Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Here begins the Sermon of Christ on the Mount, which Matthew narrates in this chapter and the two following, in which He first declares the eight Evangelical Beatitudes; second, at verse 22, He corrects the justice of the Scribes and perfectly teaches and explains the Decalogue — namely, that not only the external act of homicide, adultery, and theft is forbidden by it, but also the internal desire.
Vulgate Text: Matthew 5:1-48
1. And seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain; and when He had sat down, His disciples came to Him; 2. and opening His mouth He taught them, saying: 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land. 5. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied. 7. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8. Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. 9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. 10. Blessed are those who suffer persecution for the sake of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11. Blessed are you when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. 12. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven; for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 13. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is no longer good for anything, except to be cast out and trampled underfoot by men. 14. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. 15. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but upon a lampstand, so that it gives light to all who are in the house. 16. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. 17. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill. 18. For amen I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or one stroke shall pass from the law, until all things are accomplished. 19. Therefore whoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20. For I say to you, that unless your justice shall exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 21. You have heard that it was said to the ancients: You shall not kill; and whoever shall kill shall be liable to judgment. 22. But I say to you, that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. And whoever shall say to his brother, "Raca," shall be liable to the council. And whoever shall say, "You fool," shall be liable to the fire of Gehenna. 23. If therefore you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24. leave your gift there before the altar, and go first to be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25. Come to terms quickly with your adversary while you are on the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be cast into prison. 26. Amen I say to you, you shall not come out from there until you have paid the last penny. 27. You have heard that it was said to the ancients: You shall not commit adultery. 28. But I say to you, that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29. And if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is better for you that one of your members should perish, than that your whole body be cast into Gehenna. 30. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is better for you that one of your members should perish, than that your whole body go into Gehenna. 31. And it was said: Whoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a bill of divorce. 32. But I say to you, that everyone who puts away his wife, except for the cause of fornication, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who has been put away commits adultery. 33. Again you have heard that it was said to the ancients: You shall not swear falsely; but you shall fulfill your oaths to the Lord. 34. But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; 35. nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King; 36. nor shall you swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37. But let your speech be: yes, yes; no, no; for whatever is more than these comes from evil. 38. You have heard that it was said: An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 39. But I say to you, do not resist evil; but if someone strikes you on your right cheek, offer him the other also. 40. And if someone wishes to go to law with you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. 42. Give to the one who asks of you; and do not turn away from the one who wishes to borrow from you. 43. You have heard that it was said: You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44. But I say to you: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you; and pray for those who persecute and slander you; 45. that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes His sun rise on the good and the evil, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. 46. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47. And if you greet only your brethren, what more are you doing? Do not even the pagans do the same? 48. Be therefore perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Verse 1: Jesus Went Up on the Mountain
1. AND SEEING THE CROWDS, JESUS WENT UP ON THE MOUNTAIN; AND WHEN HE HAD SAT DOWN, HIS DISCIPLES CAME TO HIM. — There were many reasons why Christ ascended the mountain. First, so that as night was approaching, He might give Himself to rest there, while the crowds would withdraw to the neighboring villages to spend the night and return to Christ in the morning. Second, so that He might pray all night on the mountain, as He did, according to Luke. Third, so that there in the morning He might choose from His disciples the twelve Apostles, as Luke and Mark narrate He did. Fourth, so that from the lofty mountain He might deliver the sublime and heavenly doctrine of the Gospel. Fifth, so that the antitype might correspond to its type, and the truth to its figure. For the old law, which was the type of the new, was given on Mount Sinai, Exodus 19. But the new law is more exalted and lofty than the old; therefore it was fitting that it be proclaimed on a higher mountain.
Tropologically, the author of the Opus Imperfectum, Homily 9, gives the reason for Christ's ascent of the mountain: "To show us," he says, "that he who teaches the justice of God must stand at the height of spiritual virtues, and so too must he who listens." And as regards the teacher, he immediately confirms the point: "He who teaches," he says, "should himself be the example of his words, so that he teaches more by deeds than by speech; but he who walks through the valleys of earthly life and speaks other discourses does not instruct another but chastises himself. For no one can stand in a valley and speak from a mountain; if your mind is on earth, why do you speak of heaven? But if you speak of heaven, stand in heaven." As for the listener, he says no less elegantly: "He who hears the justice of God must therefore stand at the height of good works, because a disciple ought to be an imitator of his master. But if you live in sins and hear words of justice, you acquire judgment for yourself, not salvation; for you hear so that you may have no excuse. If you do not wish to practice justice, why do you listen to a preacher of justice? Why do you call him teacher, when you do not wish to be his disciple?"
You will ask, which mountain was this? "Some of the simpler brethren," says St. Jerome, "think that Christ taught the beatitudes and the other things that follow on the Mount of Olives (which is in Judea near Jerusalem), but this is by no means the case; for from what precedes and follows it is shown to have been a place in Galilee, which we believe to be either Tabor or some other high mountain." The chorographers of the Holy Land, such as Brocard in the Itinerary, ch. 3; Bredenbach, in the same place; Fretel, p. 8; Salignac, vol. 9, ch. 8; Adrichomius, p. 111, no. 69, relate that this mountain is called the Mount of Christ, because Christ was accustomed to pray and preach on it. It is three miles west of the city of Capernaum, not far from the Sea of Galilee, and adjoins the city of Bethsaida. Its height is so great that from it the land of Zebulun, Naphtali, Trachonitis, Iturea, and finally Seir, Hermon, and Lebanon can be seen. By nature it is entirely grassy, flowering, and pleasant, and most suited to heavenly philosophy. Hence Christ frequently prayed and taught in this place. Here He spent entire nights in divine prayer. Here, having called all His disciples to Himself, He chose twelve from among them, whom He also ordained and named Apostles. On this lofty mountain, therefore, Christ delivered this lengthy sermon in which He teaches and briefly encompasses the whole of the Gospel and the perfection of the new law. "There is still shown on it a stone," says Adrichomius, "on which Christ sat while preaching, and the places where the Apostles are remembered to have sat." So far these authors.
Note: Matthew, beginning with Christ's preaching, wished to present its summary at the outset, so that he might immediately set before the reader the sublime doctrine, holiness, and perfection of the new law compared to the old, through the sermon which Christ delivered on the mount, even though it was actually delivered much later. For many things preceded it which he will recount in what follows: this, therefore, was the historical sequence. Christ, after He had restored the withered hand of a certain man on the Sabbath, as Matthew has it, ch. 12:15, fleeing from the anger of the Scribes, withdrew to the Sea of Galilee, where, with the crowd streaming in, after He had healed many sick, He went up on the mountain. There, having spent the night in prayer, in the morning He appointed the twelve Apostles. Luke, ch. 6:12. After this, as Luke has it, He descended from the summit of the mountain to a more level and open place on it, and sitting there, He delivered the following discourse, partly to the disciples, partly to the whole crowd, for it is clear that the crowd was present at this discourse, from ch. 7:28. Moreover, that this is the same discourse as the one Luke records in ch. 6 is evident from the same subject matter, the same beginning, and the same ending of both. For in both, Christ sets forth the sum of evangelical preaching and perfection. For although Matthew counts eight beatitudes and Luke only four, nevertheless those eight are contained in these four, and these four in those eight, as St. Ambrose observes; for Luke is more expansive in recounting the deeds and actions of Christ, while Matthew expands more in narrating His sayings and words, as I said in Canon 14.
Therefore the election of the Apostles was made by Christ on the summit of the mountain; but the following sermon was delivered on the descent of the mountain, or in a level place, as Luke says. So Jansenius, Francis Lucas, and others hold, although Maldonatus thinks it was delivered on the mountain itself, and that Christ ascended the mountain again from the level place and there promulgated the new law.
Moreover, Matthew defers the calling of the Apostles, which preceded this sermon, to ch. 10, because he had not yet recounted his own calling by Christ; for he narrates that in ch. 9. But it is certain that Matthew, along with the other Apostles, was present at this sermon of Christ. This sermon was delivered by Christ around the middle of May, shortly after the election of the Apostles had been made by Him that same morning, in the 32nd year of His age, which was the second year of Christ's preaching, as I said in the Chronotaxis, no. 21.
AND WHEN HE HAD SAT DOWN. — For it is the part of a teacher to sit in a chair or higher place, so that he may be heard from a distance; while it is the part of a disciple to stand before or sit below the teacher, on a lower bench or place. Furthermore, the sitting posture denotes Christ's tranquility; for when the body is seated, the mind likewise settles as if seated, and is fit for meditating on and teaching divine things. For this reason it was St. Bernard's custom to sit.
2. AND OPENING HIS MOUTH, HE TAUGHT THEM, SAYING: — In Hebrew, to open the mouth means the same as to speak; but here it has emphasis, as if to say: Christ, now unsealing and revealing with open mouth sublime, wondrous, and great things and divine mysteries which He had previously kept silent and hidden in His mind. So St. Hilary; and St. Bernard, in Sermon 1 On the Feast of All Saints: "He now opened His mouth," he says, "who had previously opened the mouths of the prophets," etc. "Truly His mouth was opened, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden."
Verse 3: Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit
3. BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT (the Egyptian version: in spirit), FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. — Christ begins His sermon from blessedness, which all seek and desire but few find and obtain, just as David also began the book of Psalms, saying: "Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly," etc. Psalm 1.
Christ teaches, therefore, that true blessedness consists in other things than the common people suppose or the philosophers teach, namely in poverty of spirit, in meekness, in a thirst for justice, in holy mourning, in patience and peace.
BLESSED therefore are THE POOR IN SPIRIT. Blessed, I say, in hope, but not yet in reality; blessed with the blessedness of the way, not of the fatherland — that is, those who are on the right path leading to blessedness; blessed in the beginning of virtue and peace, not in the consummation of the crown and glory. "Blessedness," says Nyssen, "is the proper endowment of God: therefore when Christ makes the poor in spirit blessed, He makes them partakers of divinity." This alludes to that saying of Moses, Deuteronomy 33:29: "Blessed are you, O Israel: who is like you, a people saved by the Lord?" For the poor in spirit are Israel, the chosen people, who have placed their hope, riches, salvation, and happiness in the Lord; for since they despise the riches of the earth and have dominion over them, they are therefore Israel, that is, those who have dominion in God and heaven: "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Moreover, Isidore, in book 10 of the Etymologies, under the letter B: "Beatus (blessed)," he says, "is so called as if bene auctus (well increased), that is, from having what one desires and suffering nothing one does not desire. But he is truly blessed who both has all the good things he desires and desires no evil. For from these two things a man is made blessed." Similarly Varro, in book 4 of On the Latin Language: "Beatus (blessed)," he says, "is said of one who has many good things; and opulentus (wealthy) from ops (resource), whose resources are opimae (abundant). Dives (rich) from divus (divine), because like God he seems to lack nothing." And Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 3: "Blessed is he," he says, "for whom, with all evils removed, the fullness of good things is heaped up." But what things are truly good, Christ shows here, namely poverty of spirit, meekness, holy mourning, thirst for justice, etc.; wherefore those who possess these things are blessed and therefore always rejoice. Hence Aristotle, in book 7 of the Ethics, derives the word makarios, that is blessed, from chairein, that is to rejoice, as though the blessed person is one who always rejoices.
These eight beatitudes are like eight paradoxes of the world. For the world and the philosophers place blessedness in wealth, not in poverty; in exaltation, not in humility; in fullness, not in hunger; in joy, not in mourning, etc. Hence St. Ambrose, in book 1 of On Duties, ch. 21: "From there," he says, "blessedness begins by divine judgment, where misery is estimated by human judgment." Therefore Christ here makes foolish the wisdom of the world, as the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians 1. "Truth speaks," says St. Bernard, in the sermon On the Feast of All Saints, "which can neither be deceived nor deceive, and it is Truth itself that says: Blessed are the poor in spirit. Thus you senseless children of Adam still seek riches, still desire riches, when blessedness, divinely commended to the poor, has been preached to the world and believed by men? Let the pagan seek them, who lives without God. Let the Jew seek them, who has received earthly promises; but with what boldness, or with what mind, does a Christian seek riches, after Christ has proclaimed that the poor are blessed?" And St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 12, at the beginning: "The riches of monks," he says, "lie in poverty, their possession in pilgrimage, their glory in contempt, their power in weakness, their fruitfulness in celibacy (since indeed those offspring are more excellent who exist according to God than those who derive their origin from the flesh); who count it a delight not to pursue delights, who are humble for the sake of the heavenly kingdom, who have nothing in the world and exist above the world, who live in the flesh yet outside the flesh, who have the Lord for their portion, who labor in want for the sake of the kingdom and reign through their want."
Simeon Stylites, hearing these beatitudes of Christ read in the temple while he was tending sheep, immediately left them and entered a monastery; soon he climbed a pillar and stood on it day and night, scarcely eating, always meditating on heavenly things, becoming a wonder to the world, so that he might attain these beatitudes. The Greek Menologion, on the first of September, asserts that he stood on the pillar for 47 years; Baronius says over 80, and that he died in the year of Christ 460. The same Simeon, preaching twice daily to the streaming crowd, preached nothing other than "despise earthly things, love and pursue heavenly things, which alone will make you blessed," as Theodoret, an eyewitness and earwitness, reports in his Life.
Moreover, St. Luke, ch. 6:24, to each of the beatitudes appends and opposes a corresponding unhappiness, threatening them with woe, that is, eternal damnation and Gehenna, about which see that passage. Finally, that these eight beatitudes are not distinct from the virtues of the same name, nor from the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Suarez teaches in book 2 of On the Necessity of Grace, ch. 22, where he explains all eight at length.
Poor in spirit. — The poor here are those who lack not the goods of nature or of grace, but those of fortune and wealth. The poor therefore are taken here in the proper sense, for they are contrasted with the rich. Luke 6:24: "Woe to you who are rich, for you have your consolation"; for riches are the cause of pride, gluttony, lust, injustice, etc., which drag the rich into Gehenna, as they dragged the rich man who feasted, Luke ch. 16. And therefore to the poor properly so called, heavenly riches are promised on earth, and the kingdom of heaven itself. This is what the Greek word ptochoi signifies, meaning beggars, and the Hebrew rashim, and the Syriac meschine. Hence the Italian meschino.
Blessed, therefore, are here called not all the poor, nor those who are poor by an unwilling or miserable necessity, or from vainglory, or from the freer pursuit of philosophy, like Diogenes, Aristides, and Crates of Thebes, who, according to St. Jerome, threw a great weight of gold into the sea, saying: "Away, evil pleasures! I drown you lest I be drowned by you"; but in spirit, that is, by a praiseworthy will inspired by the Holy Spirit and tending toward spiritual goods, namely when poverty is voluntarily embraced for the sake of God and the kingdom of heaven, as is done by religious who profess and vow it; or at least is patiently endured, as happens to the faithful who are stripped of their goods by persecutors, robbers, or by fire, shipwreck, etc. So St. Jerome; St. Basil, in the Shorter Rules, question 207; and St. Bernard, Sermon 1 On the Feast of All Saints.
Note: There are three kinds of poor: first, in possessions, like beggars; second, in spirit, like Abraham, who was rich in possessions but poor in spirit and affection; third, in possessions and in spirit, like religious, who from affection and love of poverty vow it and renounce all goods. Conversely, there are three kinds of rich: first, in possessions, like merchants; second, in spirit, like the avaricious, who pursue wealth; third, in possessions and in spirit, like the rich who desire to become still richer.
"Do you wish to understand," says Nyssen, in his book On the Beatitudes, "who is poor in spirit? He who exchanges bodily wealth for the riches of the soul; who is needy for the sake of the spirit; who has shaken off and cast away earthly riches as a kind of burden, so that, lofty, he may be caught up through the air, as the Apostle says, in a cloud together with God, tending through heavenly things. Gold is a weighty thing; everything sought for the sake of riches is burdensome; but virtue is a light thing, seeking what is on high. If therefore we must draw near to the things above, let us be destitute and needy of those things that drag us down, so that we may dwell in the things above."
The word spirit therefore signifies three things: first, it is opposed to flesh and to material possessions, and signifies that the subject of this poverty is not the body but the spirit, that is, the will; as if to say: Blessed are the poor not in flesh, not in possessions, but in spirit, whose spirit is poor, that is, loving poverty, that is, despising earthly things and loving heavenly things. For such a one is poor in the things of earth, but rich in the things of heaven. In this way spirit is often used in Scripture, as when the Apostle says, Romans 1:9: "God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit." And Christ, John 4: "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." That is to say: not by external ceremonies but by the inward spirit and devotion of the mind must God be worshiped, according to that saying of Cato: "If God is spirit, as our songs declare, He must be worshiped chiefly with a pure mind."
The root therefore and foundation of evangelical blessedness and perfection is voluntary poverty and humility, just as the root of all sin is pride and covetousness, or as the Apostle says, 1 Timothy 6:10, philargyria, that is, the love of money.
St. Cyprian says beautifully, in the treatise On the Nativity of Christ: "The poor were chosen; the proud were passed over; neither arrogance nor haughtiness obtains any place in the discipleship of Christ. Christ, being poor, rejects wealthy disciples. A poor mother, a poor son, a humble dwelling provide an effective lesson for those who serve in the Church in the manner of this school. They adored Him in the manger and, though He was an infant, confessed Him as God." This Christ taught by being born in a stable, living in a guest house, dying on a cross. "These are poor in the world, but rich in God; destitute in this age, but wealthy in Christ," says Chromatius on this passage.
Finally St. Bernard, Sermon 1 On the Feast of All Saints: "Consider," he says, "how wisely Wisdom has ordained, setting the first remedy against the first sin, as if saying more plainly: Do you wish to obtain the heaven which the proud Angel lost, he who trusted in his own strength and in the abundance of his riches? Embrace the lowliness of poverty, and it will be yours.
Anagogically: Francis de Sales, recently Bishop of Geneva, a man as wise as he was pious and holy, in book 12 of the Treatise on the Love of God, ch. 2: "The poor or beggars in spirit," he says, "are those who beg, that is, who hunger and thirst insatiably for the spirit, that is, for the love and zeal of God and its increase, so that it may continually rise and burn more ardently within them by great increments."
Hence I heard a certain person explaining it thus: "Blessed are the poor in spirit," that is, blessed are those who do before God what beggars do before the rich, who, that is, with such great humility of spirit confess their poverty, and with such great ardor beg grace from God, as beggars demand alms from the rich. Hence St. Chrysostom says that beggars teach us to pray and to seek the help of God, through the emotions and affections which they display by their face, mouth, twisted hands, ulcerated feet, and their whole body, arousing compassion.
A certain spiritual booklet was published On Perfection, which places perfection in poverty of spirit, but of a mystical kind; "for the poor in spirit," it says, "is he who in spirit renounces and abdicates from himself not only wealth, pleasures, and honors, but also all created things, and even God's grace and glory itself, so that he presents himself utterly naked and, as it were, reduces himself to nothing before God." It proves this from Tauler. But it is permissible to acknowledge this nakedness, though not to desire it (namely, that one be stripped and deprived by the grace of God) just as poverty of spirit is to be sought. Tauler says nothing of the sort, but only posits a twofold poverty, namely external, such as the renunciation of wealth; and internal or mental, which he says consists in humility and the denial of all created consolation, so that a person takes delight in no created thing, not even in grace insofar as it is a created thing, so as to rest in it, but rather establishes all his consolation, rest, and joy in God the Creator alone. But even this is mystical, and not the work of ordinary believers, but of those who contemplate subtly and of ecstatics, and it is to be exercised soberly and with a grain of salt.
More solidly, our Louis de Ponte, in Part III, Meditation II, on poverty of spirit, that is, of humility, establishes these three degrees: the first is to strip and purify the soul from every spirit and wind of vanity, and from every swelling and vain presumption, by despising all the pomps of the world. The second is to despoil myself of every spirit of proprietorship, entirely stripping away my own judgment and will together with all other desires. The third and highest act is so to empty myself that I acknowledge myself so poor that of myself I have absolutely nothing, unless God freely grants it to me. For not even the very being that I have is mine, but God's, without whom I am nothing. Of myself, therefore, I have nothing else but the nothingness of nature, that is, non-being; and the nothingness of grace, that is, sin.
You will ask first: Is this poverty of spirit a precept, or an evangelical counsel? Furthermore, how many degrees and kinds of it are there? I answer that it has various degrees, some of which are of counsel, others of precept.
The first and highest is to leave behind all wealth and all perishable things out of imitation and love of Christ, both by interior affection and by exterior effect and deed, as the Apostles did and as religious do. This degree is of counsel, not of precept.
The second is to bear patiently the confiscation of goods for the sake of Christ and the orthodox faith, which is a certain kind of martyrdom; for he who takes away the resources necessary for sustaining life takes away life itself. Hence today many Catholics in England are wealthy and noble men who would rather suffer death than the spoliation of their goods. For it is hard not only to deprive yourself, but also your children and all your descendants, of their ancestral inheritance, their nobility and the ancient lineage of their forefathers, and to reduce them all to obscurity, poverty, and beggary; but all the more glorious are those who endure this for the sake of Christ, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Such were the Hebrews converted to Christ, who for this reason were despoiled of their goods by the Jews. Praising them, the Apostle says: "You joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have a better and enduring substance. Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has a great reward. For patience is necessary for you, so that doing the will of God you may receive the promise," etc. This degree is of precept. For we are bound to pour out for Christ and the faith not only our wealth, but our blood and life.
The third degree of poverty is to bear patiently the plundering of goods, or other injustice inflicted by the more powerful or by tyrants, as often happens, for example, when someone loses a just lawsuit over estates or things owed to him, or anything else that is rightfully his, because of the power or tyranny of the opposing party.
The fourth is not to be attached to the wealth given by God, but to leave it behind in affection and to be ready to leave it behind in reality, when this will serve the greater glory of God. In this degree was Abraham, rich in possessions, but poor in mind and spirit.
The fifth is to prefer being content with little in a place where you can better serve God, rather than to abound in another place where you may find more wealth but less piety. Likewise, to rejoice in a moderate way of life, clothing, and station rather than in great riches, so that you may serve God more fully.
The sixth is to have wealth but to spend it on the poor and on pious uses, even depriving yourself of necessities.
The seventh is to prefer being poor rather than to acquire riches through injustice, irreligion, or any other crime, as Tobias did, who when about to die gave this instruction to his son, chapter IV, last verse: "Do not be afraid, my son; we lead a poor life indeed, but we shall have many good things if we fear God."
Of these degrees, the second and seventh are of precept; the first, fourth, and fifth are of counsel; and finally the third and sixth are sometimes of precept, sometimes of counsel.
You will ask secondly: Why does Christ assign the first place among the Evangelical Beatitudes to poverty of spirit? I answer: The first reason a priori is that this poverty overturns and crushes covetousness, which is the root and fountain of all sin and evil, 2 Tim. 6:10. Therefore this poverty, as it were, restores man to the state of innocence, in which nothing was proper to anyone, but all things were common to each. For the whole world belonged to Adam and his descendants, so that from it they might acknowledge, love, and praise God, with all proprietorship removed, which is the root of covetousness, quarrels, and lawsuits. In the poor, therefore, "what the excess of the most tenuous depravity defiles, the furnace of poverty purges," says St. Gregory, Homily 40 on the Gospels.
The second reason is that this poverty frees a person from a thousand distractions, cares, and anxieties that wealth and the desire for wealth bring. Wherefore it is "a tranquil harbor, a training-ground and gymnasium of wisdom," says St. Chrysostom, last Homily on Matthew. For it makes a person free and unencumbered, so that, with a mind liberated from earthly desires, he may devote himself to study, prayer, virtue, and eternity. Hence St. Bernard wisely says: "Do not love goods which burden when possessed, defile when loved, and torment when lost." This is also served by that saying of St. Gregory, Homily 32 on the Gospels, that "we must wrestle naked with the naked (demons);" for if someone clothed wrestles with a naked opponent, he is more quickly thrown to the ground, because there is something by which he can be seized. For what are all earthly things but certain garments of the body? Therefore let whoever hastens to battle against the devil cast off his garments lest he be overcome. Let him possess nothing in this world by loving it, let him seek no delights of passing things, lest where he is guided at will he be held fast to his ruin.
Third, because this poverty causes a person to call away his love from every created thing and to fix it entirely, with all his hope, on God the Creator; and in the full and perfect love of God consists the summit of virtue and the true beatitude of this life.
Wherefore, concerning St. Francis, St. Bonaventure writes in his Life that when he was often asked by the brethren which virtue especially and above all commends us to Christ the Lord and makes us pleasing to Him, he was accustomed to answer with a certain extraordinary affection: poverty; for it is the way of salvation, the nourishment of humility, the root of perfection, and from it spring manifold fruits, though hidden and known to very few.
The poor in spirit, therefore, continuously exchanging kisses with God and Christ, says: "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance: You are He who will restore my inheritance to me" (Ps. 15). And: "For what have I in heaven, and besides You what do I desire upon earth? My flesh and my heart have failed, God of my heart, and God is my portion forever" (Ps. 72:25). You, O Lord, are the ocean of all goods and the sole treasure of my soul. Shake from me, therefore, the weight of all earthly desires, that I may burn with the fire of Your love alone and be utterly absorbed in the flood of Your charity. Come, my honor, my joy, my sincere delight, O Jesus, kindle, I beseech You, so great a flame of Your love in the depths of my heart that henceforth I may choose nothing under the sun, desire nothing except You. O my Lord, let heaven, earth, and all things contained in them be to me, without You, as a winter's frost. May You alone move me, You alone gladden me; may the love of You alone live and burn in my inmost being, and remain living and burning.
Possess my mind, O supreme and unchangeable Good, possess it, that it may possess You.
Fourth, because these Beatitudes are properly spoken and assigned by Christ to the Apostles and to religious and apostolic men aspiring to perfection as well as to the preaching of the Gospel; for since the Apostles had to travel the whole world and everywhere preach the riches of the kingdom of heaven, they likewise had to be themselves poor in spirit, so that, unencumbered, they might display the contempt of earthly riches both by their preaching and still more by their life and example, lest the nations think they were seeking their own purses rather than souls through their preaching, but instead might see them to be heavenly and divine men who possessed in their minds the kingdom of heaven that they preached with their lips.
I have said more on this subject at Acts 4:32. See also Climacus, Step 17; St. Chrysostom, Book II Against the Detractors of the Monastic Life; Salmeron, vol. 5, tract 5; and Hieronymus Platus, Book I On the Good of the Religious State, chapter 9, and Book II, chapter 3.
For these reasons, Christ first taught this poverty of spirit by word and example, then the Blessed Virgin, next the Apostles, likewise the Essenes, indeed all the first Christians, of whom Luke says in Acts 4:32: "Nor did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common"; indeed they vowed this; hence Ananias and Sapphira, violating this vow, were punished by St. Peter with sudden death (Acts, chapter 5).
These were followed by apostolic men and prelates: St. Anthony, St. Augustine, St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Jerome, St. Gregory the Great, St. Paula, St. Paulinus, St. Gallicanus, St. Alexius, who in a rare example for the world left behind his most ample riches, parents, and bride, so that as a poor man and pilgrim he might follow the poor Christ into Syria, as a guest of the earth and a citizen of heaven; and at last, unknown in his own father's house, like a beggar, he might live and die, made a laughingstock of the world, indeed mocking and making sport of the world.
