Think ye that I am come to give peace on earth?

St Luke Chapter XII : Verses 50-59

Contents

• Luke xii. Verses 50-59.  Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text & Latin text (Vulgate)
• Douay-Rheims 1582 text
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary

Luke xii. Verses 50-59.

When you see a cloud rising from the west... [See verse 54]
Michael Jastremski [Creative Commons]

50 And I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized: and how am I straitened until it be accomplished?

Baptismo autem habeo baptizari : et quomodo coarctor usque dum perficiatur?

51 Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.

Putatis quia pacem veni dare in terram? non, dico vobis, sed separationem :

52 For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three.

erunt enim ex hoc quinque in domo una divisi, tres in duos, et duo in tres

53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

dividentur : pater in filium, et filius in patrem suum, mater in filiam, et filia in matrem, socrus in nurum suam, et nurus in socrum suam.

54 And he said also to the multitudes: When you see a cloud rising from the west, presently you say: A shower is coming: and so it happeneth:

Dicebat autem et ad turbas : Cum videritis nubem orientem ab occasu, statim dicitis : Nimbus venit : et ita fit.

55 And when ye see the south wind blow, you say: There will be heat: and it cometh to pass.

Et cum austrum flantem, dicitis : Quia æstus erit : et fit.

56 You hypocrites, you know how to discern the face of the heaven and of the earth: but how is it that you do not discern this time?

Hypocritae! faciem cæli et terræ nostis probare : hoc autem tempus quomodo non probatis?

57 And why even of yourselves, do you not judge that which is just?

quid autem et a vobis ipsis non judicatis quod justum est?

58 And when thou goest with thy adversary to the prince, whilst thou art in the way, endeavour to be delivered from him: lest perhaps he draw thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the exacter, and the exacter cast thee into prison.

Cum autem vadis cum adversario tuo ad principem, in via da operam liberari ab illo, ne forte trahat te ad judicem, et judex tradat te exactori, et exactor mittat te in carcerem.

59 I say to thee, thou shalt not go out thence, until thou pay the very last mite.

Dico tibi, non exies inde, donec etiam novissimum minutum reddas.

Douay-Rheims : 1582 text

50. But I haue to be baptized with a Baptiſme: and how am I ſtraitned vntil it be diſpatched.

51. Thinke you that I came to giue peace on the earth? No, I tel you, but ſeparation.
52. For there ſhal be from this time fiue in one houſe deuided: three againſt two, and two againſt three.
53. There sſhal be deuided, the father againſt the ſonne, and the ſonne against his father, the mother againſt the daughter, and the daughter againsſt the mother, the mother in law againſt her daughter in law, and the daughter in law againſt her mother in law.

54. And he ſaid alſo to the multitudes, when you ſee a cloud riſing from the weſt, by and by you ſay, A ſhoure commeth, and ſo it commeth to paſſe:

55. and when the ſouth wind blowing, you ſay, That there wil be heate: & it commeth to paſſe.

56. Hypocrites, the face of the Heauen and of the earth you haue ſkil to diſcerne: but this time how doe you not diſcerne?
57. And why of your ſelues alſo iudge you not that which is iuſt?
58. And when thou goeſt with thy aduerſarie to the Prince, in the way endeauour to be deliuered from him: leſt perhaps he draw thee to the iudge, and the iudge deliuer thee to the exactour, and the exactour cast thee into prison.
59. I ſay to thee, thou ſhalt not goe out thence, vntil thou pay the very last mite.

 

Annotations

    50. And I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized:  The Arabic says, “I have a baptism, and I shall be baptized with it:” That is, By the decree of God and of My own will and determination I owe (debeo) to be baptized.

