Lucas 8
Ambrose of Milan · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Lucas 8:20
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] In a mystical sense he ought not to stand without, who was seeking Christ. Hence also that saying, Come unto him, and be enlightened (Ps. 34:6. Vulg.). For if they stand without, not even parents themselves are acknowledged; and perhaps for our example they are not. How are we acknowledged by Him if we stand without? That meaning also is not unreasonable, because by the figure of parents He points to the Jews of whom Christ was born, (Rom. 9:5.) and thought the Church to be preferred to the synagogue. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:21
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] The moral teacher who gives himself an example to others, when about to enjoin upon others, that he who has not left father and mother, is not worthy of the Son of God, first submits Himself to this precept, not that He denies the claims of filial piety, (for it is His own sentence, He that knoweth not his father and mother shall die the death,) but because He knows that He is more bound to obey His Father's mysteries than the feelings of His mother. Nor however are His parents harshly rejected, but the bonds of the mind are shown to be more sacred than those of the body. Therefore in this place He does not disown His mother, (as some heretics say, eagerly catching at His speech,) since she is also acknowledged from the cross; but the law of heavenly ordinances is preferred to earthly affection. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:22
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] Our Lord therefore, who knew that He came upon earth for a divine mystery, having left His kinsfolk, went up into the ship. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:23
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] We are told above, moreover, that He passed the night in prayer. How then does He here fall asleep in a storm? The security of power is expressed, that while all were afraid, He alone lay fearless; but He lay asleep in the body, while in the mind he was in the mystery of divinity. For nothing happens without the Word. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:24-25
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] You must remember that no one can pass from the course of this life without temptations, for temptation is the trial of faith. We are therefore subject to the storms of spiritual wickedness, but as watchful sailors we must awake the Pilot, who does not obey but commands the winds, who although He now no longer sleeps in the sleep of His own body, yet let us beware, lest through the sleep of our bodies He is to us asleep and at rest. But they are rightly reproved who feared, when Christ was present; since he surely who clings to Him can in no wise perish. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:27
We know that in the Gospel according to Matthew, two men attacked by demons met Christ in the country of the Gerasenes. Here St. Luke introduces one such man as naked. Whoever has lost the covering of his nature and virtue is naked. I think that we should not idly disregard but seek the reason why the Evangelists seem to disagree about the number. Although the number disagrees, the mystery agrees. A man who has an evil spirit is a figure of the Gentile people, covered in vices, naked to error, vulnerable to sin. — Commentary on Luke
Lucas 8:27
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] Now although the number of those healed by Christ is different in Luke and Matthew, yet the mystery is one and the same. For as he who had a devil is the figure of the Gentile people, the two also in like manner take the figure of the Gentiles. For whereas Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet; the family of Shem only was called to the possession of God, and from the other two the people of different nations were descended. He (as Luke says) had devils long time, inasmuch as the Gentile people was vexed from the deluge down to our Lord's coming. But he was naked, because the Gentiles lost the garment of their nature and virtue. Or what are the bodies of the unbelieving but kinds of tombs in which the word of God abides not? — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:28
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] But the devils could not endure the clearness of the light of heaven, as those who have weak eyes can not bear the sun's rays. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:32-33
People are the authors of their own tribulation. If someone did not live like a swine, the devil would never have received power over him. If he did receive power, it would be power not to destroy but to test him. After the Lord's coming, the devil could already not corrupt the good, so perhaps he now does not seek the destruction of all people but only of the fickle. A mugger does not lie in wait for armed men but for the defenseless. He who understands that the strong will despise him or the powerful destroy him troubles only the weak with wrongs. Someone says, "Why does God permit this to the devil?" I say, "So that good people may be tested and the wicked punished, for this is the punishment of sin." This is also according to the law, because the Lord sends fever, trembling, evil spirits, blindness, and all scourges according to the punishment of sinners. — Commentary on Luke
Lucas 8:32-33
