Reason Number 300,093,390,875,001 To Hate The News Media

At ABC News they were just dying to find rampant anti-Islamic behavior among Americans. It failed, of course, but not because of a lack of effort.  Perhaps the reporter should have dressed up as an Hasidic Jew or devout Catholic and trolled for bigots among the ABC employees and management.

Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on Luke 9:18-22

Ver 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 to them, But whom say you 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; 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.

THEOPHYL; 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; 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 instill into them the true faith. Hence it follows, And he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?

THEOPHYL; Rightly does our Lord, when about to inquire 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.

AUG. 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 inquiry 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?

CYRIL; 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 to them, Whom say you that I am? How marked is you! He excludes them from the other, that they may avoid their opinions; as if He said, you who by my decree are called to the Apostleship, the witnesses of my miracles, whom do you 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. 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, You are 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 tile name wherein is all virtue.

CYRIL; 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 inquire 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 honor, seeing that Him whom he marveled 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 as 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 cost you boast who are 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.

CHRYS. Timely also was our Lord’s command that no one should tell that He was Christ, in order that when offenses 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; 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, an d 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.

Pope John Paul II on Psalm 144

GENERAL AUDIENCE OF JOHN PAUL II

Wednesday, 21 May 2003

Psalm 144[143]
“Blessed be the Lord, my rock!’

1. We have just heard the first part of Psalm 144[143]. It appears to be a royal hymn, interwoven with other biblical texts so as to give life to a new prayerful composition (cf. Ps 8: 5; 18[17]: 8-15; 33[32]: 2-3; 39[38]: 6-7). The Davidic sovereign himself, speaking in the first person, recognizes the divine origin of his success.

The Lord is portrayed in martial images, in accordance with the ancient use of symbols: indeed, he is seen as a military instructor (cf. Ps 144[143]: 1), an impregnable fortress, a protective shield, a victor (cf. v. 2). It is desired in this way to exalt the personality of God, who battles against the evil in history: he is neither a dark or fateful power, nor an imperturbable sovereign indifferent to human vicissitudes. The citations and tone of this celebration of the divine echo the hymn of David preserved in Psalm 18[17] and in chapter 22 of the Second Book of Samuel.

2. Compared with the mightiness of God, the Jewish king recognizes that he is as frail and weak as all human creatures. To express his feeling, the royal person in his prayer makes use of two sentences, found in Psalms 8: 4 and 39[38]: 5 and, interweaving them, produces a powerful new effect: “O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath, his days are like a passing shadow” (vv. 3-4). Here the firm conviction emerges that like a puff of wind we have no substance, if the Creator does not keep us alive, the One in whose “hand”, as Job says, “is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind” (12: 10).

Only with divine support can we overcome the dangers and difficulties which beset our daily life. Only by counting on help from Heaven will we have the determination to set out, like the ancient king of Israel, on the way towards freedom from every form of oppression.

3. Divine intervention is pictured in the traditional cosmic and historical images in order to illustrate the divine supremacy over the universe and human events. Here, then, are the mountains smoking in sudden volcanic eruptions (cf. 144[143]: 5). Here are the flashes of lightning that seem like arrows released by the Lord, ready to destroy evil (cf. v. 6). Here, lastly, are the “many waters” which in biblical language symbolize chaos, evil and the void, in a word, the negative elements within history (cf. v. 7). These cosmic images are juxtaposed with others of a historical kind: like the “enemies” (cf. v. 6), the “aliens” (cf. v. 7), the liars and perjurers, that is, idolaters (cf. v. 8).

This is a very concrete and Oriental way of portraying wickedness, perversion, oppression and injustice: terrible realities from which the Lord frees us as we make our way in the world.

4. Psalm 144[143], which the Liturgy of Lauds presents to us, ends with a short hymn of thanksgiving (cf. vv. 9-10). It is inspired by the certainty that God will not abandon us in the fight against evil. For this reason, the person praying intones a melody, accompanying it with his ten-stringed harp, in the certainty that the Lord “gives victory to kings” and “rescues David [his anointed] servant” (vv. 9-10).

In Hebrew, the word “consecrated” is “Messiah”: thus, we are looking at a royal Psalm, transformed into a messianic hymn, as was the liturgical custom of ancient Israel. We Christians should repeat it as we keep our gaze fixed on Christ, who frees us from every evil and sustains us in the battle against the hidden powers of wickedness. Indeed, “we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of this dark world, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (cf. Eph 6: 12).

5. Let us therefore conclude with a thought suggested to us by St John Cassian, a monk who lived in Gaul in the fourth to fifth century. In his work The Incarnation of the Lord, inspired by verse 5 of our Psalm, “Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down!”, he sees in these words the expectation of Christ’s coming into the world.

He continues: “The Psalmist implored… the Lord to manifest himself in the flesh, to appear visibly in the world, to be visibly taken up in glory (cf. I Tm 3: 16) and lastly, to enable the saints to see, with their own eyes, all that they had spiritually foreseen” (L’Incarnazione del Signore, V, 13, Rome 1991, pp. 208-209). It is precisely this that every baptized person witnesses to in the joy of faith.