    and how am I straitened until it be accomplished? “This fire of love and zeal of the Holy Spirit, cannot break forth unless the flint of My body be first struck upon the cross, or rather, until I am baptized in the font of My own blood.” This is like some fountains into which if we plunged a torch, by the wonderful power of nature, and an antiperistasis, it is lighted. Such, according to Pliny, is the fountain of Dodona (bk. ii. chap. 103) [in Epirus in northwestern Greece, the oldest Hellenic oracle, possibly dating to the 2nd millennium BCE according to Herodotus.] Our brethren of Coimbra, in Meteora (tract. ix. chap. 7), say that there is another in Epirus, and a third in India, the waters of which burn; another, again, which formerly took its name from Jupiter Ammon. This just before the dawn is tepid, at midday it becomes cold, it is warm in the evening, and it boils at midnight. Similar springs are found near Naples, in France, and other places. Our Lord, then, compares His passion to these. This is like a boiling fountain which has aroused, and still arouses, the fire of love in the minds of the faithful. For equally by the merit of the cross and passion of Christ and by His example does this fire burst forth. He calls His death and passion a baptism, because He was clearly sunk and overwhelmed in it, as says the Psalm, “I stick fast in the mire of the deep: and there is no sure standing. I am come into the depth of the sea: and a tempest hath overwhelmed me.,” lxviii. 3.

    and how am I straitened until it be accomplished? That is, “I am afflicted and tormented by the longing to die for the salvation of men and by My death to kindle this flame.” Euthymius: “I am anxious because of its slowness;” and Theophylact: “How am I straitened,” that is, how anxious and oppressed am I until it be performed, “for I thirst for death for the good of all men.” So S. Ambrose, Bede, and others. The Arabic has, “I am narrowed for its performance.” S. Irenæus I. 18 reads, “I earnestly hasten to it.” For the hearts of the anxious are wont to be contracted and as it were compressed by such, whilst those of the joyful are expanded and dilated. De Lyra, therefore, renders it amiss, “I am narrowed,” he says, “that is, I am filled with dread, according to the words, ‘My soul is sorrowful even unto death.’ ” This, indeed, was a feeling natural to the soul of Christ, but He quelled and overcame it when He said, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

    Morally. Observe how great was the zeal of Christ, how great His love, how deep His thirst for our salvation. For it was this that raised in Him so great a thirst for His Passion, death, and crucifixion, cruel as they were; so that His heart, between their infliction and the waiting for them, was compressed, as between the two stones of a mill, and brought into the greatest straits; or placed, as it were, in a vice and compressed with anguish, lest what He loved should be refused or delayed. Christ then was urged and, as it were, burnt up by the utmost longing to offer Himself up to God as a holocaust on the altar of the cross, that, as far as in Him lay, He might sanctify, save, and bless all men.

    This zeal, His thirst, He impressed upon the Apostles and apostolic men, who thirsted for crosses, labours, pains, torments, and martyrdoms, for the glory of God: that they might propagate the gospel of Christ throughout the whole world and save as many as they could. This is the holiness of the Gospel, this is the perfection of virtue, this is the crown of the Apostleship. S. Andrew’s salutations of the cross, and his earnest longing for it, are known. 

“Hail, precious cross, long desired, and at last ready for my longing soul! Secure and rejoicing I come to thee; do thou with joy accept me, and through Thyself do Thou receive me who by dying for me hast redeemed me.” 

    S. Laurence said to the Emperor Valerian, when he showed to him with threats, flames, wheels, scorpions, wild beasts:

“For this table I hunger, I thirst. There is no famished man who desires food, there is no one perishing of thirst who craves for water, as greedily as I court and covet all these torments, that I may repay to Christ my Saviour, pain for pain, death for death.” 

    S. Vicentius to Dacian: “No one living has conferred on me greater gifts than thou, who torturest and crucifiest me, for with as many tortures as thou afflictest me with—with so many crowns of martyrdom dost thou adorn me.” And to the executioners, “How slow are ye, how slothful!”

    S. Agatha to Quintianus, 

“Why are you so slow? What do you wait for?—scourge, lacerate, burn, cut down, mangle, slay my body, for the more you crucify me, the more good you confer upon me, and the more favour and grace shall I receive from my spouse Jesus Christ.” 

    Such were the vows and such the words of SS. Agnes, Lucia, Dorothea, Cœcilia, and other Martyrs.

