Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, Christ forbids us to judge others and to give what is holy to dogs. Secondly, in verse 7, He teaches that one must persist in prayer. Thirdly, in verse 13, He asserts that the way to heaven is narrow and entered by few. Fourthly, in verse 15, He warns that false prophets and teachers must be avoided, who hide a wolf in sheep's clothing. Fifthly, in verse 24, He declares that he is wise who so hears His words that he does them and fulfills them in deed; and who is therefore like one building a house not on sand, but on rock, which resists all winds and storms.
Vulgate Text: Matthew 7:1-29
1. Judge not, that you may not be judged. 2. For with what judgment you have judged, you shall be judged; and with what measure you have measured, it shall be measured to you again. 3. And why do you see the mote in your brother's eye, but do not see the beam in your own eye? 4. Or how do you say to your brother: Let me cast out the mote from your eye; and behold, a beam is in your own eye? 5. Hypocrite, cast out first the beam from your own eye, and then you shall see clearly to cast out the mote from your brother's eye. 6. Give not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turning upon you, they tear you. 7. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. 8. For every one that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks, it shall be opened. 9. Or what man is there among you, of whom if his son shall ask bread, will he reach him a stone? 10. Or if he shall ask him a fish, will he reach him a serpent? 11. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him! 12. All things therefore whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them. For this is the Law and the Prophets. 13. Enter by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. 14. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it. 15. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16. By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17. Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit: but the evil tree brings forth evil fruit. 18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. 19. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. 20. Therefore by their fruits you shall know them. 21. Not every one who says to Me: Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. 22. Many will say to Me in that day: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and cast out devils in Your name, and done many wonderful works in Your name? 23. And then will I profess unto them: I never knew you: depart from Me, you who work iniquity. 24. Every one therefore who hears these My words, and does them, shall be likened to a wise man who built his house upon a rock; 25. and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it did not fall; for it was founded upon a rock. 26. And every one who hears these My words, and does them not, shall be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; 27. and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the ruin thereof. 28. And it came to pass when Jesus had finished these words, that the people were in admiration at His doctrine. 29. For He was teaching them as one having power, and not as their Scribes and Pharisees.
Verse 1: Judge Not, That You May Not Be Judged
1. JUDGE NOT (rashly and maliciously), THAT YOU MAY NOT BE JUDGED. — Note: Christ does not here forbid the public judgment of magistrates, by which they condemn the guilty and absolve the innocent, for this is necessary in every commonwealth; but only private judgment, namely when it is rash, or curious, or detractive: for this is repugnant to charity and justice, and to God Himself, whose judgment we usurp; for we are given to our neighbor not as judges, but as companions: therefore, if we rashly hold a bad opinion of him, we do him an injury, and strip him of his reputation in our own mind and, if we speak it with the mouth, before others as well. But reputation is a great good, and greater than riches. So St. Jerome, Bede, Basil in Shorter Rules, Rule 164, and St. Augustine: «Those things whose motive is doubtful, he says, He wills us to interpret in the better sense.» For philautia, that is, self-love and envy, impel a man to interpret those things in the worse sense. Whence the Gloss: «Scarcely anyone, it says, is found free from this vice, namely to favor his own and easily reproach the things of others.» Hear St. Augustine, Sermon 202 On the Season: «Concerning those things, therefore, which are known to God and unknown to us, we judge our neighbors dangerously. For concerning such the Lord said: Judge not, that you may not be judged. But concerning those things which are open and public evils, we both can and ought to judge and reprove them, yet with charity and love, hating not the man but the sin, detesting not the vicious but the vice, rather the disease than the sick man. For a public adulterer, a plunderer, a habitual drunkard, a traitor, a proud man, if they are not judged or corrected, that will be fulfilled in them which the most keen martyr Cyprian said of such: He who strokes the sinner with flattering words supplies the tinder of sin.» St. Anthony gave this as the cause of the perversity of rash judgment, saying often that we are frequently deceived in our reckoning of deeds: that the judgment of God, who sees all things, is one thing, who judges not from the surface of bodies but from the secrets of minds. And that it was fitting for us to have compassion on one another and to bear one another's burdens, so that, leaving the examination to the Savior, we might look into our own consciences by judging ourselves. So St. Athanasius in his Life.
Note: this is for the most part true, but not always. For Christ, the Apostles and the Saints, who rashly judged no one, were rashly and unjustly judged and condemned by Pilate and the Jews: yet it is always true concerning the judgment of God. Hear St. Augustine, On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount: «The rashness with which you punish another will itself punish you; iniquity always harms him who inflicts injury.»
See an apt and illustrious example of this matter in Anastasius Sinaita, Oration On the Holy Synaxis, which I reviewed on James 4:11.
Some codices with Maldonatus add here: «Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned;» but the Greek, Roman, Tertullian, St. Ambrose, Augustine, Chrysostom and others remove this; granted it is found in Luke 6:37.
Leontius, Bishop of Cyprus, in the Life of St. John the Almoner, chapter 35, relates that Vitalius, who was converting many harlots, was struck by a certain man with a slap and judged to be a fornicator; but this judge in turn received a slap from a demon, by whom he was possessed, and could not be freed except as a suppliant in the cell of Vitalius, who was already dead, where they read written on the pavement from heaven: «Men of Alexandria, judge not before the time, until the Lord comes.» Moreover, Leontius tells at greater length how St. John himself took care that he should judge no one, and taught others to do likewise.
Wisely St. Bernard, Sermon 40 on the Canticle: «Excuse the intention, he says, if you cannot excuse the deed: suppose ignorance, suppose oversight, suppose mischance.»
Verse 2: With What Judgment You Judge, You Shall Be Judged
2. FOR WITH WHAT JUDGMENT YOU JUDGE, YOU SHALL BE JUDGED; AND WITH WHAT MEASURE YOU MEASURE, IT SHALL BE MEASURED BACK TO YOU. — "In what" and "with what," that is, "by what" and "with what," meaning: with whatever kind of judgment you judge others, such also will you undergo — namely rash, curious, defamatory judgment from men, and from God a curious, exact, rigid, and severe judgment; for God cannot be rash. But if you judge the words and deeds of others candidly and kindly, interpreting them in the better part, you will likewise experience a candid and kind judgment of your own words and deeds from both God and men. «For in order that your sins might be examined,» says St. Chrysostom, «you yourself first laid down the law, by judging more severely about the things your neighbor had sinned, because judgment without mercy comes to him who has shown no mercy.» James 2:13. For more on the harms and remedies of rash judgment, see St. Augustine, Sermon 202 On the Seasons, and more fully our Alphonsus Rodriguez, Treatise IV On Perfection, which is On Fraternal Charity, chapter 15 and following; and Joannes Busaeus in the Panarium, under Rash Judgment. Indeed Cassian, Book V of the Institutes of the Renunciants, chapter 30, introduces Abbot Machetes narrating about himself that he fell, by God's just permission, into the three very faults for which he had judged others, and was judged for them. St. Dorotheus, Instructions, chapter 6, which is entirely On Not Judging, narrates that an Angel brought the soul of a certain adulterer to an elder who had condemned him, and said to him: «Behold, the one you judged has died: where then do you command me to bring the soul — to heaven, or to hell? For you made yourself a judge of the dead and usurped the place of Christ the Judge; therefore judge this soul as a judge.» Struck with remorse by these words, the elder begged pardon and spent his whole life in penance. Finally, how harmful it is to judge the deeds of others and how useful to judge oneself and one's own, our Matthaeus Raderus demonstrates with beautiful maxims and examples of many Saints in the Viridarium, Part III, chapter 1, verse 2, where among others this golden saying appears: «A crooked measuring-line distorts even what is straight» — namely, melancholy, and the inclination born from it to suspect ill of others, is most deceitful, and gravely deceives itself, and thereby deceives others. Therefore let one who suffers from this malady learn from the experience of his suspicions that they are for the most part false and deceptive; and let him say: «I will no longer believe you, because up to now I have found you to be liars.»
