Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas
11:2932
29. And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.
30. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.
31. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them; for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
32. The men of Nineve shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
BEDE. Our Lord had been assailed with two kinds of questions, for some accused Him of casting out devils through Beelzebub, to whom up to this point His answer was addressed; and others tempting Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven, and these He now proceeds to answer. As it follows, And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation, &c.
AMBROSE. That you may know that the people of the Synagogue are treated with dishonour, while the blessedness of the Church is increased. But as Jonas was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of man be to the Jews. Hence it is added, They seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given them but the sign of Jonas the prophet.
BASIL. (in Esai. 7.) A sign is a thing brought openly to view, containing in itself the manifestation of something hidden, as the sign of Jonas represents the descent to hell, the ascension of Christ, and His resurrection from the dead. Hence it is added, For as Jonas was a sign to the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. He gives them a sign, not from heaven, because they were unworthy to see it, but from the lowest depths of hell; a sign, namely, of His incarnation, not of His divinity; of His passion, not of His glorification.
AMBROSE. Now as the sign of Jonas is a type of our Lords passion, so also is it a testimony of the grievous sins which the Jews have committed. We may remark at once both the mighty voice of warning, and the declaration of mercy. For by the example of the Ninevites both a punishment is denounced, and a remedy promised. Hence even the Jews ought not to despair of pardon, if they will but practise repentance.
THEOPHYLACT. Now Jonas after he came forth from the whales belly converts the men of Nineveh by his preaching, but when Christ rose again, the Jewish nation believed not. So there was a sentence already passed upon them, of which there follows a second example, as it is said, The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them.
BEDE. Not certainly by any authority to judge, but by the contrast of a better deed. As it follows, For she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. Hie in this place is not the pronoun, but the adverb of place, that is, there is one present among you who is incomparably superior to Solomon. He said not, I am greater than Solomon, that he might teach us to be humble, though fruitful in spiritual graces. As if he said, The barbarian woman hastened to hear Solomon, taking so long a journey to be instructed in the knowledge of visible living creatures, and the virtues of herbs. But ye when ye stand by and hear Wisdom herself teaching you invisible and heavenly things, and confirming her words with signs and wonders, are strangers to the word, and senselessly disregard the miracles.
BEDE. But if the queen of the South, who doubtless is of the elect, shall rise up in judgment together with the wicked, we have a proof of the one resurrection of all men, good as well as bad, and that not according to Jewish fables to happen a thousand years before the judgment, but at the judgment itself.
AMBROSE. Herein also while condemning the Jewish people, He strongly expresses the mystery of the Church, which in the queen of the South, through the desire of obtaining wisdom, is gathered together from the uttermost parts of the whole earth, to hear the words of the Peacemaking Solomon; a queen plainly whose kingdom is undivided, rising up from different and distant nations into one body.
GREGORY OF NYSSA. (Hom. 7. Cant.) Now as she was queen of the Ethiopians, and in a far distant country, so in the beginning the Church of the Gentiles was in darkness, and far off from the knowledge of God. But when Christ the Prince of peace shone forth, the Jews being still in darkness, thither came the Gentiles, and offered to Christ the frankincense of piety, the gold of divine knowledge, and precious stones, that is, obedience to His commands.
THEOPHYLACT. Or because the South is praised in Scripture as warm and life-giving, therefore the soul reigning in the south, that is, in all spiritual conversation, comes to hear the wisdom of Solomon, the Prince of peace, the Lord our God, (i. e. is raised up to contemplate Him,) to whom no one shall come except he reign in a good life. But He brings next an example from the Ninevites, saying, The men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it.
CHRYSOSTOM. (non occ.) The judgment of condemnation comes from men like or unlike to those who are condemned. From like, for instance, as in the parable of the ten virgins, but from unlike, when the Ninevites condemn those who lived at the time of Christ, that so their condemnation might be the more remarkable. (Hom. 43. in Matt.). For the Ninevites indeed were barbarians, but these Jews. The one enjoying the prophetic teaching, the other having never received the divine word. To the former came a servant, to the latter the Master, of whom the one foretold destruction, the other preached the kingdom of heaven. To all men then was it known that the Jews ought rather to have believed, but the contrary happened; therefore he adds, For they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
AMBROSE. Now in a mystery, the Church consists of two things, either ignorance of sin, which has reference mainly to the queen of the South, or ceasing to sin, which relates indeed to the repentant Ninevites. For repentance blots out the offence, wisdom guards against it.