In a later age the same poverty was embraced, and they taught the members of their orders to embrace it: St. Benedict, St. Bernard, St. Romuald, St. Dominic, but especially St. Francis, who most profoundly penetrated and loved the dignity of this Evangelical poverty and made it the foundation of his Order. Hence in every sermon he called it now mother, now spouse, now lady, often even queen, because it had shone so brilliantly in the King of kings, Christ, and in His Mother. Hear what he decrees about it for his followers in the Rule, chapter 6: "Let the brothers appropriate nothing to themselves, neither a house, nor a place, nor anything, but as pilgrims and strangers in this world, serving the Lord in poverty and humility, let them go for alms confidently. Nor should they be ashamed, because the Lord made Himself poor for us in this world. This is that height of the loftiest poverty which has made you, my most dear brothers, heirs and kings of the kingdom of heaven, has made you poor in things, has exalted you in virtues. Let this be your portion which leads to the land of the living. Clinging to it entirely, most beloved brothers, may you wish to have nothing else under heaven in perpetuity, for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The same St. Francis, exulting in the want of things, proclaimed it with such fervor of spirit that fire seemed to flash from his face: "For this," he said, "is the virtue flowing into us from heaven, which so instructs and forms us that we willingly trample upon all earthly things, and which removes all obstacles from the way, so that the human mind may be joined to the Lord its God most freely and most readily. This is what makes the soul, while still placed on earth, dwell with the Angels in heaven. This is what associates it with Christ on the cross, is hidden with Christ in the tomb, rises with Him, and ascends with Him into heaven. This is what grants to souls who love it, even in this life, the gift of agility to fly above the heavens, since it bestows the wings of true humility and charity upon those who love it. Let us go, therefore, to beseech the most holy Apostles to obtain this grace for us from the Lord Jesus Christ, that He Himself, the model and chief observer of poverty, may deign to grant it to us." So Wadding in the Annals of the Minors, year of Christ 1216, no. 16. For this reason St. Francis, just as at the beginning of his conversion he stripped himself naked and resigned everything, including his clothes, to his father in the presence of the Bishop, and so began his religious and poor life, so too he ended it in similar nakedness and poverty; for as he was dying, stripping himself of his garments, he prostrated himself naked on the ground, saying: "I have done what was mine; what is yours, Christ will teach you." Soon his companion attending him, foreseeing by divine instinct his death and his zeal for poverty, offered him a cord with undergarments, saying: "These I lend to you as to a poor man, and you shall receive them at the command of holy obedience." Receiving them with jubilation, the holy man raised his hands to heaven and gave thanks to Christ that, unburdened of all things, he was going freely to Him, and that he was conformed to Christ crucified, who hung naked on the cross, both in life and in death. Wherefore St. Bonaventure writes thus about him in his Life, chapter 7: "Considering holy poverty to be familiar to the Son of God, and now, as it were, rejected throughout the whole world, he strove so to espouse it to himself in perpetual charity that not only did he leave father and mother for it, but he also dispersed everything he could possess. No one was as eager for gold as he was for poverty, nor was anyone more careful in guarding a treasure than he in guarding this Evangelical pearl. In this especially his eyes were offended, if he saw anything in the brothers that did not in every way accord with poverty. Truly from the beginning of his religious life until death, rich only in a tunic, a cord, and undergarments, he was content with these. He frequently recalled to mind with tears the poverty of Christ Jesus and of His Mother, and proposed it to the brothers in his sermons." I have related these things about St. Francis at greater length because he alone, illuminated and set ablaze like a Seraph by God, drew from Christ the inmost sense, marrow, and summit of Evangelical poverty and expressed it in his conduct.
BECAUSE THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. — For it is fitting and appropriate that to those who spurn the riches of the earthly kingdom out of love for Christ, the riches of the heavenly kingdom should be repaid (so that those who are poor in the lower air may be enriched in the upper ether), indeed even the riches of the earthly kingdom, which they obtain by spurning, and over which they exercise dominion, according to that saying of Paul: "Having nothing and possessing all things" (2 Cor. 6). Wherefore Climacus, at Step 17, does not hesitate to assert that a poor monk is lord of the world, and that because he has cast his care upon God, he possesses by faith all nations as his servants. He adds that the poor servant of God loves nothing viciously; for all things that he has or can have, he regards as if they did not exist; and if they happen to depart, he esteems them as dung. Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 21 on the Song of Songs: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Let them not think they possess only heavenly things, because they hear only those in the promise. They possess earthly things too, and indeed as having nothing and possessing all things, assuredly the more lords the less covetous they are. In short, for the faithful person the whole world is a treasury of riches. The whole world entirely, because both its prosperity and its adversity equally serve him and cooperate for his good; therefore the greedy person hungers for earthly things like a beggar, the faithful person despises them like a lord. The one begs by possessing, the other preserves by despising." St. Chrysostom gives the reason, Homily 57 to the People, that God is the steward of the poor: "When God feeds," he says, "there is no need for us to be anxious. For just as if a king were to promise to provide daily food from his storerooms, you would be confident for the future — how much more, when God provides and all things flow to you as from a fountain, is it fitting that you be free from all care and anxiety. And if He feeds all flesh, how much more those dedicated to Him."
Wherefore St. Francis, as Lucas Wadding reports from Thomas of Pisa, Celano, and others in the Annals of the Minors, year of Christ 1210, no. 50, used to say to the brothers of his Order: "Know poverty, most dear brothers, to be the queen of virtues, because it shone so excellently in the King of kings and in the Queen His Mother. Know poverty, brothers, to be the special way of salvation, as the nourishment of humility and the root of perfection, whose fruit is manifold but hidden. For this is the hidden treasure of the Evangelical field, to buy which all things must be sold; and those things which cannot be sold must be despised in comparison with it." And further on: "Wherefore, in the manner of the poor, build poor little huts, which you must not inhabit as your own, but as belonging to others, like pilgrims and strangers. For the laws of pilgrims are to gather under another's roof, to thirst for their homeland, and to pass through peacefully. This Evangelical poverty is the foundation of our Order: upon this substratum the entire structure of the religious life is primarily built, so that it is strengthened by its firmness and utterly overthrown by its overthrow. Therefore, insofar as the brothers shall decline from poverty, so much will the world decline from them, and they will seek and not find. If they have embraced my lady poverty, the world will nourish them, because they have been given to the world for its salvation. There is a commerce between the world and the brothers. For they owe the world good example, and the world owes them necessary provision; but when they withdraw their good example by a false profession of faith, the world will withdraw its hand by just censure." And indeed it is like a great and continuous miracle to see so many religious men and women of the Order of St. Francis (there are easily a million throughout the whole world) professing poverty, without capital, without income, yet living honestly and comfortably from the alms of the faithful: clearly here shines the providence of God toward His poor. Here is fulfilled that saying of the Psalmist, which St. Francis gave as a viaticum to his brothers setting out: "Cast your care upon the Lord, and He will nourish you" (Ps. 54:22). And that: "The rich have been in want and have suffered hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good" (Ps. 33). Hence in Spain, when any Franciscan asks for alms in the name of St. Francis, no one dares to refuse, but all liberally offer their goods. Other Christian nations do the same. Finally, St. Augustine, Sermon 28 On the Words of the Apostle: "Great," he says, "is the happiness of Christians, to whom it has been given to make poverty the price of the kingdom of heaven. Let your poverty not displease you; nothing richer can be found. Do you wish to know how wealthy it is? It buys heaven. What treasures can be compared to what we see granted to poverty? So that the rich man might come to the kingdom of heaven, he cannot obtain it by his possession; now he obtains it by despising it to arrive there."
Note: Christ does not say, "It shall be given to them," or "It shall be theirs"; but "Theirs is," in the present tense, "the kingdom of heaven," as if to say: By this My promise and God's decree, the kingdom of heaven belongs to them; they have full right to it, and are so certain of entering it, as if they already held it in their hands and reigned in it like kings. For so firm is the hope of God's promises that through it the faithful, as it were, grasp with their hand the thing promised by Him, according to that saying of Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for," as if to say: Faith is what makes the heavenly goods one hopes for subsist in the mind of the believer; for it so assures them to him, as if it really and substantially presented them to him.
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. — So is called the heavenly beatitude where the blessed reign with God in all happiness and glory for all eternity. The word "kingdom" signifies: first, the abundance of all goods in heaven; second, the loftiness of the honors with which the blessed are honored by the Holy Trinity and by all the Angels; third, royal dignity. For the blessed are like kings who rule not over one Spain, or Asia, or the whole earth, but over the entire universe, that is, over all the elements of heaven, animals, plants, and compounds, and even over hell itself and all the damned and demons. For they merited this kingdom through poverty of spirit, by which they dominated all the goods and desires of the world; hence they themselves, crowned with golden crowns, jubilantly sing to Christ forever: "You have made us a kingdom and priests to our God, and we shall reign upon the earth" (Rev. 5:10). See what was said there.
The kingdom of heaven, therefore, is the kingdom of God; wherefore the blessed possess the same kingdom that God Himself possesses, and in it they reign with Him most joyfully and most splendidly forever.
Verse 4: Blessed Are the Meek
4. BLESSED ARE THE MEEK, FOR THEY SHALL POSSESS THE EARTH. — This is the second beatitude in the Latin Vulgate, which SS. Jerome, Augustine, and the rest of the Latin Fathers follow. But in the Greek codices, which the Syriac, Arabic, St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, and the rest of the Greek Fathers follow, this is the third beatitude; for in them the second is: "Blessed are those who mourn."
Fittingly the meek are placed after the poor in spirit, because the poor and humble tend to be meek, just as conversely the rich and proud tend to be impatient and quarrelsome. Therefore poverty and meekness are neighboring and kindred virtues, whence the Hebrew words are also close: 'ani,' that is, poor, and 'anav,' that is, meek. Chromatius adds: "A person cannot be meek unless he has first been poor in spirit." He gives the reason: "The sea does not become calm unless the winds have ceased; fire is not extinguished unless you remove the fuel of the blaze and the bundles of thorns: so neither will the mind be meek and quiet unless the things that arouse and inflame it have been renounced." Furthermore, "the meek," says Chromatius, "are the gentle, humble, modest, simple in faith and patient under every injury, who, instructed by the Gospel precepts, imitate the example of the Lord's meekness." The meek, therefore, are those who master impatience, anger, envy, vindictiveness, and all the other turbulent motions and disturbances of the mind, so that they neither murmur against God who sends adversities, nor are indignant at neighbors who inflict injuries, nor seek revenge from those who harm them, but bear all things calmly, wholly resigning and resting themselves in the providence of God who orders all these things for His own glory and their salvation; wherefore by this gentle sweetness of manners they win the hearts of all.
Christ alludes to that saying of David, Psalm 36:11: "But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight in the abundance of peace."
Therefore meekness: first, makes us pleasing to God and to men; second, similar to Christ, who says: "Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart" (Matt. 11); third, fit for wisdom and for receiving heavenly goods; for a meek, placid, and tranquil heart is capable of these, according to that saying of Psalm 24: "He will guide the meek in judgment; He will teach the meek His ways."
Furthermore, the degrees of meekness and of the beatitude that follows from it are: first, to conduct oneself with a meek heart and speech toward all; second, to break the anger of others with a meek response; third, to bear meekly injuries and robberies done to oneself; fourth, to rejoice in them; fifth, by one's meekness and kindnesses to overcome the malice of an enemy and an angry person, and to reconcile him to oneself and make him well-disposed and friendly.
Finally, Climacus gives one reason, indeed several reasons, why the meek are blessed, at Step 24, when he says: "Meekness is the helper of obedience, the leader of religious community, the bridle of the raging, the driver-out of the angry, the teacher of joy, the imitator of Christ, the property of heaven's citizens, the bond and chain of demons, the shield against bitterness or harshness of spirit. In the hearts of the meek the Lord will rest. But a turbulent soul is the nest of the devil. The meek shall inherit the earth, or rather shall rule over the lands, but the furious shall be driven out from their own lands."
FOR THEY SHALL POSSESS THE EARTH. — In Greek kleronomesousin, that is, "they shall possess by inheritance," as St. Augustine reads it. The Arabic has "they shall inherit"; the Syriac, "they shall possess the earth by right of inheritance." Christ fittingly promises the earth to the meek, because the meek are often despoiled of the goods of the earth by quarrelsome people. This injustice, therefore, Christ here remedies and repairs for them by this beatitude. But what earth?
First, St. Chrysostom, Euthymius, Theophylact, and St. Augustine, in Book I of the Sermon of the Lord on the Mount, think that here the present earth is promised to the meek, as if to say: The world calls blessed the powerful and those who vindicate themselves, who retaliate for injury done to them, indeed avenge it two- and threefold; but I call blessed the meek and those patient under injury and plunder, who meekly tolerate having the goods of the earth taken from them; because, although such people are often oppressed by the world, yet often, by God's gift, they possess their goods stably and quietly; if not, for the meek person the whole world is his homeland, and for the faithful person the whole world is his treasure of riches. He alludes to Moses, who was the meekest of men (Num. 12), and by his meekness obtained from God for the Hebrews the possession of the promised land, accomplished through Joshua. This meaning is true, but not full or adequate, and it often fails: for the meek are often harassed by the quarrelsome and deprived of their goods, according to the saying: "Censure pardons the crows, but harasses the doves." Add that Moses promised the Jews earthly goods, but Christ promises Christians heavenly goods.
Second, therefore, better and more fully, with St. Jerome here, with Gregory of Nyssa in his book On the Beatitudes, with St. Basil, Oration 2 on Psalm 33, and with Cyril on Isaiah chapter 58, understand "earth" as heaven, which is the land of the living, since this earth of ours is the land of the dying, according to that saying of Psalm 26: "I believe I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living." And Psalm 141:6: "You are my hope, my portion in the land of the living." And Isaiah 38:11: "I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living."
In heaven, therefore, there is a kind of earth, but not coarse, opaque, and terrestrial; rather, it is subtle, luminous, and celestial. For there is a paradise of roses, lilies, gems, and all delights, but not earthly ones — rather celestial ones, which wonderfully delight the eyes and senses of the blessed; otherwise, the bodies and senses of the blessed, which suffered such hard trials, indeed atrocious martyrdoms, in this life, would lack the delights they merited, and only their souls and minds would be blessed, which is absurd. Hence St. John saw, in Revelation chapters 21 and 22, the heavenly city set in a square, and its foundations built of jasper and every precious stone. See what was said there. Hence also the Pythagoreans, says Clement of Alexandria in Book 5 of the Stromata, call heaven antichthon, that is, the land placed opposite, or the earth opposed to ours. I pass over certain philosophers who thought the moon and stars were inhabited; for in the moon there were said to be dark cities and vast regions and lands inhabited by people called "lunars" from the moon, as Macrobius attests in Book 1 of the Dream of Scipio, and therefore the moon was called the ethereal earth, while the sky was called the terrestrial heaven, as Plato also mentions in the Symposium.
To each of these blessed persons and beatitudes, therefore, the kingdom of heaven is promised, but always under a different name and title: namely, to the poor under the name of a kingdom, to the meek under the name of earth, because the latter are often despoiled of their lands and properties by the quarrelsome and powerful, as if to say: Endure, O meek ones, these spoliations of the earth, because for your meekness and endurance God will repay you with another earth — not this lowest, unstable, and changeable one, but the heavenly, stable, and celestial one. Therefore beatitude itself, consisting in the vision, enjoyment, and possession of God, is called "earth," both because of its stability, for it will be perennial and eternal, and because it was represented by the earthly paradise and by the land promised to the Jews, so Salmeron. The meek, therefore, are peacefully possessed by God, because they resist Him in nothing; hence in turn they shall possess Him in heavenly glory. For, as St. Augustine says in Salutary Instructions, chapter 10, vol. 4: "No one shall possess God except him whom God Himself has first possessed."
Again, by "earth" properly understand the new earth, of which it is said: "Behold I create new heavens and a new earth" (Isa. 65:17; Rev. 21:1; 2 Pet. 3:13), that is, the future world, which the Apostle says in Hebrews 2:5 will after the general judgment be subjected to Christ as heir, and consequently to the meek as His co-heirs; for after the judgment the whole world, namely heaven and earth, will be renewed and glorified and subjected to Christ and His Saints.
A holy man wittily said, remarks Salmeron: "To the humble is given heaven, to the meek the earth: what is left for the proud and cruel but the misery of hell?"
Mystically: St. Bernard, Sermon 1 on the Feast of All Saints, understands by "earth" the body or the heart, which the soul of a meek person possesses, reigning over the motions of the flesh and commanding all its members through meekness.
Anagogically: St. Hilary and St. Ambrose. After the resurrection, they say, the meek person will begin to possess the earth, that is, his own body through glory, and consequently in a certain way also the body of Christ through configuration and enjoyment: "To the meek," says Hilary, "He promises the inheritance of the earth, that is, of that body which the Lord assumed as His dwelling; and because through the meekness of our mind Christ will have dwelt in us, we too are clothed with the glory of His glorified body." And St. Leo, in a sermon on the Feast of All Saints: "The earth," he says, "promised to the meek and to be given in possession to the gentle, is the flesh of the Saints, which through the merit of humility will be changed by a happy resurrection and clothed with the glory of immortality; in no way henceforth to be opposed to the spirit, and to have the consent of perfect unity with the will of the soul." And after a few more words: "For the meek shall possess it in perpetual peace, and nothing shall ever diminish their right, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, so that danger is turned into reward, and what was a burden becomes an honor."
Symbolically: the meek possess the earth, that is, the hearts of people, who are earthly; for through meekness they win them over and, as it were, bind them, so that they seem to possess them, according to that saying of Sirach 3:19: "My son, perform your works in meekness, and you will be loved above the glory of men." See what was said there. Hence St. Chrysostom, Homily 58 on Genesis: "Nothing," he says, "is more powerful than meekness. For just as water thrown on a fire, when it is burning intensely, extinguishes it, so also a word spoken with meekness extinguishes a mind burning more fiercely than a furnace." See the same, Homily 29 to the People.
Therefore the meek possess the earth, because they have as many estates as there are human hearts, especially of those who love Evangelical meekness and who provide food to them, even though they are exiles despoiled of their inheritance.
Finally, the way to attain meekness is: First, if you frequently meditate on its dignity and usefulness, and on the unworthiness and harm of anger. Second, if when angry you say or do nothing until you have calmed the anger in your heart. Hence Clement of Alexandria, Book 5 of the Stromata, reports that Athenodorus gave this advice to Augustus Caesar, that when angry he should say or do nothing before running through the twenty-four letters of the alphabet with himself. Third, if you are of an exalted mind: "A prince," he says, "is above every injury." Wherefore Augustus Caesar despised the tongues of those who spoke against him, saying repeatedly that in a free state tongues ought to be free. Fourth, if you consider the examples of the meek so as to imitate them, and especially the example of Christ crucified, of whom Isaiah foretold, chapter 53: "Like a sheep He shall be led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer He shall be silent." And Jeremiah 11:19: "And I was like a gentle lamb carried to the victim, and I did not know." So St. Elzear, Count of Ariano, overcame all injuries done to him by meditation and imitation of the passion and meekness of Christ, to such a degree that he seemed to be insensible, as his Life records.
Verse 5: Blessed Are Those Who Mourn
5. BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN (Arabic: Blessed are the sad), FOR THEY SHALL BE CONSOLED. — Those who mourn, not in the flesh, but in the spirit; for "in spirit" from verse 3 must be repeated in all these beatitudes. For blessed are those who mourn over the loss not of riches, parents, or friends, but of spiritual things. Therefore a holy mourning is meant here; for it is opposed to those who laugh and overflow with joy and every worldly prosperity, whom the world applauds as blessed, but to whom Christ pronounces woe, Luke 6:25: "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep." He alludes to Isaiah 65:14: "Behold My servants shall eat, and you shall be hungry. Behold My servants shall drink, and you shall be thirsty. Behold My servants shall rejoice, and you shall be confounded. Behold My servants shall praise for exultation of heart, and you shall cry out for sorrow of heart, and for crushing of spirit you shall howl."
Furthermore, this mourning has its own degrees, as do the other beatitudes as well. Blessed here are called those who mourn, who patiently bear the sorrowful adversities sent or permitted by God. So Gregory of Nyssa in his work On the Beatitudes, and St. Augustine in Book 1 of the Sermon of the Lord on the Mount. More blessed are those who mourn and weep over their own or others' sins. So SS. Chrysostom, Ambrose, Hilary, and Jerome. But most blessed of all are those who, from the pain of the continual struggle they wage with the flesh and concupiscence, and from the desire for the heavenly homeland, and especially from the love of God and of Christ, whom they supremely long to enjoy forever, mourn this exile of theirs in the body and on earth. So Gregory of Nyssa, Jansenius, and others. Thus Paul mourned, saying: "Unhappy man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Rom. 7). And: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ" (Phil. 1:23). See what was said there. In this mourning St. Ephrem excelled, who in all his writings mourns and inspires in the reader a holy mourning and compunction. St. Macarius, as his Life records, used to say to his followers: "Let us weep, brothers, and let our eyes produce tears, before we go hence where our tears shall burn our bodies. And they all wept." For tears here wash; after death they burn.
FOR THEY SHALL BE CONSOLED — both often in this life, and always in the future, where there will be, as Isaiah says, chapter 35:10: "Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Indeed, compunction itself wonderfully consoles, nourishes, and refreshes the mind of the one who is compunct; and if there is any sincere joy in the world, it is in the compunct mind. Try it, and you will taste: "The heart that knows the bitterness of its own soul, no stranger shall mingle in its joy," says the Wise Man, Proverbs 14:10. See what was said there. Alluding to this, St. Jerome, describing the death of St. Paula mourning like a penitent, exclaims: "O blessed exchange of things! She wept, so that she might always laugh; she despised broken cisterns, so that she might find the Lord as her fountain; she was clothed in sackcloth, so that now she might wear white garments, and say: 'You have torn my sackcloth, and clothed me with joy. She ate ashes like bread, and mixed her drink with weeping, saying: My tears have been my bread day and night,' so that she might feed forever on the bread of Angels, and sing: 'Taste and see, that the Lord is sweet.'"
Verse 6: Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Justice
6. BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HUNGER AND THIRST FOR JUSTICE, FOR THEY SHALL BE SATISFIED. — Luke, chapter 6, omits "justice." For he has it thus: "Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied"; therefore he seems to speak of bodily hunger, but one that arises from spiritual hunger, or at least is directed toward it, as Matthew explains, who in recording Christ's words is more expansive and fuller, as Luke is in recording His deeds. The meaning therefore is, as if He said: Blessed are those who hunger for food and drink, but in spirit (for this must be repeated from verse 3), that is, not out of carnal necessity, but by spiritual virtue, and likewise with a spiritual end and intention, because they hunger and thirst for justice; for through hunger and thirst they wish to acquire or increase justice in themselves and in their neighbors. Hence Maldonatus interprets "justice" as meaning "for the sake of justice." Thus Luke, chapter 6, verse 25, opposes these hungry ones to those who are sated, namely with wine and delicacies: "Woe to you who are satisfied, for you shall hunger," as if to say: The world calls the sated blessed, but I call blessed those who hunger, namely for justice, and who are eager to attain and increase it, even through hunger, thirst, and other mortifications of the flesh, whether voluntarily undertaken or inflicted from elsewhere, as Luke indicates, chapter 6, verse 21. So say St. Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, Hilary, Nyssa, Euthymius, Theophylactus, and others. Thus hunger, or famine, is understood not as bodily but spiritual, as in Amos 8:11, when he says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will send a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord." And Sirach 24:29: "Those who eat me will still hunger, and those who drink me will still thirst." To these passages Christ here alludes.
The first degree, therefore, of this beatitude of hungering and thirsting is to patiently endure hunger and want arising from public or private scarcity of food; the second, to hunger and thirst by fasting voluntarily, so that through fasting you may tame the flesh, make satisfaction for sins, and obtain God's grace for yourself or your neighbors; the third, to suffer imprisonment for the faith of Christ, and in those prisons to suffer hunger and thirst, or even to be killed by starvation, as happened to some martyrs; the fourth, to hunger and thirst for justice and every increase of virtue. Hence St. Leo, in his sermon for the feast of All Saints: "Nothing else," he says, "is it to love God, than to love justice."
Furthermore, the hunger for justice is distinguished from the thirst for it, as the imperfect from the perfect; for hunger is satisfied with more difficulty, thirst more easily and pleasantly. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 2 On the Annunciation: "Nevertheless," he says, "as long as truth is palatable to you, it is not without difficulty that it penetrates to the interior. But when you begin to take delight in it, it is no longer food, but drink, and enters the soul without difficulty, inasmuch as the spiritual food of understanding is completed by the draught of wisdom.
Justice. First, justice here can be taken for the particular virtue that gives to each person his due. As if to say: Blessed are those who hunger for justice, that is, who eagerly desire that justice, which has as it were abandoned the earth (according to that passage of Ovid, Metamorphoses 1: "And the virgin Astrea, last of the heavenly ones, left the earth dripping with slaughter") and fled to heaven, may return to earth, and rule over the whole world, and defend each person's right. "Such are those who, unjustly afflicted by tyrants or the powerful, desire," says Rupert, "their right to be restored to them, as oppressed widows and orphans uniquely desire"; likewise those who, seeing others unjustly harassed by others, out of zeal for justice wish them to be freed from this injustice and the unjust to be punished. For as Aristotle says, Ethics, book 5: "Neither the evening star nor the sun shines as brightly as justice." And Cicero, On Duties, book 2: "So great is the force of justice, that not even those who feed on wrongdoing and crime can live in that state without some particle of justice," as we see happening among soldiers rebelling against their prince, who in order to maintain this rebellion exercise a rigid justice among themselves.
Second, and more fully, understand justice here as a general virtue; indeed, as the combination of all virtues; for we ought not simply to will it, but to hunger for it continually and desire it ardently, that we may fill our mind with these things: "It is not enough," says St. Jerome, "to will justice, but we must hunger for it, so that through this hunger we may never believe ourselves to be sufficiently just, but may understand that we must always hunger for the works of justice."
Hear St. Bernard, epistle 253 to Garinus, explaining the insatiable desire of the just person for advancement: "The just person never considers that he has comprehended, never says 'it is enough,' but always hungers and thirsts for justice, so that if he were to live forever, he would always strive, as far as lies within him, to be more just; he would always try with all his strength to advance from good to better; for he does not surrender himself to divine service for a year or a time, like a hired servant, but for eternity." And after some further words: "And so the untiring zeal for progress, and the continual effort toward perfection, is reckoned as perfection. But if striving for perfection is itself perfection, then certainly to be unwilling to advance is to fall behind. Where, then, are those who are accustomed to say, 'It is enough for us; we do not wish to be better than our fathers'? O monk! You do not wish to advance? Then you do not wish to fall behind? By no means. What then? 'This is how I wish to live,' you say, 'and to remain where I have arrived; I neither allow myself to become worse, nor do I desire to become better.' This, then, is what you wish, which cannot be. For what stands still in this world?" He proves it by the example of Christ, "who went about doing good and healing all. He went about, therefore, not unfruitfully, not sluggishly, not lazily, not with slow step, but as it is likewise written of Him: 'He rejoiced as a giant to run the way.'"
Finally he concludes with the ladder of Jacob: "He saw," he says, "Jacob's ladder, and angels on the ladder, where none appeared sitting still, none standing still, but all seemed either to be ascending or descending, so that it might be openly understood that between progress and decline in this state of mortal life no middle ground is to be found, but just as the body itself is constantly either growing or declining, so too the spirit must necessarily either always be advancing or falling behind." St. Augustine says splendidly, tractate 4 on the epistle of St. John: "The whole life of a good Christian," he says, "is a holy desire," that he may go from virtue to virtue, that he may insatiably thirst for works of virtue, that he may eagerly seize upon occasions of serving God wherever and from wherever they may come.
Mystically: those who hunger and thirst for justice are those who hunger and thirst for Christ, that they may be joined to Him with all their love and spirit, according to that saying: "He who clings to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (1 Corinthians 6). For Christ has been made for us by God wisdom, sanctification, and redemption. So say Gregory of Nyssa, On the Beatitudes; St. Augustine, epistle 83 to Consentius, near the end; and St. Bernard, epistle 190, past the middle.
FOR THEY SHALL BE SATISFIED. — Both because the very hunger of the spirit itself feeds and satisfies, according to the saying: "Virtue alone is to itself the most beautiful reward"; and because God freely offers His grace and its increase to those who desire it, which He denies to the lazy and the yawning; and because in heaven He will fulfill all their hunger through happiness and glory. For as St. Bernard says, epistle 253: "Everlasting hunger merits everlasting refreshment." Hence Christ says: "I dispose to you, as My Father disposed to Me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom" (Luke 22:29).
St. Paula attained this, of whom St. Jerome writes thus in her epitaph: "She is satisfied, because she hungered, and joyfully she sings: 'As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.' O blessed exchange of things! She wept so that she might always laugh; she despised broken cisterns, so that she might find the Lord as her fountain; she was clothed in haircloth, so that now she might wear white garments, and say: 'You have torn my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness.' She ate ashes like bread, and mixed her drink with weeping, saying: 'My tears have been my bread day and night,' so that she might feed forever on the bread of Angels and sing: 'Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.'"
