First Reading — 1 Kings 11:29-32; 12:19
Cyprian
On 11:31–32
In the Gospel there is a proof of this mystery of unity, this inseparable bond of harmony, when the coat of the Lord Jesus Christ is not cut or rent at all. The garment is received whole and the coat taken into possession unspoiled and undivided by those who cast lots for Christ's garment, asking who should put on Christ. Holy Scripture says of this, "But for the coat, because it was not sewn but woven from the top throughout, they said to each other: Let us not rend it but casts lots for it, whose it shall be." He showed a unity that came from the top, that is, from heaven and the Father, a unity that could by no means be rent by one who received and possessed it. Its wholeness and unity remained solid and unbreakable forever. He who rends and divides the church cannot possess the garment of Christ. In contrast, when at Solomon's death his kingdom and people were being rent, the prophet Ahijah, meeting King Jeroboam in the field, rent his garment into twelve pieces, saying, "Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord: Behold, I rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten scepters to you; but he shall have two scepters for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city that I have chosen, to put my name there." When the twelve tribes of Israel were being rent, the prophet Ahijah rent his garment. But since Christ's people cannot be rent, his coat, woven throughout as a single whole, was not rent by its owners. Undivided, conjoined, coherent, it proves the unbroken harmony of our people who have put on Christ. By the type and symbol of his garment he has manifested the unity of the church.
Responsorial Psalm — Psalm 81:10-11ab, 12-13, 14-15
Augustine of Hippo
On 80:10
For if there be error in you, You will not worship a strange god. If you think not of a false god, you will not worship a manufactured god: for "there will not" be in you any strange god. "For I am." Why would you adore what is not? "For I am the Lord your God" [Psalm 81:10]. Because "I am I that Am," and indeed "I Am" He says, I that Am, over every creature: yet to you what good have I afforded in time? "Who brought you out of the land of Egypt." Not to that people alone is it said. For we all were brought out of the land of Egypt, we have all passed through the Red Sea; our enemies pursuing us have perished in the water. Let us not be ungrateful to our God; let us not forget God that abides, and fabricate in ourselves a new god. "I, who led you out of the land of Egypt," says God. "Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it." You suffer straitness in yourself because of the new god set up in your heart; break the vain image, cast down from your conscience the feigned idol: "open wide your mouth," in confessing, in loving: "and I will fill it," because with me is the fountain of life.
On 80:11
"And My people obeyed not My voice" [Psalm 81:11]. For He would not speak these things except to His own people. For, "we know that whatsoever things the Law says, it says to them that are in the Law." [Romans 3:19] "And Israel did not listen to Me." Who? To whom? Israel to Me. O ungrateful soul! Through Me the soul, by Me the soul called, by Me brought back to hope, by Me washed from sins! "And Israel did not listen to Me!" For they are baptized and pass through the Red Sea: but on the way they murmur, gainsay, complain, are stirred with seditions, ungrateful to Him who delivered them from pursuing enemies, who leads through the dry land, through the desert, yet with food and drink, with light by night and shade by day.
On 80:12
"And I let them go according to the affections of their heart" (ver. 12). Behold the press: the orifices are open, the lees run. "And I let them go," not according to the healthfulness of My commands; but, according to the affections of their heart: I gave them up to themselves. The Apostle also saith, "God gave them up to the desires of their own hearts." "I let them go according to the affection of their heart, they shall go in their own affections." There is what ye shudder at, if at least ye are straining out into the hidden vats of the Lord, if at least ye have conceived a hearty love for His storehouses, there is what ye shudder at. Some stand up for the circus, some for the amphitheatre, some for the booths in the streets some for the theatres, some for this, some for that, some finally for their "new gods;" "they shall go in their own affections."
On 80:13–14
"If My people would have heard Me, if Israel would have walked in My ways" [Psalm 81:13]. For perchance that Israel says, Behold I sin, it is manifest, I go after the affections of my own heart: but what can I do? The devil does this. Demons do this. What is the devil? Who are the demons? Certainly your enemies. "Unto nothing all their enemies I would have brought down; and on them that oppress them I would have sent forth My hand" [Psalm 81:14]. But now what have they to do to complain of enemies? Themselves have become the worse enemies. For how? What follows? Of enemies ye complain, yourselves, what are you?
On 80:15
"The enemies of God have lied unto Him" [Psalm 81:15]. Do you renounce? I renounce. And he returns to what he renounced. In fact, what things do you renounce, except bad deeds, diabolical deeds, deeds to be condemned of God, thefts, plunderings, perjuries, manslayings, adulteries, sacrileges, abominable rites, curious arts.. ..
Gospel — Mark 7:31-37
Augustine of Hippo
On 7:31
(ap. Aug. non occ. sed ap. Bed. ubi sup.) If however He, as one Who knew the present and the future wills of men, knew that they would proclaim Him the more in proportion as He forbade them, why did He give them this command? If it were not that He wished to prove to men who are idle, how much more joyfully, with how much greater obedience, they whom He commands to proclaim Him should preach, when they who were forbidden could not hold their peace.