Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas
9:18–22
18. And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?
19. They answering said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again.
20. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God.
21. And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing;
22. Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and Chief Priests and Scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. Our Lord having retired from the multitude, and being in a place apart, was engaged in prayer. As it is said, And it came to pass, as he was alone praying. For He ordained Himself as an example of this, instructing His disciples by an easy method of teaching. For I suppose the rulers of the people ought to be superior also in good deeds, to those that are under them, ever holding converse with them in all necessary things, and treating of those things in which God delights.
BEDE. Now the disciples were with the Lord, but He alone prayed to the Father, since the saints may be joined to the Lord in the bond of faith and love, but the Son alone is able to penetrate the incomprehensible secrets of the Father’s will. Every where then He prays alone, for human wishes comprehend not the counsel of God, nor can any one be a partaker with Christ of the deep things of God.
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. Now His engaging in prayer might perplex His disciples. For they saw Him praying like a man, Whom before they had seen performing miracles with divine power. In order then to banish all perplexity of this kind, He asks them this question, not because He did not know the reports which they had gathered from without, but that He might rid them of the opinion of the many, and instil into them the true faith. Hence it follows, And he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?
BEDE. Rightly does our Lord, when about to enquire into the faith of the disciples, first inquire into the opinion of the multitudes, lest their confession should appear not to be determined by their knowledge, but to be formed by the opinion of the generality, and they should be considered not to believe from experience, but like Herod to be perplexed by different reports which they heard.
AUGUSTINE. (de Con. Ev. l. ii. c. 53.) Now it may raise a question, that Luke says that our Lord asked His disciples, Whom do men say that I am, at the same time that He was alone praying, and they also were with Him; whereas Mark says, that they were asked this question by our Lord on the way; but this is difficult only to him who never prayed on the way.
AMBROSE. But it is no trifling opinion of the multitude which the disciples mention, when it is added, But they answering said, John the Baptist, (whom they knew to be beheaded;) but some say, Elias, (whom they thought would come,) but others say that one of the old Prophets is risen again. But to make this enquiry belongs to a different kind of wisdom from ours, for if it were enough for the Apostle Paul to know nothing but Christ Jesus, and Him crucified, what more can I desire to know than Christ? (1 Cor. 2:2.)
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. But mark the subtle skill of the question. For he directs them first to the praises of strangers, that having overthrown these, He might beget in them the right opinion. So when the disciples had given the opinion of the people, He asks them their own opinion; as it is added, And He said unto them, Whom say ye that I am? How marked is ye! He excludes them from the other, that they may avoid their opinions; as if He said, Ye who by my decree are called to the Apostleship, the witnesses of my miracles, whom do ye say that I am? But Peter anticipated the rest, and becomes the mouthpiece of the whole company, and launching forth into the eloquence of divine love, utters the confession of faith, as it is added, Peter answering said, The Christ of God. He says not merely that He was Christ of God, but now He uses the article. Hence it is in the Greek, τὸν χριστόν. For many divinely accounted persons are in diverse ways called Christs, for some were anointed kings, some prophets. But we through Christ have been anointed by the holy Spirit, have obtained the name of Christ. But there is only one who is the Christ of God and the Father, He alone as it were having His own Father who is in heaven. And so Luke agrees indeed in the same opinion as Matthew, who relates Peter to have said, Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God, but speaking briefly Luke says that Peter answered, the Christ of God.
AMBROSE. In this one name there is the expression both of His divinity and incarnation, and the belief of His passion. He has therefore comprehended every thing, having expressed both the nature and the name wherein is all virtue. (summa virtutum)
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. But we must observe, that Peter most wisely confessed Christ to be one, against those who presumed to divide Immanuel into two Christs. For Christ did not enquire of them, saying, Whom do men say the divine Word is? but the Son of man, whom Peter confessed to be the Son of God. Herein then is Peter to be admired, and thought worthy of such chief honour, seeing that Him whom he marvelled at in our form, he believed to be the Christ of the Father, that is to say, that the Word which proceeded of the Father’s Substance was become man.
AMBROSE. But our Lord Jesus Christ was at first unwilling to be preached, lest an uproar should arise; as it follows, And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man any thing. For many reasons He commands His disciples to be silent; to deceive the prince of this world, to reject boasting, to teach humility. Christ then would not boast and dost thou boast who art of ignoble birth? Likewise He did it to prevent rude and as yet imperfect disciples from being oppressed with the wonder of this awful announcement. They are then forbid to preach Him as the Son of God, that they might afterwards preach Him crucified.
CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. 54. in Matt.) Timely also was our Lord’s command that no one should tell that He was Christ, in order that when offences should be taken away and the sufferings of the cross completed, a proper opinion of Him might be firmly rooted in the minds of the hearers. For that which has once taken root and afterwards been torn up. when fresh planted will scarcely ever be preserved. But that which when once planted continues undisturbed, grows up securely. For if Peter was offended merely by what he heard, what would be the feelings of those many who, after they had heard that He was the Son of God, saw Him crucified, and spit upon?