Verse 7: Blessed Are the Merciful
7. BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL, FOR THEY SHALL OBTAIN MERCY. — He joins mercy to justice, because every work of virtue is either something owed, and is justice; or something unowed and gratuitous, and is mercy; and because mercy tempers and sweetens justice. Worldly people consider those blessed who give little but receive much, and thus heap up riches and enrich themselves; but Christ's teaching is paradoxical, yet most true: "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35), where I reviewed many causes of this beatitude, and especially this one: "For they shall obtain mercy." For it is fitting by the law of reciprocity that mercy be shown in return to the one who shows mercy; for what is done to a poor person, Christ considers done to Himself. Therefore, as to why on the day of judgment He will adjudge the elect to heaven and the reprobate to hell, Matthew, chapter 25, gives no other reason than that the former were merciful to Him, that is, to His poor, while the latter were unmerciful. Mercy, therefore, is here promised to the merciful, and the promise is fulfilled by Christ, often in this life and always in the next. The heavenly beatitude, therefore, which He promised to the poor under the name of the kingdom of heaven, is likewise promised to the merciful under the name of mercy, because, as the Apostle says, "eternal life is grace" (Romans 6:23); both because God freely promised it to those who do good works and give alms; and because the beginning of every good work and merit is grace: for grace anticipates us and stirs us to good work, and confers upon it divine dignity and the power to merit. "Eternal life," says St. Augustine, in On Correction and Grace, chapter 13, "is grace for grace, that is, for those merits which grace has bestowed," according to that saying of Psalm 102: "Who crowns you in mercy and compassion." Hence the Syriac translates: "Blessed are the merciful, for upon them shall be mercies"; as if to say: To the merciful, mercy shall be repaid, not one, but many. For God does not wish to be outdone by him, but to outdo him with His own generosity. Hence, first, He inspires the merciful with repentance and through it remits their sins, according to that saying of Daniel 4:24: "Redeem your sins with alms, and your iniquities with mercies toward the poor"; second, He breathes into them frequent and abundant grace, through which they may accomplish many good works; third, for this reason He confers upon them eternal life and glory, which is the supreme grace, and is therefore here signified by the name of mercy. For as St. Augustine says, epistle 103: "When God crowns our merits, He crowns nothing other than His own gifts"; because grace alone produces all our merit in us.
The degrees of mercy are: first, to feel compassion for the wretched; second, to relieve the bodily misery of one's neighbor through almsgiving; third, to come to the aid of a soul laboring under ignorance, affliction, or sin; fourth, to go out in advance to seek the wretched, so that you may help them; fifth, to deprive yourself of comforts, or even necessities, so that you may assist others; sixth, to spend your possessions and yourself and your life for them, as Christ did, and St. Paul and St. Paulinus.
Symbolically: to the merciful is promised mercy, that is, the vision and possession of God, and God Himself, whose nature is nothing other than mercy, according to that saying of Psalm 58: "My God, my mercy." You give a coin to a poor person, therefore, and you receive God, according to the saying: Give a coin, and receive a kingdom; give a crumb, and receive the whole mass; give the price, and receive the prize; give a gift, and receive God. Hence St. Leo, in his sermon for the feast of All Saints: "Recognize, O Christian," he says, "the dignity of your wisdom, and by the arts of what disciplines and to what rewards you are called, understand. Mercy wishes you to be merciful, justice wishes you to be just, so that in His creature the Creator may appear, and in the mirror of the human heart the image of God, expressed through the lines of imitation, may shine forth. Let the faith of those who work be secure; your desires will be present for you, and you will possess without end those things which you love." Almsgiving, therefore, is not so much mercy as it is an enormous gain and interest with God; for one receives far more from Him than one gives to Him, hence that saying: "If you wish to lend at interest, lend to God; for he who has mercy on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will repay his return" (Proverbs 19:17); because, as St. Chrysologus says, sermon 42: "God eats in heaven the bread that the poor person received on earth. Give therefore bread, give drink, if you wish to have God as your debtor, not your judge." More forcefully, St. Augustine, on Psalm 36: "Observe," he says, "what the moneylender does: he certainly wants to give less and receive more; do this yourself too. Give little things, receive great ones. See how broadly your interest grows. Give temporal things, receive eternal ones. Give earth, receive heaven." Be therefore a usurer, be a moneylender of God; this usury is pious, this interest is holy. Finally St. Chrysostom, homily 32 on the epistle to the Hebrews: "Almsgiving," he says, "is the friend of God, always near Him; for whomever she wishes, she easily obtains the gift of grace." And presently he compares and prefers her to the peacock, because she is more beautiful and pleasing in the eyes of God than a peacock in the eyes of men, and he adds of her: "She is a virgin with golden wings, observant in all things and gracefully girded, having a fair and gentle countenance; she is winged, light, and always stands before the royal throne. When we are being judged, she suddenly comes to our aid and frees us from impending punishments, covering us with her wings. God desires her more than innumerable sacrifices."
Verse 8: Blessed Are the Pure in Heart
8. BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART (St. Augustine, On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, reads "the pure-hearted"), FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD. — First, a pure heart is a mind that is chaste and free from all lust and concupiscence of the flesh. As if to say: Blessed are not those who are clear and brilliant in intellect, like philosophers; nor those who are clean and polished in body and clothing, which for many is impossible; but those who are pure in heart, that is, of a pure and chaste mind, which is possible for all. So say St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, and Euthymius.
Second, more generally and fully, blessed are those who are pure in heart, that is, who have a pure conscience, who namely have cleansed it from all sin, from wicked thoughts and desires, from passions and disturbances, from every evil intention, and especially from all duplicity and hypocrisy. Pure in heart, therefore, are those who have a simple, upright, and pure mind, who always do and think every good thing, says the Author of the Imperfect Work; for just as, if a spring is pure and free of mud, the waters flowing from it will likewise be pure and clear, so too if the heart is pure, every action proceeding from it will be pure and clean. So say St. Jerome, Hilary, Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Augustine, book 1 of On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount.
Third, most fully and perfectly, and in the highest degree, blessed are the pure in heart, namely those who have cleansed their heart from all love of creatures, so that it may be a mirror and temple of the divinity like an angel, and so that they may transfer the entire intention, affection, and love of their mind to God.
Cassian gives an indication of perfect purity of heart, in book 6 of On the Spirit of Fornication, chapter 18: namely, dreams — that is, if someone while sleeping dreams not impure and illicit things, but pure and holy things; for this is a sure sign of a mind thoroughly purged of vices. Furthermore, the ladder by which one ascends step by step to this purity is described thus by Cassian and Sulpitius, book 6 of On the Institution of Renunciation, chapter 53: "The beginning of our salvation is the fear of the Lord. From the fear of the Lord is born salutary compunction; from compunction of heart proceeds contempt of all possessions and nakedness; from nakedness proceeds humility; from humility is generated the mortification of the will; by the mortification of the will all vices are uprooted; by the expulsion of vices, virtues bear fruit and grow; by the sprouting of virtues, purity of heart is acquired; by purity of heart, the perfection of apostolic charity is possessed." Therefore St. Anthony, according to St. Athanasius, teaches that cleanness of heart is the way to prophecy: "If anyone," he says, "undertakes to know the future, let him have a pure heart; because I believe that a soul serving God, if it has persevered in the integrity in which it was reborn, can know more than the demons. Such was the soul of Elisha, which performed miracles unknown to others."
FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD — face to face, and therefore will be made blessed by the vision of God; for those who are impure in heart have a heart as it were buried in mud and the dregs of earthly things, so that they cannot see God. "But cleanness of heart and purity of conscience," says Chromatius, "will suffer no cloud when gazing upon God," but will receive Him into itself, just as a pure and polished mirror receives the sun into itself; just as an impure and unpolished mirror excludes the sun from itself, so too an impure heart excludes God from itself. Hear St. Leo, in his sermon for the feast of All Saints: "Rightly is this beatitude promised to purity of heart; for a tarnished gaze will not be able to see the splendor of the true light; and what will be a delight for bright minds will be a punishment for stained ones. Let the mists of earthly vanities therefore be turned aside, and let the inner eyes be cleansed from every filth of iniquity, so that the serene gaze may be fed on the vision of God alone." Hence it is clear, says St. Augustine, that God is seen not with the eyes, but with the heart, that is, the mind, by the blessed; for He Himself is an incorporeal and most pure spirit.
Second, this vision of God could be taken for a pure and affectionate knowledge of God, which God often imparts more abundantly to the pure in heart in this life than to others. "Act, therefore," says St. Augustine, citing Fonteius, in 83 Questions, question 11: "O wretched mortals; act so that the evil spirit may never pollute this dwelling, may never defile the sanctity of the soul by mingling with the senses, nor cloud the light of the mind. This evil creeps through all the gateways of the senses, presents itself in images, accommodates itself to colors, attaches itself to sounds, lurks in anger, in the deceit of speech, subjects itself to passions, pours itself into tastes, and by the filth of turbid motions darkens the senses with gloomy affections; it fills with a kind of mist all the channels of understanding through which the ray of the mind is accustomed to spread the light of reason. And because that ray is one of heavenly light, and in it is the mirror of the divine presence — for in this mirror God shines, in this the innocent will, in this the merit of right action shines forth — God is present everywhere. But He is simultaneously present to each of us when the undefiled purity of our mind lies open in His presence." Let everyone, therefore, say to himself with Herminius: I would rather die than be defiled in heart.
Verse 9: Blessed Are the Peacemakers
9. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS (eirenepoioi, that is, those who make peace, as the Syriac translates), FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF GOD. — As if to say: The world calls blessed those who wage wars bravely and subdue their enemies; but I call blessed those who reconcile the quarrelsome and warring parties and call them back to peace and union with one another and with God, or who labor and strive to call them back. For this is an arduous and difficult work, but most pleasing to God. So say St. Chrysostom, Euthymius, Theophylactus, St. Jerome, St. Basil, question 215 among the shorter ones. See St. Gregory, Pastoral, part 3, admonition 24.
The degrees of this beatitude are: first, to have or procure interior peace of soul with God; second, to cultivate peace with neighbors and those nearby; third, to call back the quarrelsome and discordant to the harmony of charity. For as St. Leo says, in his sermon for the feast of All Saints, Christian peace is founded on one God and the love of God: "Outside the dignity of peace," he says, "are the alliances of wicked desires, the pacts of crimes, and the agreements of vices." The fourth degree is to make others like yourself, namely to instill in others a zeal for peace, so that they may endeavor to reconcile all those who are at odds. And for this purpose a religious order or pious congregation could be established for the great good of the Church, so that just as there are congregations established to perform the other works of mercy — for example, to serve the sick, to give hospitality to pilgrims, to feed the poor, to bury the dead, etc. — so too a congregation of peacemakers might be established, whose duty it would be to settle all disputes in the city, and to recall all who are at discord to harmony and peace. For this is a work of great charity, in which our Father Gaspar Barzaeus excelled at Ormuz and Goa, to such a degree that lawyers and advocates said they would die of hunger, because all lawsuits were settled, from the handling of which they made their living. Read his Life written by Father Trigault. Indeed, in some cities such congregations of peacemakers have actually been established, through which the enormous costs, discords, fights, and hatreds that lawsuits usually bring are kept away from the commonwealth.
FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF GOD — that is, they will be such that they can rightly be called sons of God. It is a catachresis or metalepsis: sons of God, that is, most like God and most dear to Him; for God loves peace above all, and for its sake sent His Son into the world, because He by His essence is peace and union: hence He essentially and most intimately unites three divine Persons in one and the same individual essence and divinity. Hence God is called "the God of peace" (Philippians 4). Conversely, the devil is the god of dissension; therefore those who sow it are children not of God, but of the devil: "For in one evil," says St. Gregory, Pastoral, part 3, admonition 24, "they commit innumerable evils, because by sowing discord, they extinguish charity, which is indeed the mother of all virtues."
By a similar catachresis it is said in verses 44 and 45: "Love your enemies, etc., that you may be sons of God," that is, like and imitators of "your Father, who is in heaven."
Second, peacemakers will be called sons of God, because they will share in the office and name of the Son of God, namely Christ, whose office it is to reconcile men to God and to one another, and to bring to the world peace which the world could not give (2 Corinthians 5:18; Colossians 1:20; Ephesians 2:14). Hence His name is "the Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6); and therefore when He was born, peace was born on earth, hence the Angels then sang: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will" (Luke 2). For He was born for this purpose, that He might reconcile man to God, earth to heaven, sinners to Angels, "making peace through the blood of the cross, whether the things on earth or the things in heaven" (Colossians 1:20). "Therefore He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and breaking down the middle wall of partition, etc., killing enmities in Himself through the cross" (Ephesians 2:14).
Third, peacemakers will properly and most fully be called, and will be, sons and heirs of God in the heavenly glory which they will inherit on account of the merit of peace they have brought about. For in heaven all the Saints through beatific glory are sons and heirs of God: "These are the peacemakers," says St. Leo, in his sermon for the feast of All Saints, "these, well united in heart, are to be called by the eternal name sons of God, and co-heirs with Christ, because the love of God and neighbor will merit this: that they no longer feel any adversities, fear no scandals, but after the battle of all temptations is ended, may rest in the most tranquil peace of God."
Furthermore, St. Bernard, sermon 4 On Advent, depicts false poor, meek, mourning, hungering, merciful, pure-hearted, and peaceful people as follows: "There are, he says, who wish to be poor in such a way that they lack nothing, and who so love poverty that they suffer no want. There are also others who are meek, but only so long as nothing is said or done except according to their will; yet it will become clear how far they are from true meekness if an occasion arises (if they are struck by a harsh word). I also see others who weep; but if those tears proceeded from the heart, they would not so easily dissolve into laughter. Others so vehemently condemn the faults of others that they might seem to hunger and thirst for justice, yet they flatter themselves as foolishly as they do uselessly. There are others merciful about things that do not pertain to them, who are scandalized if all are not given abundantly, yet in such a way that they themselves are not burdened even in the slightest. There are those who confess their sins in such a way that they might seem to do it from a desire to cleanse their heart, except that what they themselves willingly tell others, they cannot patiently hear from others. And there are still others who, if they see someone even slightly scandalized, are very anxious about how they might restore him to peace, and they would seem to be peacemakers, except that their agitation, if anything has been said or done against them, will be more slowly and with greater difficulty calmed than anyone else's," etc. To each of these he then opposes Christ as the contrary in all things, like a true mirror of virtues.
Verse 10: Blessed Are Those Who Suffer Persecution
10. BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO SUFFER PERSECUTION FOR JUSTICE'S SAKE, FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. — This is the eighth and highest beatitude, consisting in suffering and patience, whereas the previous ones were situated in action. Hence St. Ambrose, Book V on Luke chapter 6, verse 22: "He leads you to the end," he says, "He pursues you even to martyrdom; there He establishes the palm of blessedness." For it is more difficult to endure hard things than to do arduous ones, according to the saying: "To do brave things is Roman; to suffer brave things is Christian." Therefore the greater and more perfect act of fortitude is to suffer bravely rather than to act, as St. Thomas and the Philosophers teach. Persecution is the relentless pursuit of someone in order to crush him, in which no place is given for rest or security, but by every means — namely by slanders as well as by afflictions, by verbal injuries as well as by blows — innocence is harassed and oppressed.
Acutely and subtly Gregory of Nyssa, in his work On the Beatitudes, ponders the word "persecution," which is a term for those who are running and pursuing, and striving to overtake those ahead by speed. And so Nyssen meditates on the holy man and on tribulation or persecution running together, but since the holy man does not yield to persecution, he as it were goes ahead as the victor and runs before it, while persecution follows behind and runs after him, and therefore it is called "persecution," because, he says, enemies pursue the just but do not overtake them; for they are overcome by the patience and constancy of the just.
FOR JUSTICE'S SAKE. — Because they are just, because they are Christians, because they follow justice, because they keep the law of God or the statutes of their order, because they defend the rights of orphans or the faith, or the goods and rights of the Church, because they strive for the reform of the clergy or the monastery, etc. For "justice" is taken broadly here and signifies any virtue whatsoever, says Chrysostom. For although some philosophers seem to have suffered and been killed for justice — such as Socrates, who was put to death because he said that many gods ought not to be worshipped but one alone — nevertheless where there is no true faith, neither is there true and perfect justice, says St. Augustine.
Blessed therefore are those who suffer for justice's sake: first, because persecution separates us from the world and joins us to God; second, because we endure it for God's sake; third, because through this we become like Christ, who throughout His whole life even to the death of the cross endured persecution from the Jews: "Let us therefore go forth outside the camp, bearing His reproach" (Hebrews 13). The Church always grew in persecution; in peace it declined. So too with every religious order.
For this reason God sends — that is, permits to be sent — persecutions upon the faithful, or the clergy, or religious, so that He may cut away vices which, like tares, have sprung up in time of peace, and revive the pristine vigor of virtue. Thus, under the two Philips, father and son, who were Christian Emperors, the virtue of the faithful languished in peace, and the faithful gave themselves over to gluttony, avarice, pride, etc. Therefore God sent the Emperors Decius and Valerian, who by their persecution might sharpen the virtue of the faithful. This was revealed to St. Cyprian, as he himself relates in Book IV, Epistle 4: "Know that this has been reproached to us through a vision, that we are sleeping in our prayers, etc. This persecution is an examination and exploration of our sin." And shortly after: "Tell him to be at peace, for peace is coming; but the reason for this delay is that some still remain who must be tested." And in his sermon On the Lapsed: "Because a long peace had corrupted the discipline handed down to us, the heavenly censure raised up our prostrate and nearly dormant faith: in the priests there was no devout religion, in the ministries no upright faith, in works no mercy, in conduct no discipline," etc. Eusebius gives the same cause for the persecution of Diocletian, Book VIII of his History, chapter 1.
Accordingly, St. Francis Borgia, the third General Superior of our Society, used to say that there are three things that preserve the Society of Jesus. The first, he said, is devotion to prayer; the second, the mutual union of its members; the third, persecution; and he gave the reason: because prayer binds us to God, union binds the members to one another — and a threefold cord is not easily broken — persecution separates us from the world and compels us to act prudently, lest our persecutors have anything to criticize or seize upon, and to exert all our strength and sinews of virtue against their plots and violence. So his Life records.
FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. — He began the beatitudes with the kingdom of heaven, and He ends them in the same: for He assigns it to the first and last beatitude as a reward and prize, to indicate that the same is tacitly understood in the other six intermediate beatitudes, and is promised to them equally as a reward, but that it is expressly stated only in the first and last, so that by these two extreme boundaries He may indicate it is the same reward for the intermediate ones. Although St. Ambrose thinks the kingdom of heaven is promised to the poor as regards the soul, which immediately after death migrates to heaven, but to those suffering persecution as regards the body, which after the resurrection will be endowed with eternal glory in heaven.
Hence St. Augustine notes, in Book I of his work On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, that the kingdom of heaven is promised to all eight of these beatitudes, but under different names, properties, and titles, each appropriate to its work: namely, to the poor and the suffering under the name and title of kingdom; to the meek under the name of earth; to those who mourn under the name of consolation; to those who hunger under the name of fullness; to the merciful under the name of mercy; to the pure of heart under the name of the vision of God; to the peacemakers under the name of adoption as sons of God. For in heaven God will give to the blessed, first, the heavenly kingdom itself; second, in it a stable land of happiness; third, all consolation; fourth, all fullness; fifth, all mercy, that is, all grace and glory; sixth, the vision of God; seventh, adoption, sonship, and the inheritance of God.
Beautifully and pointedly St. Augustine, on Psalm 113, represents God as speaking thus: "I have something for sale. What, Lord? The kingdom of heaven. By what is it purchased? By poverty a kingdom, by sorrow joy, by labor rest, by lowliness glory, by death life." Add: by mourning consolation, by hunger fullness, by compassion mercy, by purity vision, by peace the sonship of God.
Furthermore, in these names and titles there is a progression through increasing rewards. There is therefore here a climax, or gradation, in which one ascends step by step as if by a ladder of virtues upward into heaven and the summit of heavenly glory. The first step of the beatitudes, then, is to cast off the care of riches through poverty; the second, to compose one's habits and calm the movements of the soul through meekness; the third, to mourn for sins; the fourth, to hunger and thirst for increases of justice and virtue; the fifth, to accumulate works and merits of corporal and spiritual mercy; the sixth, to devote oneself fully and completely to purity of mind; the seventh, to establish peace among all; the eighth, to endure humbly and bravely all the slanders and injuries of persecutions. To these steps of virtue there correspond an equal number of steps of heavenly glory, and rewards are as it were assigned: namely, first, to poverty a kingdom; second, to meekness the stability of an eternal kingdom; third, to mourning joy; fourth, to the hunger for justice its fullness; fifth, to almsgiving abundant mercy; sixth, to purity of heart the vision of God; seventh, to peacemakers the inheritance of God; eighth, to those who suffer persecution and affliction, the most ample and sovereign kingdom of heaven. Hence St. Ambrose, Book V on Luke chapter 6, verse 22: "These," he says, "they consider to be steps of virtues, through which from the lowest — the poor and those suffering persecution — since it is fitting that to both, in return for poverty and persecution, a kingdom should be given as a worthy reward of patience, in which they may be enriched and may rule over their persecutors, we may ascend to higher things. In short, just as there are increases of virtues, so also are there increases of rewards. For it is a greater thing to be a Son of God than to possess earth and consolation."
Note first: these eight beatitudes are interconnected with one another; for no one is blessed who has the first unless he also has the remaining seven. Therefore, to gather and bind them all into one, the meaning is, as if He were saying: Blessed are those who, despising the goods of this world through poverty of spirit, and honors through meekness, and pleasures through mourning, and moreover eagerly pursuing justice and mercy, arrive at purity of heart; and in addition labor to reconcile and make peace among others, by their example, with one another and with God; and finally, who suffer persecution on account of these and similar works of justice: for this is the summit of Christian perfection and blessedness. Therefore when "blessed" is said in each case, understand it to mean: if nothing else is lacking, that is, if the other requisites are present, as I said in Canon 43. Again, the first beatitude disposes and makes a step toward the second, and the second toward the third, and so on in sequence, as St. Ambrose, St. Leo, and others teach. For poverty of spirit, or humility, disposes to meekness — for the humble are meek; meekness disposes to mourning — for the meek easily feel their own and others' evils and mourn over them; mourning or compunction disposes to hunger and thirst for justice — for those who mourn their own and others' sins thirst for justice and holiness; the hunger for justice disposes to mercy — for whoever desires to grow in justice and holiness practices works of mercy, for through these holiness is greatly increased; mercy disposes to purity of heart, because almsgiving extinguishes sins as water does fire and increases charity, which with a pure heart loves God alone; purity of heart disposes to procuring peace both in oneself and in others, because just as quarrels and wars arise from an impure heart full of covetousness, so conversely peace arises from a pure heart free of covetousness; finally, those who procure this peace and the other things already mentioned fall into the hatred of many wicked and covetous people, and suffer persecution from them, which they nobly endure, and so they complete the crown of these eight beatitudes and crown themselves with it.
Note second: each beatitude has its own degrees, some less and some more perfect, as I have already shown, according to which they are partly of counsel and partly of precept. Therefore they belong perfectly to the perfect; yet they belong to all the just in an initial way, in a certain manner and degree, and therefore no one will be saved without them. Therefore this sermon and these beatitudes were primarily spoken and dictated by Christ to the Apostles, who were standing or sitting near Him on the mountain, and to their followers, men of apostolic life; yet secondarily to all the faithful, and therefore Christ promulgated them before the abundant crowd of people, as I said at verse 1.
Note third: St. Augustine, in Book I of On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, beautifully correlates seven beatitudes to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. "The fear of God," he says, "corresponds to the humble; piety to the meek; knowledge to those who mourn; fortitude to those who hunger and thirst; counsel to the merciful; understanding to the pure of heart; wisdom to the peacemakers."
Verse 11: Blessed Are You When They Revile You
11. BLESSED ARE YOU WHEN THEY SHALL REVILE (Greek: oneidisōsin, that is, reproach, as Luke chapter 6 has it; when they shall have heaped upon you insults, reproaches, and indignities) YOU, AND PERSECUTE YOU, AND SPEAK ALL THAT IS EVIL AGAINST YOU, UNTRULY, FOR MY SAKE — because, namely, you follow My faith, My ways, My life, and you preach and spread them. "Untruly" — the Syriac has: "in falsehood" — because, namely, they falsely calumniate you as being disturbers of the state, innovators, as abolishing the true worship of the gods and substituting superstition for it, since you make a crucified man God and preach that He is to be worshipped. The supreme blessedness, therefore, is to bear patiently and nobly — indeed joyfully — for Christ, for piety and virtue, slanders, reproaches, taunts, gibes, and all other injuries of words, imprisonment, and beatings. In this lies the summit of Christian virtue and perfection. Following Christ in this same way, St. Ignatius, the founder of our Society, taught us in Rule 11 of the Summary of the Constitutions, which is very pertinent to the present matter. And he adds the reason: that through these things we become like Christ and as it were clothe ourselves in His garments and insignia, out of love and reverence for Him. He taught the same more by example than by precept. For his entire life was a kind of continual persecution, in which he exulted and rejoiced, and when asked what the way to perfection was, he would answer: "If you suffer many and great things for Christ." See Ribadeneira in his Life, Book I, chapter 14.
Verse 12: Rejoice and Be Glad
12. REJOICE, AND BE EXCEEDING GLAD, FOR YOUR REWARD IS VERY GREAT IN HEAVEN. FOR SO THEY PERSECUTED THE PROPHETS WHO WERE BEFORE YOU. — As if to say: Rejoice — first, in slanders, false testimonies, and persecutions, because through them you are blessed; second, because an ample reward awaits you in heaven; third, because you are like the Prophets, who were men of the highest and most divine character, as was Isaiah, who on account of his oracles was sawn in two by Manasseh; Jeremiah, who was overwhelmed with stones by the Jews; and nearly all the other Prophets were put to death by the same people in various ways. He therefore encourages them by the example of the Prophets: that by following their brave endurance in persecutions, they will attain their fellowship and glory. By this He tacitly implies that they succeed to the place of the Prophets, indeed surpass them, since having been called to higher things, they will preach not the Law but the Gospel throughout the whole world, whereas the Prophets preached only in Judea. Hence He adds: "You are the salt of the earth," etc.
Note here, against modern heretics, the word "reward"; for from it we gather the merits of good works. For merit is the merit of a reward, and a reward is the reward of merit. Thus the Apostles "went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus" (Acts 5:41). So too Paul exults that he is "a prisoner in the Lord," namely for Christ's sake (Ephesians 3 and chapter 4:1).
Hear St. Cyprian, Book IV, Epistle 6, to the Thibarians: "The Lord wished us to rejoice and exult in persecution, because when persecutions come, then the crowns of faith are given, then the soldiers of God are tested, then the heavens lie open to the martyrs." The same author, in his Exhortation to Martyrdom: "This (martyrdom)," he says, "is a baptism greater in grace, more sublime in power, more precious in honor, in which the Angels baptize: a baptism after which no one sins any more; a baptism which consummates the increases of our faith; a baptism which, as we depart from the world, immediately unites us to God. In the baptism of water, remission of sins is received; in the baptism of blood, the crown of virtues." The faithful should therefore exult in persecution and martyrdom, because this is the supreme good and gift of God: hence the laurel of the martyrs is the highest. Thus St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, exulted when, having been sent to Rome, he bravely and eagerly entered the amphitheater, and looking around at the crowd of people (there were easily a hundred thousand), he greeted them warmly and said: "Do not think, O Romans, that I have been condemned to the beasts here for any crime — for I have committed none — but because I desire to be united to Christ, for whom I thirst insatiably." And when he heard the lions roaring: "I am the wheat of Christ," he said; "let me be ground by the teeth of the beasts, that I may be found pure bread." Read his Epistle to the Romans, in which he begs and as it were adjures them not to hinder his martyrdom or snatch his crown from him, where among other things he says: "Would that I might enjoy the beasts that are prepared for me; if they will not come, I shall force them. Now I begin to be a disciple of Christ." This is the axiom which St. James sets forth as the theme of his epistle: "Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various temptations" (1:2), where I have said much on this subject.
St. Francis, when asked in what the perfect joy of religious consists, replied: not in great knowledge, not in the grace of miracles, not even in a great example of holiness and edification, not finally in the conversion of all unbelievers, but if, afflicted by hunger, cold, and nakedness, and moreover having endured insults, injuries, and beatings, we bear all these things with joy out of love for Christ: this is perfect joy, because in all things our consolation is to endure reproaches for God's sake. For in other marvelous things we cannot glory, because they are not ours but God's; but in the cross of tribulation and affliction we can glory, because that is ours, and therefore the Apostle said: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14). Thus St. Francis.
