You can listen to me explain my thesis off-the-cuff in Latin to Msgr. Ramacciotti (OGG) or (MP3).

There are plenty of mistakes and awkward silences, so enjoy!

This morning for my Latin class, I gave a homily in Latin. I had sparse notes and extemporized quite a bit, so the style is not that great, and I make some mistakes. You can download a recording of it (OGG) (MP3) if you want.

I was a lot more nervous than I usually am for practice homilies. I think it was harder to have only the professor in the room … and to give it in a foreign language.

Remember that dog that wagged his tail? Consider where else in the Bible there is an animal that wags its tail: Revelation 12:4.

Vulgate:

Et cauda eius [draconis] trahebat tertiam partem stellarum caeli.

My translation:

And with his tail [the dragon's] he swept down a third of the stars of Heaven.

The stars are natural figures of the angels. Plato thought that the stars must have souls in order to move. Aristotle thought, rather, that angels moved them. By the middle ages they did not think that stars needed angels to move, but they still recognized that as part of the angels’ custody over material creation, some of them could be in charge of the stars. After all, God governs the universe through intermediaries. Besides all this, the stars are a natural symbol for the angels and likely contain some special connection with them. Thus, we have the traditional calculation that one third of the angels fell from grace.

Remember St Bede the Venerable’s words from our earlier reflection, the tail symbolizes the “end of operation (working)” since it is the end of the body. The dog in Tobit, with a wag of his tail, announces (”like a herald”) that the son whom they had taken for dead is about to return, that there is cause for joy, that the blind will be enlightened.

The tail of the dragon causes one third of the angels to fall from grace. The dragon is also opposed to the woman and the birth of her son who will rule all nations.

We begin to see a principle developing that the end of good operation, namely the end of love, of God’s law, is the unity of creation with God: the fellowship of angels and men (and beasts). The angels are elevated by grace, man is clearly elevated by the Incarnation, and the beasts are elevated by their association with man. See how all of the distinct parts of creation are united in the praise of God, who ennobles them.

Luke 19:40:

He answered them, “I tell you that if these [people] were silent, the stones would cry out.”

All of visible creation, made for man who is its summit, awaits the coming of that man who “reveals man to himself” (Gaudium et spes, 22).

Romans 8:22:

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

All of creation was prepared for Christ. “Through him all things were made” (John 1:3) and he “recapitulates all things.” (Ephesians 1:10) Thus, all of invisible and visible creation tends toward the expectation of the new heavens and the new earth at the end of time (each thing according to its nature). Our souls await confirmation in grace. Our bodies will be raised. The elements, in turn, await their destruction by fire (and the coming of a new earth). This contingency pervades everything created because it is ex nihilo, but the tendency to return to nothing receives a new dynamic significance as we await the end of time. Nevertheless, Christ has saved us from this destruction by giving us so solid a foundation that we can survive the passing away of all things through our incorporation into him who remains. Thus, our expectation of the end of time is hopeful. We want to see him.

Finally, we men have a special place in all of this. Tobias, the son, journeyed away from home with a dog and an angel.

Mark 1:13:

And he [Jesus] was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

Our Lord really did become “lower than the angels.” The startlingly unique boast of mankind is the hypostatic union. God is man. Satan’s hatred of God becomes a hatred of man, such that he wishes to devour the Son of the Woman of Revelation. An angel who has fallen to such depths that he is like a beast drags down one third of the stars of Heaven while a lowly dog with only a sensible soul announces the joyful return of a son and becomes the angel of an angel.

You may not find the following version of Tobit 11:9 in your Bible, but you will if you read the Vulgate or a translation thereof. Tobias has just come back from his journey with Raphael (but they don’t know that he is Raphael) to his father, who is still blind. There has been a dog with them on the journey.

Vulgate (Tobias 11:9):

Appropinquantibus domui praecucurrit canis, qui simul fuerat in via, et quasi nuntius adveniens blandimento suae caudae gaudebat.

My translation:

As they approached the house, the dog, that had been on the road as well, ran ahead and, arriving like a herald, rejoiced with a wag of his tail.

There are some interesting notes. First, nuntius (messenger, herald) is a bit ironic since the dog has been traveling with Raphael. Remember that the Greek word for the Latin nuntius is angelos. So, the dog arrives “like an angel.” Second, though in English we say that a dog “wags his tail,” the Latin uses the word blandimentum, which refers not to the physical motion but to its social significance. It can mean “flattery,” “fawning,” and even “delight.” The dog was literally “rejoicing with the fawning of his tail.”

I’ve got to admit, I like this verse. I like the “small” and seemingly insignificant verses the Bible. Knowing that those details are the Word of God, helps me to appreciate the depth of revelation. There is also much more meaning that can be gleaned from such verses than you might think.

