Catholic lectionary for 30 November 2016

Clementina Vulgata (lat)

Clementina Vulgata (lat)

Epistula ad Romanos, Caput 10, versae 9-18

⁹ Quia si confitearis in ore tuo Dominum Jesum, et in corde tuo credideris quod Deus illum suscitavit a mortuis, salvus eris. ¹⁰ Corde enim creditur ad justitiam: ore autem confessio fit ad salutem. ¹¹ Dicit enim Scriptura: Omnis qui credit in illum, non confundetur. ¹² Non enim est distinctio Judæi et Græci: nam idem Dominus omnium, dives in omnes qui invocant illum. ¹³ Omnis enim quicumque invocaverit nomen Domini, salvus erit.

¹⁴ Quomodo ergo invocabunt, in quem non crediderunt? aut quomodo credent ei, quem non audierunt? quomodo autem audient sine prædicante? ¹⁵ quomodo vero prædicabunt nisi mittantur? sicut scriptum est: Quam speciosi pedes evangelizantium pacem, evangelizantium bona! ¹⁶ Sed non omnes obediunt Evangelio. Isaias enim dicit: Domine, quis credidit auditui nostro? ¹⁷ Ergo fides ex auditu, auditus autem per verbum Christi. ¹⁸ Sed dico: Numquid non audierunt? Et quidem in omnem terram exivit sonus eorum, et in fines orbis terræ verba eorum.

Read more:Epistula ad Romanos, Caput 10

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10

10:9 If thou confess with thy mouth - Even in time of persecution, when such a confession may send thee to the lions.

10:10 For with the heart - Not the understanding only.Man believeth to righteousness - So as to obtain justification.And with the mouth confession is made - So as to obtain final salvation. Confession here implies the whole of outward, as believing does the root of all inward, religion.

10:11 Isaiae 28:16.

10:12 The same Lord of all is rich - So that his blessings are never to be exhausted, nor is he ever constrained to hold his hand. The great truth proposed in Romanos 10:11 is so repeated here, and in Romanos 10:13, and farther confirmed, Romanos 10:14-15, as not only to imply, that "whosoever calleth upon him shall be saved;" but also that the will of God is, that all should savingly call upon him.

10:13 Ioel 2:32.

10:15 But how shall they preach, unless they be sent - Thus by a chain of reasoning, from God's will that the gentiles also should "call upon him," St. Paul infers that the apostles were sent by God to preach to the gentiles also. The feet - Their very footsteps; their coming. Isaiae 52:7.

10:16 Isaiae 53:1.

10:17 Faith, indeed, ordinarily cometh by hearing; even by hearing the word of God.

10:18 But their unbelief was not owing to the want of hearing For they have heard. Yes verily - So many nations have already heard the preachers of the gospel, that I may in some sense say of them as David did of the lights of heaven. Psalmorum 28:4

Evangelium secundum Matthaeum, Caput 4, versae 18-22

¹⁸ Ambulans autem Jesus juxta mare Galilææ, vidit duos fratres, Simonem, qui vocatur Petrus, et Andream fratrem ejus, mittentes rete in mare(erant enim piscatores), ¹⁹ et ait illis: Venite post me, et faciam vos fieri piscatores hominum. ²⁰ At illi continuo relictis retibus secuti sunt eum. ²¹ Et procedens inde, vidit alios duos fratres, Jacobum Zebedæi, et Joannem fratrem ejus, in navi cum Zebedæo patre eorum, reficientes retia sua: et vocavit eos. ²² Illi autem statim relictis retibus et patre, secuti sunt eum.

Read more:Evangelium secundum Matthaeum, Caput 4

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4

4:18 Marcum 1:16; Lucam 5:1.

NOTES

It is impossible to believe anyone if no one tells you about that person. So it is with Christ: you will not believe Him or entrust yourself to Him until you become acquainted with Him...