Verse 13: You Are the Salt of the Earth
13. YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH; BUT IF THE SALT LOSES ITS SAVOR, WHEREWITH SHALL IT BE SALTED? IT IS THENCEFORTH GOOD FOR NOTHING, BUT TO BE CAST OUT AND TO BE TRODDEN UNDER FOOT BY MEN. — As if to say: You, O Apostles, who sit nearest to Me here, to whom I have primarily preached and as it were appropriated the eight beatitudes just stated, are, by My election and appointment (as if to say: I have chosen and appointed you for this purpose, that you may be) the salt of the earth. That, therefore, you are — that is, you ought to be — and by My grace you will in fact be. Christ passes from the beatitudes to salt, both because He delivers His ethics in the manner of the ancients, through brief disconnected maxims, without fixed order and connection, and because there is an easy link here. As if to say: You, O Apostles, whom I choose so that after My example you may be poor in spirit, meek, pure of heart, merciful, etc. — by this very fact you will be the salt of the earth.
The Syrians and Palestinians, as I said in Canon 4, delight in parables and metaphors, so that they may flow more sweetly into the ears and minds of the hearers. Thus here Christ calls the Apostles the salt of the whole earth, by which He tacitly ranks them above the Prophets, who were the salt of Judea alone, as St. Chrysostom observes.
You may ask why Christ calls the Apostles rather the salt of the earth than gold, silver, gems, etc. I answer: First, because salt is a supremely useful, universal, and necessary thing; "for salt is as it were the balsam of nature, which nature herself has inserted into nearly all compounds, so that she may season them, bind them, and preserve them from corruption," says Anselmus Boethius, Book II, On Stones, chapter 302. Thus the Apostles were salt, that is, the balsam of the earth.
Second, salt denotes the office, power, and dignity of the Apostles; for salt is a symbol of wisdom, because, just as salt seasons food so that it may be savory, so wisdom seasons minds so that they may be wise; for "wisdom" (sapientia) is derived from "savor" (sapor), because it is itself the savor of the mind. Hence the Comedian says: "If only someone had the salt that is in you." Hence also an unwise man is called "insulsus" (unsalted/insipid), according to the line of Catullus: "There is not a grain of salt in so large a body." The Apostles, therefore, were salt, because by their wisdom they corrected the insipid ways of the world and made them savory and wise.
Third, "salt," says Pliny, Book 31, chapter 10, "is of a fiery and watery nature, containing two elements, fire and water." Fire, because it is sharp like fire, and if thrown into fire, it intensifies and kindles it; water, because salt, when water is sprinkled on it, melts and dissolves into it. For although salt, like sulfur, nitre, tin, and other minerals, is generated from the earth, yet it is commonly produced from terrestrial particles of water congealed by heat and wind, and from the subtile vapor of the air itself dissolved into mist. And since it is earthy, it becomes heavy like the earth itself; and when it has been scorched by heat, it is rendered dry and bitter, by which process it signifies the sea itself, according to the words of the Poet, Aeneid I: "And they plowed through the salt spray with their prows." The same Pliny, in the same place, chapter 9: "Nothing is more useful to bodies than sun and salt. Hence names were derived from salt, and at Rome the Via Salaria was so called because salt used to be carried along it to the salt works," he says in chapter 7. The Apostles, therefore, were the salt of the earth, because by their fiery power they kindled it with the love of God, and by their watery eloquence and wisdom they moistened, sprinkled, and fertilized the dry earth, so that it might bring forth the fruits of good works and of all the virtues. Hence St. Isidore, Book XVI of the Etymologies, chapter 2, gives these etymologies of salt: "Some think 'sal' is so called," he says, "because it leaps out of fire — for it flees from fire, since it is fiery, but follows its nature, because fire and water are always hostile to each other. Others think salt is named from 'salum' (the sea) and 'sol' (the sun): for it is spontaneously produced from sea water, as foam left on the far shores or on rocks and evaporated by the sun." And further below: "From it comes all the delight of food and the highest merriment, whence it is thought to have received the name 'sal' (for witty jests are called 'sales'), for nothing is more useful than salt and sun." Hence is that saying of St. Paul: "Let your speech be always in grace, seasoned with salt" (Colossians 4:6). Finally, Ambrosius Calepinus derives 'sal' from the Greek hals by metathesis; for hals reversed is 'sal.'
Fourth, salt sharpens food that is tasteless and whose insipid blandness provokes nausea, and by its pungency renders it agreeable and wholesome. Thus the Apostles corrected the tasteless and foolish opinions, errors, and habits of men by their sharp speech and the example of their lives, and made them pleasing to God, the Angels, and men. So St. Jerome.
Fifth, just as salt by its penetrating power preserves meat from corruption, by drawing out and consuming the blood-fluids with which the flesh is infected and by which it would be corrupted, so the Apostles removed from men the desires of the flesh that bring corruption to the mind, and preserved them for eternal incorruption and immortality. Hence Cicero, Book II of On the Nature of the Gods: "The pig," he says, "what does it have besides food? Chrysippus says that its soul was given to it in place of salt, so that it would not rot." So to men who like pigs wallowed in flesh and blood, God gave the Apostles as salt and as a soul, which might animate them with spiritual life, lest they rot.
Sixth, salt arouses thirst: so the Apostles aroused a thirst for heavenly things. Hear St. Hilary: "The Apostles are preachers of heavenly things and, as sowers of eternity, they bring immortality to all bodies upon which their words have been sprinkled." And Euthymius: "You," he says, "chosen by Me to cure the rottenness of the whole world, are the salt of the earth."
Seventh, salt by its sharpness bites and stings, dries and burns. Hear Pliny, Book 31, chapters 7 and following: "The nature of salt," he says, "is in itself fiery and hostile to fires, fleeing from them, corroding all things; but binding, drying, and fastening bodies. And it so preserves the dead and putrefying that they endure for ages. In healing, however, it bites, burns, cleanses, reduces, and dissolves." In like manner the Apostles, by their sharp and fiery speech and life, bit, stung, dried out, and shook off the vices of men. Hear St. Gregory, Homily 17: "If we are salt, we ought to season the minds of the faithful; as among brute animals, the priest among the people should be a rock of salt, so that whoever is joined to the priest may be seasoned, as it were from the rock of salt, with the savor of eternal life." Let priests read that entire homily of St. Gregory, and they will find in it a golden mirror for their lives, so that they may become the salt of the earth. Wisely St. Chrysostom says: "Do you wish to know whether the people of a certain place are upright? See what kind of pastor they have. For if you find him pious, upright, and blameless, consider that the people he pastures and whom he seasons with the salt of wisdom are the same."
Not long ago the Emperor Charles V used to say wittily that from the letter of the triple P he could conjecture about the state of any city or commonwealth — namely, he would consider what the Pastor was like in that place, what the Preceptor was like, and what the Praetor was like. For the Church depends on the pastor, the school and the youth, which is the nursery of the commonwealth, depends on the teacher, and the court and justice depend on the magistrate. The pastor, therefore, is the salt of the Church; the teacher is the salt of the school; the magistrate is the salt of the court and the city. As the pastor is, so is the Church; as the teacher is, so is the youth; as the magistrate is, so are the citizens.
Moreover, the Apostles and their successors the priests do more than salt; because salt only preserves intact flesh from putrefaction, but it cannot heal and restore flesh that is already corrupt and putrid, as St. Chrysostom notes. The Apostles, however, healed souls corrupted and putrid with every vice, and gave them an integrity they had never possessed.
BUT IF THE SALT (which ought to salt and season all other things) LOSES ITS SAVOR — in Greek moranthe, that is, becomes foolish, becomes tasteless and insipid, is made foolish. For just as "unseasoned" is transferred by metaphor from food to a foolish man, so conversely "fatuous" is transferred from a man to food: a "fatuous" food, then, is one that lacks savor — tasteless, unseasoned. Thus Martial calls beets "fatuous" when he says: "So that the fatuous beets may give savor to the workmen's lunches."
WHEREWITH SHALL IT BE SALTED? — that is, by what other salt. Namely, not the food, but the salt itself. As if to say: There is no way that the lost power, savor, and pungency can be restored to salt that has become insipid; for there is no salt for salt. As if to say: If the apostle, if the bishop, if the priest, who ought to have seasoned the morals of others like salt, loses the vigor of his spiritual salt through gluttony, lust, fear, flattery, etc., who will restore it to him? As if to say: No one. That this is true is evident from certain priests and pastors of the past age, who either led scandalous lives, or were ignorant, or were in error and inclining toward heresy, or were negligent in instructing the people. Hence the ecclesiastical order fell into such contempt; and hence arose the heresies of Luther, Calvin, and the others, who, being insipid, are like bedbugs, says Maldonatus: for alive they bite, dead they stink. Hear St. Augustine, Book I of On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, chapter 10: "If salt becomes foolish, by what shall it be salted? That is, if you through whom the peoples are in a certain way to be seasoned, through fear of temporal persecutions lose the kingdom of heaven, what men will there be through whom your error may be taken away, since God has chosen you to take away the error of others?"
IT IS THENCEFORTH GOOD FOR NOTHING BUT TO BE CAST OUT AND TO BE TRODDEN UNDER FOOT BY MEN. Therefore it is not the one who suffers persecution who is trodden underfoot by men, but the one who, by fearing persecution, becomes foolish. For no one can be trodden underfoot unless he is inferior; but he is not inferior who, although he endures many things in the body on earth, nevertheless has his heart fixed in heaven."
Now salt, since it consists of four elements, when any one of them is corrupted, becomes corrupt and loses its savor — that is, by sky, sea, soil, and fire, as the saying goes: by sky, that is, air; by sea, that is, water and the sea; by soil, that is, earth. For salt is moistened by humid air, and when the air is corrupted, it is corrupted; by water it is dissolved; by earth it becomes earthy; by fire it is scorched. So too a prelate and pastor loses his savor: First, if he seeks the air, that is, popular favor. "Do not," says the Poet, and after him St. Jerome, "look to the smoke and the empty names of the Catos." Second, by water and sea, that is, he is dissolved by lust. Third, by earth, that is, by avarice he becomes earthly. Fourth, by fire, that is, he is scorched by anger. For by what right will he teach others to despise vain glory, carnal pleasures, riches, and honors, when he himself seeks and pursues them?
How will a vain man persuade others to humility, a lustful man to chastity, an avaricious man to generosity, a choleric man to meekness? And especially, although salt is of a fiery nature, it loses its savor if mixed with water; for then it is completely dissolved and broken down. So too a prelate, priest, or religious loses his savor, grows soft, and becomes effeminate if he is familiar with women, even pious ones. Hear what the elder in John Moschus, in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 217, says: "Little children, salt comes from water; and if it approaches water, it immediately dissolves and disappears. And a monk likewise comes from a woman; and so if he approaches a woman, he too is dissolved and ceases to be what he was, so that he is no longer a monk." He also loses his savor if he deals too much with worldly people, for then he himself becomes worldly, and from a religious he becomes a secular. Therefore, so that he may not lose his savor, let him withdraw from the company of worldly people, close his mouth and eyes, speak much with God and little with men. Let him not accommodate himself to worldly people, but rather strive to adapt and conform them to himself. Let him remember that he is salt, and preserve his vigor, gravity, freedom, and pungency in censuring vices. Let him not be ashamed to profess openly that he is an ecclesiastic and a religious, that is, a worshipper of God, a spiritual man, a contemner of the world, a lover and sower of heavenly things. "Let him enter with another's topics and leave with his own," as our St. Ignatius used to say — that is, let him at first accommodate himself to the temperament and conversation of worldly people, but then deftly lead them over to spiritual things and to what he himself intends, namely, to a change of morals and holiness of life.
Finally, salt mixed with natron and sulfur is turned into stone, says Pliny, Book 31, chapter 10. Sulfur is zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls: let him who strives to be the salt of Christ be petrified and hardened by this zeal against all reproaches, against all blandishments, against all fears, against all promises. Let priests therefore be the salt of the earth, so that they may exhibit an integrity of morals that serves as a standard and discipline for others. This they will accomplish if they speak as oracles and live as divinities.
Verse 14: You Are the Light of the World
14. YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. — You are — by My election and appointment — and therefore you are, that is, you ought to be, and you are, that is, you will actually be, if you respond to My election and will, and cooperate, as is fitting, with My grace. The light of the world, so that you may illuminate the world, which is darkened by the shadows of errors and vices, with the light of Evangelical doctrine and life. So St. Hilary and others.
Wisely St. Chrysostom, Homily 10 on the First Epistle to Timothy, in the Moral section: "For this reason," he says, "He chose us so that we might be as luminaries and become as leaven, so that we might live among men on earth as angels, so that we might deal with them as men with children, as spiritual beings with mere animals." Just as the sun, then, illuminates foul sewers but is not defiled by them, as an angel deals with men, as a man with a child, so also you, O priest, O religious, O spiritual man, should teach the carnal man so as to correct him, but contract no stain from him. The sun is in the sky, but from there it casts its rays upon the earth, by which it illuminates it; so also you should be in mind in the heavens, in body on earth, so that by your speech and example of virtue you may illuminate, warm, and set it ablaze. Thus you will be the light and sun of the world. Chrysostom adds a notable thing: "Surely no one would be a pagan," he says, "if we ourselves took care to be Christians as we ought; if we obeyed God's admonitions and decrees; if when we suffered injuries we did not return the favor; if when assailed with curses we blessed; if we returned good for evil. No one would be such a savage beast as not to rush immediately to the worship of the true religion, if he saw these things done by all. And to learn that this is so, one Paul alone drew so many to the knowledge of God. If we were all of this kind, how many worlds could we too attract?"
A CITY SET ON A HILL CANNOT BE HIDDEN. — Christ here compares the Apostles: first to salt, second to light, third to a city conspicuous on a mountain. He often compares the Church, that is, the prelates of the Church, to the same in the Psalms, as in Psalms 26, 48, and 86. Likewise in Isaiah chapters 60 and 65; Ezekiel 40. Just as a city set on a mountain cannot be hidden, but strikes the eyes of all who dwell around it, so too an apostle, a prelate, and a priest comes before the eyes of all, so that if he properly fulfills his office and preaches the Gospel of Christ more by his conduct than by his words, he draws many to Christ and is praised by all. But if he does otherwise, he turns many away from Christ and is condemned by all. There follows the fourth comparison, that of the lamp.
Verse 15: A Lamp on the Lampstand
15. NEITHER DO MEN LIGHT A LAMP AND PUT IT UNDER A BUSHEL, BUT ON A LAMPSTAND, AND IT GIVES LIGHT TO ALL WHO ARE IN THE HOUSE. — As if to say: A lamp is not usually hidden under a bushel, that is, under a vessel, as Luke has it — the Syriac and Hebrew say: under a seah, which was a kind of measure and vessel — but is placed high on a lampstand, so that it may shine before all in the house at night. So also you, O Apostles, stand at the high level of office and dignity, so that you may illuminate all by your preaching and holiness. Hence, explaining the parable, He adds: "So let your light shine before men," etc.
Allegorically: Saints Hilary, Ambrose, and Bede say: What is signified here, they say, is that the light of the Gospel must not be enclosed within a bushel, that is, within the narrow boundaries of Judea, but must be placed on a lampstand, that is, on the summit of Rome and the Roman Empire, so that it may shine forth to all the nations subject to it.
Mystically, St. Augustine says: On account of the bushel, that is, on account of the measure of temporal goods and riches, the light of doctrine and truth must not be covered or concealed. Therefore, whoever obscures and covers the light of good doctrine with temporal advantages places the lamp under the bushel. But whoever subjects his body to the service of God places it on the lampstand, so that the preaching of truth may be superior and the servitude of the body inferior.
A LAMP — in Greek lychno, that is, a lamp, a torch, a firebrand, a candle, and everything that gives light. For torches and candles are properly placed on lampstands; in Italy also oil lamps, for they have artfully towered ones, which they therefore call "campanarias" (bell-shaped). So the Hebrew lappid, which the Vulgate translates as "lamp" or "light," signifies everything that gives a shining flame, such as torches, burning firebrands, and lamps properly so called. Hence when, in Judges chapter 7, verse 19, it is said that Gideon and his men placed torches in jars and smashed them together, by "torches" understand firebrands or flaming brands; for these, when the jars were smashed, flashing and blazing, terrified the Midianites. For if they had been lamps properly so called, these would certainly have been extinguished by the smashing, and so could not have struck terror into the Midianites. Hence lamps and torches here, as also elsewhere in Scripture, signify holy men, especially apostolic men, who shine before others with the light of doctrine and holiness, and set them ablaze with the fire of charity with which they have been kindled by God. Hence of John the Baptist Christ says: "He was a burning and shining lamp" (John 5:35). Thus Elijah and Enoch are called "two olive trees, and two lampstands" (Revelation 11:4). To the same are compared Jesus the high priest, and Zerubbabel the leader of Israel (Zechariah 4:41). See what was said in both places.
Verse 16: Let Your Light Shine Before Men
16. SO LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE BEFORE MEN, THAT THEY MAY SEE YOUR GOOD WORKS, AND GLORIFY YOUR FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN. — Behold, here He explains the parables of the sun and the salt, namely of light and of a city set on a mountain, and of a lamp placed on a lampstand. Here therefore is the apodosis, or explanation and application of these parables, as if to say: Be, O Apostles, salt, indeed sun, and lamps and torches of the world, so that in like manner the light of your teaching and holiness may shine before men, that they may see your good works, and from them glorify God, who has bestowed on you such great gifts of wisdom and holiness. "That they may see." The particle "that" partly denotes consequence, partly purpose, though not the ultimate purpose. For here Christ admonishes the Apostles and all their followers to be zealous in shining before others both by word and by the example of virtue, not intending their own glory but God's, namely not their own glory but God's glory and the salvation of souls: so that the good work may be in public, but the intention of pleasing God alone may be in secret, as St. Gregory says; wherefore they should strive to please men not for their own sake, but for God's sake, namely so as to draw them to God; and thus reconcile this passage with chapter 6:1, 2, 5, where Christ seems to say the contrary: "Take heed that you do not do your justice before men, to be seen by them"; this last part reconciles these two apparently contradictory passages: namely, there Christ forbids the Apostles to do justice, that is just works, before men, with this end, that they the doers may be seen and glorified by them, namely that they may seek the vain praise of men; for here He wills that these things be done before men, with this end, that from them men may glorify God.
Hear St. Gregory, Part III of the Pastoral Rule, admonition 36: "What is it then, that our work must both be done so as not to be seen, and yet is commanded to be seen? Unless it is that what we do must both be hidden, lest we ourselves be praised, and yet shown forth, so that we may increase the praise of the heavenly Father. For when the Lord forbade us to do our justice before men, He immediately added, 'to be seen by them.' And when again He commanded that our good works be seen by men, He at once subjoined, 'that they may glorify your Father, who is in heaven.' How therefore they were to be seen, or how not to be seen, He showed from the purpose of each statement, so that the mind of the doer should not seek that his work be seen for his own sake, and yet should not hide it for the glory of the heavenly Father."
Verse 17: I Have Not Come to Destroy, but to Fulfill
17. DO NOT THINK THAT I HAVE COME TO DESTROY THE LAW OR THE PROPHETS; I HAVE NOT COME TO DESTROY, BUT TO FULFILL. — Christ said this most truly: First, because He Himself always observed the old Law of Moses, even though He, being God and the Son of God, was not bound by it. Hence according to the Law He was circumcised, presented in the temple, abstained from pork, and strictly observed the other ordinances of that law. Second, because the ceremonial laws, which were figures and shadows of Christ, He fulfilled in His own person and body, by His own acts and sacraments, because He did and suffered those things which were prefigured in the ceremonies of the old Law. For a prophecy is said to be fulfilled when that which was expressly or tacitly predicted and prophesied through it comes to pass. And this Christ intimates in the following verse, saying: "Amen I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or one tittle shall pass from the Law, until all things are accomplished." So Irenaeus, book IV, chapter 27; Tertullian, book On Patience; Hilary, Canons 4 and 5; Augustine, in Questions on the New Testament, question 69. Third, and especially, because Christ fulfilled the moral precepts of the Law, by teaching and enacting them more explicitly and perfectly, and by substituting eternal punishments and rewards for temporal ones, and by adding to the precepts the Evangelical counsels, which are more perfect, as is clear from what follows. So Theophylactus and Euthymius. Fourth, because He supplied what was lacking in the Mosaic Law, by justifying us through faith and the sacraments of the new Law which He instituted, which the Law of Moses could not do. Fifth, as St. Augustine says, Christ fulfilled the Law by giving grace which not only commands, but also helps, adds strength, and enables us to fulfill the Law. Hence that saying of St. Augustine: "Lord, give what You command, and command what You will." Christ here principally intends the second and third senses. See St. Thomas, III Part, Q. 107, art. 2.
Verse 18: Not One Iota Shall Pass from the Law
18. AMEN I SAY TO YOU, UNTIL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS AWAY, NOT ONE IOTA OR ONE TITTLE SHALL PASS FROM THE LAW, UNTIL ALL THINGS ARE ACCOMPLISHED. — "Amen," that is truly, in truth; hence Aquila translates it pepistoménos, that is faithfully, truly, certainly, as St. Jerome teaches, in his letter to Sophronius. Moreover, "Amen" is a word not of one swearing, but of one affirming what he is about to say, or confirming what has already been said. It is affirmative when it is placed before a prayer or speech; it is confirmatory when it is placed after and as it were seals it, as can be seen in Deuteronomy 27 and following; 1 Corinthians 14:16. Wherefore the Septuagint translates it genoito, that is "let it be," as if to say: Let it be true, let what I desire, beseech, or approve truly come to pass. In this passage, "Amen" is that of one affirming and solemnly asseverating.
Moreover, Christ Himself is called "Amen" (Revelation 3:14): "Thus says the Amen, the faithful witness," as if to say: Thus says Christ, who is Amen, that is stable, true, constant, faithful, and stability, truth, and fidelity itself.
"Until heaven passes away" — not by the destruction of nature and its being, but by a change in quality and condition; that is, until heaven is changed from this state of corruption in which it serves mortal man, into a new and glorious state at the resurrection, as if to say: Before the end of the world, when heaven and earth will pass away, that is be renewed, it is necessary that all things written in the Law about Me be fulfilled. Or rather, "until it passes away," that is until heaven utterly perishes. For it is a hypothetical and conditional or comparative proposition, as if to say: Sooner let heaven perish, sooner let earth gape open and the whole world burst apart, than the least point of the Law not be fulfilled, either in this life or in the next: therefore as long as heaven and earth shall stand, so long shall the whole Law stand; heaven and earth shall stand perpetually and endure forever, much more shall the whole Law stand and endure forever; according to that saying of Christ: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:35). Hence in the Greek it is in the past tense, heos an parelthe, that is "until it shall have passed away, failed, ceased to be" — heaven and earth. As if to say: Sooner shall the whole machinery of the world fail than the Law of God. Hear Irenaeus: "But they say that also the letters Iota and Eta of His preceding name (Iesous, that is Jesus) signify eighteen (for Iota is the sign for ten, Eta or Ita for eight, which joined make 18) aeons (so the Valentinians assert), and that likewise ten aeons are signified by the letter Iota, which precedes in His name; and that for this reason the Savior said: 'Not one iota or one tittle shall pass away, until all things are accomplished.'"
With a similar phrase and meaning it is said in Psalm 71:1: "In His days justice shall arise and abundance of peace, until the moon is taken away," as if to say: Never shall the justice and peace of Christ fail, and sooner than that happen, all light will desert the moon. And Psalm 88:38: "And His throne shall be like the sun in my sight and like the perfect moon forever," as if to say: The sun and moon shall endure forever, but much more shall the throne of Christ endure forever.
"One iota." — Christ, speaking to Hebrews, said "one yod," as the Syriac and Hebrew have it. But the Greek translator substituted the equivalent Greek iota for yod; following his Greek custom, the Arabic likewise has iota. For yod among the Hebrews, as also iota among the Greeks and i among the Latins, is the smallest of all letters. As if to say: Nothing, not even the smallest thing (such as yod or iota), of those things written in the Law concerning Me and My acts and mysteries, can be passed over without being fulfilled to the letter. From this letter yod, though the smallest, Valentinus constructed the greatest heresy, as Irenaeus testifies, book II, chapter 1, namely the monstrosities — or rather portents than deities — of the sacred names of the aeons.
"Or one tittle." — He calls the tittle of the Law, not the vowel points or accents of the Hebrews; for these did not yet exist in the time of Christ and were invented long after Christ by the Rabbis, but rather the topmost stroke or some point, that is the smallest particle of the letter of the Law itself.
"Until all things are accomplished." — All things, namely, which are written in the Law and the Prophets concerning Me and My acts, the Church, and the sacraments. Likewise all things which are commanded and promised, or threatened in the Law. As if to say: It is necessary for all men to obey the Law given by God, because God has strictly and irrevocably bound them to this; many therefore will obey it and fulfill it, and thus will obtain the rewards promised by God to those who keep the Law, both in this life and even more in the life to come. But the rest, who by their own free will and malice violate the Law, will indeed not fulfill its precepts, but nevertheless the Law will equally be fulfilled in them regarding the punishment threatened against its violators; for they will incur it both in this life and in the next; for they will burn forever in hell: those therefore who flee from the observance of the Law, fall into its condemnation; hence while they do not fulfill it by obeying, they fulfill it by enduring its punishment: therefore by this statement He signifies the strict and perpetual obligation of the Law, its force and strength, which requires the exact obedience of all; and therefore He established and ordained most certain and perpetual punishments for the disobedient, and rewards for the obedient.
Verse 19: Whoever Breaks the Least Commandment
19. WHOEVER THEREFORE BREAKS ONE OF THESE LEAST COMMANDMENTS, AND TEACHES MEN SO, SHALL BE CALLED LEAST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN; BUT WHOEVER DOES AND TEACHES THEM, SHALL BE CALLED GREAT IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. — "Of these least commandments," which namely the aforesaid Law commands. So St. Augustine, book I of the Sermon of the Lord on the Mount, or which I am about to explain and perfect the Law; hence He adds: "For I say to you, unless your justice abounds more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." Therefore He does not mean that all the commandments of the Law are minimal, but that he who violates even one of the commandments of the Law, even the least, or perverts it by a wrong interpretation, as the Pharisees perverted them, teaching that external adultery was forbidden by the Law, but not the internal desire for it — is to be condemned; note here that "commandment" is taken strictly, for a grave precept binding under mortal sin, such as the precepts of the Decalogue; for whoever breaks even one such, though the least of the Decalogue, is certainly to be condemned: for it is entirely probable that certain light things in the old Law, although commanded by God, nevertheless bound only lightly to venial sin and to temporal punishment, such as taking the mother bird with the chicks in the nest, plowing with an ox and a donkey, muzzling the ox that treads the grain, boiling a kid in its mother's milk, etc., which are forbidden in Deuteronomy, chapter 22:6 and 10, chapter 24:4, and Exodus 23:19.
Therefore "least" here does not mean those light things binding only to venial sin, but those which are the least among the commandments, that is grave precepts binding to mortal sin, such as looking at a woman in order to lust after her, or inwardly desiring her, even if one does not commit the outward act, which the Pharisees considered to be the least and scarcely any sin at all; but Christ teaches that it is a mortal sin forbidden by the law of the Decalogue.
"And teaches men so." — So, namely as I do, that is rightly, says St. Jerome. As if to say: He shall be condemned who breaks one of the least commandments, even if he himself rightly teaches others that it must be observed, as I teach. More precisely, Sts. Augustine and Chrysostom: "so," namely as he himself does. As if to say: Whoever breaks one of the commandments and teaches others "so," that is to break and violate the same in like manner; repeat through the Hebrew relative "who," as if to say: Whoever breaks a commandment, and (that is, likewise) whoever teaches others to break the same, both shall be condemned, namely both the breaker and the teacher; or if one and the same person does both, he shall be condemned on both counts twice; for whoever does either one, namely whoever breaks a commandment, or whoever teaches others to break it, this one shall be called least, that is shall be condemned. For Christ is speaking principally about teachers; for He censures the Scribes and Doctors of the Law, who taught their perverse interpretations of the Law and instilled them in others.
Or certainly the conjunction "and" is taken for the disjunctive "or." As if to say: Whoever breaks a commandment, and, that is or, teaches others to break it, this one shall be condemned; a similar usage is found in Exodus 21:17, in the Hebrew: "Whoever curses his father, and (that is or, as the Vulgate renders it, for it suffices to have cursed either one) his mother, shall surely die." And: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and (that is or) drink His blood, you shall not have life in you" (John 6). Yet Christ says "and," not "or," both because the Scribes did both, and so that the antithesis which follows may stand: "But whoever does and teaches them, shall be called great." For here the word "and" is taken properly; for both are required, namely doing and teaching, in order for someone to be called great.