Let’s see what St Bede the Venerable said in his allegorical commentary on Tobit:

Non contemnenda est figura canis hujus, qui viator et comes angeli est. Doctores ergo, sicut et supra docuimus, exprimit Ecclesiae, qui saepe confligendo cum haereticis, lupos graves a Pastoris summi fugant ovili. Quibus bene congruit, quod canibus naturale est, beneficis rependere gratiam, et sollicitas excubias pro dominorum salute praetendere. Praecurrit ergo canis; quia prius salutem praedicat domui, deinde Dominus illuminator corda mundi. Et pulchre dicit quasi nuntius adveniens, quia nimirum doctor quisque fidelis nuntius est veritatis; pulchre, blandimento suae caudae gaudebat: cauda quippe, quae finis est corporis, finem bonae operationis, id est perfectionem, vel certe mercedem, quae sine fine tribuitur, insinuat. Blandimento ergo caudae gaudebat canis, cum tecta dominorum, quibus diu aberat, reviseret. Gaudent doctores de affectu sui operis, cum Judaeam per suum ministerium a Domino recolligendam intelligunt. Gaudent de praemii perceptione vitae sempiternae, et de hoc eodem praemio cunctis electis communi, corda eorum, quibus praedicant, exhilarant, dum eis adventuram confestim Christi gratiam promittunt.

Annuntiante igitur cane venisse Tobiam, exsurgens caecus pater ejus coepit offendens pedibus currere. Audito a doctoribus verbo salutis, exsurrexit populus
Hebraeorum de longo perfidiae suae veterno, currit amore ad Dominum; quamvis offendens gressibus operum, donec plenitudo fidei et operationis bonae, lucem recipiat regeneratus in Christo, et instructus.

My translation:

The figure of this dog, who is a way-farer and the companion of the angel, should not be spurned. Therefore, as we also taught above, it signifies the doctors of the Church, who often in struggling with heretics drive off troublesome wolves from the flock of the highest Shepherd. What is natural to dogs corresponded well to them, namely: to give back thanks for favors and to be concerned with watchful guard for the welfare of their masters. Thus the dog ran ahead because it first preaches salvation [In Latin, "welfare" and "salvation" are the same word] to the house, that is, the Lord who enlightens the hearts of the world. And it says beautifully “arriving like a herald” because each doctor is especially the faithful herald of the truth. Beautifully, also [it says that] “he rejoiced by wagging his tail” for the tail, which is the end of the body, points toward the end of good working, that is perfection or the reward that is given without end. So the dog rejoiced by wagging his tail when it saw again the roofs of its masters which it had not seen for so long. The doctors rejoice in the passion of their work since they understand that Judea will be reclaimed by the Lord through their ministry. They rejoice in seeing the prize of everlasting life, and their hearts rejoice in this same prize that is common to all the elect, to whom they preach, while they promise to them that the grace of Christ is to come at once.

Therefore, when the dog announced that Tobias had come, his blind father arose and began to run, stumbling. The Hebrew people, having heard the word of salvation from the doctors, rose from the long lethargy of their disbelief, runs to the Lord. It is as if they were stumbling in their works until, regenerated and taught in Christ, they could receive the light, the fullness of faith and good working.

This passage teaches us a lot about Advent:

Appropinquantibus domui praecucurrit canis, qui simul fuerat in via, et quasi nuntius adveniens blandimento suae caudae gaudebat.

The dog runs out beforehand. He is the precursor to the coming of Tobias and Raphael, who will bring light and health into Tobit’s darkness. Tobit’s mother had already begun to despair of his ever returning, so these are the people who “sit in darkness and the shadow of death.” But, at the herald’s arrival (adventus), the father stands up. The herald’s message is one of joy (gaudium) and hope.

I spent the last few days before the ordination/first Mass tour at Saint Louis University’s Pius XII Memorial Library. It’s a fantastic resource, and I honestly don’t know whether I can go back to doing research at Kenrick. It was so nice to be able to get to up-to-date patristic collections like Corpus Christianorum (Kenrick has only a handful of volumes), CSEL, etc. Even the Patrologia Latina at Kenrick is under lock and key in the rare book room¹.

I found some good references that I can use, but I definitely need to go back many times before this is all over.

Here are a few of over a hundred references that I found which I may be able to use:

From an uncertain author. De salutaribus documentis. PL 40:

Pasce, quaeso, animam tuam spiritualibus cibis, id est, fide, spe, charitate, et reliquis virtutibus per quas intelligas Deum amare, et ejus praecepta servare: ut cum extrema dies tibi venerit, Angeli pacis te suscipiant, et de potestate diaboli eripiant, et merearis sanctorum consortio in beata requie perfrui, et vitam aeternam cum omnibus sanctis possidere.

My translation:

Feed, I ask, your soul with spiritual food, that is, with faith, hope, charity, and the rest of the virtues through which you may learn to love God, and to keep his precepts: so that when that last day comes to you, the Angels of peace might receive you, and snatch you from the power of the devil, and you might merit to enjoy the company of the saints in blessed peace and to enjoy eternal life with all the saints.

And, from St. Hilary’s Tract on the Psalms. PL 9:

Nec non et Eliseus absolutissime docuit, humanas infirmitates angelorum auxiliis defendi, et in omnibus periculis, si fides maneat in nobis, adesse spiritalium virtutum defensionem.

My translation:

And also Elisha has absolutely taught that human weaknesses are defended by the aid of angels, and in all dangers, if faith remains in us, the defense of spiritual powers is present.

And again:

Quemadmodum enim haec faciant Angeli, vel potius Deus quemadmodum haec faciat per Angelos suos, et quantum fieri velit etiam per angelos malos

My translation:

For just as the Angels should do these things, or rather just as God does these things through his Angels, and wills as much to be done even through bad angels,

These are just few samples, not even the best ones. Now I need to sit down and sort through all this information.