Category: Gospels

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Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA:

“Strive to enter in by the narrow door.” This reply may seem perhaps to wander from the scope of the question. The man wanted to learn whether there would be few who are saved, but he explained to him the way whereby he might be saved himself. He said, “Strive to enter in by the narrow door.” What do we answer to this objection?… It was a necessary and valuable thing to know how a man may obtain salvation. He is purposely silent to the useless question. He proceeds to speak of what was essential, namely, of the knowledge necessary for the performance of those duties by which people can enter the narrow door. read more

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Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”  But death is not simply eliminated.  There is a constant temptation in the Christian life to believe that since we love God and pray for things to go well, that we will somehow be spared from suffering.  We tend to grow accustomed to this life, the many blessings we’ve received, all the projects and work we have to do, the planning needed etc.  We can forget that Baptism is a sacrament that also represents death.  Jeremiah the prophet was plunged into a cistern where he was sure to die, then lifted back out again.  That’s what happens with baptism: being plunged into the waters in which we were certain to drown and perish, only to be brought back out again.  Jesus talks about the baptism with which he longs to be baptised – He is referring to His Passion and Death.  He does not long for suffering because He somehow enjoys it though – it is the joy of eternal life that draws Him through death. read more

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Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW:

Suppose you see someone who is searching out physicians. You probably would conjecture that he is sick. In the same way also, when you see either man or woman searching out information on the laws of dissolving marriages, you might not be far from wrong in conjecturing that some alienation has occurred between them and that one or the other may be wanton.
So does the question of this passage arise out of alienation.

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW:

“Male and female.” Not male and many females, so that a man is allowed to possess many wives, nor males and a female, so that one woman is allowed to have many husbands. No, he said male and female, so that a woman should think that no man has been made in the world except one, and a man should think that no woman has been made in the world except one. For it was not two or three ribs that he took from the side of man; and he did not make two or three women. When, therefore, a second or a third wife stands before your face, as then Eve stood before Adam, how could you say to them, “This is bone from my bones”? For even if that woman is truly a rib, it is still not yours. If you have not said this to her, you do not affirm that she is your wife; but if you have said it, you lie. read more