"Shall be called least." — He shall be considered last, vile, and contemptible in heaven before God and the holy Angels, as the lowest of men and plainly unworthy of being admitted into the kingdom of heaven, and therefore he shall be condemned and banished to hell. Hence St. Chrysostom and Theophylactus interpret "least" as "nothing," because in the kingdom of heaven there can only be great ones, says St. Augustine, being kings of heaven, sons of God, and co-heirs of Christ. Note: Christ in the word "least" alludes to "least commandments"; for He plays on the ambiguity elegantly in the word "least." As if to say: You, O Scribes, consider the grave commandments of the Law — such as not to covet wealth, another's wife, or the death of your neighbor — to be minimal and of minimal importance, and to impose minimal, that is slight or no obligation, guilt, or punishment; and therefore you likewise shall be considered in heaven before God the Judge as the least, that is as nothing, despised, rejected. See Canon 23.
"In the kingdom of heaven" — properly so called. So St. Chrysostom and Theophylactus, although St. Augustine and others interpret the kingdom of heaven as the Church; for its kingdom begins on earth but is perfected in heaven.
"But whoever does and teaches them, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." — Great, namely a teacher, father, and leader of the disciples whom he taught. Moreover, all the commandments of the Law are considered to have been fulfilled when whatever has not been done is forgiven by God, says St. Augustine. For error is corrected, mended, and fulfilled through repentance. For, as St. Bernard says, in his treatise On Dispensation and Precept: "Part of the rule is regular correction; therefore when the guilty one undergoes it, he fulfills the rule."
Morally: learn here that the right way and method of teaching is for the teacher first to do what he is about to teach. So Christ, as St. Luke says, began first to do and to teach; indeed He Himself was first poor, humble, meek, mourning, pure of heart, a peacemaker, suffering persecution, and then He taught: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek," etc. Therefore let the teacher examine his conscience before God, before he teaches, whether he himself is poor in spirit, meek, pure of heart, simple or double-dealing, pretending, political, nor should he teach others unless he has first taught himself; let him see whether his mind clings to the world or to Christ; for to be Christ's, he must break the token of friendship with the world, renounce all worldly things, trample upon favors, applause, ridicule, and the reproaches of companions, and say with Paul: "If I were still pleasing men, I would not be the servant of Christ." And: "But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by any human court, etc.; but He who judges me is the Lord."
"The first virtue of a monk (and much more of an apostle and teacher of Christ) is to despise and to be despised," says St. Jerome. The Gentiles saw the same thing; hence Lactantius, throughout book III of On False Wisdom, from Seneca, Cicero, Varro, and others, shows that the Philosophers bore little fruit, because they did not practice what they taught; and philosophy had become a school for debating, not a rule for living; hence against such men the Apostle thunders, Romans 2:21, saying: "You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that men should not steal, do you steal?" etc. And verse 1: "In what you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you do the same things which you judge." See what was said there and Ezekiel 1:8. St. Thomas says admirably, in his preface to the Canonical Epistles, if that work is his: "Learned men carry the letters of their own death, who know and teach, but do not practice: these are letters without a seal, that is knowledge without life, and therefore they are not believed."
Verse 20: Unless Your Justice Exceeds That of the Scribes
20. FOR I SAY TO YOU, THAT UNLESS YOUR JUSTICE ABOUNDS MORE THAN THAT OF THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES, YOU SHALL NOT ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. — "I say," that is I proclaim and solemnly and steadfastly assert. "Abounds," is more abundant, more excellent, more eminent, fuller, and more perfect; "your justice," that is your observance of the Law; for this fulfills what the Law declares to be just; it also truly makes us just before God. For, as the Apostle says, Romans 2:13: "Not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law shall be justified."
Note: The Scribes and Pharisees, although they were considered by the common people to be the most learned, most just, and most holy, nevertheless fell far short of true justice: First, because they tamed outward actions more than inward affections; for they strove to appear before men as observers of the Law and as just. Second, because they perverted the letter of the Law with a wrong sense and explanation. Third, because they placed their justice more in ceremonies, and especially in frequent washings, than in the true spirit of holiness. Christ here teaches the exact opposite, as is clear from what follows: and even the least and most unlearned Christians must do the exact opposite, and thus surpass the justice of the Scribes, if they wish to enter heaven. These three things Christ demonstrates one by one in what follows through various precepts of the Decalogue.
Verse 21: You Shall Not Kill
Because they tamed outward actions more than inward affections; for they strove to appear before men as observers of the Law and as just. Second, because they perverted the letter of the Law with a wrong sense and explanation. Third, because they placed their justice more in ceremonies, and especially in frequent washings, than in the true spirit of holiness. Christ here teaches the exact opposite, as is clear from what follows: and even the least and most unlearned Christians must do the exact opposite, and thus surpass the justice of the Scribes, if they wish to enter heaven. These three things Christ demonstrates one by one in what follows through various precepts of the Decalogue.
21. AUDISTIS QUIA DICTUM EST ANTIQUIS: NON OCCIDES; QUI AUTEM OCCIDERIT, REUS ERIT JUDICIO. — "You have heard" from the Scribes teaching and explaining the Law of Moses. Here Christ begins to show that He does not destroy the Law but fulfills it, and that Christian justice must surpass that of the Jews and the Pharisees; for He had asserted both a little before. Therefore Christ here sets Himself and His teaching alongside, against, and above both the Scribes and Pharisees, who through their traditions perversely interpreted the Law, as is clear from verses 20 and 43, and the Law and Moses themselves; for Christ added to the Law the precepts of explicit faith in God, three and one, and in Christ's incarnation, passion, redemption, etc., likewise the Evangelical counsels; in addition a clearer and more express explanation of the law of nature or the Decalogue, and this last is what Christ principally intends here, as is clear from what follows. For although the law of nature always existed and bound all men, both those who lived before the flood and those who lived after it, nevertheless it remained rather obscure and was not fully expressed, and therefore was fully known to few before Christ, the teacher of truth, justice, and perfection, who here explains it clearly, plainly, and fully. So St. Augustine expressly says, book I of the Retractations, chapter 22; St. Hilary, Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Euthymius, and others, although some with Maldonatus judge that Christ here acts only against the perverse Pharisaic interpretations of the Law, and therefore does not here set Himself against the Law and Moses, but only against the Scribes and Pharisees and their interpretations of the Law; but the former view which I stated is truer, namely that Christ sets Himself against both the Law and the Scribes, and supplies the imperfections and deficiencies of both. For the Law of Moses was rough and imperfect, as given to rough Jews, which therefore Christ polished and perfected through the Evangelical Law.
NON OCCIDES. — Many thought that by this law only homicide was forbidden; but Christ here teaches that by it also anger, words, blows, insults, etc., which are the preludes to homicide and lead directly to it, are forbidden.
QUI AUTEM OCCIDERIT, REUS ERIT JUDICIO. — As if to say: He shall be subject and bound to judgment, so that in the trial his crime and deed may be examined, and the murderer may be subject to the examination and censure of judges, who according to the Law would condemn him to death, unless they discovered that he had killed his attacker by accident, or compelled by the necessity of self-defense. So St. Augustine, book I of the Sermon of the Lord on the Mount; and St. Gregory, book 21 on Job, chapter 9.
Again, "he shall be liable to judgment," that is, of judgment, that is, of condemnation, capital punishment, and death, because in the trial the murderer was condemned and punished, according to the Law, Leviticus 24:17; for what is said here, "he shall be liable to judgment," is said there in other words: "he shall surely die." So Euthymius. Thus often in Scripture, by metalepsis, "to judge" means to condemn, and "judgment" means condemnation.
Verse 22: Whoever Is Angry with His Brother
22. EGO AUTEM DICO VOBIS, QUIA OMNIS QUI IRASCITUR FRATRI SUO, REUS ERIT JUDICIO. QUI AUTEM DIXERIT FRATRI SUO, RACA, REUS ERIT CONCILIO; QUI AUTEM DIXERIT, FATUE, REUS ERIT GEHENNAE IGNIS. — Here Christ explains, fulfills, and supplements the law "You shall not kill," and teaches that by it not only homicide is forbidden, but also anger both internal and external which breaks out into insults and injurious words. "But I say," that is, I proclaim, assert, and enact as the lawgiver of every law, both Evangelical, and Mosaic, and natural.
OMNIS QUI IRASCITUR. — The Greek adds eike, that is rashly, without cause; but the Roman manuscripts, and St. Jerome and St. Augustine, book I of the Retractations, chapter 19, omit it; nevertheless this or something similar is understood. For the discussion here concerns illicit anger, which is the way, beginning, and step toward unjust and unlawful homicide; for otherwise anger from a just cause, for example conceived against sins and sinners, is lawful and praiseworthy, and indeed anger is implanted in man by nature, to be a whetstone of virtue and fortitude for sharpening it against vices and every adversity.
Note: anger is the appetite for revenge; it is a mortal sin if one deliberately inflicts or wishes grave harm to a neighbor's body, or goods, or reputation, or rejoices in it, even if the neighbor deserves it; because the angry person rejoices in it as a good not of justice, but of revenge. But anger is a venial sin if it desires slight harm to a neighbor, even if the anger is vehement and burns greatly both inwardly and outwardly, as Cajetan teaches, in his Summa, under the word "Anger"; and Toletus, book VII of the Instruction for Priests, chapter 57. For this in itself is not a mortal sin, unless it erupts into grave harm to the neighbor, or exposes one to the danger of blasphemy, grave insult, scandal, or another mortal sin. Finally, anger is no sin at all if anger is assumed from zeal for justice to root out crimes and criminals, as Mattathias assumed it when he killed the legate of Antiochus, who was compelling the Jews to sacrifice to idols (1 Maccabees 2:25); and Christ wielding a whip to cast out the buyers and sellers from the temple (John 2:15). Hear St. Chrysostom, on Psalm 4, on the words, "Be angry and do not sin": "It is lawful, he says, to be justly angry; for Paul also rebuked Elymas (Acts 13:8); and Peter rebuked Sapphira (Acts 5:9); but I would not call this anger absolutely, but rather wisdom, care, and good management. For a father is angry with his son, but taking care of him. He is the one who is rashly angry, who avenges himself; but he who corrects others is the most gentle of all. For God also is angry not by avenging Himself, but by correcting us. Therefore let us also imitate Him. For to behave thus is divine; but otherwise is human." "Anger kills the foolish man," says Job (Job 5:2). On which St. Gregory says: "We must know that one kind of anger is that which impatience arouses, another that which zeal for justice forms. The former is born of vice, the latter of virtue; for if no anger arose from virtue, Phinehas would not have appeased the force of divine punishment with his sword. Because Eli did not have this anger, he aroused against himself the implacable movement of divine vengeance. For inasmuch as he was lukewarm against the vices of his subjects, the severity of the eternal Ruler burned the more fiercely against him." Indeed even Aristotle, book III of the Ethics: "Anger, he says, is the whetstone of fortitude," and he cites that saying of Homer: "Let fury attend upon valor."
Furthermore, St. Augustine, Franciscus Lucas, and Maldonatus think that only mortal anger is discussed here; but St. Chrysostom and Jansenius judge that venial anger is discussed here. I think both are discussed here, namely all illicit anger, whether venial or mortal, but especially mortal, because this properly leads to homicide; and therefore it is liable to judgment, that is to capital punishment.
REUS ERIT JUDICIO. — Here "judgment" is taken somewhat differently than a little before in verse 21, where it says: "whoever kills shall be liable to judgment"; for there human judgment is understood, by which a murderer is judged and condemned to death by judges; but here divine judgment is understood, by which God judges and condemns anger: venial anger to temporal punishment, such as purgatory, but mortal anger to eternal punishment, such as hell. Therefore He plays analogically on the word "judgment." See Canon 23. Christ therefore here, against the single homicide forbidden by the old Law and the single penalty of bodily death ordained by the same Law, opposes a threefold degree of anger and consequently a threefold degree and measure of spiritual punishment, especially eternal: so St. Augustine; for He censures the Scribes who erred in two ways in explaining the commandment "You shall not kill." First, because they thought only homicide was forbidden by it, and not internal anger, and therefore that anger was not a sin; against whom Christ here teaches that anger too is forbidden by it, because it is the beginning and the way to homicide. Second, because they assigned no other punishment to homicide than bodily death inflicted by judges in a trial; against whom Christ here teaches that not only for homicide, but also for anger, a spiritual punishment is to be inflicted by God in the divine judgment — either temporal in purgatory, if the anger is venial, or eternal in hell, if the anger is mortal; each of which equals the temporal death inflicted on a murderer by judges, indeed is far graver and more bitter.
Moreover, how evil anger is, see St. Basil and St. Chrysostom, Homily on Anger; Seneca, book On Anger; Cicero, Tusculan Disputations IV, where among other things he says: "Is anything more similar to madness than anger? How rightly Ennius called it the beginning of madness: the color, the voice, the eyes, the breathing, the want of control in words and deeds — what part of these belongs to sanity? What is more shameful than the Homeric Achilles! What than Agamemnon in a quarrel? For indeed anger drove Ajax to frenzy and death." See what was said on Ephesians 4:26.
QUI AUTEM DIXERIT FRATRI SUO RACA, REUS ERIT CONCILIO. — First, St. Chrysostom thinks raca means "you," for example if someone contemptuously says to his neighbor: go, you, what do you want, you? as if Christ here forbids addressing someone as "you" contemptuously.
Second, Theophylactus: raca, he says, is the same as worthy of being spat upon or deserving to be spat on; for rhakos is spittle; but this insult is as much, indeed more than calling someone a fool, which Christ places in the third and highest place here.
Third, others think raca is the Greek word rhakos, that is ragged. Beza foolishly holds that Christ said rascha for raca, that is impious.
Fourth, more probably St. Augustine, Rupert, Anselm, and others think raca is an interjection of one scorning and opposing by onomatopoeia, and that under it are understood all signs of a malevolent spirit, whether they are done by murmuring, or gnashing the teeth, or spitting, or angrily turning away the face, or wrinkling the brow, or turning up the nose.
Fifth, best of all, St. Jerome and Angelus Caninius, in his Hebrew Names of the New Testament, and others hold that raca is a Hebrew word, or rather Syriac, derived from the Hebrew ric, that is empty (not of brain, as St. Jerome would have it — for that would be foolish — but of wealth, says Jansenius), vain, as if raca were the same as a frivolous, or needy and poor man; and so our translator renders it in Judges 11:3.
Sixth, finally George Michael the Maronite, in the preface of his Syriac Grammar, chapter On the Excellence of the Syriac Language: "Raca, he says, is Syriac, and signifies three things. First, it is the same as a tortoise, which animal is considered so ugly by the Syrians that they greatly loathe and abhor it. So the Italians, when they mark someone as slow and ugly, say: pare tartaruga (you look like a turtle). Second, raco, from rac, that is 'he spat,' means one who spits or one spat upon. For the Syrians, when they wish to brand someone with disgrace, call him raco, that is one who spits or one spat upon, for raco is taken both actively and passively. Or raca is the same as rauco, that is sputum (spittle); and one person would say this word to another, to signify that he considered him as worthless as spittle. For thus the Syrians, when they wish to show that nothing comes from someone, say: 'You are like spittle to me.' Third, raco in Syriac means contempt, disdain, vile, abject, sordid, and in this meaning I believe the word raca is used by Christ." Thus far George. The Ethiopic supports this, which translates: "Whoever says to his brother that he is a pauper, contemptuously, and in tattered garments, shall be liable to the council." The Persian and others retain the word raca without explaining it: hence also the Egyptian, or Coptic, has cheraka. For che is the article; so what remains is raka, or raca. The Arabic translates raca as ragged, tattered, a beggar, who is clothed in a patchwork, that is a garment sewn together from a hundred scraps.
It is certain that raca is more than being angry, less than "you fool," and therefore it is more truly an interjection and sign of an angry person, or it means a vain, poor, miserable, abject person. Again, raca is ambiguous, and can be venial or mortal, and therefore liable to the council; but "you fool" is certainly mortal, and therefore liable to the fire of hell; for "you fool" signifies one who is senseless and of empty brain, who is compared to a beast. For take reason and mind away from a man, and you make an irrational beast.
REUS ERIT CONCILIO. — In Greek synedrion, from which word the Hebrews called their supreme council the Sanhedrin, as if to say: he shall be subject and bound to the council, or the supreme judgment of the Sanhedrin, so that he may be subject to their judicial censure, and undergo from them the sentence of condemnation.
Note: The Talmudic Doctors, and from them Franciscus Lucas, Maldonatus, and others, relate that among the Hebrews there were three tribunals. The first was din mammona, that is judgment concerning monetary matters, which was a tribunal of three men; for three judges sat in it. The second was din mishpat, that is the tribunal of judgment, namely concerning capital matters, in which was examined, for example, the case of a homicide, and the killer was condemned to death, unless he proved that it was accidental or done in self-defense. This tribunal consisted of twenty-three judges. The third was the Sanhedrin, which consisted of seventy-two judges, in which grave cases and crimes, such as heresy, false prophets, idolatry, apostasy, etc., were handled. Christ, omitting the first, here alludes to the latter two, and calls the second "judgment," and the third synedrion, that is "council." As if to say: Such is the proportion between anger and an insulting word, and between the punishment of each, as there is between the judgment of mishpat and the Sanhedrin, or supreme council, so that just as the latter exceeds the former, so also the punishment of an insulting word exceeds the punishment of anger; for it is not necessary to accommodate all other details in this comparison, as in others, indeed often it is impossible. There is therefore here a catachresis in the words "judgment" and "council"; for by "judgment" is signified the lesser guilt of anger, and from it a lesser examination and lesser condemnation and punishment; but by "council" a greater guilt, and from it a greater examination and greater condemnation and punishment. Finally, by "hell" is properly signified a certain guilt, condemnation, and punishment.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Just as a murderer in the old Law was liable to judgment, so that his criminal case would be examined by criminal judges, and he himself would be condemned to death, unless the judges found that he had done it by accident or necessity; so likewise anger, which is the first step toward homicide, is a criminal case, and consequently pertains to the tribunal not of the first (Mammona), but of the second (Judgment), not human but divine, so that if the anger is complete and voluntary, that is, a deliberate intent to inflict death or grave harm on a neighbor, one is condemned for it to death, not present but eternal; but if the anger is slight, or sudden and venial, one is condemned to temporal punishment and death, namely to suffer punishments in purgatory, which are equivalent to the temporal death that judges inflicted on a murderer in the tribunal of Judgment.
But if anger erupts into a harsh word, for example raca, one sins more gravely, either venially or mortally, depending on whether it proceeds from internal anger that is venial or mortal. More gravely, I say, one sins, because one reveals and completes the anger by an external sign, and therefore it pertains to the tribunal of the Council to judge and punish it (for this tribunal judged more serious crimes), so that one may be punished more severely by it, but in proportion to the nature and degree of guilt: so that if it is venial, one is punished with a heavier penalty in purgatory than for internal anger; if mortal, one is punished with heavier torment in hell. But if one says "you fool," that is a word openly and gravely insulting, then neither judgment nor council is needed, but his condemnation to hell is certain.
That this is the genuine meaning of this passage is proved: First, because Christ here fully explains the Decalogue, namely the commandment "You shall not kill," and teaches that by it not only homicide but all anger, both venial and mortal, is forbidden; for if He meant only mortal anger, He would not fully and perfectly explain this commandment.
Second, because in a similar case, namely in the second precept of the Decalogue "You shall not swear falsely," Christ, in verse 34, explains that by it not only perjury is forbidden, but every unnecessary oath, which is often only venial.
Third, because St. Gregory so explains it, book 21 of the Morals, chapter 4: "By steps, he says, the order of the sentence increased along with the guilt, because in the judgment the case is still being discussed; in the council the sentence of the case is determined; in hell the sentence that proceeds from the council is carried out." St. Augustine, book I of the Sermon of the Lord on the Mount, chapter 18: "In the judgment, he says, a place is given for defense; in the council it is deliberated what punishment the guilty one is to suffer; in hell there is certain condemnation."
From this meaning it is clear against the Stoics and Jovinian that faults and punishments are unequal, namely that one sin is graver than another, and therefore merits a heavier punishment before God: hence one thing is venial, another mortal; and that this in turn has its own degrees of gravity and malice: consequently the distinction of purgatory from hell stands firm against Calvin.
Furthermore, some authors together with Bellarmine, Book I, On the Loss of Grace, chapter 9, assign these three degrees of sins as follows: in anger, which is liable to judgment, there is noted a venial fault and punishment; in raca, which is liable to the council, there is noted a greater fault, concerning which it is doubtful whether it is venial or mortal, which must be defined by the council; in fatue there is noted the greatest fault and certainly mortal, which is accordingly punished by the fire of Gehenna; and this is sufficiently probable and fitting.
QUI AUTEM DIXERIT FATUE, REUS ERIT GEHENNAE IGNIS. — That is to say: He who utters a grave insult or affront against his neighbor, by which his reputation or honor is seriously harmed — such as saying to an upright and honorable man, "You fool" — this person sins mortally, and therefore shall be liable to Gehenna. Under fatue understand all the other kinds of insults, curses, calumnies, reproaches, and imprecations, which are mortal sins if they greatly dishonor one's neighbor, or if they are uttered from a desire to gravely harm, revile, and dishonor. For the gravity or lightness of an insult must be assessed and measured chiefly from the disposition of the one uttering it. Hence when you say it in jest, or not with the intention of dishonoring but of correcting, it is not a formal but only a material insult, says St. Thomas, II-II, Question 72, article 2. Hence parents may lawfully sting their children, teachers their students, and masters their servants more harshly with words of reproach, and chastise and rebuke them, if this is done moderately for the purpose of just correction. Thus Christ calls Peter "Satan" (Matthew 16:23). Thus Paul calls the Galatians "senseless" (Galatians 3:1). For if it is lawful to scourge them with rods and blows, then also with words, says St. Thomas. Again, the gravity of an insult must be measured by the dignity of the person. For to say fatue to a man who is serious and honorable is a grave insult; but to one who is base and stupid, who really is a fool, it is a light one. See Leonard Lessius, Book II, On Justice, chapter 11, doubt 3. Therefore insult, equally with anger, is a mortal sin if it inflicts or wishes grave harm upon one's neighbor; venial, if slight; and no sin at all, if none is intended, especially if it is done for moderate and just correction of a sinner.
REUS ERIT GEHENNAE IGNIS. — The Arabic version has: shall be liable to the fire of Gehenna. St. Jerome notes that Christ here for the first time uses the name Gehenna for hell; for nowhere in the Old Testament is it found used in that sense. Now Gehenna is so called as if from the Hebrew ghe, that is, the valley of Hinnom or Ennon, that is, of a Jewish man so named, which is elsewhere called the valley of the son of Ennom. This valley was a pleasant place near Jerusalem, in which parents used to sacrifice and burn their children to the idol Moloch, and lest they should hear their wailing and crying, they would beat drums — whence this place was called Topheth, that is, "drum." Hence likewise this place is called the Gehenna of fire, that is, so burning and fiery, that it would seem to be nothing but pure fire, indeed hellfire. See what was said at Jeremiah 7:31, and Isaiah, chapter 30, the last verse, where Gehenna and its torments are graphically depicted. "Topheth has been prepared from yesterday, prepared by the king, deep and wide. Its nourishments are fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord is like a torrent of sulfur kindling it." See also Revelation 19:20, and 21:8.
Verse 23: Leave Your Gift Before the Altar
23. SI ERGO OFFERS MUNUS TUUM AD ALTARE, ET IBI RECORDATUS FUERIS, QUIA FRATER TUUS HABET ALIQUID ADVERSUM TE. — That is, he has reason to complain about you, or to reproach you for an injury done to him by you (for it is clear from the logical word therefore that these words refer to this), namely that you were angry with him, or said raca or fatue to him, or inflicted a similar injury upon him. So St. Augustine. A similar passage is Revelation 2:4. The Scribes, it appears, taught that all sins, and especially violation of the commandment "Thou shalt not kill," could be expiated through sacrifices and gifts offered at the altar to God, and consequently to the priests as God's vicars, even if no satisfaction was made to the neighbor who had been harmed or wronged — as is gathered from this passage and from the similar case of wronging parents, Matthew 15:6.
Christ here teaches the contrary, and establishes a law of justice and charity by which He commands that satisfaction first be made to one's neighbor, harmed by you in word or deed, before a gift is offered to God. For this latter is voluntary and unowed, whereas the former is necessary and owed by justice or charity. Hence Christ adds:
24. RELINQUE MUNUS TUUM ANTE ALTARE, ET VADE PRIUS RECONCILIARI FRATRI TUO, ET TUNC VENIENS OFFERES MUNUS TUUM. — You may ask whether this is a precept or merely a counsel? Abulensis, Question 162, responds that it is a counsel: therefore, he says, the one who offers a gift and does not reconcile himself does not sin, but only loses the benefit of the gift (the offering), so that he does not merit eternal life through it. But I say that this is a precept; for charity, equity, religion, and God Himself require that the offender reconcile himself to the offended party at once, even before offering sacrifices. And this for the following reasons: First, because reconciliation is a matter of precept, while sacrifice is a matter of counsel.
Second, because God remains offended with us as long as we remain in offense against our neighbor. Third, because the sacrifice of peace is a symbol and profession: how then will you offer to God a symbol of peace, unless you have first been reconciled to the neighbor you have harmed and received peace from him? Fourth, because God loves the concord of the faithful — as citizens, indeed brothers, of His Church — more than gifts, and is more honored by it. So the Author of the Opus Imperfectum says: indeed God is not pleased, but displeased by the sacrifice of those who are in discord. Tertullian gives fitting reasons in Book I, On Prayer, chapter 10: "What does it mean," he says, "to approach the peace of God without peace? To seek the remission of debts while retaining them? How will one who is angry at his brother appease the Father? For Joseph too, when sending his brothers to bring back their father, said: 'Do not quarrel on the way'" (Genesis 45:24), as if to say: If Joseph, about to summon his father to himself, first pacified his brothers among themselves, fearing that his prudent father would refuse to come among discordant brothers — in what way will Christ the Lord allow Himself to be moved and appeased by discordant brothers? This is therefore a precept of law and natural right, or rather a supernatural one, and connatural to grace. For this is the order of virtues: that reconciliation, peace, and unity should precede religion and the act of sacrifice, and should be a disposition for it. Hence this precept was binding even on the Jews under the Old Law; but by Christ it is here more strictly established — both because through the Incarnation of the Word He Himself most closely united us to Himself and to one another (that greater union through Christ, therefore, demands greater charity and union among the faithful; hence He Himself decreed: "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you," John 13:34), and because the sacrifice of the Eucharist is now holier — indeed it is a synaxis and communion of the body which we all share in the same number, and by it we are supremely united both to Christ Himself and to one another. Hence it is called communion, that is, the common union of all. Since therefore the Eucharist is a sacrifice, as well as a sacrament and a profession of mutual union and peace, it is necessary that all discord cease, and that those who have offended be reconciled to those they offended before this sacred synaxis, lest they be found to be liars. For he who receives the sacrament of union, that is, the Eucharist, while harboring not union but animosity and resentment in his heart against his neighbor, is in reality a liar. St. Augustine says beautifully in Sermon 46, On the Words of the Lord: "The Lord seeks you more than your gift: you offer your gift, and you yourself are not a gift of God. Christ seeks more the one whom He redeemed with His blood than what you found in your granary."
Understand these words as far as is possible — that is, if the circumstances of place, time, and prudence permit it, so that the offender may go to the offended party and reconcile himself before the sacrifice. For otherwise, says St. Augustine, we must go to the offended person not with our feet but with our heart, namely by putting aside hatred in our heart; and with effect, namely by making satisfaction to our neighbor for the injury done. For if the offender is in Rome and the offended party in India, must he travel to India before he can offer sacrifice? By no means; for a firm resolution to make satisfaction to the injured party suffices.
Moreover, St. Chrysostom, Euthymius, and Theophylact understand this as applying both to the offended party and to the offender, whether rightly or wrongly, as if Christ wishes that not only the offender who harmed, but also the offended party who was harmed by injury, should approach the offender and reconcile himself before the sacrifice. But then this is a counsel, not a precept. So Jansenius, Maldonatus, and others.
For this reason the custom formerly existed in the Mass that before Holy Communion Christians would give one another the holy kiss, as a symbol of reconciliation and union. In place of this the pax tablet, as it is called, is now given to be kissed, as I said in my commentary on 2 Corinthians.