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. It was the duty then of the disciples to preach Him throughout the world. For this was the work of those who were chosen by Him to the office of the Apostleship. But as holy Scripture bears witness, There is a time for every thing. For it was fitting that the cross and resurrection should be accomplished, and then should follow the preaching of the Apostles; as it is spoken, saying, The Son of man must needs suffer many things.
AMBROSE. Perhaps because the Lord knew that the disciples would believe even the difficult mystery of the Passion and Resurrection, He wished to be Himself the proclaimer of His own Passion and Resurrection.
Catena Aurea Luke 9
NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY(RSV)
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
First Reading:
From: Haggai 2:1-9
The temple’s glory in the future
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In the second year of Darius the king, [1] in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, [2] “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of She-alti-el, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, [3] ‘Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? [4] Yet not take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, [5] according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit abides among you; fear not. [6] For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; [7] and I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with splendour, says the Lord of hosts. [9] The latter splendour of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the Lord of hosts.’”
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Commentary:
2:1-9. The dating given in v. 1 (which corresponds to 17 October 520) indicates that this is a different prophetical discourse. Scarcely a month has passed since the date in 1:15, and one gets the impression that the people have been working extremely hard, but the results are somewhat disappointing – at least for the older people, who knew how splendid the temple of Solomon was (v. 3). This fits in with what the book of Ezra has to say: “Many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they say the foundation of the house being laid” (Ezra 3:12). But they should not have been surprised; it was one thing to build a temple in a period of splendour like Solomon’s, when money was no object; it was quite another to do so in a country still in a state of desolation. Hence the encouraging tone of Haggai’s oracle: the Lord renews the promises he made at the time of the exodus (vv. 4-5), when he turned a crowd of slaves into a nation; moreover, he promises that the new temple will be richer than the first: Solomon’s temple had its glory (v. 3), but the new temple will be filled with splendour (v. 7); it will be more splendid than the first (v. 9); and it will be a source of prosperity (v. 9) and all the nations will flock there (v. 7; cf. Is 60:7-11). The language of these verses is similar to that of apocalyptic passages in other prophets (cf. e.g. Is 2:2, Amos 5:8, Zeph 1:4). The tone of what Haggai says here allows these verses to be interpreted as a prophecy about Christ and the Church: “The coming of the Lord into this world was like the building of a great temple, glorious beyond imagining; this temple is more perfect and beautiful than that of old, as the worship of Christ according to his Gospel is more perfect than the worship of God according to the law, as the reality is more beautiful than its image […]. The glory of the new temple, the Church, is much greater than the glory of the old. Those who give of themselves and work devoutly to build the new temple will receive Christ himself, as their reward from the Saviour and as a gift from heaven; he is our peace, the peace of all mankind, the one through whom we can go to the Father in the one Spirit. He himself said: and in this place I will give prosperity, says the Lord of hosts” (St Cyril of Alexandria, “Commentarius in Aggaeum”, 14).
This messianic tone is even more clear in v. 7. In the words, “the treasures of all nations shall come in”, the word translated as “treasures” has a wide range of meaning: the Hebrew root to which the noun belongs means to desire, wish, delight in, in Hebrew usage, the noun means “that which is desired”, riches, treasures. The phrase was translated by the Latin Vulgate/Douai as “the Desired of all nations shall come” (a 1956 Douai edition gives it in capital letters), implying a direct reference to the Messiah; this led to the phrase entering the Advent liturgy, and to “the Desired” becoming a name for Christ in catechesis: “Open your heart to faith, beloved Virgin, your lips to give consent, your chaste body to the Master. Look, the one who all desire to possess is standing at your gates” (St Bernard, “Homiliae super Missus est”, 4, 8).
Gospel Reading: From: Luke 9:18-22
Peter's Confession of Faith
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[18] Now it happened that as He (Jesus) was praying alone the disciples were with Him; and He asked them, "Who do the people say that I am?" [19] And they answered, "John the Baptist; but others say, Elijah; and others, that one of the old prophets has risen." [20] And He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Peter answered, "The Christ of God."
First Prophecy of the Passion
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[21] But He charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, [22] saying, "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised."
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Commentary:
20. "Christ" means "anointed" and is a name indicating honor and office. In the Old Law "priests" were anointed (Exodus 29:7 and 40:13), as were "kings" (1 Samuel 9:16), because God laid down that they should receiving anointing in view of their position; there was also a custom to anoint "prophets" (1 Samuel 16:13) because they were interpreters and intermediaries of God. "When Jesus Christ our Savior came into the world, He assumed the position and obligations of the three offices of priest, king and prophet and was therefore called Christ" ("St. Pius V Catechism", I, 3, 7).
22. Jesus prophesied His passion and death in order to help His disciples believe in him. It also showed that He was freely accepting these sufferings He would undergo. "Christ did not seek to be glorified: He chose to come without glory in order to undergo suffering; and you, who have been born without glory, do you wish to be glorified? The route you must take is the one Christ took. This means recognizing Him and it means imitating Him both in His ignominy and in His good repute; thus you will glory in the Cross, which was His path to glory. That was what Paul did, and therefore he glorified in saying, `Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ' (Galatians 6:14)" (St. Ambrose, "Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam, in loc.").
