St. Luke, the Synagogue, and the Church.

Commentary on St. Luke, 13th Chapter

In the traditional Catholic liturgy the readings for Ember Saturday in September are exceedingly rich and to the point. The Jews, at this time of the year - September - traditionally celebrate Rosh Hashana, “the head of the year,” when, according to them, Adam and Eve were created. This year, 2023, Rosh Hashana fell on September 15th, the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of Mary; and Mary, the Mother of the Savior, Jesus, is also the Mother of the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church. The Church gives to Catholics on this day a set of readings: the five Lessons, the Epistle, ending with the Gospel of St. Luke 13: 6-17, the subject of this essay.

Assuming that Christ performed this miracle in the first year of His public ministry, we know that the woman’s infirmity began when Christ was twelve years old, in the year 45 A.D., the time of His finding in the Temple by Our Lady and St. Joseph. It is interesting that Our Lady was twenty-seven years old when this incident happened, and there are twenty-seven books in the New Testament. And St. Joseph was forty-three years old. Forty-three and twenty-seven give us seventy, which is a holy number. The seventieth book in the Bible is the Second Epistle of St. John, containing only 13 verses. It is in fact the shortest book in the Bible, but even here we find in Our Lady’s verse, verse 8, an allusion to The Finding of the Christ Child in the Temple: “Look to yourselves, that you lose not the things which you have wrought: but that you may receive a full reward.”

The Finding of the Christ Child in the Temple was a mystical event for many reasons, and when Christ mentioned the words, “Did you not know that I must be about my father’s business?” (Lk. 2: 49), it was then that Lucifer took possession of the holy woman, the woman infirm for eighteen years.

The Catena Aurea of St. Thomas Aquinas (commentary on the Gospels) bears out the testimony of the Fathers on this scriptural passage, and they are in agreement about these significations. The fig tree is the Synagogue, the ancient Jews, and they bear no fruit, even though they stand upright. When Christ performed this miracle the Temple of the Jews was still standing, not yet “cut down” by the Romans; the destruction of the Temple will come forty years later, in 70 A.D. The twisted and infirm woman is the Church, and Christ will make her to stand upright and bear fruit even though she is presently “unable to look upwards at all.” (vs. 11) In the eyes of all, apostles and Jews alike, this woman is “cut down,” and all hope is lost. And the ruler of the synagogue (signifying possibly a future bad pope) is angry that Christ has restored the Church. “And the ruler of the synagogue (being angry that Jesus had healed on the sabbath) answering, said to the multitude: Six days there are wherein you ought to work. In them therefore come, and be healed; and not on the sabbath day.” (vs. 14) Notice that the ruler of the synagogue speaks to the “multitude,” even though it is Christ who healed the woman; likewise, Christ does not speak to the ruler but to the multitude, “Ye hypocrites.” The fig tree narrative is one the Apostles had seen before, and they knew fully well its meaning. Both St. Matthew and St. Mark in their gospels refer to another fig tree which had been cursed by Christ. St. Mark records the words of Peter, “Rabbi, behold the fig tree, which thou didst curse, is withered away.” (Mk. 11: 21)

Saint Ambrose says of this passage:

Or the fig tree represents the synagogue; afterwards in the infirm woman there follows as it were a figure of the Church, which having fulfilled the measure of the law and the resurrection, and now raised up on high in that eternal resting place, can no more experience the frailty of our weak inclinations. Nor could this woman be healed except she had fulfilled the law and grace. For in ten sentences is contained the perfection of the law, and in the number eight the fulness of the resurrection.¹

Christ allowed this holy woman to suffer so that he might raise her up in the sight of the Jews and the Apostles. There is no indication that the woman’s infirmity was the result of sin, or that her parents had sinned. He never told her, “go and sin no more,” as He did with Mary Magdalene. Nor did He question her about sin. Christ raised up the infirm woman, showing us that He will likewise raise up the Church, just when the Church’s enemies believe her demise is near.

“And behold there was a woman, who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years.” (v. 11) Eighteen is three times six, which is the number of God (3) multiplied by the number of man (6), because the Church is a composite of God and man; the Church is the life of the God-Man repeated on earth, the mystical life of Christ repeated in time. When we multiply three and a half by six (the fig tree/man) we arrive at twenty-one, which is three sevens (777). The fig tree, even though it is barren and without fruit, is allowed to remain for a time, and at one time bore fruit. The God who gave us the Synagogue in the Old Testament is the same God who gave us the Church in the New Testament. And at the thirteenth verse, thirteenth chapter, Christ laid hands upon her, “And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.” Christ restores the Church when times seem most grim, when most men have given up on the Church, and have nearly despaired, when the Church is most in need of mercy. The woman’s infirmity was not natural; she had been “bound by Satan.” Like the case with Job in the Old Testament, she was tried by Satan. The Jews are more interested in antagonizing Christ than the health of this woman. The chief of the synagogue is reminded by Christ of the divine birth of the Messiah. He says, “Ye hypocrites, doth not every one of you on the sabbath day loose his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead them to water?” (v. 15) Once again, the fifteenth verse reminds us of Mary; she was fifteen when she gave birth to the Redeemer. The ass, the symbol of the Jews, and the ox, the symbol of the gentiles, are both led to the water of baptism. She will be “loosed” so that she can go to the waters of baptism.

1. Catena Aurea: A Commentary on the Four Gospels. Vol 3. Saint Austin Press. p. 486.