    51. Think ye that I am come to give peace in the earth? I tell you nay, but rather division. 

[    See what I have said Matt. x. 34, viz. ... Christ promised by Isaiah (ix. 6 and 7, and lxv. 25), that He would bring spiritual peace of mind, the peace of the union of the faithful among themselves, and with God and His Angels, which leads to peace and everlasting felicity in Heaven.

    separation, as S. Luke has (xii. 51), discord in faith and religion. He means that He will separate His faithful people by reason of their faith from unbelievers. But the unbelievers will on their part take occasion to separate themselves from the faithful, and will hate them, and will deprive them of liberty and goods and life. This is what Christ especially refers to in what follows; and this too entirely answers to the words of Micah (vii. 6) from which Christ here quotes.

    A man’s foes shall be they of his own household. Syriac. A man shall have as his enemies the sons of his own house. Because, as S. Chrys. says (Hom. 2, cont. Judæos), it shall come to pass that in the same house there shall be one faithful believer in Christ, whilst another shall continue unbelieving. A father will wish his son to return back from the faith to his former impiety. Foretelling this He saith, I am come to separate. Such shall be the victorious power of the Gospel that sons shall disregard their parents, daughters their mothers, and parents their children, and shall adventure their life and all things for the sake of godliness. Some are of opinion that Christ only applies the passage of Micah, using it in a different sense. But I reply that Micah was speaking literally of the calamity of sinful Jerusalem through the siege of the Chaldeans, as S. Jerome shows—that in it the inhabitants should be so distressed by sword and famine and pestilence that even brother would snatch away bread from brother, child from parent, wife from husband. But, allegorically this strife of the Jews signifies the discord and opposition of unbelieving parents and brethren and husbands against believers, whether Jews, or Gentiles in the time of Christ, especially when the faithful ran into peril of goods and fame, and even life itself. In this allegorical sense Christ cites Micah’s words: and in an allegory, or parable it is not necessary to apply every word.]

    52. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. Five, that is—Father, son, mother, daughter, daughter-in-law, for mother-in-law is the same as mother. So S. Ambrose. And this is plain from what follows. In the same house three unbelievers shall rise against two believers, or two unbelieving against three faithful, or father and son, who do not believe in Christ, shall rise against mother, daughter, and daughter in-law who do believe in Him, or the contrary.

    54. And he said also to the multitudes: When you see a cloud rising from the west, presently you say: A shower is coming: and so it happeneth: When you see a cloud from the west you say, It will rain. In the same manner Elijah, in the time of the three years’ drought, when he heard from his servant that a cloud had arisen in the west, at once foretold that rain would follow, and it did so. 1 Kings xviii. 44. The cause of this is natural; for Judæa has the Mediterranean on the west, from which by the force of the sun many vapours are exhaled, which, when condensed into clouds by the heat of the sun, produce rain, especially when the sun is also in the west; for it is then too weak to disperse these vapours and prevent them from condensing into clouds and dissolving in rain. But the countries that have the sea equally on the west, the south and the north have, equally, from these quarters, clouds as forerunners of winds, as the English, who have the sea on all sides of them. See Matt. xvi. 3. It is necessary to human life, says S. Basil in the Catena, to watch the heavenly bodies, so that their warnings be not examined into beyond measure. It is of consequence to look out for, and guard against storms, and for the traveller to regard the changes of temperature, for the husbandman to consider the position of the sun and moon for his sowing that he may have an abundant harvest; for God has appointed these things for signs and for seasons.

    58. And when thou goest with thy adversary to the prince, whilst thou art in the way, endeavour to be delivered from him: lest perhaps he draw thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the exacter, and the exacter cast thee into prison. [From the Catena Aurea: .... our adversary in the way is the word of God, which opposes our carnal desires in this life; from which he is delivered who is subject to its precepts. Else he will be delivered to the judge, for of contempt of God’s word the sinner will be accounted guilty in the judgment of the judge. The judge will deliver him to the officer, that is, the evil spirit for punishment. He will then be cast into prison, that is, to hell, where because he will ever have to pay the penalty by suffering, but never by paying it obtain pardon, he will never come out from thence, but with that most terrible serpent the devil, will expiate everlasting punishment. BEDE.]

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.