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] They are carried violently down, for they are reclaimed not by the contemplation of any good deed, but thrust as from a higher place to a lower, along the downward path of iniquity, they perish amidst the waves of this world, shut out from the approach of air. For they who are carried to and fro by the rapid tide of pleasure cannot receive the communication of the Spirit; we see then that man himself is the author of his own misery. For unless a man lived like the swine, the devil would never have received power over him, or received it, not to destroy but to prove him. And perhaps the devil, who after the coming of our Lord can no longer steal away the good, seeks not the destruction of all men, but only the wanton, as the robber lies in wait not for armed men, but the unarmed. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:34
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] When those who kept the herd saw this they fled. For neither the teachers of philosophy nor the chief of the synagogue can bring a cure to perishing mankind. It is Christ alone who takes away the sins of the people. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:37
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] Or there seems to have been a kind of synagogue in the city of the Gerasenes who besought our Lord to depart, because they were seized with great fear. For the weak mind receives not the word of God, nor can it endure the burden of wisdom. And therefore He no longer troubled them, but ascends from the lower parts to the higher, from the Synagogue to the Church, and returned across the lake. For no one passes from the Church to the Synagogue without endangering his salvation. But whoever desires to pass from the Synagogue to the Church, let him take up his cross, that he may avoid the danger. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:38-39
It says, "The herdsmen saw this and fled." Neither professors of philosophy nor leaders of the synagogue can offer any cure when people perish. Christ alone takes away the sins of the people, provided they do not refuse to submit to healing. He does not want to cure the unwilling and soon abandon the weak for whom it seems that his presence is a burden, like the peoples of the Gerasenes. They went out from that country, which appears to be an image of the synagogue, and begged him to depart from them, because they were very afraid.… Why does Christ not accept the healed man but advise him to return home? Perhaps this occurs to avoid a cause of boasting and give an example to unbelievers, although that home may be an inn by nature. Since he received the healing of his mind, Christ commanded him to depart from the tombs and the graves and to return to that spiritual home. He who had in him the grave of the mind became a temple of God. — Commentary on Luke
Lucas 8:41
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] But when about to raise the dead, in order to bring faith to the ruler of the synagogue, He first cured the issue of blood. So also a temporal resurrection is celebrated at the Passion of our Lord, that the other might be believed to be eternal. But as he went, the people thronged him. Now mystically Christ had left the synagogue in Gerasa, and Him whom His own received not we strangers receive. But whom do we suppose the chief of the synagogue to be, but the Law, from consideration of which our Lord had not entirely abandoned the synagogue. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:42
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] But while the Word of God hastens to this daughter of the ruler that He might save the children of Israel, the holy Church collected from among the Gentiles which was perishing by its falling away into gross crimes, seized first by faith the health prepared for others. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:42-43
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] But what means it that this daughter of the ruler was dying at twelve years, and the woman was afflicted with the issue of blood for twelve years, but that it might be understood that as long as the Synagogue flourished the Church was weak. For almost in the same age of the world, the Synagogue began to grow up among the patriarchs, and idolatry to pollute the Gentile nation. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:43-46
The assembly of the nations is like the woman who spent all her money on physicians. The assembly of nations also lost all the gifts of nature and squandered the inheritance of life. It was holy, shy, pious, ready in faith, and hesitant in modesty, because it is a sign of modesty to recognize the weakness of faith and not to despair of pardon. The shy woman touched the hem, the faithful approached, the pious believed, the wise knew she was healed. The holy people of the nations that believed in God were so ashamed of their sin that they abandoned it. Brought faith, they believed. They showed devotion, so that they entreated. They put on wisdom, so that they perceived their own health. They took confidence, so that they confessed the alien truth that they snatched.Why is Christ touched from behind? Is it because it is written, "You shall follow the Lord your God"? Why is it that the twelve-year-old daughter of the ruler was dying and the woman with a flow of blood was afflicted for twelve years, except that it is understood that as long as the synagogue flourished, the church suffered? The weakness of the one is the virtue of the other, because by their offense salvation has come to the Gentiles. The consummation of the one is the beginning of the other, the beginning not of nature but of salvation. — Commentary on Luke
Lucas 8:43-46
