves their malice, for pretending that a single word would convince them, whom so many words had not. If you do not believe My works, He says, how will you believe My words? And He adds why they do not believe: But ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep.

AUGUSTINE. (Tract. xlviii. c. 4) He saw that they were persons predestinated to eternal death, and not those for whom He had bought eternal life, at the price of His blood. The sheep believe, and follow the Shepherd.

THEOPHYLACT. After He had said, Ye are not of My sheep, He exhorts them to become such: My sheep hear My voice.

ALCUIN. i. e. Obey My precepts from the heart. And I know them, and they follow Me, here by walking in gentleness and innocence, hereafter by entering the joys of eternal life: And I give unto them eternal life.

AUGUSTINE. (Tract. xlviii. 5, 6) This is the pasture of which He spoke before: And shall find pasture. Eternal life is called a goodly pasture: the grass thereof withereth not, all is spread with verdure. But these cavillers thought only of this present life. And they shall not perish eternally; (οὐ μὴ ἀπόλλυνται εἰς τὸν αἴωνα) as if to say, Ye shall perish eternally, because ye are not of My sheep.

THEOPHYLACT. But how then did Judas perish? Because he did not continue to the end. Christ speaks of them who persevere. If any sheep is separated from the flock, and wanders from the Shepherd, it incurs danger immediately.

AUGUSTINE. (Tract. xlviii. 6) And He adds why they do not perish: Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. (2 Tim. 2:19) Of those sheep of which it is said, The Lord knoweth then that are His, the wolf robbeth none, the thief taketh none, the robber killeth none. Christ is confident of their safety; and He knows what He gave up for them.

HILARY. (de Trin. vii. c. 22) This is the speech of conscious power. Yet to shew, that though of the Divine nature He hath His nativity from God, He adds, My Father which gave Me them is greater than all. He does not conceal His birth from the Father, but proclaims it. For that which He received from the Father, He received in that He was born from Him. He received it in the birth itself, not after it; though He was born when He received it.

AUGUSTINE. (Tract. xlviii) The Son, born from ever lasting of the Father, God from God, has not equality with the Father by growth, but by birth. This is that greater than all which the Father gave Himb; viz. to be His Word, to be His Only-Begotten Son, to be the brightness of His light. Wherefore no man taketh His sheep out of His hand, any more than from His Father’s hand: And no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. If by hand we understand power, the power of the Father and the Son is one, even as Their divinity is one. If we understand the Son, the Son is the hand of the Father, not in a bodily sense, as if God the Father had limbs, but as being He by Whom all things were made. Men often call other men hands, when they make use of them for any purpose. And sometimes a man’s work is itself called his hand, because made by his hand; as when a man is said to know his own hand, when he recognises his own handwriting. In this place, however, hand signifies power. If we take it for Son, we shall be in danger of imagining that if the Father has a hand, and that hand is His Son, the Son must have a Son too.

HILARY. (vii. de Trin. c. 22) The hand of the Son is spoken of as the hand of the Father, to let thee see, by a bodily representation, that both have the same nature, that the nature and virtue of the Father is in the Son also.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxi) Then that thou mayest not suppose that the Father’s power protects the sheep, while He is Himself too weak to do so, He adds, I and My Father are one.

AUGUSTINE. (Tract. xxxvi. non occ.) Mark both those words, one and are, and thou wilt be delivered from Scylla and Charybdis. In that He says, one the Arian, in we are the Sabellian, is answered. There are both Father and Son. And if one, then there is no difference of persons between them.

AUGUSTINE. (vii. de Trin. c. 2) We are one. What He is, that am I, in respect of essence, not of relation.

HILARY. (viii. de Trin. c. 5) The heretics, since they cannot gainsay these words, endeavour by an impious lie to explain them away. They maintain that this unity is unanimity only; a unity of will, not of nature; i. e. that the two are one, not in that they are the same, but in that they will the same. But they are one, not by any economy merely, but by the nativity of the Son’s nature, since there is no falling off of the Father’s divinity in begetting Him. They are one whilst the sheep that are not plucked out of the Son’s hand, are not plucked out of the Father’s hand: whilst in Him working, the Father worketh; whilst He is in the Father, and the Father in Him. This unity, not creation but nativity, not will but power, not unanimity but nature accomplisheth. But we deny not therefore the unanimity of the Father and Son; for the heretics, because we refuse to admit concord in the place of unity, accuse us of making a disagreement between the Father and Son. We deny not unanimity, but we place it on the ground of unity. The Father and Son are one in respect of nature, honour, and virtue: and the same nature cannot will different things.