AUGUSTINE. (de Cons. Ev. lib. ii. c. 39.) Luke indeed relates this in the same place as Matthew, but in a somewhat different order. But who does not see that it is an idle question, in what order our Lord said those things, seeing that we ought to learn by the most precious authority of the Evangelist, that there is no falsehood. But not every man will repeat anothers words in the same order in which they proceeded from his mouth, seeing that the order itself makes no difference with respect to the fact, whether it be so or not.
Catena Aurea Luke 11
Wilfrid was born in 634 to aristocratic parents in the kingdom of Northumbria Northumbria was an early medieval Anglian kingdom in what is now Northern England and South Scotland.. Queen Eanfled quickly recognised his potential and sent him to study at the monastery The house of a religious community on Lindisfarne Also known as Holy Island, a peninsula off the coast of north-east England (Northumbria), this area is cut off from the mainland by the tide twice a day. A monastic community was founded here by St Aidan, in emulation of Iona. From Lindisfarne, missionary activity was conducted in the kingdom of Northumbria. The Anglo-Saxon community produced saints, the most prominent being St Cuthbert in whose honour the magnificent Lindisfarne Gospels were written.. She also helped him travel to Rome This Italian city was the capital of the Roman Empire and, with the primacy accorded to the bishops of Rome (the popes), the centre of the Western Church from the late-Antique period onwards. Rome was not only the administrative centre, but an important source of innovation, relics and liturgy. Missionaries from Rome played an important role in the conversion of Anglo-Saxon England from late 6th century onward.. There he learned new aspects of worship 1. Doing homage and giving honour and respect to God. The Bible includes a wide range of physical expression in worship, including bowing down, lifting hands, dancing, processions and singing. The main day on which Christians gather for communal worship is Sunday (the day when Christ is believed to have risen from the dead). 2. Christian liturgy including sung material and prayers of thanksgiving and praise., church architecture, and monastic life. He brought these ideas back to his homeland – where they still influence church life today. In 664, Wilfrid played an influential role at the Synod of Whitby (664) Pivotal meeting at which it was agreed that the Roman church structures and hierarchy would supersede the Celtic tradition in England. St Wilfrid spoke for Rome and debated with Bishop Colman who spoke for the Celtic tradition, when Northumbria decided to follow the Roman rather than the Celtic way of calculating the date of Easter.
Often embroiled in disputes and controversy, Wilfrid was nevertheless a man of intense spiritual energy and commitment – and one of the great leaders of the Christian Name originally given to disciples of Jesus by outsiders and gradually adopted by the Early Church to designate all members of the church. church in England at a formative time in its history. He served as a bishop Bishops exercised pastoral care over a diocese and authority to confirm and ordain for 46 years and left a lasting mark on Ripon A cathedral city and market town in North Yorkshire. In the mid-7th century, St Wilfrid (who later became Bishop of York) founded a religious community at Ripon with land granted from the king of Northumbria. Due to Viking incursions, the body of St Cuthbert temporarily resided at Ripon in the 10th century. and Hexham St Wilfrid founded an abbey here in Northumbria in 674 dedicated to St Andrew. After the Norman Conquest it was re-established as an Augustinian Priory. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries the church was retained as a parish church. The crypt built by St Wilfrid survives. He preached the Gospel (Greek evangelion, Old English godspel 'good news') 1. The central message of the Christian faith concerning salvation. 2. Title given to the four New Testament books which describe the life of Christ i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 3. A reading taken from one of the four Gospels which has the place of honour in the Eucharist in Northumbria, the Midlands, and in the South of England, as well as on the Continent.
Collect
Almighty God,
who called our forebears to the light of the gospel by the preaching of your servant Wilfrid:
help us, who keep his life and labour in remembrance,
to glorify your name by following the example of his zeal and perseverance;
through Jesus (Greek form of Hebrew 'Joshua' meaning 'Yahweh [God] is salvation') Also given the title Christ, meaning 'anointed one' or Messiah. His life is recorded mainly in the Four Gospels although he is also mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus (c. 37-c.100) and the Roman historian Tacitus (c.110). Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit Or 'Holy Ghost'. Third person of the Trinity.,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen
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