So one who suffers from vertigo of the head, so that everything seems to spin and revolve, says to himself: «You are mistaken; things themselves do not spin, but your brain spins: your vertigo spins you.»
And with what measure you measure, it shall be measured back to you. — This is a proverb meaning the same thing, that is to say: With whatever manner and measure you judge others, with the same you yourself will in turn be judged, both by men and by God; as you show yourself to others, so others will show themselves to you — namely: if you are kind, they will be kind; if severe, severe; if rash, rash. Understand "measure" as similar, not equal. For our measure cannot be equaled to the divine. For God's judgment, whether His severity or His mercy, far surpasses ours, although His severity is less than our merits and faults deserve. For God punishes sins less than they deserve. Following Christ the Lord, St. James, 4:11, says: «Do not speak evil of one another, brothers. He who speaks evil of his brother, or judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law.» See what was said there.
Verse 3: The Mote and the Beam
3. AND WHY DO YOU SEE THE SPECK IN YOUR BROTHER'S EYE, BUT DO NOT NOTICE THE BEAM IN YOUR OWN EYE? — In Greek, ou katanoeis, that is, "you do not observe." "The speck:" in Greek to karphos, that is, a speck, straw, twig, chaff, a thin splinter of wood, which easily flies or blows into the eyes; for this is rightly opposed to a thick beam. "Speck" properly means the shoot of a young tree, or the first tender sprout of any plant, that is, the first thin growth budding and bursting forth from it; hence it signifies the smallest and thinnest things, such as here are light faults and defects; the beam opposed to it denotes graver crimes. He elegantly alludes to the vision of the eye. For the eye does not see itself and its own blemishes, but those of others. In like manner, critics do not see nor judge their own defects, but those of others: to themselves therefore they are blind, like moles; toward others most keen-sighted, like lynxes; they are offended by even the smallest vices of others, but flatter their own, however great. Horace elegantly chides this class of men with a similar figure, saying:
When you, blear-eyed, overlook your own faults with anointed eyes,
Why in the vices of friends do you see as keenly
As either an eagle or the Epidaurian serpent?
Here the old proverb is relevant: «We do not see what is in the knapsack on our back,» about which there exists a fable in Aesop: «Each person, he says, has two knapsacks, that is, pouches or bags, one hanging before the chest, the other from the shoulders and back: but into the front one they put the faults of others, into the rear one their own.» Hence Persius:
As no one, no one, attempts to descend into himself,
But the knapsack on the back of the one ahead is looked at:
this is the self-love inborn in men.
With the same fable, Abbot Prior corrected and rebuked critical anchorites in the Lives of the Fathers, Book V, booklet 9, number 9. For he filled a sack with much sand and threw it on his back, but carried before him in his hand a small basket containing a little sand. When asked why he did this, he replied: «That sack which has much sand represents my sins, and because they are many, I put them on my back so that I would not grieve for them and weep; but that little sand represents the sins of this brother, and they are before my face, and I busy myself with them judging my brother.» In the same place, number 8, Abbot Pastor gave this rule of life to someone: «Despise no one, condemn no one, speak ill of no one, and God will grant you rest, and your dwelling will be without disturbance.» In the same place, number 3, when Abbot Isaac had judged someone, an Angel stood beside him and said: «God sent me to tell you: Where do you wish me to send that brother whom you have condemned?» Having heard this, Isaac humbly begged pardon, and the Angel said to him: «Rise, God forgives you, but be careful henceforth not to adjudge anyone before God adjudges him.»
Verse 4: Let Me Cast Out the Mote from Your Eye
4. OR HOW CAN YOU SAY TO YOUR BROTHER: "LET ME REMOVE THE SPECK FROM YOUR EYE," AND BEHOLD, THERE IS A BEAM IN YOUR OWN EYE? — That is to say: With what effrontery, with what impudence do you wish to criticize and correct the light fault of your neighbor, when you yourself tolerate a beam-sized and monstrous crime in your own mind?
Verse 5: Hypocrite, First Cast Out the Beam from Your Own Eye
5. HYPOCRITE, FIRST REMOVE THE BEAM FROM YOUR OWN EYE, AND THEN YOU WILL SEE TO REMOVE (in Greek, diablepseis ekbalein, that is, you will look through, or see clearly so as to cast out) THE SPECK FROM YOUR BROTHER'S EYE. — That is to say: Just as it is impossible for one who has a beam in his eye to see and pluck out a thin speck from his brother's eye — for the beam occupies and blinds the eye, so that it cannot see a distant speck — so likewise it can scarcely happen that one who veils and oppresses his mind and reason with a grave crime can rightly see and correct the smallest faults of others. For how can you hate small faults, you who love great ones and cherish them in yourself? How can you see small ones in others, you who do not notice the greatest in yourself? Therefore first cleanse the eye of your mind from the greatest faults, so that you may then learn to rightly judge and correct lesser ones in others.
Verse 6: Give Not That Which Is Holy to Dogs
6. DO NOT GIVE WHAT IS HOLY TO DOGS, NOR CAST YOUR PEARLS BEFORE SWINE, LEST THEY TRAMPLE THEM UNDER THEIR FEET, AND TURN AND TEAR YOU TO PIECES. — Christ, according to His custom, continues to teach by parables and proverbs, as I said in Canon 24. Here is a double proverb meaning the same thing; both are rightly connected to what precedes: for since He had shortly before shown who and what sort of persons those should be who correct others, here He in turn teaches who should be corrected and taught, and who should not. Therefore "holy" here means the same as "pearls," namely the precious and heavenly doctrine of the Gospel, of faith and truth, and consequently also the Holy Sacraments. Now by "dogs" and "swine" the same persons are denoted, namely the perverse and obstinate, both because of their uncleanness, in which they resemble swine, and because of their rebellious barking, in which they resemble dogs. Christ therefore forbids anyone from trying to teach and correct those who are obstinate and incorrigible in their crimes, like dogs and swine. He adds the reason: because they, like hungry, stupid, and shameless swine, despise and trample holy doctrines, which are food for the soul, as contrary to their appetites and filthiness; and then they are incited against the author of the discourse, and they tear him apart either with words or blows — in Greek rhexosin, that is, "they rend." Understand this as applying in itself: for incidentally Christ the Lord, St. Stephen, St. Paul, and others preached the Gospel to the most perverse and obstinate Jews, and sharply rebuked and chastised their unbelief, even though they knew they would be killed by them for it. For they did this partly to give public testimony to the truth and glory of God; partly as a witness against the inexcusable impiety of the wicked; and partly for the benefit of other bystanders and to avoid scandal. For in that case, holy things are not given to swine, but rather to God and His elect.
So says St. Augustine, who by "dogs" understands assailants of the truth; by "swine," its despisers. St. Chrysostom, however, by "dogs" understands extremely unclean gentiles; by "swine," heretics devoted to the belly; by "what is holy" he understands Baptism and the Eucharist, which ought not to be given to dogs and swine, that is, to the unclean and unworthy; "pearls" are the mysteries of truth enclosed in divine words in the depth of the sea, that is, in the depth of Scripture.
Verse 7: Ask, and It Shall Be Given You
7. ASK, AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN TO YOU; SEEK, AND YOU SHALL FIND; KNOCK, AND IT SHALL BE OPENED TO YOU. — He returns to the subject of prayer, which He began to treat in chapter 6, verse 5 and following, and He earnestly exhorts to it.
