Gospel Reading : Matthew 12:14-21
But the Pharisees went out and took counsel against him, how to destroy him.
Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all, and ordered them not to make him known.
This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not wrangle or cry aloud,
nor will any one hear his voice in the streets;
he will not break a bruised reed
or quench a smoldering wick,
till he brings justice to victory;
and in his name will the Gentiles hope.”
What do the Fathers say?
St HILARY. The Pharisees are moved with jealousy at what had been done; because beholding the outward body of a man, they did not recognize the God in His works;
And He knowing their plots withdrew, that He might be far from the counsels of the evil hearted.
St REMIGIUS. Or, He withdrew from thence to avoid the designs of His own when they persecuted Him; or because that was not the time or place for Him to suffer, for It cannot be that a Prophet should perish out of Jerusalem, (Luke 13:33) as He Himself said.
The Lord also shunned those who persecuted Him through hatred, and went thither where He found many who were attached to Him from affection, whence it follows, And there followed him many.
Him whom the Pharisees with one consent plotted against to destroy, the untaught multitude with one consent love and follow; whence they soon received the fulfilment of their desires, for it follows, And he healed them all.
St HILARY. On those whom He healed He enjoined silence, for his restored health was a witness to each man. And by commanding them to hold their peace, He avoids all ostentation of Himself.
St RABANUS. In this also He instructs us, that when we have done any thing great we are not to seek praise abroad.
St John CHRYSOSTOM. And that you may not be troubled at those things which are done, and at the incredible madness of the Pharisees, He introduces the Prophet’s words.
For such was the carefulness of the Prophets, that they had not omitted even this, but had noted all His ways and movements, and the meaning with which He did this; that you might learn that He spoke all things by the Holy Spirit, for if it be impossible to know the thoughts of men, much more to know the meaning of Christ, unless the Holy Spirit revealed it.
St REMIGIUS. Then also God the Father put His Spirit upon Him, when by the working of the Holy Spirit He took flesh of the Virgin; and as soon as He became man, He took the fulness of the Holy Spirit.
St John CHRYSOSTOM. The Lord sought to heal the Jews by this mildness. But though they rejected Him, yet He did not resist them by destroying them; thus the Prophet, displaying His power and their weakness, says, A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench.
St JEROME. He that does not hold out his hand to a sinner, nor bears his brother’s burden, he breaks a bruised reed; and he who despises a weak spark of faith in a little one, he quenches a smoldering wick.
He calls the Jews a bruised reed, whom tossed by the wind and shaken from one another, the Lord did not immediately condemn, but patiently endured; and the smoldering wick He calls the people gathered out of the Gentiles, who, having extinguished the light of the natural law, were involved in the wandering mazes of thick darkness of smoke, bitter and hurtful to the eyes; this He not only did not extinguish, by reducing them to ashes, but on the contrary from a small spark and one almost dead He raised a mighty flame.
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
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