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] But as she had spent all her substance upon physicians, so the Gentile nations had lost all the gifts of nature. Now hearing that the people of the Jews were sick, she begins to hope for the remedy of their salvation; she knew that the time was arrived when a Physician should come from heaven, she rose to meet Him, more ready from faith, more backward from modesty. For this is the part of modesty and faith to acknowledge weakness, not to despair of pardon. From modesty then she touched the hem of His garment; in faith she came, in piety believed, in wisdom knew herself to be healed; so the holy people of the Gentiles which believed God, blushed at its sins so as to desert them, offered its faith in believing, showed its devotion in asking, put on wisdom in itself feeling its own cure, assumed boldness to confess that it had forestalled what was not its own. Now Christ is touched behind, as it is written, Thou shall walk after the Lord thy God (Deut. 13:4.) For they believe not who throng Him; they believe who touch. By faith Christ is touched, by faith He is seen. Lastly, to express the faith of her who touched Him, He says, I know that virtue is gone out of me, which is a more palpable sign, that the Divine Nature is not confined within the possibility of man's condition, and the compass of the human body, but eternal virtue overflows beyond the bounds of our mediocrity. For the Gentile people is not released by man's aid, but the gathering of nations is the gift of God, which even by its little faith turns to itself the everlasting mercy. For if we think what our faith is, and understand how great the Son of God is, we see that in comparison of Him we touch only the hem, we cannot reach the upper parts of the garment. If then we also wish to be cured, let us touch by faith the hem of Christ. But he who has touched Him is not hidden. Happy the man who has touched the extreme part of the Word. For who can comprehend the whole? — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:49
It says, "Servants came to the ruler, saying, 'Do not trouble him.' " Still they were without faith in the resurrection, which Jesus foretold in the law and fulfilled in the gospel. When he came into the house, he approved a few eyewitnesses to the imminent resurrection, because many did not immediately believe the resurrection. Then, as the Lord said, " 'The girl is not dead but sleeps,' they laughed him to scorn." Whoever does not believe, jeers. Those who think they are dead will weep for their dead, but when there is faith in resurrection, there is the appearance not of death but of sleep. — Commentary on Luke
Lucas 8:49
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] But still also were the servants of the ruler incredulous with regard to the resurrection, which Jesus had foretold in the Law, fulfilled in the Gospel; therefore say they, Do not trouble him; (Ps. 16.) as if it were impossible for Him to raise the dead. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:51-53
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] Therefore having entered into the house, He called a few to be judges of the coming resurrection: for the resurrection was not soon believed by the many. What then was the cause of this great difference? In a former case the widow's son is raised up before all, here a few only are set apart to judge. But I think that herein the mercy of the Lord is shown, since the widowed mother of an only son suffered no delay. There is also the token of wisdom, that in the widow's son we should see the Church quick in believing; in the ruler of the synagogue's daughter, the Jews about indeed to believe, but out of a great many only a few. Lastly, when our Lord says, She is not dead, but sleepeth, they laughed Him to scorn. For whoever believes not, laughs. Let them therefore mourn their dead who think they are dead. Where there is a belief of the resurrection, the notion is not of death but of rest. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:52-55
What shall I say about the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, at whose death the people were mourning and the flute players were playing their music? In the belief that she was indeed dead, solemn funeral services were being performed. The spirit returned immediately at the voice of the Lord, she arose with revived body, and she partook of food to furnish proof that she was alive. — On the Death of Satyrus 2.82
Lucas 8:54-55
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] Now the Lord taking hold of the hand of the maid, cured her. Blessed is he whom wisdom takes by the hand, that she may bring him into her secret places, and command to be given him to eat. For the bread of heaven is the word of God. Hence comes also that wisdom which has filled its altars with the food of the body and blood of God. Come, she says, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mixed for you. (Prov. 9:5.) — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 8:54-55
Jesus took the girl's hand, healed her, and ordered that she should be given something to eat. This is evidence of life, so that not an apparition but the truth may be believed. Blessed is he whose hand Wisdom holds. I wish that righteousness held my acts and my hands. I want the Word of God to hold me, bring me into his closet, turn away the spirit of error, replace it with that of salvation, and order that I be given something to eat! The Word of God is the Bread of heaven. The Wisdom that filled the holy altar with the nourishment of the divine body and blood says, "Come, eat of my bread, and drink wine that I have mixed for you." What is the reason for such diversity? Above, Christ raised the son of the widow in public. Here, he dismissed several eyewitnesses. I think that the Lord's compassion is also revealed since the widowed mother of an only son did not suffer delay. He is prompt; for fear that she would be further afflicted. It is also wise that the church would immediately believe through the widow's son, but the Jews, albeit a few, would believe through the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue. — Commentary on Luke