St. Thomas Aquinas labored long and hard over his Catena aurea [Golden Chain], a verse-by-verse commentary on the four Gospels drawn entirely from patristic and medieval sources, both western and eastern. [It can be found in English at several sites on the web.] I often consult it along with contemporary commentaries, in preparing homilies. It was reprinted a few years back, with a brief introduction by Aidan Nichols, O.P., who ends his piece, with the lovely story with which John Henry Newman closed the chapter on St. Martin of Tours in his The Church of the Fathers. While the saint was praying, an evil spirit appeared to him in "glittering radiance" and claiming to be Christ. After a moment of silence, St. Martin replied: "Jesus, the Lord, announced not that He should come in glittering clothing, and radiant with a diadem. I will not believe that Christ is come, save in that state and form in which He suffered, save with the show of the wounds of the Cross." At those wordsthe evil spirit vanished like smoke. Newman commented:

The application of this vision to Martins age is obvious; I suppose it means in this day, that Christ comes not in pride of intellect, or reputation for philosophy. These are the glittering robes in which Satan is now arraying. Many spirits are abroad, more are issuing from the pit; the credentials which they display are the precious gifts of mind, beauty, richness, depth, originality. Christians, look hard at them with Martin in silence, and ask them for the print of the nails. (Newman, Historical Sketches, II, 205-206)

Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak, professor emeritus of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America, is a retired priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

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