Marcos 3
Augustine of Hippo · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Marcos 3:4
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] (de Con. Evan. ii. 35) But some one may wonder how Matthew could have said, that they themselves asked the Lord, if it was lawful to heal on the sabbath-day; when Mark rather relates that they were asked by our Lord, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath-day, or to do evil? Therefore we must understand that they first asked the Lord, if it was lawful to heal on the sabbath-day, then that understanding their thoughts, and that they were seeking an opportunity to accuse Him, He placed in the middle him whom He was about to cure, and put those questions, which Mark and Luke relate. We must then suppose, that when they were silent, He propounded the parable of the sheep, and concluded, that it was lawful to do good on the sabbath-day. It goes on: But they were silent. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Marcos 3:5
Feelings cannot exist in anything but a living soul. These events show that just as Jesus had a human body he had a human soul. We read about the diversity of his feelings in the reports of the same Evangelists [who attested his divinity]: Jesus was astonished, was angered, was grieved, was elated, and similar emotive responses without number. Likewise it is clear that he experienced the ordinary fully human experience of interconnectedness between his body and his soul. He was hungry; he slept; he was tired from his journey. — AGAINST THE APOLLINARIANS 80
Marcos 3:5
If angry emotions which spring from a love of what is good and from holy charity are to be labeled vices, then all I can say is that some vices should be called virtues. When such affections as anger are directed to their proper objects, they are following good reasoning, and no one should dare to describe them as maladies or vicious passions. This explains why the Lord himself, who humbled himself to the form of a servant, was guilty of no sin whatever as he displayed these emotions openly when appropriate. Surely the One who assumed a true human body and soul would not counterfeit his human affections. Certainly, the Gospel does not falsely attribute emotions to Christ when it speaks of him being saddened and angered by the lawyers because of their blindness of heart. — THE CITY OF GOD, BOOK 14
Marcos 3:10
It is by faith that we touch Jesus. And far better to touch him by faith than to touch or handle him with the hands only and not by faith. It was no great thing to merely touch him manually. Even his oppressors doubtless touched him when they apprehended him, bound him, and crucified him, but by their ill-motivated touch they lost precisely what they were laying hold of. O worldwide church! It is by touching him faithfully that your "faith has made you whole." — SERMONS, ON EASTER 148
Marcos 3:11
Both the devils and the faithful confessed Christ. "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God," said Peter. "We know who thou art. Thou art the Son of God," said the devils. I hear a similar confession, but I do not find a similar charity. In one there is love, in another fear. He is lovely to those who are sons. He is terrible to those who are not sons. — ON THE PSALMS 50.2
Marcos 3:11
The "faith that works by love," is not the same faith that demons have. "For the devils also believe and tremble," but do they love? If they had not believed, they would not have said: "You are the holy one of God" or "You are the Son of God." But if they had loved, they would not have said: "What have we to do with you?" — LETTER 194, TO SIXTUS
Marcos 3:16
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] (de Con. Evan. ii. 17) But let no one suppose that Simon now received his name and was called Peter, for thus he would make Mark contrary to John, who relates that it had been long before said unto him, Thou shalt be called Cephas. (John 1:42) But Mark gives this account by way of recapitulation; for as he wished to give the names of the twelve Apostles, and was obliged to call him Peter, his object was to intimate briefly, that he was not called this originally, but that the Lord gave him that name. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Marcos 3:23
Now as for the Lord's saying: "Satan cannot drive out Satan," lest perhaps anyone using the name of some of the lowest powers when driving out a demon should think this opinion of the Lord's to be false, let him understand the point of this saying: Satan does spare the body or the senses of the body, but he tempts the senses for the purpose of dominating the will of the man in question, in a triumph of greater import, through the error of impiety. Satan does not strike for the body as such, but rather for the innermost self in order to work in him in the manner described by the apostle: "according to the prince of the power of this air, who is now active in the sons of disobedience." For Satan was not troubling and tormenting the senses of their bodies, nor was he battering their bodies, but he was reigning in their wills, or better, in their covetousness. — EIGHTY-THREE DIFFERENT QUESTIONS, QUESTION 79.2
Marcos 3:25
Mention has been made of the unclean spirit whom the Lord shows to be divided against himself. The Holy Spirit, however, is not divided against himself. Rather he makes those whom he gathers together undivided against themselves, by dwelling within those who have been cleansed, that they may be like those of whom it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, "The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul." — SERMONS ON THE NEW TESTAMENT LESSONS 21.35
