First Reading : Proverbs 2:1-9
My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
yes, if you cry out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures;
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom;
from His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of His saints.
Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
Gospel Reading : Matthew 19:27-29
Then Peter said in reply, “Lo, we have left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?”
Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of man shall sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.
What do the Fathers say?
On Wisdom:
CLEMENT of Alexandria. Wisdom is open to all and loves humankind. Solomon says, “My son, if you accept my words of instruction and keep them deep within you, your ear will listen to wisdom.” This means that the word is sown and kept deep in the soul of the learner as if in the ground. This is spiritual growth.
St Augustine of Hippo. It’s unfitting, it’s insulting, that wisdom should be compared with money, but love is being compared to love.
What I see here, after all, is that you all love money in such a way that when love of money gives the order, you undertake hard labor, you put up with starving, you cross the sea, you commit yourselves to wind and wave.
I have something to pick on in the matter of what you love, but I have nothing to add to the love with which you love.
“Love like that, and I don’t want to be loved any more than that,” says God. “I’m talking to the riffraff, I’m speaking to the greedy: You love money; love me just as much. Of course, I’m comparably better; but I don’t want more ample love from you; love me just as much as you love money.”
On the Gospel Reading:
St John CHRYSOSTOM. What was this ‘everything’ that you left, O blessed Peter? The reeds, your net, and boat.
But he says this, not to call to mind his own magnanimity, but in order to propose the case of the multitude of poor. A poor man might have said, If I have nought, I cannot become perfect. Peter therefore puts this question that you, poor man, may learn that you are not excluded. For he had already received the kingdom of heaven, and therefore secure of what was already there, he now asks on behalf of the whole world.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. For it would come to pass, that in the day of judgment the Jews would allege, Lord, we did not know that you were the Son of God when You were in the flesh.
For who can discern a treasure buried in the ground, or the sun when obscured by a cloud?
The disciples therefore will then answer, We also were men, and peasants, obscure among the multitude, but in us a right will illuminated our ignorance as if it were a lamp , but your evil will completely blinded all of your learning.
St John CHRYSOSTOM. He now says to the disciples, When the Son of Man shall sit, you also shall sit. It is clear then that they shall reign with Him, and shall share in that glory; for it is such honour and glory unspeakable that He intends by the thrones.
When He gave this promise to His disciples, He did not promise it absolutely, for He did not say, You shall sit, but, You who have followed me shall sit; at once excluding Judas, and admitting all who would come after; for neither was the promise confined to them only, nor yet did it include Judas who had already shown himself undeserving.
Sources:
Bible readings from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Second Catholic Edition, copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Quotes of the Fathers from :
Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea Translated by St John Henry Newman
Catena Bible
Artwork ex Wikimedia Commons