Sunday Bible Readings 1st Sunday Advent December 2 2007 with Traditional Catholic Commentary

December 2 2007 Bible Readings 1st Sunday Advent

About the sources used.

The readings on this site are not official for the Mass of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, but are from sources free from copyright. They are here to present the comparable readings alongside traditional Catholic commentary as published in the Haydock Bible.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/120207.shtml – Note. The Official Liturgical readings may not match the current NAB you may have.

Isaiah 2:1-5
Douay-Rheims Challoner

1 The word that Isaias the son of Amos saw, concerning Juda and Jerusalem.
2 And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go, and say: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge the Gentiles, and rebuke many people: and they shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they be exercised any more to war.
5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
DR-Challoner
Imperfect, unofficial, USCCB will have the official Psalm

Response: Rejoice as we go into the house of the Lord
I rejoiced at the things that were said to me:
We shall go into the house of the Lord.
Our feet were standing
in thy courts, O Jerusalem.
Response: Rejoice as we go into the house of the Lord
Jerusalem, which is built as a city,
which is compact together.
For thither did the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord:
Response: Rejoice as we go into the house of the Lord
the testimony of Israel,
to praise the name of the Lord.
Because their seats have sat in judgment,
seats upon the house of David.
Response: Rejoice as we go into the house of the Lord
Pray ye for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem:
and abundance for them that love thee.
Let peace be in thy strength:
and abundance in thy towers.
Response: Rejoice as we go into the house of the Lord
For the sake of my brethren, and of my neighbours,
I spoke peace of thee.
Because of the house of the Lord our God,
I have sought good things for thee.
Response: Rejoice as we go into the house of the Lord

Romans 13:11-14
Haydock NT

11 And that knowing the time: that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep: for now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. 12 The night is passed, and the day is at hand. Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light. 13 Let us walk honestly as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy: 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences.

The Gospel According to Saint Matthew 24:37-44
Haydock NT

37 As it was in the day of Noah, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, 39 And they knew not till the flood came, and took them all away: so also shall the coming of the Son of man be.

40 Then shall two be in the field: the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. 41 Watch ye, therefore, because you know not at what hour your Lord will come. 43 But this know ye, that if the master of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would certainly watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open. 44 Wherefore be ye also ready, because at what hour you know not, the Son of man will come.

Haydock Commentary Isaiah 2:1-5

• Ver. 1. Jerusalem. Many particular prophecies are blended with the general one, which regards Christ. C.
• Ver. 2. Days. The whole time of the new law, from the coming of Christ till the end of the world, is called in the Scripture the last days; because no other age, or time shall come after it, but only eternity. Ch.—It is therefore styled the last hour. 1 Jo. ii. W.—Mountains. This shews the perpetual visibility of the Church of Christ: for a mountain upon the top of mountains cannot be hid. Ch.—This evidently regards the Church. Mat. v. W.—The Jews can never shew the fulfillment of this prophecy in any material temple. Micheas (iv. 1) copies this text.
• Ver. 3. Jerusalem. Our Saviour preached there, and in some sense the religion established by him, may be esteemed a reform, or accomplishment of the old law.
• Ver. 4. War. Ezechias (Hezekiah) enjoyed peace after the defeat of Sennacheric, as the whole world did at the birth of Christ. C.—Claudentur belli portœ. Ǽn. i.
• Ver. 5. Lord. Ezechias (Hezekiah), or rather Christ and his Church, invite all to embrace the true faith. C.

Haydock Commentary Romans 13:11-14

• Ver. 11. Now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. Some will have the sense to be, that our salvation is now nearer, when the gospel is preached, and Christ offers us his graces, than when we believed the Messiah was to come. Others expound it, that the more of our life is spent, we come nearer to the judgment of God, and to the salvation promised in heaven. Wi.
• Ver. 12. The night is passed. That is, the night of sin and infidelity, in which you lived, before you began to serve Christ. Wi.—S. Paul is here addressing himself to Gentile converts. Before your conversion, you were in the darkness of infidelity: this time is past; now is the day, when the gospel has dissipated the darkness of idolatry, ignorance, and sin. Let us lay aside the works of darkness, by flying from sin, which hates the light, and seeks always to conceal itself; and let us put on the armour of light, the shield of faith, the breast-plate of justice, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit. Calmet.
• Ver. 13. Let us walk honestly as in the day. As men are accustomed to do in the light, without being afraid that their works come to light.—Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering, not in beds and impurities, not in immodest disorders. Wi.—The night of the present life full of darkness, of ignorance, and of sin, is already far advanced; and the day of eternity approaches: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. V.
• Ver. 14. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. To put on, is a metaphor used in the Scripture; as when it is said, put on the new man, &c. And make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences. That is, do not take care, nor pamper and indulge your appetite in eating and drinking, so as to increase your disorderly inclinations, but keep them in due subjection. Wi.—The apostle does not forbid all care of the body, since he himself says in the epistle to the Ephesians, v. “No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it.” But he forbids that care of the flesh, by which the desires and concupiscences are always indulging in delights and voluptuousness. Estius.—Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, enter into his sentiments, imitate his virtues, and indulge not the flesh in its inordinate desires.

