The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. Luke
Ver. 32. — And He said to them. Christ answered the Pharisees freely and loftily when they brought up the fear of Herod. He said that He feared neither Herod, nor the Pharisees, nor the rulers, but He would continue to preach, though against the will of them all, until the day appointed by the Father for His death. He called Herod “a fox,” because he was cunning, crafty, (versipellis) and false, for he killed John the Baptist by fraud and falsehood. Such are heretics the type of whom was Herod, for they seek to kill those who believe in Christ.
But Christ here rather addresses the Pharisees, and calls them all foxes because they would have instilled a false fear of Herod into His mind, that in flying from Judaea He might be taken by the rulers and put to death. Titus says that “ He appears, as some think, to direct the whole force of His words against Herod alone, but He turns them against the wickedness of the Pharisees rather than Herod, for He did not say ‘that fox,’ but ‘this fox.’ ” In fact, to show that the Pharisees resembled foxes by their pretended fraud, He carefully used a middle term, and, as S. Theophylact says, “with intention,” for by saying “fox” in the singular He made them think that He meant Herod, but by the addition of the demonstrative pronoun “ this,” He signified that they themselves were the crafty ones.
Thus Emmanuel Sa : “The word ‘that’ may apply either to
Herod or to him who invented the falsehood that Herod wished to kill Christ; and who must have been one of the Pharisees, the enemies of Christ. The meaning then is, You Pharisees, like crafty and deceitful foxes, would fill Me with the fear of Herod, that I may no longer preach among you; but I forewarn you that I fear neither you nor Herod, nor will I, for any reason, cease to preach ; for I am sure that my Father will not suffer Me to be taken and put to death before the day appointed by Him shall have arrived.”
Behold, I cast out devils — I proceed to perform my work against the will not only of Herod but of you — today and to-morrow, that is, for some time yet, and the third day, that is, in a short time, when I shall have finished my ministry and preaching, I shall be perfected, i.e. “ I shall receive my consummation in a glorious death on the cross, undergone by me willingly and courageously for the salvation of men,” as the Apostle says, Hebrews xi.
Observe the Hebraism by which an indefinite time is put for a definite, as in Hosea vi. 2. So S. Cyril and Theophylact. Euthymius says, “ To-day ; and therefore to-morrow ; that is, for some time yet, though a short one, that is about three months,” for Christ appears to have said this a little before the Feast of Dedication, which is kept upon the 25th of the month Casleu, which answers to part of our November and December, and He was crucified in the following March.
Christ therefore boldly said this to the Pharisees to show, 1. That He feared not death but sought it. 2. To show His Divine Power, He would live among them, and teach them, even against their will, as long as the Father and Himself pleased and determined. 3. To increase the vexation of the perverse Pharisees, for they already wished for His destruction.
Christ also calls His death “a consummation,” because in it and by it He consummated the whole ooconomy of His Incarnation, and the whole work of the mission on which He was sent by the Father, that is, the expiation of all sins, the redemption of the human race, the salvation of the elect ; as in Hebrews x. 14.
Ver. 33. — Nevertheless I must walk. “Must,” says S. Bonaventure, “ not from compulsion but from Divine decree.” So S. Cyril, and Titus. Christ repeats this (which He had said in the preceding verse) to show that He was constant in fearing neither Herod nor the Pharisees, and in His determination to preach, against their will, for a short time still, to the day appointed by the Father. The meaning is : “ To-day and to-morrow, and the third day following I must walk in the towns and villages, and preach, and on that third day following, that is soon after, be perfected by death on the cross, as I have already said. I now add that on the third day I shall do the same, for although I shall be perfected on this day, yet on this day also I must walk. All the time of my life, even to my death, I must walk in this country, and preach, and work cures, and cast out devils, because I have consecrated my whole life to holy actions, and my death to generous suffering ; for I have offered myself to God as a holocaust.” In Hebrew “ to walk ” is taken for “ to work.” S. John viii. 12; xii. 35; Ps. i. 1, and elsewhere. The Syriac has, “ I must walk to-day and to-morrow, and on the third day I shall make my journey,” i.e. I shall set out to Jerusalem to my death, and thence to Heaven from which I came.
Morally , the faithful, and especially the apostolic man, may learn to labour strenuously in the Lord’s vineyard even to death and martyrdom, like SS. Peter, Paul, Chrysostom, Athanasius and others. So our own Father Canisius, though worn out by many and great labours, yet ceased not from them until his seventy-seventh year, when he was released at once from them and from his life.
These were his words. “ To the soldiers of Christ,” their term of service (stipendia) is not finished till the end of their lives. When they have ended then they begin: death alone gives them their discharge. There is one abode for those who have merited it, heaven. So our own Sacchinus in Bk. iii. of his life: “Let us labour therefore even to death, that after death we may rest for ever in a blessed felicity; for earth is the course (stadium) of a little labour, heaven is the seat of eternal repose.”
For it cannot be that a prophet should perish out of Jerusalem. In the Greek οὐκ ἐνδέχεται ; that is, it is not fitting, it does not happen. “ It cannot be done ” is read by the Syriac. It is a hyperbole. It means, “ Such is the wickedness and barbarity of Jerusalem, that it seems proper to her that the prophets should be killed by herself, nay, she will not suffer this to be done by any other, but takes it amiss if it be done elsewhere. I do not fear Herod therefore, whom you cast up to Me, because I shall not be put to death by him now in Galilee, but some months hence in Jerusalem, the murderess of the prophets, where, not by Herod, but by yourselves, O Pharisees, I shall be crucified and slain.” “ For they were accustomed,” says S. Theophylact , “to pour out the blood of the servants, even as they poured out that of the Lord Himself.” So Titus, Jansenius, Maldonatus, and F. Lucas. The last named says : “ It cannot be that a prophet should be slain outside Jerusalem, he must be slain within it; not because none were slain outside, for Jezebel slew many in Samaria, i. Kings xviii. 13, xix. 10, but as it was most usual for their slaughter to take place within the walls. For the kings had their abode there, and the rulers, the nobles, the scribes, the wise men, and the Pharisees, holy in their own eyes, who, like the people, would not endure the rebukes and admonitions of the prophets ; so that the city was changed from the house of God, into the slaughter-house of the prophets, and professed to be, as it were, their place of torture. We read, 2 Kings xxi. 16, “Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another.”
In like manner at Rome, in various places, and especially at the Ursus Pileatus, where is now the Church of S. Bibiana, a great number of Christians were slain by the unbelieving Emperors : so that the place obtained the vulgar name of “The Shambles of the Martyrs.” Thus it might then have been said with truth, “It is not possible that a Pope should be killed out of Rome, for almost all the Popes, from S. Peter to Silvester, for 300 years, were put to death by the Emperors at Rome for the faith of Christ.”