Ask. — Namely, through prayer, ask God for what I have taught you thus far, as things necessary for you but arduous and difficult, and especially those things which I prescribed to be asked for in the Lord's Prayer, chapter 6, verse 7; for Luke, chapter 11, verse 9, refers these to that prayer.
Note: these three — ask, seek, knock — mean the same thing, namely the most urgent petition. For "to ask" signifies confidence, which is most necessary in prayer; "to seek," zeal and diligence — for whoever seeks something directs his entire mental effort toward what he is looking for; "to knock," perseverance. Therefore the meaning is that one must pray confidently, ardently, diligently, and perseveringly.
So says St. Augustine, who, having said in Book II of On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, chapter 33, that "ask" pertains to obtaining the strength by which we fulfill God's commandments, "seek" to finding the truth, and "knock" to opening heaven, toward which we are heading, because «the possession itself is opened to one who knocks» — retracting this same point in Book I of the Retractations, chapter 19, says: «I thought I should laboriously explain how these three differ from one another, but it is far better to refer them all to the most urgent petition. For He showed this when He concluded everything with the same word, saying: 'How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask, and seek, and knock.'»
To this St. Chrysostom adds, who also says: «Ask, he says, with prayers, praying day and night; seek with zeal and labor, for the gift is not given to the negligent; knock with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; for he who knocks at a door, knocks with his hand.»
Again, these three denote a crescendo and increase of prayer, which ought to grow gradually and to increase and intensify its affection. For something is asked, first by speaking; then, if no answer comes, by crying out; if crying out is not enough, a way is sought by which one may be heard and obtain what one asks — for example, a crack through which to send one's voice into the house to the master; if even that does not suffice, one knocks at the door, and by knocking rouses the master of the house to answer. So likewise the one praying ought gradually to intensify his voice, not so much of the mouth as of the heart, so that first he asks by praying and crying out to God; then by seeking every possible way to rouse and move God, as it were, to grant what is sought; finally, with a great and most intense desire, by knocking, as it were, upon heaven and upon the very heart of God, that He may open it and lavishly pour forth the gifts that are asked for. Hence Remigius explains it thus: «We ask by praying, we seek by living rightly, we knock by persevering.» Others say: Ask by faith, seek by hope, knock by charity. For prayer properly is an act of hope, which begins from faith and is perfected by charity. Finally Climacus, Step 28: «Ask, he says, through mourning; seek through obedience; knock through patience.»
Mystically, St. Bernard in the Ladder of Monks says: «Seek, he says, by reading; you will find by meditation; knock by prayer, and it will be opened to you by contemplation. Reading places solid food in the mouth; meditation breaks it; prayer obtains its flavor; contemplation is the very sweetness that delights and refreshes.» He defines these four as follows: «Meditation is the diligent action of the mind, investigating the knowledge of hidden truth under the guidance of one's own reason. Contemplation is the elevation of the mind suspended in God, tasting the joys of eternal sweetness. Reading inquires; meditation discovers; contemplation savors; prayer asks.»
Verse 8: Every One Who Asks, Receives
8. FOR EVERYONE WHO ASKS RECEIVES; AND HE WHO SEEKS FINDS; AND TO HIM WHO KNOCKS, IT SHALL BE OPENED. — For the urgency and perseverance of prayer merits this. Understand this to apply if one asks for what is fitting and in the manner that is fitting, and unless it is more expedient not to receive what is asked for; for sometimes we ask for things that seem salutary, but God sees they will be harmful to us; therefore He mercifully and wisely denies them, just as a mother refuses to give a knife to a child who asks for it, with which he would hurt himself. God therefore hears and answers our prayers, not according to our will, but according to our salvation.
Elegantly and truly St. Augustine (or whoever the author may be), in the book On Salutary Admonitions, chapter 28, says: «The prayer of the just, he says, is the key of heaven: the petition ascends, and God's mercy descends.» The same St. Augustine, in the Book of Sentences found in Prosper, sentence 87: «What is useful for the sick person, the physician knows better. And so God sometimes mercifully does not hear.» The same, Epistle 43 to Paulinus: «The Lord often denies what we want, so that He may grant what we would prefer.» The same, On the Lord's Sermon: «When God gives more slowly, He commends the good things, He does not deny them: things long desired are sweeter; things quickly given become cheap; by asking and seeking, the appetite grows so that you may receive.» The Gloss: «He does not deny Himself to those who ask, who freely offered Himself to those who did not ask; and those who seek will find Him, who gave to those not seeking that they might find; and He will open to those who knock, He who cries out: 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock.'»
Verse 9: Will He Give Him a Stone?
9. OR WHAT MAN IS THERE AMONG YOU WHO, IF HIS SON ASKS FOR BREAD, WILL GIVE HIM A STONE? — For "or" the Greek has e, that is, "whether," which is clearer in this place. Our translator, however, rendered it "or," because e also means "or." Thus "or" is used for "whether" when it is a mark of interrogation, especially of a forceful, double-horned, and divided one, as it is here. So the Comic Poet in the Eunuch says: «Or (that is, whether) did I not know where you were going?» But "or" is more forceful than "whether," as if to say: Either God will give to us His children what we ask, if a human father gives his children the bread they request and not a stone; or if God does not give it, surely neither will a man. For God is more generous than man. The word "or" therefore combines God with man, and sets Him above man.
Verse 10: Will He Give Him a Serpent?
10. OR IF HE ASKS FOR A FISH, WILL HE GIVE HIM A SERPENT? — For a serpent has the appearance and shape of a fish, so that it could be deceitfully substituted for a fish, but only by a spiteful enemy, which a father is not. He says the same thing with another comparison, but a more effective one: for if a father were to give a stone to a son asking for bread, he would be giving merely a useless and inedible thing; but if he gives a serpent to one asking for a fish, he gives not only something useless but also something harmful and poisonous, for the serpent, if eaten by the son, would kill him with its venom. Therefore the father who did this would be an impious parricide, one who did what is most remote from fatherly piety and love toward children. Hence this is proposed by Christ as something ordinarily and morally impossible.
Verse 11: How Much More Will Your Father Give Good Things
11. IF YOU THEN, BEING EVIL, KNOW HOW TO GIVE GOOD GIFTS (in Greek domata, that is, gifts) TO YOUR CHILDREN, HOW MUCH MORE WILL YOUR FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN GIVE GOOD THINGS TO THOSE WHO ASK HIM! — "Being evil," both by the natural inclination to evil which you contracted from nature corrupted by sin, Gen. 8:21 — so says St. Jerome — and by your own will and habits: for He tacitly reproaches them and their evil ways. Hence it is clear that these words are said to the common people, not to the Apostles. For the Apostles were good; but among the people many were evil and entangled in vices. Hence St. Augustine: «By 'evil,' he says, He means lovers of the world.» St. Chrysostom says differently: «In comparison with God, all, even the good, he says, appear evil, just as in comparison with the sun, all things, even bright ones, appear dark.»
You know. — That is, you are accustomed. It is a metalepsis, because we properly "know" the things we are accustomed to doing; hence "to know" signifies "to be accustomed." So it is said, Psalm 103: «The sun knows its setting,» that is, the sun knows where it is accustomed to set; it knows perfectly well the path so often traveled by it; hence it travels along it daily to the place where it sets, that is, the sun sets daily where it is accustomed to set.
He will give good things. — Luke has: «He will give the good Spirit;» for all good things are given through the grace of the Holy Spirit, says Remigius. By "good things" understand true and solid goods, which lead to blessedness. Hence St. Augustine: «Gold, he says, and silver are goods, not because they make you good, but whence you may do good.»