Haydock Commentary Matthew 24:37-44

• Ver. 37. No man knoweth … but the Father alone. The words in S. Mark (13:32) are still harder; neither the angels, no the Son, but the Father. The Arians objected this place, to shew that Christ being ignorant of the day of judgment, could not be truly God. By the same words, no one knoweth, but the Father alone, (as they expound them) the Holy Ghost must be excluded from being the true God. In answer to this difficulty, when it is said, but the Father alone, it is certain that the eternal Son and the Holy Ghost could never be ignorant of the day of judgment: because, as they are one and the same God, so they must have one and the same nature, the same substance, wisdom, knowledge, and all absolute perfections. 2 It is also certain that Jesus Christ knew the day of judgment, and all things to come, by a knowledge which he could not but have, because of the union by which his human nature was united to the divine person and nature. See Colos. ii. 3. And so to attribute any ignorance to Christ, was the error of those heretics called Agnoitai. 3. But though Christ, as a man, knew the day of judgment, yet this knowledge was not due to him as he was man, or because he was man, but he only knew the day of judgment because he was God as well as man. 4. It is the common answer of the fathers that Christ here speaks to his disciples, only as he was the ambassador of his Father; and so he is only to know what he is to make known to men. He is said not to know, says S. Aug. what he will not make others or what he will not reveal to them. Wi.—By this Jesus Christ wished to suppress the curiosity of his disciples. In the same manner after his resurrection, he answers the same question: ‘Tis not for you to know the times and the moments, which the Father has placed in his own power. This last clause is added, that the apostles might not be discouraged and think their divine Master esteemed them in Mark 13:32. The Son is ignorant of it, not according to his divinity, but according to his humanity, considered as separate from his divinity. V.
• Ver. 37-38. And as it was. The same shall take place at the coming of the Son of man at the last day, as at the general deluge. For, as then they indulged their appetites, unmindful of the fate that was attending them. Marrying and given in marriage, solely occupied with the concerns of this life, and indifferent to those of the next; so shall it be at the end of the salvation, as is evident from what follows. Jans.
• Ver. 39. And they thought not of the deluge, though preached and predicted by Noah, (which rendered their ignorance and incredulity inexcusable) till it cam and swept them all away. So shall it be at the coming of the Son of man. S. Luke adds, (c. 17.v 28.), likewise as it was in the days of Lot; they shall be eating and drinking buying and selling planting and building, i.e. totally immersed in worldly pursuits. Hence the apostle; when they shall say peace, viz. from past evils, and security, viz. from future, then shall destruction come upon them on a sudden. But some one may ask, how can there possibly be all this peace, all this security, when the evils mentioned above, famines, wars, plagues, earthquakes, and particularly the darkness of the sun, &c. &c. are presages calculated to strike with panic and consternation minds the most thoughtless and giddy? I answer, that the wicked are chiefly designed here, who in the midst of the afflictions and alarms of the good, will still indulge in their pleasures and luxuries, like cruel soldiers, whilst the peaceable inhabitants are plundered. S. Jerome adds, that the world for some time before its final dissolution, will be freed from all those calamities. As to what is said (v. 29) of the darkness of the sun and moon, these are circumstances that refer to the very coming of the judge. Jans.
• Ver. 40. Then of two men, who shall think of nothing less than of going to appear before God, one shall be taken to be placed among the number of the elect, and the other shall be left condemned to eternal fire with the damned, on account of his crimes. V.—This example of the men in the field, and of the condition and disposition of men at the period of the deluge, strongly expresses how unexpectedly these evils will rush in upon mankind; and the subsequent account of the two women grinding in the mill, shews how little they were solicitous for their salvation. We are, moreover, taught by these examples, that some of all states and conditions will be saved, whether rich or poor, in ease or labour, or decorated with all the various degrees of worldly honour. The same is mentioned in Exodus, c. xi, v. 5. From the first-born of Pharao, who setteth on his throne, even to the first born of the handmaid that is at the mill, … every first-born shall die. S. Chrys. hom. lxxvii.
• Ver. 41. Two women. Slaves of both sexes were employed in grinding corn. Of these, one shall be carried up to heaven by angels, the other shall be left a prey to devils, on account of her bad life. V.—In many ancient MSS. Both Greek and Latin, what we read in S. Luke, (17:34) of two men in the same bed, one shall be taken, and the other shall be left, is here added.
• Ver. 42. Watch ye, therefore. That men might not be attentive for a time only, but preserve a continual vigilance, the Almighty conceals from them the hour of their dissolution: they ought therefore to be ever expecting it, and ever watchful. But to the eternal infamy of Christians be it said, much more diligence is used by the worldly wise for the preservation of their wealth, than by the former for the salvation of their immortal souls. Though they are fully aware that the Lord will com, and like a thief in the night, when they least expect him, they do not persevere watching, nor guard against the irreparable misfortune of quitting the present life without previous preparation. Therefore will the day come to the destruction of such as are reposed in sleep. S. Chrys. hom. lxxviii. On S. Matt.—Of what importance is it then that we should be found watching, and properly attentive to the one thing necessary, the salvation of our immortal souls. For what will it avail us, if we have gained the whole world, which we must then leave, and lose our immortal souls, which, owing to our supine neglect to these admonitions of Jesus Christ, must suffer in hell-flames for all eternity? A.