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The 'Catena Aurea': Read the Gospel this Advent with St. Thomas Aquinas

Friday, December 13, 2024Spirituality

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'It is impossible to read the Catena of St. Thomas, without being struck with the masterly and architectonic skill with which it is put together.'

Michael
Pakaluk

Suppose this Advent you were resolved to start reading the Bible on a daily basis, as the saints have advised and Pope Francis is famous for recommending: "It is very beautiful to think of life with the Lord as a relationship of friendship that grows day by day. Friendship with God has the capacity to change the heart," the Holy Father taught two years ago almost to the day, "For the believer, the Word of God is not simply a text to read, it is a living presence, the work of the Holy Spirit that comforts, instructs, gives light, strength, rest and joy in living."
Therefore, he asked the members of his audience to consider carrying a pocket Gospel around with them always. Obviously, we'd be better off thumbing to a random verse in the Gospel at a traffic light, and meditating briefly upon it, rather than scrolling through some nonsense on our phone.
But suppose you also wanted to read the Bible with fuller attention. Where would you start? Protestants have long enjoyed an abundance of good guides and commentaries. But Catholics have caught up with many excellent resources. Consider the newly published Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, the Catholic Commentaries on Sacred Scripture series, or the much-beloved Navarre Bible.

Yet another resource which might claim your attention is about 800 years old, the "Catena Aurea," compiled by St. Thomas Aquinas. "Catena" is the Latin word for "chain," which you may know from the English word used in logic and computer programming, concatenation, which is a chaining together. A "catena"of commentary on Scripture is, in particular, a chain of comments drawn from the Fathers (and sometimes from later mystics and holy persons, too). Beginning around 500 AD, Christians began compiling "catenae" (the plural) and using them to read Scripture. But St. Thomas's execution of this form, at the request of Pope Urban IV, was so superior that it gets called the "golden" ("aurea") chain.
St. John Henry Newman, who edited the translation into English of the "Catena Aurea," translating a volume himself, commented in his general introduction:
"It is impossible to read the 'Catena' of St. Thomas, without being struck with the masterly and architectonic skill with which it is put together. A learning of the highest kin -- not a mere literary book knowledge . . . -- but a thorough acquaintance with the whole range of ecclesiastical antiquity, so as to be able to bring the substance of all that had been written on any point to bear upon the text which involved it -- a familiarity with the style of each writer, so as to compress into few words the pith of a whole page, and a power of clear and orderly arrangement in this mass of knowledge, are qualities which make this 'Catena' perhaps nearly perfect as a conspectus of Patristic interpretation. Other compilations exhibit research, industry, learning; but this, though a mere compilation, evinces a masterly command over the whole subject of Theology."
Here's a brief excerpt (which I must edit for space, but you will get the idea), on the first beatitude in Matthew, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (5:3):
"Augustine. The chief good is the only motive of philosophical enquiry; but whatever confers blessedness, that is the chief good; therefore He begins, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit.' Idem. Augmentation of 'spirit' generally implies insolence and pride. For in common speech the proud are said to have a great spirit, and rightly -- for wind is a spirit, and who does not know that we say of proud men that they are 'swollen,' 'puffed up.' Here, therefore, 'by poor in spirit' are rightly understood 'lowly,' 'fearing God,' not having a puffed-up spirit. Chrysostom. ... Thus, he begins at once at the root, pulling up pride which is the root and source of all evil, setting up as its opposite humility as a firm foundation. ... Chrysostom. Or, the poor in spirit may be those who fear and tremble at God's commandments, whom the Lord by the Prophet Isaiah commends. Augustine. The proud seek an earthly kingdom, of the humble only is the kingdom of Heaven. ... Jerome. The poor in spirit are those who embrace a voluntary poverty for the sake of the Holy Spirit. Ambrose. In the eye of Heaven blessedness begins there, where misery begins in human estimation. Gloss. The riches of Heaven are suitably promised to those who at this present are in poverty."
In the margins, Newman and his assistants place references to the original texts from which the extracts are taken. For example, St. Augustine's comments come from "City of God," xix, 1. You can see that St. Thomas takes care to document differences of opinion. Is poverty "in spirit" humility, or voluntary poverty, or any human misery whatsoever? The Fathers were divided, although St. Thomas suggests that the weight of their authority tilts towards humility.
When seminaries and Catholic college libraries were foolishly discarding their old books, it was easy to find cheap volumes of the "Catena Aurea" on the used book market. That time has passed. But fortunately, you can read it for free online at archive.org, and from there download to your tablet device any volume that you want. Thus, old meets new.

- Michael Pakaluk, an Aristotle scholar and Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, is a professor in the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America. He lives in Hyattsville, MD, with his wife Catherine, also a professor at the Busch School, and their eight children. His latest book is "Mary's Voice in the Gospel of John." You may follow him on X (twitter) @michael_pakaluk.