Verse 12: The Golden Rule — This Is the Law and the Prophets
12. THEREFORE WHATEVER YOU WISH THAT MEN WOULD DO TO YOU, DO SO ALSO TO THEM; FOR THIS IS THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS. — Some think that the word "therefore" here does not have the force of an inference, but is virtually redundant as an enclitic; for when we conclude a discourse or begin a new line of argument, we say: "Therefore, to conclude, let this be the sum of what has been said;" or: "Therefore let this be a new argument for the point proven." Hence the Syriac omits "therefore," as does Luke, chapter 6, verse 31.
Nevertheless "therefore" can properly be taken here as an inferential particle, but in such a way that it draws a conclusion not from what immediately preceded, even though St. Chrysostom would have it so (who explains it thus, that is to say: Therefore, so that the good things that by praying you may obtain from God the Father, so also the good things which your neighbors ask of you, grant to them, just as you wish the same to be granted to you); but He presents this conclusion from what was said earlier and more remotely in the Hebrew manner — namely, from what He said in chapters v and vi, and at the beginning of this chapter, concerning love of neighbor, even of enemies, concerning almsgiving, concerning granting pardon to those who offend, and concerning not judging. Hence Luke vi, 30, joins these sayings together thus: «Give,» he says, «to everyone who asks of you, and from him who takes away your goods do not demand them back; and as you wish that men would do to you, do also to them likewise»; and it is likely that Christ did indeed say and connect these things as Luke has it. The sense therefore is, as if to say: What I have hitherto said here and there about loving one's neighbor, and about giving alms, all these things spring from this first dictate of nature and first principle of moral philosophy, and rest upon this equity: that what you wish to be done to yourself, you should do to others, and what you are unwilling to suffer from others, you should not inflict upon another. Understand this of what you rightly and honorably will and do not will, according to the judgment of right reason: for a glutton, for example, who wishes wine to be poured out for him to the point of drunkenness, cannot lawfully pour it out for others in the same way: but just as he wrongly wishes this for himself, so too he acts wrongly by pouring it out for others in that manner. He alludes to the admonition which Tobit, dying, gave to his son in chapter iv, 16, saying: «What you would hate to be done to you by another, see that you never do to another.»
FOR THIS IS THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS. — As if to say: This is what the Law and the Prophets aim at, this is what they command through various precepts: this is the summary of the Law and the Prophets. For from this principle: «What you wish to be done to yourself, do to another; and what you do not wish to be done to yourself, do not do to another,» it is rightly and particularly drawn out and concluded: you do not wish your life, wife, reputation, goods, etc., to be taken from you: therefore do not take the same from others, but preserve and cherish them. So says St. Augustine.
Note: Christ does not say that the whole law aims at this, because the law also aims at and sanctions the love of God, and indeed most of all: yet this too can be truly said, namely because love of neighbor includes love of God and proceeds from it, as a branch from a root; for a neighbor is not loved with charity except on account of God, who is loved first and for His own sake. Similar is Galatians v, 14 and Romans xiii, 8: «He who,» he says, «loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.» With a similar phrase Ecclesiasticus XII, 13 says: «Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is every man.» See what is said in those places.
Verse 13: Enter by the Narrow Gate
13. ENTER THROUGH THE NARROW GATE: FOR WIDE IS THE GATE, AND BROAD THE WAY, THAT LEADS TO DESTRUCTION, AND MANY THERE ARE WHO ENTER THROUGH IT. — The "narrow gate," by which one enters heaven unto blessedness and the banquet of heavenly glory, is the law of God, says St. Augustine, which restrains and constricts our desires: likewise obedience, continence, mortification, the daily cross which the law commands us either to undertake or to bear. The "wide gate," which leads to perdition or Gehenna, is concupiscence, excessive liberty, gluttony, lust, etc. Christ also looks back to His own partly sanctions, partly interpretations of the laws, which He reviewed and established in chapter v, saying: «Whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be liable to the fire of Gehenna. Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. But I say to you, do not swear at all, etc.; do not resist evil: but if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the other also. Give to him who asks of you. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect, etc.» For all these things are arduous and narrow. As if to say: I seem to you to have narrowed the way of salvation by My precepts, but know that the way is of itself narrow, and therefore I have not narrowed it, but have only described it as it truly is: for the way to heavenly glory is purity and holiness, which in this state of corrupted nature consists in the strict restraint and mortification of the passions, because Adam fell through liberty and pleasure, and in him we all fell into sin, and thence into all concupiscence: hence the remedy for all these things is nothing other than strict continence, the cross, and mortification; for contraries are cured by contraries. St. Ambrose, on Psalm 1: «There are,» he says, «two ways: one of the just, the other of sinners; one of equity, the other of iniquity. The way of the just is narrower, that of the unjust broader: the former narrower because of sobriety, the latter broader because of drunkenness, that it may hold the wavering.» And a little later, comparing this broad way with the narrow: «Here,» he says, «is the liberty of the passions, there the injury of servitude; here feasting, there fasting; here the intemperance of joys, there the perseverance of tears; here dancing, there prayer; here sweet songs, there heavy groans.» Clement of Alexandria, in Book IV of the Stromata, cites and praises that saying of Hesiod: «Sweat has been set before virtue, and the way to it is long and steep»; and that of Simonides: «Virtue is said to dwell on rocks of difficult approach.» St. Basil, on Psalm 1: «That way,» he says, «which is easy and broad, and with a downward slope, has a deceitful evil demon, who through pleasure drags those who follow him to destruction; but over the rough and steep and arduous way there presides a good Angel, who through strenuous labors undertaken for the attainment of virtue leads his followers to a blessed end.» Wherefore Luke XIII, 24 has: «Strive to enter through the narrow gate»; where for "strive" the Greek has agonizesthe, that is, "agonize," and as it were contend as in a contest and agony, put forth your utmost and greatest strength as though agonizing, about to struggle as if for life, if you conquer, or for death, if you are conquered, according to that saying of the Apostle: «Every man that strives for the mastery abstains from all things; and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.» I Cor. ix, 25. Therefore we enter upon the contest, and in it we agonize and struggle for heaven or hell, for glory or Gehenna, for eternity most blessed or most wretched. Let each one see how he contends in so great a contest; for the arena and the way to life is the cross; the arena and the way to perdition is pleasure. The way to perdition is the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life; the way to life is continence, poverty of spirit, and humility; the way to perdition is love of the world and worldly things; the way to life is contempt of the world and worldly things. Wherefore St. Barlaam told King Josaphat that the way to life is martyrdom, either of blood or of will and penance; for Christ entered upon this way and went before us: for this reason the first Christians and His followers voluntarily offered themselves to martyrdom; those who followed, when persecution ceased, imposed upon themselves a voluntary martyrdom of austere life in monasteries, in deserts and caves. So Damascenus relates in his History, ch. XII.
So St. Perpetua (whom St. Augustine celebrates in Psalm 47 and elsewhere) saw a golden ladder, but on every side enclosed with knives and swords, by which one had to climb into heaven, and by this vision she knew that martyrdom was foretold for herself and her companions. For she saw St. Satyrus, one of her companions, courageously ascending by it, and exhorting the others to follow him, as her Life relates in Surius on the seventh day of March.
Hence again, from this saying of Christ, St. William, from a Duke of Aquitaine become a penitent hermit, gathered that, having cut off all superfluities, one should indulge the body only in necessities: «How many brothers,» he said, «in Egypt, for how many years served the Lord without fish! For how many tyrants placed in hell would the sackcloth of Jerome, the tunic of Benedict, the mat of Eulalius, the tears of Arsenius, the nakedness of the Apostle, the pot of Elisha suffice abundantly outside hell! But woe to us wretches, who, enfeebled in the strength of mind and weighed down by the frailty of the body, convert superfluity into necessity. There is no longer room for charity to enter, where vanity has occupied everything.» He said moreover that a servant of God ought at every hour to examine his thoughts, words, and deeds, lest in them he should happen to offend the eyes of the Creator. That a servant of God ought always to be either praying, or laboring, or meditating on heavenly things. So Bishop Theobald relates in his Life, ch. 23. It is found in Surius on the tenth day of February.
