The sparrow, and what Aquinas says escapes nothing

Good morning.

Jesus tells his friends not to be afraid, and gives them a sparrow to think about.

Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: "And when great multitudes stood about him, so that they trod one upon another, he began to say to his disciples: Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed: nor hidden, that shall not be known. For whatsoever things you have spoken in darkness, shall be published in the light: and that which you have spoken in the ear in the chambers, shall be preached on the housetops. And I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will shew you whom you shall fear: fear ye him, who after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say to you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? Yea, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows." — Luke 12:1-7

The Latin of the sparrows is Nonne quinque passeres veneunt dipondio, et unus ex illis non est in oblivione coram Deo?

In the Catena Aurea, Bede says what the leaven does: "as a little leaven leavens a whole lump of meal, so hypocrisy will rob the mind of all the purity and integrity of its virtues." Ambrose reasons from the sparrow to the man: "If God forgets not the sparrows, how can He man?" Origen says what the sparrow stands for: "the quickness of the Divine foresight, which reaches even to the least things."

The full readings are on USCCB.org.

bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101626.cfm →

Summa Theologiae, Part I, question 22, article 2

Aquinas asks whether everything is subject to the providence of God, and lists the objections first. One is that if God foresees everything, nothing could happen by chance. He answers that providence reaches every created thing, and every one of them separately: "We must say, however, that all things are subject to divine providence, not only in general, but even in their own individual selves." His reason is that God's causality "extends to all being, not only as to constituent principles of species, but also as to the individualizing principles."

On chance he draws a line between two kinds of cause: "A thing can escape the order of a particular cause; but not the order of a universal cause." And he gives a picture: "the meeting of two servants, although to them it appears a chance circumstance, has been fully foreseen by their master, who has purposely sent to meet at the one place, in such a way that the one knows not about the other."

On evil, he quotes Augustine: "Almighty God would in no wise permit evil to exist in His works, unless He were so almighty and so good as to produce good even from evil."

It is the Gospel's sparrow, argued as a question in Scholastic form.

Thursday's close: SPY $771.77, +0.3% · Nasdaq 100 −0.1% · Russell 2000 +1.3% · tape BULL, regime choppy · new longs still paused by the two-loss warning

Thursday opened lower and recovered. The Nasdaq 100 fund gapped down 1.4% at the open, to $718.61, touched a low of $715.46, and closed at $728.19, down 0.1% on the day. The S&P 500 fund rose 0.3% to $771.77, between a low of $764.43 and a high of $772.86, and closed 0.9% below the six-month closing high of $779.10 set October 6. The Russell 2000 fund rose 1.3% and the equal-weight S&P 500 fund 1.4%. Eight of the eleven sector funds rose: materials and health care led at +1.9%, and energy was the weakest at −1.6%.

The two-loss warning is still on: the system takes no new long until SPY closes above $779.37, and Thursday's close was $7.60 short of it, 1.0% 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 7 for the Nasdaq 100 fund. The scanner's list holds twenty-one names at or near their 52-week pivots, and none triggered.

AMD was sold this morning, 135 shares at an average of $535.12, when its resting stop at $535.13 was reached. The cost was $611.31, so the loss is 12.5%. The stock closed at $562.16. CrowdStrike was sold on Wednesday at its $249 stop, about breakeven. The house account holds no stock positions today. The seven puts cost $18,426 and were worth $19,893 on Alpaca's marks. The idle-cash sleeve is in commodities (DBC) and short-term Treasuries (SHY).

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The week ahead, per the USCCB daily readings calendar for the United States:

• Fri, Oct 16 — optional memorials of St. Hedwig, Religious, and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin
• Sat, Oct 17 — St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr (memorial)
• Sun, Oct 18 — Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
• Mon, Oct 19 — Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs (memorial)
• Tue, Oct 20 — Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time, with the optional memorial of St. Paul of the Cross, Priest

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