Catena Aurea John 10

Saint Gengulphus

High Altar retable, Vuillafans.

This blessed Gengulphus daily performs among us so many remarkable miracles that, were he alive today, even the swift pen of the poet Thespis could not have described them individually. [Gonzo of Florennes]

Saint Gengulphus was a Burgundian knight of Varennes sur Amance^a in the present département of Haute Marne, France. He was a man of outstanding piety and charitableness who served as a soldier under Pepin the Short,^b and whose martyrdom took the unusual form of being murdered (ca 760) by his wife’s lover. His name is entered as a saint and martyr in the Roman Martyrology on 11th May,^c which is generally accepted to have been the date of his death.

The only primary source for his biography is an anonymous prose life (Vita I) which was composed in the late C9th or early C10th. A subsequent prose life (Vita II), contains an account of certain miracles which took place at Toul in connection with the Saint’s relics, but its biographical content is entirely derived from Vita I. In the latter part of the C10th the Benedictine canoness Hroswitha of Gandersheim composed a verse life of the Saint, the Passio Sancti Gongolfi Martiris, but this too is based upon Vita I and has no value as an independent source of biographical information.

Gengulphus is not mentioned in any contemporary secular document or charter.

His canonization appears to have occurred shortly after his death, and a charter of ca 801 provides evidence of the early establishment and rapid propagation of his cultus. This cultus would eventually extend over a large area of north-western Europe, from Switzerland, through northern and eastern France and south-west Germany, to Luxembourg, Belgium, and Holland. Several towns and villages are named after him,^d and many churches and chapels dedicated to him are to be found throughout this area. Whilst the majority of these are Roman Catholic, dedications to him are also preserved in churches of the Lutheran^e and Reformed traditions,^f and his name is honoured by some eastern Orthodox churches which have jurisdictions in western Europe.

Relics of St Gengulphus are widely distributed throughout the area in which his cultus became established, and part of the early history of their dissemination can be traced from documentary sources. Vita I notes that secondary relics, in the form of his armour, were also preserved, and the survival of at least one fragment of these has been recorded in the modern period.

The circumstance of a saint being murdered by his wife’s lover is certainly uncommon and perhaps unique to St Gengulphus. But this death, however unusual, has been consistently interpreted as a martyrdom, in that he died persevering in the Christian virtues which had informed the whole of his life, and more particularly as an upholder of the sacrament of matrimony.

Whilst being particularly regarded as the patron saint of deceived husbands and unhappy marriages, St Gengulphus also has traditional assocations with shoe-makers, tanners, glove-makers, horsemen, knights and huntsmen. In art he is represented as a young nobleman, usually armed as a knight, and often bearded. Whilst the sword which was the instrument of his martyrdom is his most common symbol, a variety of other military and hunting attributes are also associated with him.

Amongst the many works of art representing the Saint, the ‘cycle’ of C13th stained glass preserved in the collegiate church of St Gengoult at Toul is of particular importance. This consists of a series of fifteen episodes from the Saint’s life, and constitutes one of the very earliest surviving representations of the Saint in art.St Joseph and Infant, with St John Nepomuk and St Gangolf (with sword and standard), Drosendorf

Two well-known stories relating to St Gengulphus, both of which are contained in Vita I, associate him with a miraculous spring of water. The first relates how he purchased a spring in Champagne^g and miraculously transported it to his home at Varennes, and in the second the infidelity of Gengulph’s wife is miraculously revealed when she is required – as a kind of trial by ordeal – to plunge her arm into a spring of water. The popularity of these two stories have led to Gengulph’s name being frequently associated with wells and springs, many of which are credited with healing properties.

A further popular story – not an original part of Vita I, but subsequently inserted into some versions of the manuscript – describes how the sanctity of Gengulphus was divinely revealed to king Pepin le Bref through the repeated and miraculous rekindling of a lamp in the presence of the sleeping Saint.

St Gengulphus has suffered from the peculiar disadvantage that there are elements in the earliest versions of his biography which subsequent ages have found coarse or indelicate. These concern not the blameless life of the Saint himself but the unusual nature of the miraculous punishments inflicted upon his adulterous wife and upon her paramour, and have been the subject of censorship and criticism – a most lamentable response.