Pythagoras saw the same thing in shadow, who used to say that the way of virtue is at first narrow and strait, but then gradually widens; while the way of pleasure is at first broad, but gradually becomes more and more narrow: «For tribulation and anguish upon the soul of every man who works evil; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works good» (Rom. 2). For the charity and grace of Christ enlarge the heart, so that the faithful one may confidently say with the Psalmist: «I ran the way of Your commandments, when You enlarged my heart» (Ps. 118:32).
The symbol of Pythagoras on this matter was the letter Y, which Virgil explained in an elegant epigram, saying:
The letter of Pythagoras, divided at a two-horned fork,
Seems to set forth the image of human life.
For the way of virtue seeks the right-hand path, steep and high,
And at first presents a difficult approach to those who behold it,
But provides rest to the weary at the highest summit.
The broad way shows a smooth path: but the final goal
Hurls down its captives, and rolls them over rough rocks.
For whoever, through love of virtue, overcomes hard trials,
That man will win for himself both praise and glory.
But he who follows sloth and sluggish luxury,
While with heedless mind he flees the labors set against him,
Will pass through a wretched life, both base and destitute.
Verse 14: How Narrow Is the Gate That Leads to Life
14. HOW NARROW IS THE GATE AND STRAIT THE WAY THAT LEADS TO LIFE; AND FEW THERE ARE WHO FIND IT! — He says the same thing and repeats it for greater emphasis, so that He may impress it most deeply upon our hearts, as St. Basil notes in his Shorter Rules, 241. This is the voice of eternal wisdom: let him therefore who is wise, and who earnestly strives to save his soul, take the narrow way. Hence Theophylactus and Euthymius consider this to be the voice of Christ expressing amazement, as if to say: How exceedingly narrow is the way to life!
Estimate the measure of this narrowness and straitness of the way to heaven, as well as the fewness of those who take it and are saved, from the types, of which the first is Lot, who alone with his two daughters escaped the conflagration of Sodom and the Pentapolis, while all the rest were burned up for their lust. For the world is like Sodom, and burns with cupidity and lust: wherefore the far greater part of those who are damned, are damned for impurities and lusts, says Toletus; indeed this was revealed to St. Christina the Astonishing, as her Life relates. The second type is in the flood: for Noah alone escaped it with seven souls, while the flood swallowed all the rest for their sins. For in the world there is an overflowing and flood of crimes, and consequently of punishments and miseries of every kind. The third is in the entrance to the promised land, which was a type of heaven: for of six hundred thousand Hebrews, only two, namely Joshua and Caleb, entered it (Num. 14:30). The fourth type is Isaiah 17:5, where the Prophet compares the Damascenes to be saved from the slaughter of the Chaldeans to a few ears of grain after the harvest, and a few grapes remaining after the vintage, indeed to two or three olives after the shaking of the olive tree: these are a type of the fewness of those to be saved. Fifth, it is evident from the irrefutable saying of Christ: «Many are called, but few are chosen» (Matt. 20). For Cassian wisely advises: «Live with the few, that you may deserve to be found and saved among the few.» Finally, the multitude of the damned is clear from the size of hell, which is 1600 stades (Rev. 14:20), that is, two hundred Italian miles (for eight stades make one mile, and this in every direction, so that hell is 200 Italian miles deep, as many long, and as many wide), which space will hold many thousands of thousands of millions of the damned, who will be packed together in hell like herrings and fish in a barrel. See what was said on Rev. 14:20.
Moreover, this statement is true if you take all human beings without exception. For the far greater part of mankind consists of infidels, Turks, Saracens, and heretics. But even concerning the faithful, St. Chrysostom, Homily 40 to the People, judges that scarcely one in a thousand is saved; for he says: «How many do you think are saved in our city (Antioch)? What I am about to say is unwelcome; yet I will say it: Among so many thousands (there were easily a hundred thousand and more in Antioch) a hundred cannot be found who are saved, and even about these I have my doubts. For how great is the wickedness in the young! How great the torpor in the old! No one has zeal; we are a multitude of hay, a disordered sea.» And St. Augustine, in Book IV Against Cresconius, ch. 53, compares the Church to a threshing floor on which there is more chaff than grains of wheat, that is, more wicked than good, more to be damned than saved. However, others more mildly and probably judge that the greater part of the faithful are saved, because the greater part die having received the holy sacraments, which justify sinners, even those who are merely attrite, not fully contrite. This seems true of those who have not lived in continuous and quasi-habitual sins, such as concubinage, usury, hatred, quarrels, etc. For these scarcely conceive a serious and efficacious purpose of amendment; or if they do conceive it, the demon soon tempts them again at death — God justly permitting it in retribution for past crimes — with the enticing memory of past and frequently indulged illicit pleasure, renewing and sharpening it, to which therefore the man, weak from habit, easily yields and consents, and so sins and is damned; of which there are many examples. I have said more about the number of the elect and the reprobate on James 2:13, on the words: «But mercy triumphs over judgment.»
Verse 15: Beware of False Prophets
15. BEWARE (Greek prosechete, that is, guard yourselves with attention, attentively preserve yourselves; Syriac, Guard yourselves) OF FALSE PROPHETS, WHO COME TO YOU IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING, BUT INWARDLY ARE RAVENOUS WOLVES. — Christ passes to a most salutary admonition about guarding against false teachers, who teach that the way to heaven is not narrow but broad, and therefore send their followers not to heaven but to hell. For they teach that one should not fast, not confess, that virginity need not be preserved, nor religious vows, and they grant all liberty to the flesh, and take away from good works all power of meriting.
Note: A prophet in Scripture signifies not only a seer who foretells the future, but also many other things by catachresis, namely, now a holy and religious man, now a singer, now a worker of miracles, now and most often a teacher. For formerly the Prophets were the teachers of the people; on which I have said more in 1 Corinthians 14, at the beginning of the chapter, and Sirach 28:14. A prophet therefore is a teacher who professes the office of seeing and knowing those things which are not manifest to others, whether he predicts the future or not. For a prophet in Hebrew is called a seer, because he sees hidden things concealed from others, chief among which are future events. False prophets therefore are false teachers, whether they be heretics, or Gentiles and pagans, or any others whatsoever, who entice us from the narrow and straight way of salvation into the broad and perverse way: wherefore they are like wolves tearing and devouring sheep.
Moreover, the sheep's clothing which these wolves put on consists in holding out as a pretext and veil for their error and heresy: first, liberty of conscience; second, passages of Sacred Scripture that appear to favor their heresy; third, the reformation of the morals of the Church, especially of the clergy and ecclesiastics; fourth, meekness, simplicity, and a simulation of piety; fifth, smooth speaking and eloquent garrulity, by which they cover their wolfish cruelty and craftily insinuate themselves into the minds of their hearers, so that they may then infect and kill them with their error, and drain their purses and devour their wealth: for in order to serve their own bellies, they destroy the souls of their followers and send them to hell, which is truly wolfish voracity and ferocity.
Who come — of their own accord, thrusting themselves forward of their own will and usurping the office of teaching, since they have not been called, nor sent, nor approved by the Bishops and Prelates of the Church, of whom it is said in Jeremiah 23:21: «I did not send the prophets, yet they ran.»