Marcos 3:27
The "strong man" in this passage means the devil who was able to hold the human race in bondage. By his "goods," which Christ was coming to plunder, the devil was keeping for himself those who would in time become faithful, but had remained in the clutches of ungodliness and various sins. It was for the purpose of binding up this strong man that John, in the Apocalypse, saw "an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years." The angel checked and repressed his power to seduce and possess those destined to be set free. — City of God 20.7
Marcos 3:27
He conquered the devil first by righteousness, and then by power. First by righteousness, because he who had no sin was slain by him most unjustly. But then by power, because having been dead he lived again, never afterwards to die. For Christ was crucified, not through immortal power, but through the weakness which he took upon him in mortal flesh. Of this weakness the apostle nevertheless says, "God's weakness is stronger than human strength." — ON THE TRINITY 13.14.18
Marcos 3:27
It is not difficult, therefore, to see how the devil was conquered when he, who was slain by him, rose again. But there is something greater and more profound of comprehension: to see how the devil was conquered precisely when he was thought to be conquering, namely, when Christ was crucified. For at that moment the blood of him who had no sin at all, was shed for the remission of our sins. The devil deservedly held those whom he had bound by sin to the condition of death. So it happened that One who was guilty of no sin freed them justly from this condemnation. The strong man was conquered by this paradoxical justice and bound by this chain, that his vessels might be taken away. Those vessels which had been vessels of wrath were turned into vessels of mercy. — ON THE TRINITY 13.15.19
Marcos 3:28
It is not that this was a blasphemy which under no circumstances could be forgiven, for even this shall be forgiven if right repentance follows it. — SERMONS ON NEW TESTAMENT LESSONS 21.35
Marcos 3:29-30
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] (Serm. 71, 12, 21) Or else impenitence itself is the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which hath no remission. For either in his thought or by his tongue, he speaks a word against the Holy Ghost the forgiver of sins, who treasures up for himself an impenitent heart. But he subjoins, Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit, that he might show that His reason for saying it, was their declaring that He cast out a devil by Beelzebub, not because there is a blasphemy, which cannot be remitted since even this might be remitted through a right repentance: but the cause why this sentence was put forth by the Lord, after mentioning the unclean spirit, (who as our Lord shows was divided against himself,) was, that the Holy Ghost even makes those whom He brings together undivided, by His remitting those sins, which divided them from Himself, which gift of remission is resisted by no one, but him who has the hardness of an impenitent heart. For in another place, the Jews said of the Lord, that He had a devil, (John 7:20.) without however His saying any thing there about the blasphemy against the Spirit; and the reason is, that they did not there cast in His teeth the unclean spirit, in such a way, that that spirit could by their own words be shown to be divided against Himself, as Beelzebub was here shown to be, by their saying, that it might be he who cast out devilso. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Marcos 3:32
It is he who said that no one belongs to his family except those who do the will of his Father. To be sure, he graciously included Mary herself in this number, for she was doing the will of his Father. Thus he spurned the earthly name of his mother in comparison to heavenly kinship.… Do not be ungrateful, pay your duty of gratitude to your mother, repay earthly favors by spiritual ones, temporal by eternal ones. — LETTER 243, TO LAETUS
Marcos 3:35
She did the Father's will. It was this in her that the Lord magnified, not merely that her flesh gave birth to flesh.… When he said, "Blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it," he was in effect saying: "My mother whom you have called blessed is blessed for the reason that she keeps the Word of God, not that the Word was made flesh in her and dwelt among us, but that she keeps the very Word of God through which she was made and which was made flesh in her." — TRACTATE ON JOHN 10.3.2
Marcos 3:35
What else does he here teach us, than to prefer to kinship "after the flesh" our descent "after the Spirit." He teaches that persons are united by nearness of spirit to those who are just and holy, and that by obeying and following they cleave to their teaching and conduct. Therefore Mary is more blessed in receiving the faith of Christ than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. For to the one who said, "Blessed is the womb, which bore you!" he himself answered: "Blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it." Concerning his own brothers, his own relatives after the flesh, who at first did not believe in him, he found dubious advantage in being their kin. As for Mary, her nearness as a mother would have been little help for her salvation if she had not borne Christ in her heart in a more blessed manner than in the flesh. — ON VIRGINITY 3