St Gengulph’s feast day, on the 11th May, is the subject of albeit a very few traditional sayings connected with weather and agriculture. His date, however, clashes with the Ice Saints who tend to take precedence as regards meteorological considerations . A period in the second week in May (usually days 10-15 in the month) is often believed to bring a brief spell of colder weather in many years, including the last nightly frosts of the spring. The Ice Saints is the name given in Belgian, Dutch, German, Austrian, and Swiss folklore to a period noted to bring a brief spell of colder weather in the Northern Hemisphere under the Julian Calendar in May, because the Roman Catholic feast days of St. Mamertus, St. Pancras, and St. Servatus fall on the days of May 11, May 12, and May 13 respectively

His name has a confusingly large number of variants. Whilst in Vita I he is called Gengulphus or Gangulphus, he is more commonly known as Gengoux, Gengoult, Gengoulph^h in present day France, and as Gangolf in Germany. His name is known in England largely through the humourous Lay of St Gengulphus which appears in R. H. Barham’s Ingoldsby Legends.

The date^j and place^k of his birth are not known. According to Vita I he was born into a Burgundian family of noble descent. Nothing certain is known of his ancestry, though two other historical figures of the same name who are recorded as having some prominence in C7th and C8th have been plausibly suggested as members of the same family. There is no historical basis whatever for the assertion that these, or St Gengulphus himself, were dukes.

Gengulphus was, unusually for the age in which he lived, a ‘secular’ saint, in the sense that his sanctity was revealed in his everyday life, and not (like the great majority of contemporary saints) as a priest or a member of a religious order. This extremely unusual and significant detail is stressed by the author of our only primary source, Vita I. It is sometimes stated that Gengulphus, after separating from his irreformable wife, became a hermit. This unfounded statement contradicts the express intention and explicit narrative details of the only primary source, and negates one of the Saint’s most interesting and distinctive characteristics.

a. Also known as Terre Natale.
b. Pepin the Short (715 – 768). He governed Burgundy, Neustria and Provence as Mayor of the Palace from 741 – 751. In 751 he was anointed King of the Franks, and continued as such until his death in 768. The text of Vita I makes specific reference to Pepin’s rôle as Mayor of the Palace and seems to imply (but without explicitly stating) that that Gengulph’s youth coincided with this period. Later, following Gengulph’s death, Pepin is specifically referred to as ‘king’.
c. 11th May 760 was a Sunday. This has some bearing on the timing of his funeral arrangements, and the question of the identification of Avalo, the place where he died.
d. E.g. St Gengoux le National, 71, France; Gangloff, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.
e. E.g. At Hiddenhausen, Windsfeld, and Schladen, Germany.
f. E.g. At Ee and Eelde in the Netherlands.
g. It is occasionally stated that the purchase of the spring took place in the pays of Bassigny. This is a localization of relatively recent origin. The narrative of Vita I makes it unmistakably clear that the open terrain of historic Champagne is meant.
h. These are forms commonly and currently used in the dedications of churches.
j. The date 702, sometimes proposed as the date of his birth, is an unsubstantiated guess. As such it does not command great credibility, being neither consistent with the energy and vigour with which Vita I characterizes Gengulph’s military service in the time of Pepin the Short, nor with his being the victim of a ‘crime of passion’ in 760. Hroswitha was clearly of the view that Gengulphus was younger than Pepin (b. 714).
k. The text states that Gengulph preferred Varennes sur Amance as his residence because of its suitability for hunting, not because it was his natal home – though this possibility is not excluded.

gengulphus.com

NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY(RSV)

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

First Reading:

From: Acts 13:13, 43-52

They Cross into Asia Minor (Continuation)
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[13] But they (Paul and his company) passed on from Perga and came to Antioch of Pisidia.

Preaching in the Synagogue of Antioch of Pisidia
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And on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. [43] And when the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.

Paul and Barnabas Preaches to the Pagans
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[44] The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered together to hear the Word of God. [45] But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted what was spoken by Paul, and reviled him. [46] And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, "It was necessary that the Word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. [47] For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, 'I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.'"

[48] And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the Word of God; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. [49] And the Word of the Lord spread throughout all the region. [50] But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. [51] But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and went to Iconium. [52] And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

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Commentary:

45. The opposition of these Jews, who in their jealousy contradict what Paul says, will from now be the typical attitude of the synagogue to the Gospel. It emerges everywhere the Apostle goes, with the exception of Beroea (cf. 17:10-12).

46. Paul may have been hoping that Christianity would flourish on the soil of Judaism, that the Jews would peacefully and religiously accept the Gospel as the natural development of God's plans. His experience proved otherwise: he encountered the terrible mystery of the infidelity of most of the chosen people, his own people.

