Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary: Luke
Chapter 9
Ver. 1. Over all devils; so that none should be able to resist them. For all were not equally easy to be expelled, as we shall see in this same chapter, in the person of a possessed child, whom the apostles could not heal, because they did not use prayer and fasting against it; and because their faith was not sufficiently strong and ardent. (Calmet)
Ver. 4. And depart[1] not from thence. In the ordinary Greek copies we find, and depart from thence. The sense appears, by the other evangelists, (Matthew x. 11. and Mark vi. 10.) that Christ gave this admonition to his disciples, not to change their lodging from house to house; but while they staid in a town, to remain in the same house. And though the negative be here omitted in the Greek, interpreters bring it to the same, by telling us that the sense is, stay here, and depart from thence; i.e. stay in that house, so that leaving the town, you may depart from the same house. (Witham)
Ver. 8. Risen from the dead. Herod was perplexed and in suspense about the report, that it was John [the Baptist] that was risen from the dead. ... From this it appears, that some of the Jews, and Herod himself, believed in some kind of metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls. Josephus says, (Antiquities lib. xviii, chap. 2.) that the Pharisees believed the soul to be immortal; and after death, to depart to some subterraneous places, where they received the recompense of good, or evil, according to their actions. There the souls of the wicked remain for ever, without the power of departing thence. The souls of the good sometimes returned, and entered other bodies. Herod probably thought that the soul of John the Baptist was united to that of Christ, in the same body, and was thence enabled to perform new and more extraordinary functions. Such were the reveries of some of the Rabbins; who, as St. Jerome remarks, abused the passages of the gospel we are now explaining, in support of this Pythagorean doctrine. Most of the Jews believed the true doctrine of the resurrection, viz. that of the body; which must one day be renewed to life by the same soul which now animates it: and this is the doctrine of faith and of the Church, which she teaches you from both the Old and New Testament, instead of that transmigration of souls, which has no foundation or appearance of truth. It is probable that this error was widely diffused among the Jews, in our Saviour's time. It was a doctrine suited to the taste of the Orientals. Some think they can see traces of it in the history of Elias. That prophet being taken away, and the Jews seeing Eliseus perform the same miracles, said, that the spirit of Elias had rested on him. (Calmet)
Ver. 18. As he was alone praying: i.e. remote from the people, though his disciples are said to have been with him. (Witham)
Ver. 27. Kingdom of God. This is generally understood of the transfiguration, in which Christ shewed to the three disciples an essay of his glory. (Calmet)
Ver. 28. Mountain, &c. Since Christ has ascended the mountain, both to pray and to be transfigured, all of us who hope for the fruit of his resurrection, and long to see the king in his glory, must dwell in heaven by our thoughts, and apply our minds to continual prayer. (Ven. Bede)
Ver. 30. And behold two men. Moses and Elias, by ministering to our Lord in his glory, shewed him to be the Lord of both the Old and New Testament. The disciples also, upon seeing the glory of their fellow-creatures, would be filled with admiration at the condescension of their divine Master; and considering the delights of future happiness, be stirred up to a holy emulation of those who had laboured before them, and be fortified in their ensuing conflicts; for nothing so much lightens the present labour, as the consideration of the future recompense. (St. Cyril)
Ver. 31. They spoke of his decease,[2] or his departure out of this world. St. Peter useth the same Greek word for his death. (2 Peter i. 15.) (Witham)
Ver. 33. It is good for us. It is not good, O Peter, for Christ to remain always. Should he have remained there, the promise he had made thee would never have been fulfilled. Thou wouldst never have obtained the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the reign of death would not have been destroyed. Seek not for joys before the time, as Adam sought to be made like God. The time will come, when thou shalt for eternity behold him, and reign with him who is life and light. (Damasus, Orat. de Transfigurat. Domini.) --- Three tabernacles. The Lord does appoint thee the builder, not of tabernacles, but of his whole Church. Thy disciples, thy sheep, have fulfilled thy desire, by erecting tabernacles for Christ and his faithful servants. These words of St. Peter, let us make, &c. were not spoken of himself, but by the prophetic inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Therefore it is added, he knew not what he said. (Damasus, Orat. de Transfigurat. Domini.) --- St. Peter knew not what he said, because by proposing to make three tabernacles for these three personages, he improperly ranked together, the servants and their Lord, the creature and the Creator. (Titus Bostrensis)
Ver. 35. And a voice, &c. This is the voice of the Father from the cloud, as if he should say, "I call him not one of my sons, but my true and natural Son, to the resemblance of whom all others are adopted. (St. Cyril) --- Not Elias, not Moses, but he whom you see alone, is my beloved Son. (St. Ambrose) --- Therefore, it is added: and when the voice was heard, Jesus was alone, lest any one should imagine these words, This is my beloved Son, were addressed to Moses or Elias." (Theophylactus)
Ver. 45. They understood not this word. They understood well enough what was meant by being delivered into the hands of his enemies, and being put to death; but they could not comprehend how Jesus Christ, whom they knew to be the Messias, and the Son of God, and whom they believed to be immortal, and eternal, could suffer death, or affronts and outrages from men. These ideas seemed incompatible; they perceived in them some mystery, which they could not penetrate. (Calmet)
Ver. 46. And there entered a thought, &c. It is improbable that all the disciples had fallen into this fault: but the evangelist, that he might not point out any in particular as guilty of it, says indiscriminately, that this thought had entered among them. (St. Cyril in St. Thomas Aquinas)
Ver. 49. We forbade him. St. John having the most love for his Lord, and being particularly beloved by him, thought all were to be excluded from these gifts, who were not obedient to his divine Master. (St. Augustine) --- But we must remember, that not the minister is the author of these miracles, but the grace which is in him, who performs these wonders by virtue of the power of Christ. (St. Cyril) --- How wonderful is the power of Christ, who by his grace works miracles in the persons of the unworthy, and those that are not disciples; as men are sanctified by the priest, though the priest should not be in the state of grace! (Theophylactus)
Ver. 50. Forbid him not. Our Lord is not moved by this event, to teach us that perfect virtue entertains no thoughts of revenge, and that anger cannot be found where the fulness of charity reigns. The weak must not be driven away, but assisted. Let the breast of the religious man be ever unmoved by passion, and the mind of the generous undisturbed by desires of revenge. (St. Ambrose)