Luke 8:16–21

Verse 16. Our Lord calls himself the lighted candle, placed in the middle of the world. Christ was by nature God, and by dispensation man: and thus, not unlike a torch placed in the middle of a house, does our Lord, seated in the soul of man, illumine all around him. But by the candlestick, is understood the Church, which he illuminates by the refulgent rays of his divine word. S. Maximus.—By these expressions, Jesus induces his audience to be very diligent, and quite alive in the momentous affair of salvation; informing them that they are placed in the public view of the whole world. S. Chry. hom. xv. in Matt.

Verse 18. He here exhorts his audience to attend to what he was about to deliver, and to apply themselves with all their attention to the divine word; for he who has a desire of hearing the word, shall also receive the grace and power of understanding it. But the man who has no desire of hearing it, though from his learning he might expect to understand it, shall not understand it, because he does not willingly attend to the divine admonitions; hence it is said, Whosoever hath, to him also shall be given. Ven. Bede.

Verse 20. These brethren were not the sons of the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of God, as Helvidius wickedly taught; nor yet the sons of Joseph, by another wife; for, as S. Jerom writeth, not only Mary, but Joseph also, observed virginity. Contra Helvidium, c. ix. et ibidem, c. viii.—In the scriptural idiom, cousins are called brethren. B.

Verse 21. There is no tie of affinity and friendship so proper, and so becoming man, as that made by faith in Christ, and strengthened by charity. Tirinus.