So too literally did St. John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria, in order to fulfill this precept or counsel of Christ: while standing at the altar and celebrating Mass, when he remembered a certain cleric who had conceived hatred against him, even though it was he himself who had been offended, he nevertheless was the first to ask pardon of that cleric. And so, having been reconciled to him, he returned rejoicing with him to the altar, completed the sacrifice, and said with confidence to God: "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors," as Leontius narrates in his Life, chapters 13 and 14. Leontius adds in chapter 14: "Certain God-bearing Holy Fathers said that it is the nature of angels never to quarrel at all, but to abide in complete and perpetual peace; of men, to quarrel indeed, but to be reconciled at once; of demons, to quarrel all day long and to pass the whole day unreconciled."
He adds in chapter 16, section 5, that John, while celebrating Mass, repulsed Damian the deacon when he wished to receive Communion, and said to him: "Go first to be reconciled to your brother." The man promised to do this, and then John gave him from the sacred mysteries. Hence St. Gregory rightly concludes in Book IV of the Dialogues, chapter 60, and says: "In this matter we must consider that since every fault is absolved by a gift, how grave is the fault of discord, for which not even a gift is accepted. We must therefore go in mind to our neighbor, however far away, and submit our spirit to him, and appease him with humility and good will, so that our Creator, when He has observed such a disposition of our mind, may absolve us from sin — He who accepts a gift for fault."
Verse 25: Come to Terms with Your Adversary
25. ESTO CONSENTIENS ADVERSARIO TUO CITO, DUM ES IN VIA CUM EO: NE FORTE ADVERSARIUS TRADAT TE JUDICI, ET JUDEX TRADAT TE MINISTRO, ET IN CARCEREM MITTARIS. — "Be agreeable" (Greek eunoōn, that is, benevolent; Syriac, "friend"; Arabic, "kind"; others, "in harmony"; St. Hilary, Canon 4, translates it as "be benevolently reconciled," as preceded) "to your adversary" (Greek tō antidikō, that is, your accuser and plaintiff; Syriac, beel dinach, that is, the author or lord of your lawsuit; Arabic, "the one litigating against you") "quickly, while you are on the way with him: lest your adversary hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be cast into prison" — Greek blēthēsē, that is, you be thrown in, as into a workhouse and place of punishments.
26. AMEN DICO TIBI, NON EXIES INDE, DONEC REDDAS NOVISSIMUM QUADRANTEM. — "Amen I say to you" (I solemnly assure you), "you shall not leave there until you have paid the last farthing" — of your debt.
You may ask, who is this adversary, or as the Greek has it, antidikos, that is, accuser and plaintiff? First, Tertullian, in the book On the Soul, responds that it is the devil. For he is Satan, that is, our adversary. Second, St. Athanasius (or whoever the author is; for he plainly seems to be later than Athanasius, as Sixtus of Siena and Bellarmine rightly noted in On Ecclesiastical Writers, under Athanasius), in Questions on Sacred Scripture to Antiochus, Question 26, holds that it is the flesh, for the flesh opposes the soul: "for the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh" (Galatians 5:17). But we ought not, nor can we, consent to the devil or to the flesh — which nevertheless Christ here counsels.
Third, therefore Athanasius himself in the same place more correctly asserts that it is the conscience; for this opposes us and reproaches us while we do evil, until we consent to it and do what it dictates. Fourth, St. Augustine, Anselm, and Bede think it is God or God's law, for this opposes our desires; hence we must plainly consent to it, lest we incur the punishments threatened by it.
Fifth, St. Basil, in the Shorter Rules, question 222, thinks it is an enemy opposing and injuring us. But these interpretations are either foreign to the text or mystical and symbolic, as is clear from what precedes.
Sixth, I say therefore with St. Jerome, Hilary, Ambrose, and the Author of the Opus Imperfectum, that the adversary here means the one who has been unjustly offended and harmed by us, and who can therefore accuse us and prosecute us before God; for it was to this person that the preceding verse commanded us to be reconciled.
Note here that this is a Hebraism and a parabolic discourse, in which therefore it is not necessary to apply every detail precisely; for some things pertain to the elegance of the parable itself, as I said in Canons 28 and 29. But the scope of the parable must be chiefly attended to, and everything that can be applied to it should be. Now this scope is not so much expressed as implied. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Just as a debtor or defendant who is being dragged before a judge by a plaintiff acts prudently if he comes to an agreement with the creditor and plaintiff before the trial, and thus escapes the judge's condemnation, prison, infamy, and the immediate and full payment of the entire debt — so must you act in exactly the same way. If you have harmed your brother and done him some injury, for example by saying raca or fatue, and have thereby made yourself a debtor bound to restore his honor, act quickly to be reconciled to him, before you are handed over as a defendant to God the Judge, who by just vengeance will consign you to prison until you have paid every debt — whether mortal and eternal in hell, or venial and temporal in purgatory. For the word donec ("until") inclines toward purgatory, since it signifies a punishment that will end; for punishment ends in purgatory, whereas in hell it is never terminated but is eternal. Therefore there the word donec endures for eternity; for as long as the guilt endures, so long likewise will the punishment of Gehenna endure. St. Jerome notes this here, as does Origen, Homily 31 on Luke, and St. Ambrose on Luke chapter 12, and others.
Nevertheless, the individual parts of the parable can be applied to individual signified realities in this way: the adversary is the one against whom we have uttered an insult or done an injury; the way is this life; the judge is Christ; the officer is the devil; the prison is hell or purgatory; the farthing is the smallest fault. That is, if you understand that the adversary hands us over in the sense that, in his place and on his account, the devil will hand us over as defendants to Christ the Judge, since on the Day of Judgment he will accuse us before Him. For men who have been harmed rarely accuse the one who harmed them before Christ; indeed, if they are holy, they excuse them. Christ repeated this parable for another purpose in Luke 12:59, on which see that passage. See Canon 5.
Similar to this saying of Christ is the maxim of Rabbi Ananias in Pirke Avot, chapter 3: "The man in whose spirit men are pleased, God also is pleased. The man whose spirit displeases men, displeases God also." That is to say: To whomever men consent, God also consents; from whomever men dissent, God also dissents.
QUADRANTEM. — Greek kodrantēn; indeed the word passed from Latin to Greek, as did many others cited by the Evangelists, such as: praetorium, assarius, denarius, centurio, census, custodia, legio, linteum, libertinus, milliare, macellum, membrana, modius, sextarius, sicarius, sudarium, speculator, taberna, forum, titulus, flagellare, flagellum — for all these Latin words are used by the Evangelists writing in Greek. Now a quadrans is a fourth part (whence in the Hebrew Gospel ascribed to St. Matthew it is called ribbua, that is, "a fourth") of an as, which Pliny calls a truncium from its three ounces, and Cicero calls a teruncium. For an as or assis is a pound containing twelve ounces, of which a fourth part is three ounces. Varro, in his book On the Latin Language, thinks as is said as if it were aes ("bronze"); whence it is used in various senses. First, an as was the same as a libra or pondo (pound). So Budaeus in his book On the As. Second, the smaller as was a lesser coin, very common and widely used, such as the baiocco among the Italians, whose quadrans or fourth part is the quattrino. For the denarius was so called because it was worth ten small coins, namely ten baiocchi. For a denarius was equivalent to one drachma, corresponding to our Italian Giulio and the Spanish real, which among the Italians is worth ten baiocchi, and among the Belgians five stuivers; for a stuiver is worth two baiocchi. Therefore a quadrans is a fourth part of a baiocco and an eighth of a stuiver, which the Belgians call een negenmanneken, and use proverbially for the smallest amount. Third, if you take the larger or double denarius, which is worth two Giulii or two reales, it will contain ten asses, that is, ten stuivers (whence the Belgians also call stuivers asses), and consequently the quadrans will be a fourth part of a stuiver, and half a baiocco. In summary, by the farthing is signified here a coin of the smallest value, and by it is indicated that every debt of anger and guilt, even the smallest, must be rigorously paid and discharged to the last obol after this life, whether in purgatory or in hell; for both are places of justice, not of mercy. Therefore in this life, where there is room for mercy, settlement, and forgiveness, one must come to terms with one's adversary, that is, the one whom we have harmed in word or deed. In histories we read that a certain servant who had died appeared to his master, and when asked about his state and place, replied: "I am in a place where every debt is calculated exactly and rigorously, and not even the smallest amount is forgiven." Doctor Jacobus, On Paradise; the Carthusian, in Book I, On Mental Criminal Sins, relates that a certain religious who had died appeared to a companion in poor clothing and with a sorrowful face, and said to him: "No one believes, no one believes, no one believes, how strictly God judges and how severely He punishes."
Verse 27: You Shall Not Commit Adultery
27. AUDISTIS QUIA DICTUM EST ANTIQUIS: NON MOECHABERIS — that is, you shall not commit adultery. Under this, as the greater and more wicked species commonly condemned by all nations, understand that fornication, unchastity, incest, and all other species of lust are also forbidden, as I said at Deuteronomy 5:18.
28. EGO AUTEM DICO VOBIS, QUIA OMNIS QUI VIDERIT MULIEREM AD CONCUPISCENDAM EAM, JAM MOECHATUS EST EAM IN CORDE SUO. — That is to say: He has already corrupted her through adultery in his mind, he has already mentally perpetrated adultery with her, and therefore before God, who sees the heart, he is an adulterer and will be punished as an adulterer by Him.
Christ passes from anger to lust, because these two are the most powerful passions in man. Just as He therefore explained the commandment "You shall not kill" by forbidding anger, so here He explains the commandment "You shall not commit adultery" by forbidding lust. For many Scribes and Pharisees erred in multiple ways in explaining this commandment, just as they did in the former. For although they knew that the ninth commandment of the Decalogue says, "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife," they nevertheless erred in the following ways:
First, because they understood this commandment as referring to lust that was not purely internal, but which tends to break out into touches, kisses, lascivious words, etc., before the act of adultery, according to the maxim: "The law forbids the hand, not the mind." But this is true of civil and political law, which only punishes and avenges external injuries, not internal ones, since it neither sees nor knows them — but not of the law and judgment of God, who searches and punishes the inmost depths of the heart. Josephus, the Jewish historian, was in the same error, who in Book 12 of the Antiquities, chapter 13, citing Polybius saying that Antiochus Epiphanes had perished miserably because he had desired to plunder the temple of Diana, refutes him, saying: "To have merely wished to commit sacrilege and not to have actually accomplished it does not seem a thing worthy of punishment." And Rabbi David Kimchi, cited by Genebrard on Psalm 66: "Even if," he says, "I have seen iniquity in my heart, which I would be prepared to carry into action, so that it be before God as if I had uttered it with my lips, yet the Lord will not hear it" — that is to say: He will not count it as a crime against me; for God does not join a wicked thought to the deed, unless it was certainly conceived against faith in God and religion. So too today there are many among the common people who say: To think evil is not a sin, but to do evil is.
But this is a gross error, recognized and refuted by Aristotle and the other pagan philosophers. For the proper subject of goodness and wickedness, of virtue and vice, is the free will; for this, if it desires what is honorably good, is good and praiseworthy; if what is evil, it is evil and blameworthy. Therefore the external act, for example of adultery, is not in itself precisely a sin (as is evident in the case of fools who commit adultery), except insofar as it proceeds from a free will to commit adultery; for from that will it draws all its formal malice.
Second, the Scribes erred in thinking that immodest looks, kisses, touches, etc., were not sins of adultery, that is, of fornication or adultery, but of concupiscence; and therefore that they were committed against the ninth commandment, "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife," but not against the sixth, "You shall not commit adultery." Against these Christ here teaches the contrary and explains the commandment — namely that such acts are forbidden by this sixth commandment, because they are the disposition and the way to adultery, and thus the beginning and initiation of adultery; while by the ninth commandment only the internal concupiscence is expressly forbidden, which does not break out into an external act.
Third, they erred in thinking that by this law only the concupiscence of another man's wife was forbidden, but not that of any unmarried woman who is not your wife. Christ here corrects this, and teaches that by this law every obscene contact with and concupiscence of any woman who is not your wife is forbidden.
Note first that by this law the first and involuntary movements of concupiscence are not forbidden or condemned; for these are not within man's choice and power. Rather, what is forbidden are voluntary, deliberate, and procured movements, as is clear from the preposition ad ("to" or "in order to"), when He says: "to lust after her." So St. Augustine. However, note that ad signifies not only purpose but also consequence or sequel: for not only is he an adulterer who looks at and gazes upon a woman with the purpose of delighting himself with her appearance and his lust for her, but also he who gazes at her out of curiosity, when he realizes that from this looking there follows and is aroused in him concupiscence for her, or that by this looking he exposes himself to the danger of concupiscence and sin.
Note second that what is said here of sight, when He says, "Whoever shall look upon a woman," must be understood equally of hearing, touch, and thought. Yet Christ names sight above the others, because the eyes are the guides in love, and to warn that chaste persons must especially restrain and control them. When therefore He says, "Whoever shall look upon a woman," He signifies that sight is the origin and cause of concupiscence and lust, because "death has climbed through our windows" (Jeremiah 9:21). And: "My eye has despoiled my soul" (Lamentations 3:51). Therefore Job wisely says (chapter 31): "I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not even think about a maiden." Hence the Apostles marveled at Christ that He spoke with a woman, namely the Samaritan woman (John 4). St. Thomas Aquinas, even after receiving from the Angel a girdle and the gift of chastity, nevertheless studiously avoided women as if they were serpents, and gave this reason: "Because when we do what is in our power, God protects us; but when we expose ourselves to danger, God leaves us to ourselves in it" — for "he who loves danger will perish in it" (Sirach 3:27).
New and almost unheard of is what Peter Damian writes in Book II, Letter 18 to Cardinal Desiderius: "On a certain mountain of the East, he says, the fire-bearing stones are called male and female, and are known as pyriboli; when they are far from each other, they do not ignite; but if the female approaches the male, fire immediately issues from them, so that everything around the mountain is consumed by blazing flames. From these very stones, then, we are taught that if we do not wish to be consumed by the fire of lust, we should shun the sight of a woman's beauty." To this belongs the witty but true maxim of Rabbi Hillel in the Pirke Avoth, that is, in the Sentences of the Fathers, chapter 2: "He who multiplies flesh multiplies worms. He who multiplies wealth multiplies cares. He who multiplies servants multiplies robberies. He who multiplies wives multiplies sorceries. He who multiplies maidservants multiplies fornication." St. Cyprian, in On the Singularity of Clerics, says: "From coals sparks fly out, from iron rust is bred, serpents hiss diseases, and a woman pours forth the plague of concupiscence, which Solomon compares thus, saying: 'From garments comes the moth, and from a woman the iniquity of man.'" And above: "How many and what sort of bishops and clerics, together with laypeople, after confession and the trampling underfoot of the struggles of their victories, after great deeds and signs, or miracles displayed everywhere, are known to have shipwrecked with all these things, when they wished to sail in a fragile vessel. How many lions has one delicate weakness tamed, which, though it is base and wretched, makes great ones its prey." For a woman is a basilisk by sight, a Siren by voice; by voice she enchants, by sight she drives mad, by both she destroys and kills. Hence St. Francis, as St. Bonaventure attests, carefully warned his followers to beware of women: "Because," he said, "conversation with a woman outside of confession, and that brief, is useless and dangerous." And our Blessed Xavier said: "A woman is approached with greater peril than fruit."
Verse 29: If Your Right Eye Causes You to Sin
29-30. QUOD SI OCULUS TUUS DEXTER SCANDALIZAT TE, ERUE EUM, ET PROJICE ABS TE; EXPEDIT ENIM TIBI UT PEREAT UNUM MEMBRORUM TUORUM, QUAM TOTUM CORPUS TUUM MITTATUR IN GEHENNAM. ET SI DEXTERA MANUS TUA SCANDALIZAT TE, ABSCINDE EAM, ET PROJICE ABS TE. — It is clear that both of these are parables, drawn from the two most excellent members most necessary to a person, namely the right eye and hand, by which He signifies that everything which entices us to sin must be cast away, however dear, precious, and necessary it may be. He mentions the eye first because He had just spoken of it shortly before: "Whoever has looked at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
First, then, St. Chrysostom, in Homily 17, takes the right eye and hand to mean a beloved woman, about whom the preceding discourse was concerned; for she must be cast away if she provokes us to lust by her appearance, voice, or gesture. Second, St. Augustine, in Book I of On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, takes the right eye and hand to mean any friend and servant, even a necessary one. Third, St. Hilary, Theophylact here, Cyril in Book XII on John, chapter 28, St. Athanasius (or whoever the author is) in his reply to Antiochus, Question 70, and Paschasius, Epistle 3, take it to mean parents and relatives; for their company must be cut off if it draws us to sin. Fourth, St. Jerome takes it to mean the affections and vices of the soul. Fifth, the Author of the Imperfect Work takes the right eye and hand to mean the mind and will; the left, the senses and appetite of the flesh; for the mind and will must be called away from curious and harmful things just as much as the senses and flesh from carnal desires.
But more simply and plainly you may take the right eye and hand here in their proper sense, but in such a way as to serve the parable and be explained parabolically. For here there is a continuous parable in which Christ alludes to and has in view the concupiscence of sight, which He treated just before. For He meets a tacit objection, as if to say: You will object to me: If the eye and sight make one an adulterer when he sees a woman to lust after her, what then am I to do with the eyes given me by God for seeing?
Again, it is a metaphor drawn from a surgeon, as if to say: Just as the wounded and sick take care that the surgeon cut off even the most noble and supremely necessary member, such as the right eye and hand, if the health of the whole body depends on it; so also I admonish you, O my faithful, to undergo any loss rather than commit sin, especially mortal sin, so that whatever is a stumbling block to you and draws you to sin, even if it is as dear and necessary as the right hand or right eye, you should plainly cut it off from yourselves and cast it away, however much discomfort and pain it may cause you; for example, you should cut off the gaze of your eye, even one otherwise chaste, the familiarity and company of relatives, wife, children, and parents, otherwise necessary, if that creates for you the danger of sin; indeed, if you cannot escape sin otherwise, cut off the very eye and hand; for it is better to enter heaven with one eye than to be cast into Gehenna with two. But because we can always avoid sin by other means than cutting off a member, it is therefore not permitted to cut it off and mutilate oneself; hence the Church condemned Origen, who castrated himself for the sake of chastity. Finally, the concupiscences that must be cut away and mortified cling so vigorously and tenaciously to the eyes and body, indeed to the very soul, and are so implanted in them, that they cannot be uprooted without great force and the sensation of pain: therefore those who cut them away feel such pain as if they were tearing out their very eye or tooth. Those who have experienced this know it; hence it is called mortification, because it begets the feeling and pain of death.
So literally St. Aquilinus and St. Audomarus (as their Life in Surius records), when they were blind and their sight had been restored to them by God through a miracle, again asked God that their eyes be taken from them and themselves restored to blindness, so that they might be free from the distractions, concupiscences, and temptations that the eyes create. Something even greater, from a special impulse of God, was done by that virgin recorded by Sophronius in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 69, who tore out her eyes and sent them to the suitor pursuing her, because he was captivated by her eyes; moved by this gift, he cut away the wantonness of his eyes from himself, and indeed changed his secular life for a monastic one.
St. Antony asked the blind Didymus, whom St. Jerome called his "seer," that is, his teacher, whether he grieved over his blindness. When Didymus was silent and nodded, Antony added: "A prudent man should not grieve that he lacks eyes, which flies and bees have, but should rejoice that he has all the more open the eyes of the mind, with which he may see God and divine things." So Palladius records in the Lausiac History, in the Life of Didymus.
Furthermore, it is lawful to cut off a diseased member lest the whole body be infected, just as it is lawful to kill a citizen who is harmful to the state, because a part is by its nature ordered to the good of the whole; therefore it must expose itself to death for the whole. But the cutting off of a member, or killing of oneself, is not by its nature ordered to the avoidance of sin and salvation, nor is it necessary for that, because there are other means for this; hence it is not lawful to mutilate or kill oneself. See Lessius, On Suicide.
Verse 31: Whoever Puts Away His Wife
31. DICTUM EST AUTEM: QUICUMQUE DIMISERIT UXOREM SUAM, DET EI LIBELLUM REPUDII. — See what I discussed at length about the certificate of divorce at Deuteronomy 24:1.
32. EGO AUTEM DICO VOBIS: QUIA OMNIS QUI DIMISERIT UXOREM SUAM, EXCEPTA FORNICATIONIS CAUSA, FACIT EAM MOECHARI, ET QUI DIMISSAM DUXERIT, ADULTERAT. — Cajetan and some others repeat the force of "except for the cause of fornication," as though for the cause of fornication it were lawful for a husband divorcing an adulteress, and for the adulteress herself, to enter into a second marriage. But the Apostle plainly contradicts this meaning in 1 Corinthians 7:11, where he commands the innocent spouse to remain unmarried or be reconciled to the guilty party. See what was said there; and this is the perpetual usage, understanding, and practice of the Church, about which more at chapter 19:9.
Christ here corrects and perfects the law of divorce. First, because the law easily granted divorce for many reasons. But Christ permits it only for the cause of fornication, if the spouse has committed fornication, that is, adultery; for the innocent may separate from the adulterer, according to the saying: "To one who breaks faith, let faith be broken in return."
Second, the law granted both the divorced woman and the divorcing husband the right to enter a second marriage with another. But Christ denies this to both. Third, the law granted the right of the certificate of divorce to the husband alone; but Christ in this right of marriage makes husband and wife equal, as the Apostle teaches in 1 Corinthians 7:4.
EXCEPTA FORNICATIONIS CAUSA. — Some take "fornication" here to mean any sin; for this is a kind of spiritual fornication with some creature, having abandoned God the Creator and Spouse of the soul. So St. Augustine in Book I of On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, and Origen here, Treatise 7. But this is too liberal and loose: hence in Canon Law, at the chapter Quaesivit, On Divorces, it was defined that divorce is not permitted for theft or any other crime. Wherefore St. Augustine himself, in Book I of the Retractations, chapter 19, retracts this, or at least expresses doubt.
Others take "fornication" to mean infidelity to God; for this is commonly called fornication by the Prophets, namely spiritual and mystical fornication.
But interpreters both ancient and modern commonly take "fornication" here in its proper sense as sexual immorality which in a married woman is adultery; therefore by "fornication" here understand adultery, sodomy even with a spouse but against their will, and every illicit sexual act, as is clear from the chapter Meretrices, 32, Question IV.
You will say: it is permitted to divorce a wife if she tries to drag her husband into some crime, as is stated in the chapter Quaesivit, On Divorces, and Christ sufficiently indicated this here at verse 29. Likewise if she is a poisoner, or plots her husband's death; therefore it is not for fornication alone that it is permitted to put her away. I respond: This is true; nevertheless Christ here assigns only fornication as the cause for divorce, first because this alone is the proper cause for divorce in marriage and directly repugnant to it, while the other causes are general, freeing a Christian from any partnership; second because the repudiation of an adulteress, even a penitent one, is granted permanently, so that even if the wife repents of her adultery, the husband is not bound to receive her back into bed and home, whereas in other cases, after her repentance, he is bound to readmit her to favor and bed; and finally because Christ here specifically intends to exclude a wife's ugliness, poverty, displeasing nature, and whatever falls short of fault, for which the Jews used to give a certificate of divorce, for He speaks to their mentality.
Verse 33: You Shall Not Swear Falsely
33. ITERUM AUDISTIS, QUIA DICTUM EST ANTIQUIS: NON PERJURABIS, REDDES AUTEM DOMINO JURAMENTA TUA. — This latter part is found at Numbers 30:3. "You shall fulfill," that is, you shall discharge and perform what you have sworn to do to the Lord, or by the Lord. So Chrysostom explains; therefore "oaths" here properly means vows confirmed by an oath, as I said at Numbers 30:3; for we are bound to render these to God, that is, to fulfill them. Suarez also explains it differently, as if to say: You shall fulfill your oaths to the Lord, that is, if you wish to swear, swear by the true God, not by idols. So he says in tome II of On Religion, Book II On the Oath, chapter 1.
34. EGO AUTEM DICO VOBIS, NON JURARE OMNINO. — Here Christ explains and perfects the second commandment of the Decalogue about not committing perjury, which the Scribes and Pharisees explained wrongly. For first they asserted that an oath was binding only if made by God and calling Him as witness, but not if made by creatures. Christ here teaches the contrary; for in creatures the Creator is understood; for they were created by God, and all that they have, they have from God; and whatever they are, they are God's. For whoever swears cites God, who is the first truth, and calls Him as witness to the statement he swears. Therefore one who swears by a creature either makes the creature itself God, which is the crime of idolatry, or must be understood to imply God the Creator in that creature.
Second, the Scribes erred in thinking that only perjury was forbidden by this commandment. On the contrary, Christ here teaches that by it every oath is forbidden, and every irreverence and abuse of the name of God.
Third, the Scribes taught that one who swore by the temple or the altar was not bound by the oath; but that one who swore by the gold of the temple or by the gift on the altar was bound, because the gold and the gift went to the profit of the priests, whom Christ refutes at Matthew 23:16.
EGO AUTEM DICO VOBIS, NON JURARE OMNINO. — From this passage the Pelagians, as St. Augustine attests in Epistle 89, Question 5, taught that no oath was lawful for Christians. The Waldensians and Wycliffites held the same, as is clear from the Council of Constance, and now the Anabaptists hold the same, who refuse to swear even in court when compelled by a judge.
But this is an error in faith, which the perpetual usage of the Church condemns, along with the examples of God Himself, Paul, and the saints, who are recorded to have sworn oaths, as is clear from Psalm 109:4; Romans 1:9; Philippians 1:8; 1 Corinthians 15:31, and elsewhere. Reason itself proves the same: for an oath is an honor to God as the first truth; for the one swearing invokes God as witness, as the first and infallible truth. Therefore an oath is an act of religion and worship if, as Jeremiah 4:2 teaches, it is made in truth, that is, so that one does not swear falsely; and in justice, so that one does not swear to anything unjust or evil; and in judgment, so that one does not swear rashly without great usefulness or necessity.
You will say: How then does Christ here command not to swear at all? St. Bernard responds first, in Sermon 65 on the Song of Songs, that this is not a precept but only a counsel.
Second, others grant that it is indeed a precept, but say that only perjury is forbidden, that is, that you should not swear falsely.
Third, others think the command is not to swear at all by creatures, but only by God alone. St. Jerome hints at this here.
Fourth, but all these interpretations are foreign and forced, and are refuted by the following words. Note therefore that there was a twofold error of the Pharisees regarding this commandment. The first was that at Exodus 20:7, where it says, "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain," only perjury was forbidden, but not a light, rash, and vain oath, because the Hebrew word shav, which our Vulgate and the Septuagint translate there as "in vain," also means "falsehood." Hence the Chaldean paraphrase translates: "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God for falsehood," that is, you shall not commit perjury, and so the Pharisees translated and understood it. The second error was that it was lawful to swear rashly by creatures and to commit perjury, as is clear from what follows and from chapter 23:17.
Christ therefore opposes the word "at all" to both of their errors, as if to say: But I say and decree that it is not lawful to swear not only what is false, but not even what is true, whether by God, or by the temple, or by any other formula using creatures: which you should understand according to the mentality of the Pharisees, that is, lightly and rashly, as happens in common human speech, where people frequently have on their lips "by God," "by my soul," "by the temple." For Christ wishes to teach, as St. Augustine and St. Chrysostom say, that the inclination to swearing is bad, and that an oath, although good in itself, nevertheless arises from evil, and is not to be desired for its own sake: and so one should not swear at all unless this evil compels it; and this first of all, lest from the habit of swearing we fall into perjury, as usually happens. So the Fathers everywhere, and Sirach 23:9 and 12.
Second, because reverence for the divine name demands this, which reason is hinted at in this verse.
Third, because the faith and truthfulness of people, especially of the faithful and Christians, ought to be such that they could be believed without oaths, and that others would in fact believe them. Hence Isocrates in his letter to Demonicus asserts that just men show themselves more trustworthy than an oath, so that they are believed more without swearing than others who do swear; therefore he adds that one should swear only to free oneself from a charge or a friend from grave danger, but not for money — for instance, to swear that you have paid a debt and owe nothing to a creditor. St. Basil, in his sermon to young men on how to derive benefit from Greek literature, relates of Clinias, a friend and close associate of Pythagoras, that he preferred to pay three talents (that is, eighteen thousand gold pieces) rather than to swear even rightly and lawfully. Plutarch, in the Problemata, says: "An oath is a torment to a free man." The Romans extracted the truth from slaves by tortures, from a citizen by an oath, and from a priest by his word alone and a bare affirmation or denial.
