Good morning.
The guests at the Pharisee's table were choosing their places, and the Lord watched them do it.
Saturday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: "And it came to pass, when Jesus went into the house of one of the chief of the Pharisees, on the sabbath day, to eat bread, that they watched him. And he spoke a parable also to them that were invited, marking how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them: When thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down in the first place, lest perhaps one more honourable than thou be invited by him: And he that invited thee and him, come and say to thee, Give this man place: and then thou begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when thou art invited, go, sit down in the lowest place; that when he who invited thee, cometh, he may say to thee: Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have glory before them that sit at table with thee. Because every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted." — Luke 14:1, 7-11
The Latin of the rule is quia omnis, qui se exaltat, humiliabitur: et qui se humiliat, exaltabitur.
In the Catena Aurea, Cyril says whose judgment this is: "This is spoken according to the divine judgment, not after human experience, in which they who desire after glory obtain it, while others who humble themselves remain inglorious." Basil adds a warning for anyone who thinks he has understood it: "resistance or opposition is a far stronger token of pride than taking the first seat at meat, when we obtain it by authority." And Theophylact answers anyone who finds the lesson small: "let no one deem the above precepts of Christ to be trifling."
The first reading is Paul in prison, weighing his own life against his death. Philippians 1:21: "For to me, to live is Christ; and to die is gain."
The full readings are on USCCB.org.
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/103126.cfm →
Mary says what the Gospel says, and she says it first. In the Magnificat: "Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed." The Latin is quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae. A few lines later: "He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble." (Luke 1:51-52)
Augustine, in the Catena Aurea, on the word regarded: "For many seem in my sight to be lowly, but their lowliness is not regarded by the Lord." And on Mary: "O true lowliness, which has borne God to men … The lowliness of Mary was made the heavenly ladder, by which God descended upon earth."
Bede puts it beside the first fall: "as by the pride of our first parent death came into the world, so by the lowliness of Mary should be opened the entrance into life."
Tomorrow the Church keeps the Solemnity of All Saints, and the Litany of Loreto calls her Queen of All Saints. She did not take the first seat. She called herself a handmaid, and every generation has called her blessed.
The Catechism (2559) gives humility its place in prayer: "humility is the foundation of prayer." The same paragraph asks the question the Gospel asks of the guests: "when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or 'out of the depths' of a humble and contrite heart?"
And 2619 names the song Mary sang: "the Magnificat … is the song both of the Mother of God and of the Church."
Friday's close: SPY $755.72, −1.8% · Nasdaq 100 −3.5% · Russell 2000 −1.6% · tape BULL, regime correction · new longs still paused by the two-loss warning
Friday opened lower and kept falling. The S&P 500 fund gapped down 1.1% to $761.37, touched a low of $750.38 and a high of $761.43, and closed at $755.72, down 1.8%. That is 3.0% below the six-month closing high of $779.10 set October 6. The Nasdaq 100 fund gapped down 2.6% to $697.02 and closed at $690.54, down 3.5%. The Russell 2000 fund fell 1.6% and the equal-weight S&P 500 fund 0.8%. Six of the eleven sector funds rose: energy led at +1.9%, consumer staples gained 1.4%, and utilities, health care, materials and real estate each rose less than 1%. Technology fell 4.9%, industrials 1.6% and communication services 1.3%.
The two-loss warning is still on: the system takes no new long until SPY closes above $779.37, and Friday's close was $23.65 short of it, 3.1% below. The tape turns, and the system sells every long, only on a SPY close below $629.29. By our own count, 8 of the last 25 sessions are distribution days for the S&P 500 fund and 9 for the Nasdaq 100 fund. The scanner's list holds thirty-six names at or near their 52-week pivots, and none triggered.
The house account holds one stock position, the Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA): 3,604 shares, 9.8% of the account. At Friday's open we added 1,051 shares at $27.07, paid for by selling short-term Treasuries and commodities in the idle-cash sleeve. The seven puts cost $18,426 and were worth $27,183 on Alpaca's marks, up 47.5%, on a day the Nasdaq 100 fund fell 3.5%. The account closed at $997,406.
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Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes Job Openings and Labor Turnover for September on Tuesday at 10:00 AM ET, Productivity and Costs for the third quarter on Thursday at 8:30 AM ET, and the Employment Situation for October on Friday, November 6, at 8:30 AM ET. The Federal Open Market Committee met October 27-28 and does not meet again until December 8-9.
The week ahead, per the USCCB daily readings calendar for the United States:
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.
In Christ,
Jonathan Simmons
Enoch Capital LLC
Catholic Daily goes out Monday through Saturday.
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