Verse 16: By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them
16. BY THEIR FRUITS YOU SHALL KNOW THEM. DO MEN GATHER GRAPES FROM THORNS, OR FIGS FROM THISTLES? — "Gather" — not false prophets, but men, for example, farmers. They gather therefore, that is, are gathered, as if to say: Just as grapes are not wont to grow and be gathered from thorns, nor figs from thistles; so from heresy and heretics no good and sweet fruit, but bad, harsh, and thorny fruit is gathered. This fruit is twofold: first, false and impious doctrine; second, depraved morals and crimes consequent upon it. Luther and Calvin gave examples of this to our age. For Luther teaches that vows do not bind a religious, that man does not have free will, that he is driven by fate, that he necessarily sins, that faith alone justifies, that good works merit nothing before God. Calvin teaches that God is the author of evils, that Christ despaired on the cross, that He felt the pains of hell, etc., which are utterly blasphemous and against natural law and reason; likewise that his faith, that is, his perfidy, must be defended and propagated by arms, with legitimate princes and kings, bishops, priests, and Catholics who resist it being deposed or killed. Whence in France, England, and Germany we have heard of, and as it were beheld with our own eyes, so many murders of priests and Catholics, robberies, exiles, and a monstrous flood of iniquity, and, as it were, a universal conflagration of probity — namely, the holy Sacraments profaned, the most sacred Sacrifice abolished, the Saints despised, vows violated, temples burned, sacred canons annulled, holy virgins corrupted, upright men driven out, the wicked exalted and ruling, etc. For, as John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, rightly used to say — that glorious martyr together with Thomas More in England under Henry VIII — «Lust is the mother of heresy, as well as its daughter.»
Verse 17: Every Good Tree Bears Good Fruit
17. SO EVERY GOOD TREE BEARS GOOD FRUIT; BUT A BAD (Greek sapron, that is, useless, corrupt, rotten, says Euthymius) TREE BEARS BAD FRUIT. — «For it is not by the leaves, nor by the flowers, but by the fruit that a tree is known as good or bad,» says St. Bernard, Epistle 107. "Tree," namely a fruit-bearing tree; for the others give leaves and branches without fruit. Under the name of tree understand all shrubs, such as thorns and thistles, about which the preceding discourse was, which He here continues, as is clear from the word so, which has this force, as if to say: Just as grapes are not gathered from thorns, but thorns, nor figs from thistles, but thistles (a tribulus is a kind of thorn, so called from its triangular seed, or because it pricks in three directions, whence the word tribulatio); so from every good tree (shrub) good fruits are born, from a bad one, bad. This is plainly the case. We see this happening everywhere. So the Glossa Interlinearis.
Note first, by a tree here is not literally understood a good will, or charity; nor by a bad tree a bad will, or concupiscence, as St. Augustine, Chrysostom, Theophylactus, and Lyranus suppose; but a good or bad teacher, that is, a true or false one, for this is what the preceding discourse was about; for here the discussion is only about faith and doctrine. St. Luke, however, in 6:43, interprets the bad tree as hypocrites, because false teachers are the greatest hypocrites, and also because this saying is true of all hypocrites. For Luke omits the false teachers whom Matthew aptly names and introduces here; for it is properly on their account that this parable is brought forward by Christ: wherefore Luke must be supplemented and interpreted from Matthew.
Note second, by the fruits of the tree, that is, of the teacher, is understood both his doctrine, as St. Luke says, 6:45 — which from a true teacher flows true, from a false one false — and his works, with St. Jerome, Chrysostom, and Augustine: for although false teachers and heretics sometimes display sanctity in good works, nevertheless by its own nature a perverse faith in a perverse teacher is naturally apt to produce perverse morals and works, and usually does in fact produce them, which is the only thing Christ wants to teach us here; for He intends to give a common and ordinary sign of a bad teacher and doctrine, because it can scarcely happen that this wolf long lies hidden under a sheep's skin without eventually betraying himself through his works: conversely, a good faith in a good teacher is by its nature apt to produce a holy life, holy morals and works, and does produce them in many, even though occasionally the opposite happens accidentally, as for example when a heretic is generous in giving alms out of natural benevolence and compassion: the fruit of this benevolence, then, is the almsgiving, not of his heresy or error; for it is produced by a benevolent heart, not truly by heresy. For otherwise, from this one principle of heretics, for example — faith alone justifies — it follows that in vain and without merit does one give himself to penance, mortification, almsgiving, and arduous works of virtue; let us eat and drink therefore, let us loosen the reins to every pleasure, as though about to die tomorrow and enter heaven drunk.
Verse 18: A Good Tree Cannot Bear Bad Fruit
18. A GOOD TREE CANNOT BEAR BAD FRUIT; NOR CAN A BAD TREE BEAR GOOD FRUIT. — As if to say: A thorn cannot produce grapes, nor thistles figs; but a thorn produces thorns, thistles produce thistles, as I said in verse 16; and conversely, a vine cannot produce thorns, but grapes; nor a fig tree thistles, but figs: and although the grapes and figs themselves sometimes do not ripen, and therefore are sour, this does not come from a defect of the vine or fig tree, but from the inclemency of the air and the lack of solar heat; so likewise a Prophet, that is, a true teacher cannot teach falsehood or carry on wicked things; nor can a false teacher teach truth or accomplish right and holy things. Understand this in the composite and formal sense, namely insofar as he is good or bad; for in the divided and material sense, a good teacher can fall from his goodness and teach or do wicked things, just as the Scribes taught rightly but acted wickedly; for this is what Christ objects against them, Matt. 23:2.
Wrongly therefore have many heretics abused this maxim of Christ, and distorted it to establish their heresies. For first, the Manicheans tried to prove from it that some men are good by nature and others bad, that is, that there are two natures of things: one good, which makes men good; another bad, which makes others bad, as St. Jerome witnesses here. Second, Jovinian contended from this maxim that a man born of God cannot sin, as St. Jerome witnesses in his work against Jovinian. Third, the Pelagians inferred from it that there is no original sin, since from a good marriage as from a good tree, so bad a fruit as sin cannot be born, as St. Augustine witnesses, Book II On Marriage and Concupiscence, ch. 26. Fourth, the Donatists gathered from it that bad priests as bad trees do not baptize validly, as St. Augustine witnesses, Book III Against the Letters of Petilian, ch. 44. Fifth, the Calvinists conclude from it that there is no free will in man for producing good or bad works. Sixth, the same infer from it that we are not justified by good works, but merely declared righteous, just as a tree does not become good from good fruits, but is declared to be good by them. But all these conclusions are wrongly drawn; for they are beside the point and irrelevant in this place. For Christ properly applies this maxim only to Prophets, that is, to true and false teachers, as I have said.
However, this maxim can, with St. Augustine, Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Lyranus, and Jansenius, be taken more generally and applied to a good or bad will, because usually a good or bad will reveals itself through the goodness or wickedness of its works — not all of them, but of those toward which it is more inclined; for a man more frequently follows the appetite that dominates in him. You will say: therefore a good will cannot produce bad works, nor a bad one good. I reply that parables do not signify what always happens, but what often and usually happens, as I have frequently shown in Ecclesiasticus and Proverbs. Again, in parables not everything can be applied to the thing signified by the parable: for it suffices that they be applied in those respects in which the force or likeness of the parable consists, as I said in Canon 29, which in this parable consists in this, that just as a good tree produces good fruits, and a bad one bad; so likewise a good will from a good habit usually produces good works, and a bad one bad; but the dissimilarity is in this, that a good or bad tree is a natural cause, and therefore determined to its own good or bad fruit: but the will is a free cause, which, although from custom and habit it is more inclined to good or evil, nevertheless always remains free and undetermined to good or evil, until it determines itself to this or that which it chooses, and then by its act it becomes good or bad from the good or bad choice and action that it chooses and exercises. Wherefore Christ does not say: A good tree cannot become bad, nor a bad tree become good; but: «A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree good,» because while the will is good and applies itself to virtue, it produces good works; while it is bad and applies itself to vice, it brings forth bad works; but just as it can make itself good and apply itself to virtue, so consequently it can also work well and produce good fruits of works, and conversely it can make itself bad and devote itself to vice, and thus bring forth the vicious fruits of crimes. So say SS. Jerome, Chrysostom, Augustine, and others.