It is impossible to believe anyone if no one tells you about that person. So it is with Christ: you will not believe Him or entrust yourself to Him until you become acquainted with Him. The main meaning of Christian witness is precisely to give everyone the opportunity to become acquainted with Him. Of course, acquaintance by itself does not mean that a relationship of trust will arise. In fact, acquaintance by itself does not obligate us to any relationship at all: how many people do we have to meet? Not all of them become our friends afterward. But much depends on what the acquaintance was like and what the communication was like. One can communicate in different ways: seriously, or superficially. And if a person does not want real, deep relationships, they will not exist even after a very long acquaintance.

One can know a person for years and still not know that person at all. It is the same with God: one can know Him, and not know Him. Trust is born from what is heard, and hearing from the word of Christ, or from the word about Christ; the expression used by the apostle can be understood both ways. In any case, one is not so far from the other. For behind the word about Christ, if it is heard and if one trusts the one who speaks it, the word of Christ Himself will then surely begin to sound, provided, of course, that the person is ready to hear.

And here problems sometimes arise. It happens that a person does not want to hear, because sometimes it is simply easier to pretend that nothing has been heard. Such a peculiar selective deafness is at times very useful to deceitful people. But conscious deceit is not always hidden here: sometimes a person unconsciously turns on this mechanism of a kind of mental filtering. For example, when he senses that if he takes what he has heard seriously, his life will have to change, and change radically. And he does not want to change, and is afraid. Then the protective mechanisms turn on, the very filters about which a person does not think and which he may not even know about precisely because they work automatically. Yet this automatic system is initially turned on by the person himself, by his fear or his laziness. Therefore Paul speaks in this case about human responsibility, for in the end it is precisely a person's position that determines whether mechanisms will start working in his soul that reliably separate their owner from God, from Christ, and from the Kingdom, or whether they will not.

Reflecting on the calling of the apostles, it is worth considering this. Skeptics can say that there are "charismatic" personalities whose word is so authoritative that they literally hypnotize people, and this can explain why...

Gradually one can get used to it, but reading this phrase for the first time is unpleasant. Simply because one cannot speak about people as about fish. And in general, when one imagines...

FAQ

Some believe that Jehovah God is the only Person who claims worship and trust, and that Jesus is the Son of God, also a Person, but does not claim worship, because Jesus is a creation of Jehovah; moreover, Jesus is not God, since He Himself often prayed to His Heavenly Father (He could not, after all, pray to Himself). The Holy Spirit is impersonal, an expression of the will of Jehovah God; the impersonality of the Holy Spirit is confirmed by the fact that during Pentecost, He descended upon those present, dividing into many flames. The point is that the Holy Spirit divided into many... but can a person divide and be considered the same person? Personally, I believe that judging the nature of God, considering that He is a Trinity or considering that the situation is as described above, is generally wrong. Who can comprehend the nature of God?

Who can comprehend the nature of God? Of course, only God Himself...

Who can comprehend the nature of God? Of course, only God Himself. But what is essentially important for our salvation, He reveals to us. Therefore, the Church has always tried to be precise in comprehending this Revelation, so it is necessary to clearly envision what is important for our coming to God.

The idea of the created nature of Jesus Christ was first expressed by the Alexandrian priest Arius at the beginning of the 4th century AD. The Church quite unanimously rejected this opinion as erroneous, because if it was not God who shared our life and our death with us, then there is no salvation from sin and death for us. Likewise, if the Holy Spirit is a faceless force (a sort of semolina porridge, God forgive me), then communion with a Personal God is impossible for us. In this case, again, there is no salvation, because the entire biblical faith collapses. After all, the Holy Spirit is precisely the One Who pours life into our hearts, and not in some Hellenistic "afterlife existence" (which is a non-biblical idea), but here and now. Thus, the Church believes that Jesus is the God-Man, consubstantial with the Father in His Divinity and consubstantial with us in His humanity, and the Holy Spirit is a Person, God, whom we worship together with the Father and the Son.