Even if Israel had been faithful to God's promises, it would still have been necessary to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. The evangelization of the pagan world is not a consequence of Jewish rejection of the Word; it is required by the universal character of Christianity. To all men Christianity is the only channel of saving grace; it perfects the Law of Moses and reaches out beyond the ethnic and geographical frontiers of Judaism.

47. Paul and Barnabas quote Isaiah 49:6 in support of their decision to preach to the Gentiles. The Isaiah text referred to Christ, as Luke 3:32 confirms. But now Paul and Barnabas apply it to themselves because the Messiah is "light for the Gentiles" through the preaching of the Apostles, for they are conscious of speaking in Christ's name and on His authority. Therefore, probably here "the Lord" refers not to God the Father but to Christ.

51. "They shook the dust from their feet": a traditional expression: the Jews regarded as unclean the dust of anywhere other than the holy land of Palestine. Our Lord extended the meaning of the phrase when He told the disciples He was sending them out to preach, "If anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet" (Matthew 10:14; cf. Luke 9:5). This gesture of Paul and Barnabas echoes what Jesus said and amounted to "closing the case" or putting on record the unbelief of the Jews.

Second Reading:

From: Revelation 7:9, 14-17

The Great Multitude of the Saved
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[9] After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.

[14] I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." [15] "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple; and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. [16] They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. [17] For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

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Commentary:

1-17. This chapter consists of two visions designed to illustrate God's protection of Christians and the happy circumstances of the martyrs. The victory of the Church is depicted--of the entire Church, made up of people from the four points of the compass (vv. 9-12). What is not so clear, however, is who the one hundred and forty-four thousand are, drawn from the twelve tribes of Israel, whom an angel has marked with the seal of the living God (vv. 1-8). Some commentators interpret them as all being Christians of Jewish background (Judaeo-Christians). Others say that they are those who make up the new Israel which St Paul speaks about in Galatians 6:17; that is, all the baptized viewed first as still engaged in their battle (vv. 1-8) and then after they have won victory (vv. 9-17). The most plausible interpretation is that the one hundred and forty-four thousand stand for the Jews converted to Christianity (as distinct from those not converted)—the 'remnant of Israel' (cf. Is 4:2-4; Ezek 9; etc.). St Paul says that they prove the irrevocable nature of God's election (cf. Rom 1l:1-5) and are the first-fruits of the restoration which will come about at the End (cf. Rom 11:25-32).

The hundred and forty-four thousand are included in the second vision; they would be part of the great multitude "from all tribes and people and tongues". Thus, the vision in vv. 9-17 takes in the entire Church without any distinctions, whereas the vision in vv. 1-8 can refer only to a part of the Church--those Jews who, by becoming Christians, made up the original nucleus of the Church. The Church admits these on the same basis as all those who become Christians later without having had to pass through any stage of Jewish observance.

9-17. Pope John Paul II has commented on this passage as follows: "The people dressed in white robes whom John sees with his prophetic eye are the redeemed, and they form a 'great multitude', which no one could count and which is made up of people of the most varied backgrounds. The blood of the Lamb, who has been offered in sacrifice for all, has exercised its universal and most effective redemptive power in every corner of the earth, extending grace and salvation to that 'great multitude'. After undergoing the trials and being purified in the blood of Christ, they--the redeemed--are now safe in the Kingdom of God, whom they praise and bless for ever and ever" ("Homily", 1 November 1981). This great crowd includes all the saved and not just the martyrs, for it says that they washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, not in their own blood.

Everyone has to become associated with Christ's passion through suffering, as St Augustine explains, not without a certain humor: "Many are martyrs in their beds. The Christian is lying on his couch, tormented by pain. He prays and his prayers are not heard, or perhaps they are heard but he is being put to the test...so that he may be received as a son. He becomes a martyr through illness and is crowned by him who hung upon the Cross" ("Sermon" 286, 8).

"It is consoling and encouraging to know that those who attain heaven constitute a huge multitude. The passages of Matthew 7:14 and Luke 13:24 which seem to imply that very few will be saved should be interpreted in the light of this vision, which shows that the infinite value of Christ's blood makes God's will be done: "(God) desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4).

In vv. 14-17 we see the blessed in two different situations--first, before the resurrection of the body (v. 14) and, then, after it, when body and soul have been reunited (vv. 15-17). In this second situation the nature of risen bodies is highlighted: they cannot suffer pain or inconvenience of any kind: they are out of harm's reach; they have the gift of "impassibility" (cf. "St Pius V Catechism", I, 12, 13).

