The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. Luke
Virgo, citum cupiens obitum, For speedy death the Virgin wish'd, Appetit et bibit ore rogum. And with a joyful smile
The bitter cup of death she drank,
Upon the funeral pile.
The martyr, in the form of a dove, flew up to heaven.
And what will I, if it be already kindled ? The Arabic has, “What will I but its kindling?” S. Jerome to Nepotian, “ How I long for it to be kindled ! ” Origen (Hom. v. on Ezekiel ), “ I would it were kindled;” Philaster on the Heresies (cap. nil.), “How I wish that it were kindled ; ” that is, as the Syriac reads, “ If now at length it were kindled.” SS. Hilary on Ps. cxx., Theophylact, Euthymius, and Cyril in the Catena, “ I wish nothing but that this fire were at length kindled ; if it were, there is nothing else I desire, this is my one only prayer.” Both readings amount to the same thing — “I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what will I if it is already kindled?” — that everywhere throughout the world He might kindle the earthly, lukewarm, frigid, nay, rocky, ice-cold, and rigid hearts of men, by His words and example, with the fierce heat of fervour, and turn them into the fire of love. So did our own S. Ignatius, the founder of the Society of Jesus. But to accomplish this there is need of much warmth and zeal. He, therefore, who would inspire others with this fire, must first kindle it strongly in himself.
Ardeat orator qui vult accendere plebem. Wouldst thou enkindle others' hearts ? — then burn,
O Orator, thyself.
Ver. 50. — But I have a baptism to be baptized with. The Arabic says, “ I have a baptism, and I shall be baptized with it : ” That is, by the decree of God and of My own will and determination I owe (debeo) to be baptized.
And how am I straitened till it be accomplished! “This fire of love and zeal of the Holy Spirit, cannot break forth unless the flint of My body be first struck upon the cross, or rather, until I am baptized in the font of My own blood.” This is like some fountains into which if we plunged a torch, by the wonderful power of nature, and an antiperistasis, it is lighted. Such, according to Pliny, is the fountain of Dodona (bk. ii. chap. 103). Our brethren of
Coimbra, in Meteora (tract ix. chap. 7), say that there is another in Epirus, and a third in India, the waters of which burn; another, again, which formerly took its name from Jupiter Ammon. This just before the dawn is tepid, at midday it becomes cold, it is warm in the evening, and it boils at midnight. Similar springs are found near Naples, in France, and other places. Our Lord, then, compares His passion to these. This is like a boiling fountain which has aroused, and still arouses, the fire of love in the minds of the faithful. For equally by the merit of the cross and passion of Christ and by His example does this fire burst forth. He calls His death and passion a baptism, because He was clearly sunk and overwhelmed in it, as says the Psalm, “ I sink in deep mire where there is no standing, I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me,” lxix. 2.
And how am I straitened until it be accomplished ? That is, “ I am afflicted and tormented by the longing to die for the salvation of men and by My death to kindle this flame.” Euthymius : “I am anxious because of its slowness ; ” and Theophylact : “ How am I straitened,” that is, how anxious and oppressed am I until it be performed, “ for I thirst for death for the good of all men.” So S. Ambrose, Bede, and others. The Arabic has, “ I am narrowed for its performance.” S. Irenaeus 1. 18 reads, “I earnestly hasten to it.” For the hearts of the anxious are wont to be contracted and as it were compressed by such, whilst those of the joyful are expanded and dilated. De Lyra, therefore, renders it amiss, “I am narrowed,” he says, “ that is, I am filled with dread, according to the words, ‘My soul is sorrowful even unto death.’ ” This, indeed, was a feeling natural to the soul of Christ, but He quelled and overcame it when He said, “ Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”
Morally . Observe how great was the zeal of Christ, how great His love, how deep His thirst for our salvation. For it was this that raised in Him so great a thirst for His Passion, death, and crucifixion , cruel as they were ; so that His heart, between their infliction and the waiting for them, was compressed, as between the two stones of a mill, and brought into the greatest straits ; or placed, as it were, in a vice and compressed with anguish, lest what He loved should be refused or delayed. Christ then was urged and, as it were, burnt up by the utmost longing to offer Himself up to God as a holocaust on the altar of the cross, that, as far as in Him lay, He might sanctify, save, and bless all men.
This zeal, His thirst, He impressed upon the Apostles and apostolic men, who thirsted for crosses, labours, pains, torments, and martyrdoms, for the glory of God : that they might propagate the gospel of Christ throughout the whole world and save as many as they could. This is the holiness of the Gospel, this is the perfection of virtue, this is the crown of the Apostleship. S. Andrew's salutations of the cross, and his earnest longing for it, are known. “ Hail, precious cross, long desired, and at last ready for my longing soul ! Secure and rejoicing I come to thee ; do thou with joy accept me, and through Thyself do Thou receive me who by dying for me hast redeemed me.” S. Laurence said to the Emperor
Valerian, when he showed to him with threats, flames, wheels, scorpions , wild beasts : “ For this table I hunger, I thirst. There is no famished man who desires food, there is no one perishing of thirst who craves for water, as greedily as I court and covet all these torments, that I may repay to Christ my Saviour, pain for pain, death for death.” S. Vincentius to Dacian : “ No one living has conferred on me greater gifts than thou, who torturest and crucifiest me, for with as many tortures as thou afflictest me with — with so many crowns of martyrdom dost thou adorn me.” And to the executioners , “ How slow are ye, how slothful ! ”
S. Agatha to Quintianus, “Why are you so slow? What do you wait for? — scourge, lacerate, burn, cut down, mangle, slay my body, for the more you crucify me, the more good you confer upon me, and the more favour and grace shall I receive from my spouse Jesus Christ.” Such were the vows and such the words of SS. Agnes, Lucia, Dorothea, Caecilia, and other Martyrs.
Ver. 51. — Think ye that I am come to give peace in the earth ? I tell you nay, but rather division. See what I have said Matt x. 34.
Ver. 52. — For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided, three against two , and two against three. Five, that is — Father, son, mother, daughter, daughter-in-law, for mother-in-law is the same as mother. So S. Ambrose. And this is plain from what follows. In the same house three unbelievers shall rise against two believers, or two unbelieving against three faithful, or father and son, who do not believe in Christ, shall rise against mother, daughter, and daughter-in-law who do believe in Him, or the contrary.
Ver. 54. — And He said to the multitudes also , When ye see a cloud rising in the west, straightway ye say , There cometh a shower ; and so it cometh to pass. When you see a cloud from the west you say, It will rain. In the same manner Elijah, in the time of the three years’ drought, when he heard from his servant that a cloud had arisen in the west, at once foretold that rain would follow, and it did so. 1 Kings xviii. 44. The cause of this is natural ; for Judaea has the Mediterranean on the west, from which by the force of the sun many vapours are exhaled, which, when condensed into clouds by the heat of the sun, produce rain, especially when the sun is also in the west; for it is then too weak to disperse these vapours and prevent them from condensing into clouds and dissolving in rain. But the countries that have the sea equally on the west, the south and the north have, equally, from these quarters, clouds as forerunners of winds, as the English, who have the sea on all sides of them. See Matt xvi. 3. It is necessary to human life, says S. Basil in the Catena, to watch the heavenly bodies, so that their warnings be not examined into beyond measure. It is of consequence to look out for, and guard against storms, and for the traveller to regard the changes of temperature, for the husbandman to consider the position of the sun and moon for his sowing that he may have an abundant harvest ; for God has appointed these things for signs and for seasons.