The arguments you write about do not seem convincing. Of course, Jesus prays—how else can a man (and God incarnate in a man as well) communicate with the Father? The manner of communion between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in the Trinity is incomprehensible to us; but the God-Man Jesus Christ is humbled for our sake to such an extent that He also shares our manner of communion with the Father. As for the worship of Jesus Christ, the Holy Scripture says that it is precisely the belief that He is Lord that gives a person salvation. The Apostle Paul in his Epistles to the Romans ( 10:9), to the Philippians ( 2:6-11), and to the Colossians says that the will of God regarding our salvation is that we worship God in Jesus Christ, since "in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" ( 2:9). Obviously, the opinion of Arius regarding the created nature of the Son of God radically contradicts these last words of the apostle.

The Holy Spirit, of course, can act in every person, and in many people at once, for He is Almighty! And the "divided tongues, as of fire" are only visible signs of His coming, not He Himself. Ultimately, I reply to letters from many people—does my personality thereby divide into separate pieces of paper?

It is truly important for us to know and accept what is expressed in the dogmatic teaching of the seven Ecumenical Councils, including the concept of the Trinity, first explicitly formulated by St. Theophilus of Antioch in the second half of the 2nd century. The Triunity of God means for us that He a) is not like us; b) transcends us and our understanding; c) has life in Himself; d) gives us the opportunity to share with Him the fullness of His life. This is in brief, of course. The Church's teaching on the Triune God is profound and significant enough to become acquainted with it through the Bible itself and specialized sources.

Everyone, of course, is free to choose their own confession. But it is important for Christians to remember that every dogmatic assertion has consequences in practical spiritual life, and these consequences must be seen and evaluated by their fruits.

Why did the people of Israel leave their homeland, and can this be regarded as a punishment for this nation, sent by God because they did not accept His Son and the New Covenant?

You are almost right, with the exception of the word "punishment." It does not reflect the essence of the matter, and indeed the Lord, through the prophets, rejects such a way of reasoning...

You are almost right, with the exception of the word "punishment." It does not reflect the essence of the matter, and indeed the Lord, through the prophets, rejects such a way of reasoning. The Gospels quite definitively link the destruction of Jerusalem and the subsequent wave of the dispersion with the rejection of Christ. However, this was not a purposeful retribution for what the Jews had done; rather, I would call it the result of rejecting the Lord Jesus. It is highly significant that the Lord Himself speaks of this with tears, thereby setting an example for all His disciples for all time. The Jews themselves (non-Christians) of the second half of the 1st century AD associated the destruction of Jerusalem with the murder of James the Just, the brother of the Lord, the first bishop of Jerusalem.

The entire history of biblical faith (both Old Testament and New Testament) testifies that the betrayal of Christ's love and the substitution of faith with lesser things always leads people to disaster. So it was in the days of the fall of Samaria and the first destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar; so it was in the 1st century AD; and so it has been in the history of the Church. The issue, in fact, is not about punishment... Simply put, if we are not with God, we are defenseless against the evil that reigns in this world, and we ourselves only multiply it. However, two important points must be noted. On the one hand, the Bible tells us that the Lord judges each person individually, and not entire groups and nations. On the other hand, His relationship with the chosen people, judging by the words of the Apostle Paul, remains special, comparable (though not identical) only to the relationship between God and the Church. As far as the Apostle Paul can be understood, in his view the conversion of Israel will be the final, culminating moment of Salvation History, and through this the chosen people continue to serve God and other people.

Finally, the traditional notion that the Jews did not accept Christ is highly biased. After all, the Most Holy Virgin and Joseph the Betrothed, John the Baptist and all the apostles, and the majority of the early Christians were Jews. A portion of the Jews accepted Christ, and a portion did not; but was this not the case with everyone else as well? And to accept the New Covenant "collectively," as a nation, is fundamentally impossible; the Lord establishes it with each person individually.

If the way to God is through Christ, what will happen to Israel?

Unlike the Old Covenant, the New Covenant is made with each person individually, regardless of a person's origin...

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