Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary: Romans
the same may also happen to you. You may fall into presumption and incredulity; if you remain firm, it is not by your own merits or works, but by faith, the pure gift of God. Neither faith, nor vocation, nor grace, are inadmissible. You may lose all; and therefore ought always to fear and live in humility. If God has not spared the natural branches, fear, lest he should not spare you. (ver. 21.) (Calmet) --- The Gentiles are here admonished not to be proud, nor to glory over the Jews; but to take occasion rather from their fall to fear and to be humble, lest they be cast off. Not that the whole Church of Christ can ever fall from him; having been secured by so many divine promises in holy writ; but that each one in particular may fall; and therefore all in general are to be admonished to beware of that, which may happen to any one in particular. (Challoner)
Ver. 25-26. I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, this hidden truth of God's justice and mercy, that blindness in part hath happened in Israel, or to part of them, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, by the conversion of all nations: and then all Israel should be saved, when they shall submit to the faith of Christ: as it is written by the prophet Isaias, (lix. 20.) there shall come out of Sion he that shall deliver; that is, their Redeemer, Christ Jesus, who is indeed come already, but who shall then come to them by his powerful grace. This is my covenant with them. (Witham)
Ver. 28. According to the gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sake. That is, enemies both to you, because they see the gospel preached and received by you, and enemies to God, because he has rejected them at present for their wilful blindness: yet according to election, God having once made them his elect, and because of their forefathers, the patriarchs, they are most dear for the sake of the fathers: for the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance, in as much as God is unchangeable, and his promises, made absolutely, cannot fail. (Witham)
Ver. 30. &c. As you also in times past did not believe God, but now have obtained mercy through their unbelief, which was an occasion of God's sending his preachers to you: but the cause of your salvation is God's mercy. --- That they also may obtain mercy. That is, God has permitted their incredulity, that being a greater object of pity, he may shew greater mercy in converting them by the free gift of his grace. --- For God hath concluded [2] all, that is, has permitted at different times, both Gentiles and Jews, to fall into a state of unbelief, that the salvation of all may be known to come, not from themselves, but as an effect of his mercy and grace. (Witham) --- He hath found all nations, both Jews and Gentiles, in unbelief and sin; not by his causing, but by the abuse of their own free-will; so that their calling and election are purely owing to his mercy. (Challoner)
Ver. 33-36. O the depth, &c. After he hath spoken of the mysteries of God's grace and predestination, of his mercy and justice, which we must not pretend to dive into, he concludes this part of his epistle, by an exclamation, to teach us submission of our judgment, as to the secrets of his providence, which we cannot comprehend. --- How incomprehensible are his judgments, &c. --- Who hath first given to him, and recompense shall be made him? That is, no one, by any merit on his part, can first deserve God's favours and mercy, by which he prevents us. --- For of him, from God, or from Jesus Christ, as God, and by him, who made, preserves, and governs all things, and in him, is our continual dependance: for in him we live, we move, and exist. In the Greek, it is unto him,[3] to signify he is also our last end. See the notes, John chap. i. (Witham) --- All things are from God, as their first cause and creator; all things are by God, as the ruler and governor of the universe; and all things are in God, or (as the Greek has it) for God, because they are all directed to his honour and glory. For he hath made all things for himself. (Psalm xvi; St. Basil, lib. de Spiritu sto. chap. 5.)
____________________
[1] Ver. 8. Spiritum compunctionis; pneuma katanuxeos. In the Latin Vulgate, Isaias xxix. 10, the same Greek words are translated, spiritum soporis; the spirit of slumber. See Mr. Legh, Crit. Sacr. on the word katanusso. St. Chrysostom, om. ith. p. 163. katanuxin, entautha ten peri to cheiron exin tes psuches, &c. See Cornelius a Lapide. St. Chrysostom in the same place; katanugenai gar ouden eteron esti to empagenai, kai proselosthai.
[2] Ver. 32. Conclusit omnia. pantas.
[3] Ver. 36. Et in ipso, kai eis auton.
Bible Text & Cross-references:
God hath not cast off all Israel. The Gentiles must not be proud; but stand in faith, and fear.
1 I say then: Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew. Know you not what the Scripture saith of Elias; how he calleth on God against Israel?
3 *Lord, they have slain thy prophets, they have dug down thy altars: and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
4 But what saith the divine answer to him? *I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed their knees to Baal.
5 Even so then at this present time also, there is a remnant saved, according to the election of grace.
6 And if by grace, it is not now by works: otherwise grace is no more grace.
7 What then? that which Israel sought, he hath not obtained: but the election hath obtained it, and the rest have been blinded:
8 As it is written: *God hath given them the spirit of insensibility: eyes, that they should not see, and ears, that they should not hear, until this present day.
9 And David saith: *Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompense to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see: and bow down their back always.
11 I say then, have they so stumbled, that they should fall? God forbid. But by their offence, salvation is come to the Gentiles, that they may be emulous of them.
12 Now if the offence of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them, the riches of the Gentiles: how much more the fulness of them?
13 For I say to you, Gentiles: *As long, indeed, as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I will honour my ministry,
14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them who are my flesh, and may save some of them.
15 For if the loss of them be the reconciliation of the world: what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
16 For if the first-fruit be holy, so is the mass also: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
17 And if some of the branches be broken, and thou being a wild olive-tree, art ingrafted in them, and art made partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive-tree,
18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast: thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
19 Thou wilt say then: the branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.
20 Well: because of unbelief they were broken off. But thou standest by faith: be not high-minded, but fear.
21 For if God hath not spared the natural branches: he may not perhaps spare thee also.
22 See, therefore, the goodness, and the severity of God: towards them, indeed, that are fallen, the severity: but towards thee, the goodness of God, if thou continue in goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be ingrafted: for God is able to ingraft them again.
24 For if thou wert cut out of the wild olive-tree, which is natural to thee, and, contrary to nature, wert grafted into the good olive-tree: how much more shall they, that are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive-tree?
25 For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, *(lest you should be wise in your own conceits) that blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in,
26 And so all Israel should be saved, as it is written: *There shall come out of Sion he that shall deliver, and shall turn away impiety from Jacob.
27 And this is to them my covenant: when I shall take away their sins.
28 According to the gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sake: but according to election, they are most dear for the sake of the fathers.
29 For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.
30 For as you also in times past did not believe God, but now have obtained mercy, through their unbelief:
31 So these also now have not believed for your mercy, that they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all.
33 O the depth of the riches, of the wisdom, and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways!
34 *For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor?
35 Or who hath first given to him, and recompense shall be made him?
36 For of him, and by him, and in him, are all things: to him be glory for ever. Amen.
____________________
*
3: 3 Kings xix. 10.
4: 3 Kings xix. 18.
8: Isaias vi. 9. and x. 29.[xxix. 10.?]; Matthew xiii. 14.; John xii. 40.; Acts xxviii. 26.
9: Psalm lxviii. 23.
13: Acts ix. 2. and 15.; Galatians ii. 7.
25: Proverbs iii. 7.; Isaias v. 21.
26: Isaias lix. 20.
34: Wisdom ix. 13.; Isaias xl. 13.; 1 Corinthians ii. 16.