Verse 19: Every Tree That Does Not Bear Good Fruit Shall Be Cut Down
19. EVERY TREE THAT DOES NOT BEAR GOOD FRUIT SHALL BE CUT DOWN AND CAST INTO THE FIRE. — Christ repeats and drives home this maxim, for we heard it in chapter 3:10, where I explained it. In the Greek it is is cut down and is cast, in the present tense, that is, it is wont to be cut down and cast, and that promptly and quickly.
Verse 20: Therefore by Their Fruits You Shall Know Them
20. THEREFORE BY THEIR FRUITS YOU SHALL KNOW THEM. — Namely the Prophets, that is, teachers, whether they are true and good, or false and wicked. This is the conclusion drawn from the parable of the good and bad tree, whose meaning is clear from what has already been said.
Verse 21: Not Every One Who Says "Lord, Lord"
21. NOT EVERYONE WHO SAYS TO ME: LORD, LORD, SHALL ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN; BUT HE WHO DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER (and consequently Mine; for the will of the Father and of the Son is the same, but Christ, as man, out of modesty, names the will of the Father, not His own), WHO IS IN HEAVEN, HE SHALL ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. — Behold, here Christ clearly assigns the fruit of the good tree, that is, of the good teacher and Christian, namely to do the will of the heavenly Father, so that you not only believe in Him and in His law set forth by Christ, but that you carry it out in deed and fulfill it in all things. So St. Augustine, Book II On the Sermon of the Lord on the Mount, near the end. He therefore says: «Not everyone who says to Me: Lord, Lord» — that is, not everyone who believes in Me as Lord and God, nor who invokes Me as such, says St. Jerome, Euthymius, and Theophylactus, and who frequently has Me on his lips, and names Me, and puts My name before his words and his doctrine, as if he were preaching the true faith of Christ and His pure Gospel, as the heretics boast: this man, I say, shall not enter into the court and kingdom of the heavenly Father, but he who does His will, that is, fulfills His precepts, which are two, namely: first, to believe in Christ with orthodox faith; second, to obey Christ's commandments and carry them out in deed: «For the offices of mere words do not obtain the kingdom of heaven, etc.; blessed eternity must be merited from what is ours, and something of our own must be contributed,» says St. Hilary; and: «The way to the kingdom of God is obedience, not the mere naming of the name,» says the Glossa. Hence St. Chrysostom: «He who does not live according to the word of Christ shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.»
Verse 22: Many Will Say to Me in That Day
22. MANY WILL SAY TO ME IN THAT DAY. — Namely on the day of judgment, which will be the last and greatest day of the world, and therefore singular, extraordinary, and decisive, inasmuch as it will be the gate of eternity, and will send those who have done good works to a blessed eternity, and those who have done evil to a most wretched eternity in hell: «When, as St. Chrysostom says, the works of each one will speak and mouths will be silent, and one will not intercede for another.»
Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name? — That is, did we not by Your light, grace, and power predict future things? Whence it follows, «and we did many mighty works, that is, miracles»: so Maldonatus. Again, «in Your name we prophesied,» that is, inspired by the Holy Spirit, by Your grant and authority we taught and preached the true faith. So Jansenius.
And we did many mighty works. — He calls "mighty works" miracles, and these true and genuine. From this verse it is clear that God sometimes prophesies and works miracles even through wicked men, as He did through Judas the traitor (Luke 10:17 ff.), and Caiaphas (John 11:49), and the soothsayer Balaam (Num. 24:3); for, as St. Jerome says, «To work mighty deeds is sometimes not due to the merit of the one who performs them, but the invocation of the name of Christ does this for the benefit of others.» Whence St. Gregory gathers, Book 20, Morals, ch. 8: «The proof of sanctity,» he says, «is not to work signs, but to love one's neighbor as oneself, to think truly about God, and to think better of one's neighbor than of oneself.» Hence learn that graces freely given (gratiae gratis datae), such as miracles, prophecies, and wisdom, differ greatly from sanctifying grace (gratia gratum faciens); the latter sanctifies the soul, while those other gifts merely help and instruct others.
Note: although impious and false teachers may, by the gift of God, prophesy and work miracles, yet they cannot do these things to confirm a false doctrine. For a miracle, even a single one, provided it is true and evident, is an argument not merely probable but morally certain of a true doctrine: hence Christ and the Apostles employ it as something certain and invincible to prove the Christian faith. Nor do we ever read that any miracle was wrought for the confirmation of a heresy or an error.
And a priori reasoning proves this. For a miracle is a singular, supernatural operation proper to God alone, by which, as with His seal, God sets His mark upon His words, upright faith, and truth: therefore, if God were to hear a false teacher who invoked Him for a miracle to establish an error, He would seem to cooperate with him and to testify to error, and consequently to lie and deceive, which is impossible. For God is the first truth, very truthfulness and fidelity Himself, who therefore has reserved the power of working miracles to Himself alone, so that by it, as by His own peculiar testimony, He might seal His words and truths and attest that they proceed from Him. A miracle, therefore, is as it were the voice of God operating and attesting that He speaks and that He seals His own words with this, as it were, seal; for other things are common to God with angels and demons, so that in them it is uncertain whether God, or an angel, or a devil is speaking and acting. Thus St. Thomas, II-II, q. 178, a. 2, and Theologians generally.
Hence St. Augustine, in Against the Letter of the Foundation, chapter IV, says that he is held in the Church by the bonds of miracles. And Richard of St. Victor, in Book I On the Trinity, chapter II: «O Lord,» he says, «if what we believe is an error, then by You we have been deceived; for these things have been confirmed in us by those signs and prodigies which could only have been wrought by You.» See Bellarmine, Book IV On the Marks of the Church, chapter XIV.
Note, however, that if the grace of miracles had previously been bestowed on someone by God for some other cause, as a sort of permanent habit, he might afterwards abuse it and work a miracle for an evil end — for example, for vainglory, for gain, or for the confirmation of a falsehood. For in that case God indeed concurs in the miracle itself, but not in the abuse and evil purpose of the one who works it; He merely permits this. Thus God concurs with an impious priest for the consecration and transubstantiation of the Eucharist, even if he intends to abuse it for sorceries, for blasphemy, or even to sell it to a Jew to be mocked and pierced through.
What I have said — that the impious man can abuse the gift of miracles for evil and for the confirmation of a falsehood — is to be understood in cases where it is commonly known that this grace has been conferred on him by God for another end, and that he is abusing it for evil or for falsehood; just as it is commonly known that the power of consecrating has been given by God to an impious priest for another end, even if he himself abuses it for evil. For it belongs to God's providence not to allow an impious man to abuse the grace of miracles to deceive others and lead them into heresy, if the abuse is altogether hidden, so that men cannot be aware of it or detect it. For then men, without any fault of their own, would, on the authority as it were of God attesting it, be led into error — which is impossible; nor could God correct and amend this error by another miracle. For men would say: If the first miracle was worked for the confirmation of a falsehood, by equal right the second one might also have been worked for the confirmation of a falsehood. So God would then, as it were, disarm Himself and deprive Himself of His authority and fidelity in speaking and attesting the truth and refuting the false; for this consists in the working of miracles.