This consoling scene is included in the vision to encourage believers to imitate those Christians who were like us and now find themselves in heaven because they have come through victorious. The Church invites us to pray along similar lines: "Father, you sanctified the Church of Rome with the blood of its first martyrs. May we find strength from their courage and rejoice in their triumph" ("Roman Missal", Feast of the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome, opening prayer).

Gospel Reading:

From: John 10:27-30

Jesus and the Father are One
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[27] My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; [28] and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. [29] My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. [30] I and the Father are one."

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Commentary:

26-29. Certainly faith and eternal life cannot be merited by man's own efforts: they are a gift of God. But the Lord does not deny anyone grace to believe and be saved, because He `wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). If someone tries to avoid receiving the gift of faith, his unbelief is blameworthy. On this point St. Thomas Aquinas teaches: "I can see, thanks to the light of the sun; but if I close my eyes, I cannot see: this is no fault of the sun, it is my own fault, because by closing my eyes, I prevent the sunlight from reaching me" ("Commentary on St. John, ad loc.").

But those who do not oppose divine grace do come to believe in Jesus. They are known to and loved by Him, enter under His protection and remain faithful with the help of His grace, which is a pledge of the eternal life which the Good Shepherd will eventually give them. It is true that in this world they will have to strive and in the course of striving they will sustain wounds; but if they stay united to the Good Shepherd nothing and no one will snatch Christ's sheep from Him, because our Father, God, is stronger than the Evil One. Our hope that God will grant us final perseverance is not based on our strength but on God's mercy: this hope should always motivate us to strive to respond to grace and to be more faithful to the demands of our faith.

30. Jesus reveals that He and the Father are one in substance. Earlier He proclaimed that God was His Father, "making Himself equal with God"--which is why a number of times the Jewish authorities think of putting Him to death (cf. 5:18; 8:59). Now He speaks about the mystery of God, which is something we can know about only through Revelation. Later on He will reveal more about this mystery, particularly at the Last Supper (14:10; 17:21-22). It is something the evangelist reflects on at the very beginning of the Gospel, in the prologue (cf. John 1:1 and note).

"Listen to the Son Himself", St. Augustine invites us. "`I and the Father are one.' He did not say, `I am the Father' or `I and the Father are one [Person].' But when He says, `I and the Father are one,' notice the two words `[we are]' and `one'...For if they are one, then they are not diverse; if `[we] are', then there is both a Father and a Son" ("In Ioann. Evang.", 36, 9). Jesus reveals that He is one in substance with the Father as far as divine essence or nature is concerned, but He also reveals that the Father and the Son are distinct Persons: "We believe then in the Father who eternally begets the Son; in the Son, the Word of God, who is eternally begotten; in the Holy Spirit, the uncreated Person who proceeds from the Father and the Son as their eternal Love. Thus in the three divine Persons, "coaeternae sibi et coaequales", the life and beatitude of God perfectly One superabound and are consummated in the supreme excellence and glory proper to uncreated Being, and always `there should be venerated Unity in the Trinity and Trinity in the Unity'" (Pope Paul VI, "Creed of the People of God," 10).

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John
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	John 10
27.	My sheep hear my voice: and I know them, and they follow me.	Oves meæ vocem meam audiunt, et ego cognosco eas, et sequuntur me :	τα προβατα τα εμα της φωνης μου ακουει καγω γινωσκω αυτα και ακολουθουσιν μοι
28.	And I give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand.	et ego vitam æternam do eis, et non peribunt in æternum, et non rapiet eas quisquam de manu mea.	καγω ζωην αιωνιον διδωμι αυτοις και ου μη απολωνται εις τον αιωνα και ουχ αρπασει τις αυτα εκ της χειρος μου
29.	That which my Father hath given me, is greater than all: and no one can snatch them out of the hand of my Father.	Pater meus quod dedit mihi, majus omnibus est : et nemo potest rapere de manu Patris mei.	ο πατηρ μου ος δεδωκεν μοι μειζων παντων εστιν και ουδεις δυναται αρπαζειν εκ της χειρος του πατρος μου
30.	I and the Father are one.	Ego et Pater unum sumus.	εγω και ο πατηρ εν εσμεν

Readings at Mass

'We must turn to the pagans'

The Lamb will be their shepherd and will lead them to springs of living water

I know my sheep and they follow me

Christian Art

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

John CHAP. 10

Saint Gengulphus