Christ therefore commands: "Do not swear at all." First, because, as St. Augustine says in Sermon 28 On the Words of the Apostle: "A false oath is ruinous, a true oath is dangerous, no oath is safe." Second, "'at all,' that is, so that as far as it is in your power, you should not seek it, not love it, nor desire an oath as if it were something good with any delight," says St. Augustine in chapter 15 of On Lying. Third, because to swear is in itself a moral evil tending toward irreverence toward God, just as it is a moral evil to kill a man; but just as this is lawful with the proper circumstances, and indeed praiseworthy, so also is swearing; if it is done with truth, justice, and judgment, that is, so that it is not done unless another's incredulous distrust demands it. In paradise, therefore, it was not lawful, and in heaven it is not lawful to swear. For so great is the majesty of God's name that it should not be called upon as witness unless necessity compels it. For to call a witness over small and trivial things is petty and base, just as if someone were to call the king as a witness over a single gold coin. Hence the saints are careful not to swear. In the Life of St. Chrysostom it is recorded as a great thing that he never swore an oath. The same is related of St. John the Almsgiver.
Again, St. Augustine, in Epistle 89, Question 5, ridicules those who thought they were only swearing if they said "By God," but not if they said "God is my witness." The same, in Sermon 11 On the Beheading of St. John, at the end of tome X, asserts that to provoke someone to take an oath when you know he will swear falsely is a crime more grievous than homicide; because the murderer, he says, kills only the body, but the other kills the soul of the perjurer.
He gives the example of Tutilimenus, who for having exacted such an oath was severely scourged during the night in the presence of God.
You ask whether it is also lawful for Christians to swear? For many Fathers seem to deny it. First, Saints Jerome, Chrysostom, and Euthymius here say that the oath was permitted by God for the Jews lest they swear by idols, but not for Christians. Second, Theophylact and Euthymius think that the oath was a legal precept of the Old Law, as circumcision was; hence, since it has been abolished by Christ, the oath has equally been abolished. Third, others hold that the oath was permitted by God to the Jews as rude, imperfect, and hard to believe, but that it is forbidden to Christians because, as more perfect, more perfect things befit them, and because they must wholly avoid the danger of perjury: just as the certificate of divorce was permitted to the Jews lest they kill wives they hated, which nevertheless Christ here takes away and removes from Christians at verse 32. So hold St. Hilary here, chapter 4; St. Ambrose, Sermon 1 on Psalm 118; St. Basil on Psalm 14; Chromatius and Origen here, Treatise 35; Epiphanius, Heresy 19; St. Athanasius, Sermon on the Passion and Cross of the Lord; St. Chrysostom, Homily 19 to the People.
If you object that God sometimes swore in Sacred Scripture, as at Genesis 22:16, Saints Athanasius, Basil, and Ambrose respond that those oaths of God are not properly called oaths, but merely asseverations and promises; or, as St. Ambrose says, God can swear because He can fulfill what He swears, and He cannot repent of it; but a man should not swear because he does not have the power to certainly perform what he says, promises, and swears.
If you again object that St. Paul sometimes swore, as when he says: "I call God as witness upon my soul" (2 Corinthians 1:23), St. Basil responds that this is not truly an oath, but only a simple statement put forth in the appearance and form of an oath for greater asseveration.
But I say truly that it is lawful not only for Jews but also for Christians to swear. This is a matter of faith, as is clear from the perpetual understanding, usage, and practice of the Church: "For an oath for confirmation is the end of all their controversies," says the Apostle, Hebrews 6:16. Furthermore, in Scripture there is no affirmative commandment to swear, as there is a commandment to pray, to sacrifice, to love and praise God, to honor parents, etc., because an oath is not desirable in itself, but for the sake of something else and as it were incidentally, inasmuch as an oath is like a medicine for unbelief. There exists, however, a negative commandment regarding oaths, namely that you should not commit perjury and that you should not swear by false gods but only by the true God. Likewise there exists a conditional commandment: that if you wish to swear, you should swear only what is true, just, and necessary.
You will say: Christ here tells Christians and enacts that they should "not swear at all." I respond: This is true because it is in itself unfitting and discourteous to bring God, the Best and Greatest, as a witness to trivial human affairs because of mutual human distrust, unless this unfittingness and discourtesy is excused by mutual necessity, as it often is, when other witnesses and juridical proofs are lacking.
To the Fathers cited I respond that they seem to speak in the same sense as Christ when He commands not to swear at all; for because they themselves saw people frequently swearing falsely, or unjustly and wrongfully, or very often lightly, idly, and rashly, therefore because of the danger of perjury or of vain swearing, they forbade and dissuaded Christians from taking oaths, so that they would abstain from them as much as possible. But if someone guards against this danger, he will certainly be permitted to swear in necessity; this is clear from St. Chrysostom, who frequently and constantly in his homilies to the people of Antioch sharply attacks the custom of rash swearing which was then flourishing there, and to those who wondered at this responds: I say and repeat what I am accustomed to say, because you say and repeat what you are accustomed to do; and he asserts that he will not cease from this repetition until they themselves cease from swearing; for a hard wedge must be applied to a hard knot, and applied continuously.
35. NEQUE PER COELUM, QUIA THRONUS DEI EST; NEQUE PER TERRAM, QUIA SCABELLUM PEDUM EJUS EST. — Supply "you shall swear," as follows. The Jews seem to have been accustomed to swear by heaven and earth, and the Pharisees judged that these oaths, as being made by creatures, were to be regarded as of little account; Christ here teaches the contrary, namely that one who swears by heaven and earth swears by God the Creator, who established the throne of His glory in heaven and His footstool on earth. He alludes to Isaiah 66:1: "Thus says the Lord: Heaven is my seat; and the earth is the footstool of my feet." See what was said there.
NEQUE PER HIEROSOLYMAM, QUIA CIVITAS EST MAGNI REGIS. — That is, of God. He alludes to Psalm 47: "Great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised in the city of our God." And shortly after: "Mount Zion is founded to the joy of the whole earth, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King." The meaning is, as if to say: Do not swear by the saints, or by the holy city Jerusalem, or by other sacred things, or by your own things, or by any other creature, because all these are God's, who is present in all things and alone has full power over all things, and therefore one who swears by creatures swears by God; for whoever swears intends to call as witness the first and infallible truth: therefore he either attributes that truth to the creatures themselves, and so it is idolatry; or certainly, following the usage of the Gentiles, by naming creatures he tacitly calls their Creator as witness.
Therefore the modern heretics wrongly condemn swearing by the Saints as idolatry, especially Augustus Marlorat commenting on these words of Christ. Hear Marlorat: "Thus whoever formerly swore by Moloch or another idol diminished just as much from the right of God, because he substituted another as the knower of hearts and judge of souls in His place, and today those who swear by Angels or dead Saints, having despoiled God, attribute to them an empty divinity."
But this is an error and heresy, as is clear from what has been said, and is plain from the words of Christ in this passage and at chapter 23:21. Hence St. Joseph swore by the life of Pharaoh, Genesis 41:16; Christ the Bridegroom swears by the gazelles and deer of the field, Song of Songs 2:7; Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:31, swears by the glory of the Corinthians, as is clear from the Greek text. But what Marlorat asserts — that the orthodox, when they swear by the saints, make them gods and despoil God of His divinity — is a putrid lie and mere slander; for the honor of the Saints is the honor of God. For God made them saints: therefore whoever swears by the Saints swears by God who sanctified them.
Verse 37: Let Your Speech Be Yes, Yes; No, No
36. NEQUE PER CAPUT TUUM JURAVERIS, QUIA NON POTES UNUM CAPILLUM ALBUM FACERE, AUT NIGRUM. — As if to say: Do not think it is lawful for you to swear by your head because it is yours and subject to you with full dominion for any use, so that you may dispose of it at will and by your oath devote it to curses if you commit perjury, because in truth your head is not yours but God's; and you cannot bind and devote to another what belongs to God, for you have no right over what belongs to God: hence you cannot make even one hair of your head white or black, for that belongs to God alone. Therefore whoever swears by his head swears by God the maker of his head, and, what is more horrible, such a person also asks that his head and life be taken by God as a pledge, so that if he commits perjury, he may be punished by God with the loss of his head and life.
37. SIT AUTEM SERMO VESTER: EST, EST; NON, NON; QUOD AUTEM HIS ABUNDANTIUS EST, A MALO EST. — In the Gospel ascribed to St. Matthew, for "yes, yes; no, no," we have ken, ken; en, en, that is, "so, so; no, no," or "right, right; no, no." In Greek nai, nai; ou, ou; which can be taken in three ways: First, to denote a constant asseveration, and to be opposed to inconstancy and deceit. So the Apostle uses it at 2 Corinthians 1:17, 18, 19. Second, to denote truth, or what is the case, and to be opposed to falsehood. So it is taken in the same passage, verse 20. Third, to denote a simple affirmation or denial, and to be opposed to an oath. So it is taken here, and at James 5:12. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Let your speech be a simple affirmation or denial: for whatever is added beyond these by way of swearing is from evil. So St. Chrysostom here, and St. Jerome or Paulinus, Epistle to Celantia.
Hence St. Bernard, in Epistle 38, commends Count Theobald for his simple truthfulness: "And indeed," he says, "in other princes, if at any time we catch a word of levity or even of falsehood, we do not think it strange; but with Count Theobald, we can in no way patiently hear 'Yes' and 'No' used loosely; for him, as they say, to speak simply is to swear, and a slight lie is reckoned as grave perjury: for among the very many marks of virtue which greatly ennoble your dignity and make your name famous and celebrated throughout the world, constancy in truth is especially praised in you."
A MALO EST. — In Greek ek tou ponerou, "from evil." This can be taken in either the masculine or neuter gender. In the masculine, "from the evil one," that is, from the devil, who as the leader of malice and all evil incites you to swear excessively without necessity, and thus gradually leads you to rashly swear what is false, which is the crime of perjury. So Theophylact, Maldonatus, and others. In the neuter, "from evil," that is, from a vice, whether one's own or another's, as if to say: The practice of swearing arises from one's own vice of levity and irreverence, or from another's vice of incredulity and distrust; for because the other person does not believe me and distrusts me when I simply assert something, I therefore confirm my statements to him by an oath, which vice, however, is now necessary after the fall of man. So St. Augustine in Book I of On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount. Hence this meaning seems simpler and plainer. Francis Lucas adds: "'From evil,' he says, that is, from the custom of swearing vainly and lightly, or falsely and deceitfully. Again, 'from evil,' that is, from the custom of swearing that has arisen from human distrust. For when people saw that they were not believed unless they swore, they began to add oaths to all their statements in order to win credence for them; but by this frequency of swearing they have earned and brought about the result that now they are not believed even when they do swear." On the dangers and harms of frequent swearing, see Salmeron, tome V, Treatise 40, and Chrysostom in his Homilies to the People.
Verse 38: An Eye for an Eye
38. AUDISTIS QUIA DICTUM EST: OCULUM PRO OCULO, ET DENTEM PRO DENTE. — That is, repay in kind. This is the law of retaliation, which commands that if you gouge out someone's eye or tooth, your eye or tooth should likewise be torn out by the judge; for this is just retribution and compensation for the injury. Exodus 21:23 and following. See what was said there.
Verse 39: Do Not Resist Evil
39. EGO AUTEM DICO VOBIS, NON RESISTERE MALO: SED SI QUIS TE PERCUSSERIT IN DEXTERAM MAXILLAM TUAM, PRAEBE ILLI ET ALTERAM. — "Evil," that is, an evil thing, an injury, or malice and harm which is inflicted on you by an evil person, as if to say: Do not repay evil for evil, harm for harm; or rather, as if to say: Do not resist the evil one (in the masculine), that is, the man who is evil and injurious to you; for in Greek it is tō ponērō; this is clear from what follows. Both senses come to the same thing.
Note first that the old law of retaliation was just, but that its practice was often unjust and proceeded not from a desire for justice but from a desire for revenge, by which the injured party — for example, one whose eye or tooth had been torn out — prosecuted the offender as guilty under the law of retaliation, and demanded from the magistrate that his eye or tooth be similarly torn out; but Christ supplements and perfects this law by opposing to retaliation the law and counsel of patience, and to the spirit eager for revenge the law of meekness.
Note second that this law of Christ does not apply to the magistrate, as the Anabaptists would have it, who think that every war, not only offensive but also defensive, is here forbidden by Christ to Christians; rather it applies to private persons. For it is the duty of the magistrate to punish the guilty and to execute murderers; and it is the duty of the Prince to recover by war, if he cannot do so otherwise, the losses inflicted on the state.
Note third that this law of Christ does not take away from private individuals the right of retaliation, which belongs to the law of nature and the law of nations, both for the reparation of injured justice and for the correction of the one who caused the injury; much less does it take away the right of self-defense, by which one who is attacked by an enemy repels force with force, and if he cannot escape otherwise, kills the attacker; but it only forbids the desire for revenge. Hence,
Note fourth that Christ here wishes to impress upon us a disposition toward meekness and patience, so that however great the injury by which you are harmed, you should not depart even a hairsbreadth from peace, charity, and interior sweetness of mind; and so that if the charity of your neighbor and the glory of God, or your own peace of mind and right reason in such a situation or circumstance, not only counsels as more perfect, but absolutely demands as necessary, that you not resist evil but patiently accept it, and give your goods and body as spoil to the attacker, as happened in the time of the persecutors of the primitive Church, especially in the case of the Apostles and apostolic men: and in this respect it is a precept not to resist evil; otherwise it is only a counsel. For example, it is a counsel not to resist an attacker, but to endure his violence and injury, when and where charity and the glory of God do not demand this but only suggest it as more perfect, or to do it for the pursuit of mortification, where the glory of God is equal on both sides, as a notable victory over oneself. I say the same about the three following cases, namely: "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the other also; whoever wants to take your tunic, let him have your cloak also; whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two." Hence St. Augustine here and in Epistle 5 to Marcellinus, and in the book On Lying, chapter 15, teaches that all these things pertain more to the interior preparation of the mind than to the external execution of the action.
These things, therefore, are generally matters of counsel; but they become matters of precept when the glory of God and the salvation of one's neighbor absolutely command and require it — for example, if the Indians and Japanese knew that Christ had commanded Christians to offer the other cheek to the one who strikes, and unless they did this, those people would be scandalized and turned away from embracing the faith of Christ, then certainly the Christian, especially the preacher, ought to offer the other cheek to the one who strikes one. A literal example of this is found in the Life of St. Francis Xavier, apostle of the Indians and Japanese. For when the Japanese were mocking him as a foreigner and his new doctrine about Christ crucified, it happened that a certain Japanese man, hearing John Fernandes, who was Xavier's companion, preaching in the street, out of insolence spat thick and foul phlegm into his face. Utterly unmoved by this insult, Fernandes gently wiped away the spittle and courageously continued his sermon. Seeing this, and marveling at such great patience and wisdom of the new preachers, the Japanese vied with one another to become their disciples and embraced the faith of Christ. So effective, so powerful is Christian virtue, patience, gentleness, and magnanimity, that it persuades to the faith what all speech was unable to persuade. For today in Japan there are counted up to five hundred thousand Christians, who imitate the fervor and constancy of the first Christians even through slow fires.
Therefore the patient person who resists evil is not overcome by it, but overcomes it; for he conquers anger, and he also conquers the enemy who inflicts the evil. Hear St. Chrysostom in Homily 83 on Matthew: "This is the most glorious victory among us: nowhere doing evil, but everywhere suffering evil, we triumph. That is the most brilliant victory, by which you have overcome the one inflicting harm by enduring it. Just as rocks battered by waves easily break them apart, etc. God has granted you these powers, so that you may conquer not by the clash of hands but by patience."
Finally, it is properly the part of martyrs not to resist evil, not to defend themselves, but to allow themselves to be killed for Christ, because a soldier fights, but a martyr does not fight; for the martyr is a companion of the passion of Christ, as the martyrs write to St. Cyprian, Book V, Epistle 12, for the passion of Christ is the exemplar of all martyrdom.
Accordingly, that noble Theban legion of very many and very brave soldiers, condemned to death by the Emperor Maximian because it refused to sacrifice to idols, when executioner soldiers were sent against it, refused to defend itself, even though it could have sold its life dearly and inflicted great slaughter on the enemy; but under the leadership and exhortation of St. Maurice, laying down their arms, like a flock of lambs they allowed themselves to be slaughtered and sacrificed for Christ. Christ therefore here teaches a new philosophy, paradoxical to the world, unknown to philosophers, unheard of by men, but heavenly and divine, and He confirmed it by His own example when He willingly delivered Himself to the Jews to be bound, scourged, and crucified. Hence He says of Himself: "I gave my body to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who plucked them: my face not to turn away from those who rebuke and spit upon Him."
Thus a certain monk, by offering his other cheek to the demoniac woman who struck him, drove the demon out of her. Hear the account as narrated by the author of the Doctrina Patrum, treatise On Humility, no. 5: "When that monk had entered the house," he says, "the girl who was tormented by a demon came and immediately slapped the monk. But he turned and offered her his other cheek according to the divine commandment. The demon, being compelled, began to cry out: 'O the power of Christ's commandments! Jesus is driving me out of here.' And immediately the girl was cleansed. When the monk came to the elders, he told them what had happened, and they glorified God and said: 'It is the custom of diabolical pride to be overthrown by the humility of Jesus' commandments.'"
Quite similar is what Rufinus narrates in the Lives of the Fathers, book III, no. 125: "A certain one of the elder monks," he says, "was a hermit, whom a man seized by an evil spirit, foaming at the mouth, violently struck on the cheek. But the old man offered him his other cheek to strike. The devil, unable to endure the fire of his humility, immediately departed." Pelagius recounts almost the same thing word for word in the Lives of the Fathers, booklet XV, no. 53.
In a similar way, St. Albert of the Carmelite Order, struck on the right cheek by the devil through a demoniac woman, offered his other cheek and by his humility tormented and expelled the devil, as his Life records in Surius under August 7.
SED SI QUIS PERCUSSERIT DEXTERAM MAXILLAM TUAM, PRAEBE ILLI ET ALTERAM. — This is sometimes a precept, sometimes an evangelical counsel, as I have already said. It proceeds from a generous soul ready to suffer and especially eager to imitate the life and passion of Christ. Wherefore great men who strove to follow Christ closely actually accomplished this very thing. Hence St. Ambrose, in book II of On the Holy Spirit, in the Proem, mystically takes the cheek to signify patience, which conquers all things. "For just as Samson," he says, "with the jawbone of an ass killed a thousand Philistines, so Christ by His patience overthrew the demons and all enemies, and from Christ, every Christian and every patient person does the same" (Judges 15:15). The same St. Ambrose, on Luke chapter 6: "Does not," he says, "all the fury of the angry person break down (if you offer him your cheek), and his wrath subside? Is it not the case that through patience, you strike back at the striker more effectively by his own remorse? Thus it will be that you both repel the injury and seek favor. And often the greatest causes of love arise when patience is returned for insolence, and grace for injury."
"He was offered because He Himself willed it, and He did not open His mouth; as a sheep He shall be led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer He shall be silent, and He shall not open His mouth" (Isaiah 49:6 and 53:7). For He was the king of martyrs and the leader of the patient. The a priori reason is that in this consists the summit of patience, magnanimity, and charity. For patience has its perfect work, as James says in chapter 1, verse 4. See what was said there. But a person is perfect if he does not resist injuries and those who injure him, but willingly offers himself to them. It belongs to magnanimity to despise all the things of this life, adverse as well as prosperous, as though placed beneath oneself. The magnanimous man, as if stationed in heaven and fixed upon heaven, scorns all things that are below God as small and trivial, and thus he dominates them, just as Christ dominated all injuries, pains, and torments — wherefore He in His passion was King and Lord of sorrows. Charity, finally, desires to suffer hard and dreadful things for God. Again, it desires to conquer and convert the one who injures by tolerance and gentleness, not to be conquered by him — according to that saying: "Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21). See what was said there. See also St. Ambrose, book I of the Offices, chapter XII; namely: Stronger is he who conquers himself than he who conquers the mightiest walls, nor can virtue go higher.
Moreover, one of the five Franciscans who, during the lifetime of St. Francis, suffered a noble martyrdom in Morocco for the faith of Christ, named Otho, when invited by the Saracen prince to embrace Islam, spat on the ground in contempt of him and his profane law, and was struck with a heavy slap by him. But he, remembering the words of Christ, offered his other cheek, saying: "May God forgive you, for you do not know what you are doing." So their Life records in Surius under the 16th of the Calends of February.
Cassian, Conference XIX, chapter 1, celebrates the patience of a certain religious, who was sharply struck on the cheek with the palm of the hand by Abbot Paul in an assembly of many, in order to test his virtue — so forcefully that the sound reached the ears of those sitting far away — yet he not only did not murmur, but did not even flush with the redness that usually accompanies such a blow.
Furthermore, regarding St. Paula, St. Jerome writes in her Epitaph: "Assailed by envy and insults, she said: 'Why should I not overcome jealousy with patience? Why should I not break pride with humility, and offer the other cheek to the one who strikes me?'"
Finally, St. Eulogius, a priest and martyr of Cordoba, condemned to death by the Saracen prince because he cursed Muhammad, as he was being led to martyrdom, was struck on the cheek by a Saracen, and offered him the other, receiving a slap on it as well. Thereupon he was immediately beheaded, and a dove alighted on his body as a sign and vindication of his dove-like gentleness, innocence, and patience, in the year of the Lord 859, on March 11 — at which time many others there suffered martyrdom for the same cause, whose noble contests and triumphs Eulogius himself had described shortly before his death. So his Life records, written by his close friend Alvarus of Cordoba, which is found in Surius as enlarged by Mosander under March 11.
But if some heretic or impious person strikes you on one cheek in order to despise your orthodox faith, religion, and virtue, and to show others that it should be despised, then certainly the other cheek is not to be offered, but that person must be sternly rebuked, as Christ rebuked the officer who struck Him before the Pontiff, saying: "If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness about the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?" (John 18:23). And Paul, when the Pontiff ordered him to be struck, said: "God shall strike you, you whitewashed wall" (Acts 23:3). For then one must follow that saying of the Wise Man: "Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes" (Proverbs 26:5), where I recounted an amusing example on this matter. Finally, Cassian, Conference XVI, chapter 20, ridicules the madness of certain people who, in order to fulfill this example of Christ, voluntarily picked quarrels and provoked others to anger, so that when struck by the angry, they could offer the other cheek to the one striking them. For it belongs to the patient person to provoke no one to impatience, lest patience itself become impatient.
40. ET EI QUI VULT TECUM IN JUDICIO CONTENDERE, ET TUNICAM TUAM TOLLERE, DIMITTE EI ET PALLIUM. — The cloak (pallium) is the outer garment and often of greater value, while the tunic is the inner garment — hence the saying: "The tunic is closer than the cloak." Therefore the tunic cannot be removed or stripped off unless the cloak is first removed. Accordingly, St. Luke, chapter 6, verse 29, rightly reverses the order of tunic and cloak, saying: "And from him who takes away your garment, do not withhold even the tunic." But the sense comes to the same thing, as if to say: To one who takes away one garment, do not contend in court with the litigator over the garment, but rather, to avoid the lawsuit, let him have whatever garment he wants. And so if he demands the cloak, let him have the tunic too; if he demands the tunic, add the cloak as well — especially because, as Euthymius notes, himatión and chitón, that is, cloak and tunic, are often confused with each other, and one is taken for the other. The a priori reason is that "an ounce of peace and charity is better than a pound of victory," as Cardinal Bellarmine used to say. Hence the Apostle says in Colossians 3:15: "Let the peace of Christ reign in your hearts." St. Francis did this literally: when dragged before the Bishop of Assisi by his father on account of his lavish almsgiving, so that he might renounce his goods, he not only gave them up but also returned his very clothes to his father, saying: "Henceforth I shall say with greater confidence: Our Father, who art in heaven." So St. Bonaventure relates in his Life.
In this matter, St. Elizabeth, daughter of the King of Hungary, gave a rare example of patience and poverty. When her husband, the Landgrave of Hesse, died, she was expelled from her home with the utmost injustice by his vassals and relatives, stripped of her goods, and reduced to the most extreme poverty. Joyful and eager, she withdrew to a Franciscan convent, and there she asked the friars to sing the Te Deum laudamus as a thanksgiving to God. Wandering from house to house with her children like a beggar, she at last entered a hovel where, buffeted by smoke, heat, wind, and rain, she always gave thanks to God. Moreover, she cheerfully endured the mockery, abuse, and taunts of her relatives, rejoicing that she was worthy to suffer such things for God. Finally, when her father, King Andrew, called her back to Hungary to the splendor of royal living, she did not consent, but in the utmost poverty, earning her livelihood by spinning wool, she spent her whole life in the most menial services to the poor, the ulcerous, and the leprous. And so at her death she was deemed worthy to hear both the melody of Angels and the voice of Christ calling her to the heavenly kingdom and saying: "Come, My chosen one, and enjoy the heavenly bridal chamber which I have destined for you from eternity." So her Life records in Surius under November 19.
41. ET QUI TE ANGARIAVERIT MILLE PASSUS, VADE CUM ILLO ET ALIA DUO. — "To press into service" (angariare) is a Persian word. For among the Persians, the public messengers and couriers were called angari, who had the right to commandeer horses, men, and boats and to compel them into their service. Hence angariare means the same as to compel and to force — whence the term Angariæ and Panangariæ in the books of Law. Our people call them Posts, as though positioned and stationed in fixed places and always standing watch in readiness. Hence a letter is called in Hebrew iggereth, as if ingeret, that is, sent and delivered by angari, or couriers. Hence also the Greek word angelos, that is, angel, as if angarus by interchange of the letter r to l, just as Beliar is said for Belial. For often the letter l is changed to r, and sometimes other letters to other letters, as meletáo for meditor; ámylon for amido in Tuscan; élaphos, édaphos, that is, deer; monopólion, in Spanish monipodio for conspiracy; Pánormos, Palermo. So Angelus Caninius in his Hellenisms.
The meaning is, as if to say: If anyone compels you to go with him for one mile, rather than contend with him, go with him for two miles. For thus you will preserve peace, exercise patience, and conquer the one compelling you by charity and make him your friend. But if you resist him and wish to avenge yourself, you will stir up a war or duel with him, lose your peace of mind, and bring hatred upon yourself.
Furthermore, lest the faithful think that Christ here commands things too harsh and arduous, St. Basil, in his homily On Reading the Books of the Gentiles, shows that the philosophers taught and practiced similar things — such as Pericles, who, after being assailed with insults by a certain man all day long, escorted the same man home in the evening with a lamp; and Socrates, who, after being struck in the face with many blows by a certain man, took no other revenge on the man than to inscribe the man's name on his own forehead, as if it were a statue and the name were that of the craftsman; and Euclid, who, when a certain man was preparing to kill him, swore in turn that he would appease him and that, even if the man was hostile toward him in his heart, he would win him over. Regarding Julius Caesar, Cicero says in his Oration for Marcellus: "Caesar is accustomed to forget nothing except injuries." Aristotle, book IV of the Ethics, chapter 3: "The magnanimous man," he says, "despises the insults of men." Another says: "It belongs to the magnanimous to forget injuries: just as it is the mark of a weak stomach to be unable to digest harder food, so it is the mark of a petty soul to be unable to endure a somewhat harsh word." These were shadows of the Christian virtue, which was certainly far greater and more solid in St. Paul, St. Lawrence, St. Vincent, and the like, who gave thanks to their torturers for weaving the crown of martyrdom for them by their torments. St. Cyprian ordered twenty gold coins to be given to his executioner who was about to cut off his head, as Pontius says in his Life. Blessed Juniper, the companion of St. Francis, received insults as if they were gems of Christ; hence to one reviling him he said: "Cast these gems into my bosom; I would indeed wish to be pelted with such gems all the way to Rome." In the Lives of the Fathers we read of a certain religious that the more anyone harassed or mocked him, the more he rejoiced, saying: "These are the ones who give us the occasion for our progress; but those who praise us disturb our souls. For it is written: 'Those who call you blessed, they themselves deceive you.'"
Climacus, in Step IV On Obedience, narrates that a religious named Abbakirum, tested and afflicted in various ways by his companions for fifteen years — to the point that he was even expelled from the table by the servers — bore all these things patiently and interpreted all of them as happening not in earnest but for the purpose of testing him. And at the approach of death he said: "I give thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ and to you, because on account of the fact that you tested me for my salvation, behold, for seventeen years I have remained untempted by demons." In the same place he mentions the elder Macedonius, relegated among the novices (at his own request, prompted by zeal for humility), who said: "Never as now have I perceived in myself such freedom from all conflict and such sweetness of divine light."
Verse 42: Give to the One Who Asks
42. QUI PETIT A TE, DA EI; ET VOLENTI MUTUARI A TE, NE AVERTARIS. — St. Augustine: do not be averse, namely to the one asking for a loan from you. At first glance this saying seems not to cohere with the preceding discussion about the law of retaliation and vengeance; but in reality it fits perfectly, for the meaning is, as Christ says: In place of the law of retaliation and maleficence, I substitute and establish the law of charity and beneficence. Therefore whoever asks anything from you — whether he is a friend, or an enemy who has injured you and struck you on the cheek, or taken away your cloak, or otherwise pressed you into service — give him what he asks. And if he wishes and asks from you a loan, do not be averse to him on account of the injuries he inflicted on you, nor turn your face away, as is commonly done, but receive him kindly as a neighbor and grant him the loan, just as if he had never injured you.
That this is the meaning is clear from the phrase "do not turn away," or as it is in the Greek, "do not be averse," and from what Luke has, chapter 6, verse 30: "Give to everyone who asks of you," and adds: "And from him who takes away what is yours, do not demand it back." Whence it is clear that this concerns the one who has been unjust to you and has taken away your goods like a thief or robber. For to concede to such a person what he has taken and seized, and not to demand it back if he is in great need, is a precept (for if he had not taken it, you would be obliged to give it to him by way of alms, since he is in such need). Otherwise it is a counsel. For almsgiving — whether done by giving or by lending what the neighbor needs, even if he is an enemy who has injured us — is a precept in cases of extreme or grave necessity; otherwise it is a counsel, but a most useful one. Understand this to apply if you have something of your own to give or lend him; for it is not permitted to give or lend what belongs to others, especially things consecrated to God, such as the goods of a monastery, without the superior's permission, as St. Basil teaches in the Shorter Rules, Response 101. Thus St. Spiridon and certain anchorites freely pardoned thieves for what they had stolen from them, and even added more besides.
Furthermore, Christ aptly adds this commandment to give to everyone who asks, after the commandment to endure robbery, by which your tunic, cloak, etc. were taken from you — because this robbery disposes one toward giving. For whoever patiently endures having his things taken from him will easily give what is his to another. For as St. Gregory says in the third part of the Pastoral Rule, Admonition 21: "When the mind of the giver does not know how to bear want, if it deprives itself of much, it seeks an occasion for impatience against itself. For first the soul must be prepared for patience, and then either much or everything must be given, lest, while the onset of want is borne with less equanimity, both the reward of the preceding generosity be lost, and the murmuring that subsequently follows still more grievously ruin the soul."
Finally, Christ's discourse and decree here does not diminish but increases; for although in itself it is easier to give to everyone who asks than to offer the other cheek to one who strikes, or to let the one who takes your tunic have your cloak as well, yet in the connected context it is more difficult, because, as I have already said, it presupposes that patience by which we are obligated to endure those things and those persons, and adds on top of it the beneficence by which we must give or lend to those same people when they ask. For it is more difficult, after having received an injury, to do good to the one who injured you, than merely to suffer and endure the injury received from him. So St. Augustine says in his book On the Lord's Sermon, chapter 40.
St. Luke adds the a priori reason in chapter 6, verse 31: "And whatever you wish that men would do to you, do likewise to them." For this is the law, measure, and source of mutual charity — that you do to another what you wish done to yourself. You wish that alms be given to you in your need, even by an enemy; do the same for him. Hear Climacus, Step XXVI: "It belongs to the devout to give to everyone who asks; but it belongs to the more devout to give even to one who does not ask. But not to demand back, or to exact anything from one who has taken something from you when you could most easily do so — that perhaps belongs only to those who have stripped themselves of all attachment to all mortal things."
The practice of this commandment of Christ was recently demonstrated in Rome by a rare example of charity, Blessed Philip Neri, who gave to everyone who asked everything he could — comfort, counsel, and help. For this reason he wanted his room to be open to everyone, so that anyone might have free access to him at any hour. He used to say that a servant of God ought to be a man for all hours, so that he reserves no hour of the entire day for himself but devotes them all to his neighbors, so as to be entirely theirs, not his own — just as Christ did, who "went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil" (Acts 10 and 11), and spent and poured out Himself and all His possessions together with His life for us; and Paul, who became all things to all men, that he might win all for Christ (1 Corinthians 9:22). Well known is the generosity of St. John, Patriarch of Alexandria, who, spurred on by this decree of Christ, gave lavish alms to all who asked, and was therefore surnamed "the Almsgiver." The more he gave, the more he received, so that he seemed to compete with God in generosity, and God with him. For John conquered God, and God conquered John far more abundantly. Wherefore John did not want those who came asking to be examined as to whether they were rich or poor, worthy or unworthy, few or many. "For I am persuaded," he said, "that even if the whole world came to Alexandria at once in need of charity, it would by no means reduce these treasures of God to any shortage."
St. Francis, at the beginning of his conversion, when he had turned away a certain poor man who was asking for alms (contrary to his usual practice), immediately repenting of what he had done, gave him a generous alms and vowed that he would never again refuse alms to anyone who asked. And by this generosity of his he in turn drew down upon himself an abundant grace of God, by which he soon attained such great holiness.
Remarkable is what we read in the Chronicles of the Order of St. Francis about Alexander of Hales, who was called the Fountain of Life and was the teacher of St. Bonaventure and, as is reported, of St. Thomas. He was carried by such affection for the Mother of God that he resolved never to refuse anyone anything that was asked in the name of the Mother of God. When a certain Franciscan learned of this, seeing him as a most celebrated doctor without equal in the Academy of Paris, he approached him and said: "By the Blessed Virgin Mary, I beg you to join us." Alexander believed the man had been sent by God, and immediately followed him and became a disciple of St. Francis. Luke Wadding narrates the event at length in volume I of the Annals of the Minors, under the year of Christ 1222, no. 26.
Verse 43: Love Your Enemies
43. AUDISTIS QUIA DICTUM EST: DILIGES PROXIMUM TUUM, ET ODIO HABEBIS INIMICUM TUUM. — The first part — "You shall love your neighbor" — was said in Leviticus 19:18. But the latter part — "and you shall hate your enemy" — where was that said? Maldonatus responds that it was said in Deuteronomy 25:19: "You shall blot out his name from under heaven; take care not to forget." For God had commanded Joshua and the Hebrews to completely destroy the impious Canaanite nation and to occupy their land. Therefore Christ here corrects not the Scribes but the law itself, when He commands that enemies be loved. But the law only commanded that the Canaanites be killed, not that they be hated, much less other nations — just as a judge orders a criminal to be executed, yet does not hate him; indeed he loves him, for he takes care that the criminal amend the fault and scandal he has caused, and make satisfaction for it to God and to the state. So too a soldier in a just war kills the enemy but does not hate him; for he is the executor of his commander, as if of a judge. For it is clear that the Old Law commanded not only friends but also enemies to be loved — see Exodus 23:3 and Leviticus 19. For the law of nature commands that enemies be loved.
I say therefore that it was said not by the law but by the Scribes who interpreted the law. For from the fact that it says in Leviticus 19:18, "You shall love your neighbor," or as our Translator renders it, "your friend" (for the Hebrew rea signifies companion, friend, neighbor), they inferred: therefore you shall hate your enemy. But by "friend" or "neighbor" they understood one who was near in family name and nation, namely a Jew descended from Abraham and Jacob as they were, as though only Jews were to be loved by Jews, while the other nations, especially the Canaanites, were to be hated — which is a manifest error. Therefore Christ corrects this interpretation and explains the law, namely that by "friend" or "neighbor" here is understood every human being, even a stranger, a gentile, and an enemy. For all human beings are neighbors to one another in our first father Adam, inasmuch as we are all descended from him and therefore brothers; and in our second parent Christ, through whom we have been regenerated and, as it were, recreated in the same likeness of God, and called to the same inheritance of God the Father in heaven. So say St. Jerome, St. Augustine, Theophylact, and others.
Furthermore, Origen here takes "enemies" to mean the demons; for these, as sworn and eternal foes who solicit us to sin and to hell, we ought to hate with a Vatinian hatred. But this interpretation is mystical and symbolic.
44. EGO AUTEM DICO VOBIS: DILIGITE INIMICOS VESTROS, BENEFACITE HIS QUI ODERUNT VOS, ET ORATE PRO PERSEQUENTIBUS ET CALUMNIANTIBUS VOS. — The Greek adds "bless those who curse you," so that Christ here commands that enemies be loved in heart, in speech, and in deed: in heart, when He says "love your enemies"; in speech, when He says "bless those who curse you"; in deed, when He adds "do good to those who hate you." Therefore Christ here commands: First, that we do not hate our enemies but love them with an internal and sincere love. Second, that we do not deny them the common external signs of love, whether in speaking and greeting or in doing good to them. For it would be a sin if, while giving alms to all the poor who are in the city or the hospital, you exclude one, two, or three who have injured you or are your enemies. Third, that we come to the aid of enemies when they are in need, just as we do for friends. He also counsels that we benevolently anticipate them with words and benefits of a particular kind, and thus we may overcome their hatred and bind them to us and make them our friends, according to that saying of Paul: "Overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21), where I said more on this matter. This is the summit of Christian charity, namely the love of enemies. See St. Thomas and the Scholastics, II-II, Question 25, articles 8 and 9.
Moreover, St. Chrysostom here, in homily 18, establishes nine degrees of this love of enemies. "The first is," he says, "not to be the first to begin the injury. The second, when an injury has begun, not to repel it in the same way. The third, not to return like for like, but to be at peace. The fourth, to offer oneself to endure the injury. The fifth, to offer oneself even to greater things than the one who caused it intended. The sixth, not to hate the one from whom one suffers these things. The seventh, even to love the one who injures. The eighth, to gladly bestow benefits upon him as well. The ninth, even to pray to God for one's adversary."
Verse 46: If You Love Those Who Love You
45. UT SITIS FILII PATRIS VESTRI, QUI IN COELIS EST, QUI SOLEM SUUM ORIRI FACIT SUPER BONOS ET MALOS, ET PLUIT SUPER JUSTOS ET INJUSTOS. — "That you may be," that is, that you may show yourselves to be sons of God, or rather that you may truly be sons of God by imitation, that is, like and imitators of God, you who are already sons of God by grace and adoption. In a similar sense He said in verse 9: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall be called sons of God." He therefore commands that in the love of enemies we imitate God, who does good to His impious enemies, giving them rain, sun, crops, fruits, etc. For God is of such lofty mind that He considers no injury and no harm done to Him, however impious and blasphemous the offenders may be. For He feels none; He loses nothing of His honor and glory. Likewise He is so impassible and holy that no anger or vengeance can touch Him. And He is so good and merciful that He pours out His gifts upon His enemies and anticipates them with His grace, drawing and attracting them to reconciliation. Indeed, for the sake of reconciling and saving them, He gave His only Son to the cross. Let us imitate these things as far as we can.
St. Augustine presses the point of "His sun," that is, created by Him: "So that from this," he says, "we may be admonished with what great generosity we ought to bestow upon our enemies, at His command, things that we did not create but received as His gift." Our Salmeron here suggests several further incentives for loving enemies, in volume V, chapter 43.
46. SI ENIM DILIGITIS EOS QUI VOS DILIGUNT, QUAM MERCEDEM HABEBITIS? NONNE ET PUBLICANI HOC FACIUNT? — Tax collectors (Publicani) are so called from "public" (publicum), because they collected and farmed out the public taxes, and therefore ruthlessly extorted from the poor more than they owed or were able to pay. For this reason they were regarded among the Jews as unjust and infamous. "What reward will you have?" — as if to say: None. For if you love only friends, not enemies, as the tax collectors do, God will give you no reward in heaven — both because this love belongs to nature, not to grace and charity (for charity extends to enemies), and because you receive a reward from your friend, namely mutual and reciprocal love. But if you love enemies as well as friends, by the love of both you will merit and actually obtain great grace and glory from God, because both are acts of charity. Charity therefore commands that both friends and enemies be loved; corrupt nature commands only friends. Hence Publius Sulla boasted that he surpassed friends with benefits and enemies with punishments, as he cruelly butchered Gaius Marius, as Plutarch attests in his Life. Other Gentiles did the same. Therefore among them there were a few — but very few — who amazed people by actually loving their enemies, such as Phocion, who, condemned to death and about to be executed, when asked by his friends whether he wished anything to be announced to his son, replied: "I wish that he forget the injuries inflicted on me by the Athenians." Lycurgus, king of the Lacedaemonians, who had lost an eye at the hands of a certain young man, received the youth from the people to punish him however he wished. Instead, he gave him an excellent education, and when he was now trained in upright character, brought him into the theater and showed him to the people: "Behold," he said, "the one whom I received from you as an unjust and violent man — I now return to you as a virtuous and civic-minded citizen." So Plutarch in his Life of Lycurgus. If the Gentiles did this, led by reason and nature for the sake of temporal glory, what should a Christian do, led by faith and grace for the prize of blessed eternity?
47. ET SI SALUTAVERITIS FRATRES VESTROS TANTUM, QUID AMPLIUS FACITIS? NONNE ET ETHNICI HOC FACIUNT? — For "greet" the Greek has aspásēsthe, that is, to greet with a kiss and an embrace, which was the ancient manner of greeting among the Greeks and Romans, and indeed among the first Christians, according to the saying: "Greet one another with a holy kiss" (2 Corinthians 13:12). See what was said there. Hence Vatablus translates: "If you have embraced, or if you have greeted with an embrace only your brothers, what more do you do than even the tax collectors and Gentiles?" Christ therefore teaches here that not only brothers and friends are to be greeted, but also strangers and enemies. Therefore, if you are of a generous spirit, greet your enemy before he greets you, just as much as your friend; and much more, return the greeting of one who greets you, so that you may rather receive the crown of humility and triumph over the pride of your enemy and lay it low, as St. Chrysostom teaches in homily 18. Under the term "greeting" understand all other signs of benevolence as well. This is what the Apostle says: "Outdo one another in showing honor" (Romans 12:10).
Verse 48: Be Perfect as Your Heavenly Father Is Perfect
48. ESTOTE ERGO VOS PERFECTI, SICUT ET PATER VESTER COELESTIS PERFECTUS EST. — The word "you" has emphasis, as if to say: You have been set apart from the Gentiles and chosen by God, so that you may be His faithful ones, friends, sons, and heirs. Therefore imitate the holiness and perfection of your heavenly Father. The word "therefore" refers partly to the immediately preceding discussion about the love of enemies, as if to say: The Gentiles also love, but only those who are their friends. You therefore, O faithful, who are friends and sons of God, and who therefore ought to surpass the Gentiles, love all, enemies as well as friends, just as your Father extends His love to absolutely everyone. Be therefore perfect specifically in love and kindness, so that you exclude no one from it, but widen and expand it to all — enemies as well as friends — and embrace with the same love both those from whom you hope for nothing and those from whom you expect something. But partly the word "therefore" refers to all the preceding discussion. For this maxim is the conclusion and summary of everything said in this chapter, as if to say: Thus far I have explained the commandments of God that establish the perfection of every virtue. Be therefore perfect in meekness, purity of heart, patience, chastity, charity, and every virtue that the law and the commandments of God prescribe.
One may ask: Is this perfection a counsel or a precept? The answer is that it is partly a counsel and partly a precept. First, it is a precept that every faithful Christian in his own state strive to be perfect — that is, to love enemies as perfectly as friends, and to observe perfectly all the other commandments of God. For Christ here speaks to all the faithful, as is clear from the preceding context. Hence we learn morally that all Christians are obligated to tend toward the perfection of their state, office, and rank; for this is required in order that they be sons of the heavenly Father, as Christ says. Whoever therefore desires to be a son and heir of this Father must imitate Him in perfection. And so either the hope of that great inheritance must be abandoned, or if we wish to preserve the adoption of sons, it must be maintained by imitating the Father's holiness and perfection. For, as St. Cyprian says in his sermon On the Goodness of Patience, it is unbecoming for children, especially of such and so great a Father, to be degenerate. Indeed, St. James in chapter 1, addressing not religious but all the faithful, says: "That you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." And St. Peter, in his first Epistle, chapter 1: "Be holy yourselves in all your conduct, for it is written: 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'" Indeed, God Himself said to Abraham: "Walk before Me, and be perfect" (Genesis 17). Therefore everyone in his own rank and office ought to be exact and perfect, so that he performs each work precisely according to the standard of reason and law, as Ecclesiasticus 33:23 says: "In all your works be preeminent." For a preeminent grammarian is valued more than a mediocre orator — so that you may hear the Bridegroom's words about the bride: "How beautiful are your steps in sandals, O daughter of the Prince!" (Song of Songs 7:1). For if soldiers in battle desire to be the bravest, students in school the most learned, craftsmen in their trade the most precise, servants in serving their master the most obedient — why should not Christians, called by Christ to holiness and perfection, desire to be the most holy and most perfect? Blessed Teresa used to say that God loves above all others those who are perfect, and makes them, as it were, captains and leaders of the rest, so that they may convert, save, and perfect many. Hence she herself made a vow to do in every work whatever would be more perfect and to the greater glory of God. So Noah, in Genesis 6, "pleased God" and was the restorer of the world lost by the flood, because he was "perfect in his generations and walked with God." See St. Chrysostom, book III Against the Detractors of the Monastic Life, where he teaches that the precepts of Christ oblige both secular and religious persons, and therefore both ought to strive for perfection, each in his own state and rank, according to God's word to Israel: "You shall be perfect and without blemish before the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 18:13); and that of Paul: "For the rest, brothers, rejoice, be perfect" (2 Corinthians 13); and: "That we may present every person perfect in Christ Jesus" (Colossians 1:28).
Second, this perfection is a counsel insofar as it extends to the observance not only of the precepts but also of the evangelical counsels, such as voluntary poverty, chastity, and religious obedience, etc. — about which Christ said: "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me" (Matthew 19:21).
Furthermore, this perfection properly consists in charity and love, especially of enemies. For this is the perfection of the way, since the perfection of the fatherland consists in the vision and enjoyment of God. This perfection and holiness must be great, especially in religious, because it is great in God, to whom they have consecrated themselves and whom they ought to imitate, as Christ here commands. Christ tacitly suggests that the way and means of attaining exceptional perfection and holiness is for a person to exercise himself in the love of enemies — both because this is the highest and most difficult act of charity, and because this is the greatest and most exceptional victory over oneself. For such a person generously conquers anger, vengeance, and the other passions of the soul, and powerfully rules and commands his entire soul. Moreover, God repays so generous a charity and virtue with a far more generous grace. Thus a certain holy virgin, as related by Tauler, when asked by what means she had arrived at such great holiness, replied: "Those who were troublesome or hostile to me, I loved with a singular love, and to the one by whom I had been injured I always bestowed a special benefit that I would not otherwise have given him." Namely, this is the way to avenge, to conquer, and to overwhelm maleficence with beneficence. Hence it was the supreme virtue in Christ to pray on the cross for His crucifiers, saying: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." So Saints Paul and Stephen attained perfection by praying for the Jews who were stoning them and persecuting them to death, and by preaching to them and doing them good with every resource and effort. Finally, this perfection is most required in an apostle and an apostolic man. For nothing so moves the hearts of unbelievers to believe in Christ as the holiness of those who preach, which often moves more than miracles themselves. Hear St. Chrysostom, homily 47 on Matthew: "The great Apostles were brought about by a true and unfeigned contempt of glory and money, and because they had absolutely no care for any of these worldly things. For if they had not possessed this, if they had been slaves to their passions as we are, even if they had raised innumerable people from the dead, they would not only have done no good, but would not even have escaped the name of deceivers. Therefore it is the discipline of life that shines everywhere."
SICUT ET PATER VESTER COELESTIS PERFECTUS EST. — That is, He perfectly loves all without exception, He does good to all, both the wicked and the good, He pours out upon all the rays of His goodness, as if He were a kind of perpetual sun of beneficence, who expects no advantage from anyone, but out of sheer love desires to share His goods with others, so much so that He contends with the malice and ingratitude of men; for few love in return one who is so loving and beneficent toward them, as is fitting. The word "as" signifies likeness, not equality; for we cannot equal the perfection of God, but it infinitely surpasses and transcends all our own; therefore we must imitate it from afar as best we can. Admirably St. Leo, Sermon 1 On the Fast of the Tenth Month, says: "We have found that man was made in the image of God so that he might be an imitator of his Author; and that this is the natural dignity of our race, if in us, as in a kind of mirror, the form of divine goodness shines forth." Also illustrious on this point is that saying of Gregory on the Apostle's statement that we are the offspring of God: "We are called the race of men," he says, "not as born from His nature, but as voluntarily created by His Spirit, and adoptively restored. Therefore each person is raised to this nobility to the degree that, through the image received, he is renewed in likeness to Him by imitation." So St. Gregory, Moralia, book XX, chapter 16.
Therefore the perfection that Christ here requires from a Christian is not human but divine, and similar to the perfection of God — the kind, namely, that a father requires of a son. For He Himself is our Father, not only by nature, but also by grace; for through grace we become "partakers of the divine nature," as St. Peter says: therefore we are made truly sons of God, and, as it were, certain gods on earth. For this reason St. Peter, I Epistle I, 16, sets before Christians as a mirror that saying of Leviticus 11:44: "You shall be holy, because I am holy." And Paul, Ephesians 5:1: "Be imitators of God, as most beloved children." St. John, I Epistle, chapter 3, 1: "See what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called and should be sons of God." Admirably St. Cyprian, in his sermon On Jealousy and Envy: "If for men," he says, "it is a joyful and glorious thing to have children who resemble them, and it delights all the more to have begotten offspring who correspond to the father with similar features in succession; how much greater is the joy in God the Father, when someone is so spiritually born that by his deeds and praises the divine nobility is proclaimed?" Furthermore, St. Augustine, Epistle 85 to Consentius: "Let us consider," he says, "that we are so much more similar to God, the more we are able to be more just by participation in Him." Therefore St. Leo vigorously spurs Christians on, Sermon 1 On the Nativity, saying: "Recognize, O Christian, your dignity, and having been made a partaker of the divine nature, do not return to your former baseness by a degenerate way of life; remember whose head and whose body you are a member of." For, as Paul says to the Athenians, Acts 17:28: "We are also His offspring: since therefore we are the offspring of God," etc.
St. Thomas (or whoever is the author) wrote on this subject Opusculum 62, On the Divine Virtues, in which he teaches that the faithful ought to imitate God, put on His divine character traits, and individually emulate His truth, wisdom, gentleness, patience, justice, generosity, mercy, and the other attributes of God, and, insofar as a creature is able, follow and imitate its Creator.
Therefore the perfection of God consists: First, in the most ample love of all, both the good and the wicked, which is what Christ properly has in view here.
Second, in gentleness, patience, moderation and temperance of the appetites, and the consequence of these, namely, the highest peace and tranquility of soul, so that no injury, anger, or revenge touches Him, and He is imperturbable and impassible; so also we, if we wish to be perfect, must be gentle, tranquil and, as far as possible, imperturbable, and therefore must mortify anger and the other passions of the soul. Hence St. Ambrose, in his book On Jacob and the Blessed Life, chapter 8: "It belongs to a perfect man," he says, "like a brave soldier to withstand the assaults of the most grievous misfortunes, to undergo conflicts, and like a prudent helmsman to steer his ship in a storm, and by facing the rising waves to avoid shipwreck by plowing through them rather than by turning aside." And St. Cyprian, in his book On the Good of Patience, citing these words of Christ: "Thus," he says, "He declared that the sons of God are made perfect, thus He showed that those restored by heavenly birth are brought to completion, if the patience of God the Father remains in us, if the divine likeness, which Adam had lost by sin, is made manifest and shines forth in our actions. What glory it is to become like God, what and how great a happiness to possess in one's virtues what can be matched with the divine praises!"
Therefore the singular and most effective means to perfection is if one diligently investigates the state of his soul, and identifies the root and principal vice, from which the rest spring forth like fibers from a root; once this is known, he should assail it continually with all his strength until he uproots it; thus he will quickly become perfect: for example, in Peter the root and dominant vice, from which the rest spring, is pride; in Paul it is gluttony, in James it is lust, in John it is sloth, in Philip it is anger, in Andrew it is sadness, in Matthew it is pusillanimity; let each one recognize his own vice, and once recognized, mortify it with suitable weapons and means; thus he will quickly become perfect. On this subject St. Gregory, Moralia, book V, chapter 30, citing that saying about God from Wisdom 19: "But You, O Lord, judge with tranquility"; adds this: "We must indeed know well that as often as we restrain the turbulent motions of the soul under the virtue of gentleness, we are striving to return to the likeness of our Creator."
Third, God looks down from on high upon all earthly things as worthless and paltry, and gloriously sits enthroned over all of heaven and the heavenly beings; so also a person aspiring to perfection should despise riches, pleasures, and earthly honors — over which so many lawsuits, quarrels, and wars are waged — as things as worthless as flies, gnats, and fleas, and should look up to and strive for heavenly things, which belong to God, to heroes, and to angels. On this point St. Basil, Sermon 1 On the Formation of the Monk and Religious Who Aspires to Perfection, asserts that one who has bid farewell to the world must first of all think, and always turn over in his mind, that he has already passed beyond the bounds of human nature, and has given himself over to a way of life that is as far removed from the body as possible, and has therefore undertaken to imitate the manner of life of the angels; since indeed this is proper to the angelic nature: to be free from earthly bonds and not to be distracted at all toward contemplating any other beauty, but to keep one's eyes constantly fixed upon the face of God.
Fourth, the mind and will of God are most just, most holy, and most perfect; therefore we must put these on, so that we may become like God, indeed one with God. Hear St. Bernard, in his sermon To the Brethren of Mont Dieu: "Unity of spirit with God," he says, "for a man who has his heart lifted up, is the perfection of a will advancing toward God, when he not only wills what He wills, but is not merely moved in affection but perfected in affection, so that he cannot will anything except what God wills. For to will what God wills — this is already to be like God; but to be unable to will anything except what God wills — this is already to be what God is, for whom willing and being are one and the same."
Fifth, God is of a great and lofty spirit, who transcends all things, and in His blessed and tranquil eternity is always consistent with Himself and at rest, and therefore draws and converts all things to Himself; so also we, with a lofty spirit, must rise above and master all prosperity and adversity; thus we shall become, as it were, omnipotent and divine, and shall draw all people and all things to ourselves, as certain gods on earth, raised up from the earth and carried up to heaven.
Hear St. Bernard, in his sermon To the Brethren of Mont Dieu: "There is another likeness closer to God, inasmuch as it is voluntary, which consists in the virtues, in which the soul, by the greatness of its virtue, longs, as it were, to imitate the greatness of the Supreme Good, and by the constancy of its perseverance in good, the unchangeableness of His eternity."
The same author, Sermon 11 on the Song of Songs: "You will be," he says, "amid the adversities and prosperities of changeable times, holding a certain image of eternity — namely, this inviolable and unshaken equality of constancy of soul, blessing the Lord at all times, and thereby claiming for yourself even amid the uncertain events and certain failures of this changeable world, a state, as it were, of perpetual unchangeableness, as you begin to renew and reform yourself in that ancient and distinguished likeness of the eternal God, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration; for just as He Himself is, so also will you be in this world — neither timid in adversity, nor dissolute in prosperity."
And after some intervening remarks, teaching that such a person considers it unworthy of himself to be conformed to this passing world, and worthy to be recalled to the likeness of God, in whose image he was created, he adds: "And through this, also compelling, as is fitting, this world which was made for him, in a wonderful reversal to conform itself to him; as all things begin to cooperate for good, as if in their proper and natural form, having cast off their degenerate appearance, recognizing their Lord, for whose service they were created. Hence I believe that saying which the Only-begotten spoke of Himself — namely, that if He were lifted up from the earth, He would draw all things to Himself — can also be common to all His brethren, to those, that is, whom the Father foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth (I say it boldly), will draw all things to myself. For I do not rashly usurp for myself the words of my brother, whose
Moreover, all perfection in this life is only incipient and imperfect; for concupiscence, like the Jebusite dwelling in our members, can be subdued but cannot be uprooted; but full and perfect perfection will be in heaven, where this corruptible body will put on incorruption, and this mortal body will put on blessed immortality; where concupiscence and death will be swallowed up by glory, and God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15). For there, there will be no desire, because charity will fill all things. Hence the Apostle, Philippians 3:12, says of himself: "Not that I have already obtained, or am already perfect; but I press on, if somehow I may lay hold of it." And shortly after: "But stretching forth to those things that are ahead, I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus." St. Augustine wrote on this subject in his book On the Perfection of Justice.