So too in the case of those whom the common people call "Saviors," though they are sometimes of evil life, it is agreed, says Navarrus in his Manual, that God has given the grace of curing diseases for the common good of the Church, which however they may abuse for evil. So in Flanders they say that those born on Good Friday, and likewise the seventh male son, born by a continuous succession of males from his parents, cure scrofula by touching it: but this was first given by God to the holy day of the Parasceve (Good Friday) and to the mystery of Christ's passion and death; the second, to marriage, so that it might thereby be honored, and shown to have been instituted by God and raised by Christ to the dignity of a Sacrament. Therefore, if anyone were to use this power for evil, all would know that he was abusing his own power, and that God was not cooperating with the evil, but only with that miraculous healing which was given him for another end.
In like manner the same power is said to have been conferred by God upon the kings of France and England, on account of the merits of Saint Edward the King and of others; nay more, Toker, a certain innovator, wrote a little book on the scrofulas healed by Elizabeth, the late queen of England, but Delrio thoroughly refutes him in Book I of the Magical Investigations, chapter III, Question IV.
Finally, up to this point there exists no example to show that a heretic has wrought a miracle, even from a habitual gift, for the confirmation of heresy and false doctrine, except that Calvin, wishing to confirm his heresy, tried to raise up a certain man who was pretending to be dead when he was in reality alive; and God, punishing the deception, made him truly dead from being alive. But such miracles, being as it were marks of perfidy, condemn heresy and establish the true faith. For as to Caiaphas prophesying when he said, «It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not» (John 11:50), and that this prophecy was abused for the confirmation of a falsehood — namely, for the condemnation of Christ — the objection is beside the point; for neither the people nor the priests knew that Caiaphas was there prophesying, but thought that he spoke from his own private sense and judgment. For what the Holy Spirit dictated through his mouth — namely, that it was expedient for Christ to die, to the end that by His death the human race might be redeemed — Caiaphas, not understanding, twisted according to his own meaning to the condemnation of Christ as a criminal, blasphemer and seditious man, which was in fact utterly false and most unjust. See Francisco Suarez, Part III, Question XLIV, Disputation 31, Section 2.
Verse 23: I Never Knew You — Depart from Me
23. AND THEN WILL I CONFESS (profess, freely and openly declare) UNTO THEM, THAT I NEVER KNEW YOU: DEPART FROM ME, ALL YOU WHO WORK INIQUITY. — As if He should say: I, Christ, shall say in the day of judgment to the false and impious teachers who have prophesied in My name, have taught and have wrought miracles: I know you indeed as My Prophets, teachers, and workers of miracles; but I do not know you as My friends and sons, whom I have predestined to My inheritance and glory — that is, I do not love, I do not cherish you, because you yourselves have not fulfilled in deed the will and law of My heavenly Father which you have taught others with your voices. Go, therefore, you cursed, into everlasting fire, because you have worked iniquity.
So St. Augustine, Sermon 23 On the Words of the Lord, where he asks: «Does He not know them — He who knows all things? What then is the meaning of 'I know you not'? It is: I disapprove you, I reprobate you. Now this is a great thing, that He both knows not sins and judges sins: knows them not, by doing them; judges them, by convicting them.» And St. Gregory, Homily 12 on the Gospels: «He deserts as it were unknown those whom by the merit of their life He does not recognize.»
Wherefore the Apostle assigns these two seals by which God sets His mark on His predestination and love toward the elect, 2 Timothy 2:19: «The firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, The Lord knows those who are His; and let every one who calls upon the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.» See the commentary there. This knowledge, therefore, in God is not speculative but practical, loving and affectionate, by which we are said to know the one we love, and not to know the one we do not love, but hate and reject; for love begets familiarity, and thence knowledge of the thing loved; but hatred begets aversion, and thence ignorance of the thing detested. It is a catachresis and metalepsis. Hence, by the contrary, the Interlinear Gloss infers: If God does not know those who do not keep His commandments, therefore He knows and loves those who keep them, as sons of light. For as the Gloss says: «Light knows not darkness, that is, does not look upon it, because if it looked upon it, it would no longer be darkness.»
Verse 24: The Wise Man Who Built His House Upon a Rock
24. EVERYONE THEREFORE WHO HEARS THESE MY WORDS, AND DOES THEM, SHALL BE LIKENED TO A WISE MAN, WHO BUILT HIS HOUSE UPON A ROCK. — This is the epilogue, by which Christ concludes the long sermon delivered on the mount from chapter V, verse 1, up to this point. As if He were to say: Hitherto I have taught you how you ought to shape your life prudently and holily according to the law and will of God, if you wish to arrive at the kingdom of God and eternal happiness, because this is the direct way to it and there is no other beside it. Therefore, if you perform in deed what I have taught, you will be like the prudent man «who built his house upon a rock,» so that, firmly founded upon it, it withstands unconquered all the winds and storms rushing upon it, and stands unmoved. In like manner you too, by doing what I have taught, will construct as it were the fabric of a holy way of life and the house of perfection on solidity of mind, and on a firm and constant observance and obedience to the commandments of Christ, founded as it were upon a rock, which will generously struggle against all temptations and endure forever.
He alludes to Proverbs 10:25: «As a passing tempest, so shall the wicked man be no more; but the just is as an everlasting foundation.» And 9:1: «Wisdom has built herself a house, she has hewn out her seven pillars.»
Note: the spiritual house of the soul is the perfection of the virtues. For just as a material house is built with great labor, order, and variety, gradually growing from various stones, beams, and timbers, so the spiritual one is built up from various virtues and holy works, and that with long labor, order, variety and slow growth, advancing little by little. Its length is longsuffering; its breadth, charity; its height, hope. The four walls are the four Cardinal Virtues, namely: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. The floor is humility; the roof, patience; the window, the desire of heavenly glory, through which the light of the Gospel comes and enters. The door is obedience to the commandments. The doorkeeper is holy fear. The guards are the holy Angels. The tower is contemplation; the watchful dog that barks at wicked motions and bitings is synderesis; the Master is the mind and intellect; the bridegroom is the will; the sons are good works; the servants are the senses obedient to the mind; the table is Holy Scripture; the bread is the Eucharist; the wine is the blood of Christ; the living water is the Holy Spirit; the oil is mercy; the couch is the rest and peace of the soul; the medicines are the Sacraments; the physicians are the priests; the guests are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So Salmeron. See St. Bernard, in his treatise On the Interior House, that is, on conscience, where he shows at length how this house is to be built up and perfected particularly by each of the virtues.
Finally, note here first, against the Innovators, that faith without good works — which the faith itself prescribes and dictates are to be done — does not suffice for salvation. For Christ here calls a sandy foundation, or one founded on sand, faith alone as conceived from the hearing of preaching, which is as dry as sand, useless and flowing away; but a rock He calls faith solidified by good works. Note secondly Christ's order: for first, in verse 15, He taught the necessity of true faith and of true teachers; secondly, in verse 21 and following, the necessity also of good works and a holy life.
Mystically: the rock is Christ; whence the Gloss: «He,» it says, «builds upon Christ who does what he hears from Him.»
Verse 25: The Rain Fell and the House Did Not Fall
25. AND THE RAIN FELL, AND THE FLOODS CAME, AND THE WINDS BLEW, AND THEY BEAT UPON THAT HOUSE, AND IT DID NOT FALL; FOR IT WAS FOUNDED UPON A ROCK. — The Arabic: because its foundations had been firmly set upon rock. The rain, winds, and floods are any adversities and temptations, whether rushing in from the world, or from the flesh, or from the devil; likewise the condemnation which Christ will thunder and hurl as lightning against the wicked on the day of judgment; for this is often expressed in Scripture under the name of tempest and storm, as in Isaiah XXVIII, 2: «Behold, the Lord, mighty and strong, like a blast of hail; a destroying tempest, like a flood of mighty waters overflowing, cast upon a broad land.» Similar is Psalm XLIX, 3, and Wisdom V, 18 and following, where the wrath and vengeance of God against the reprobate is graphically depicted through storms, lightning, and hailstones.
Therefore the faithful one, grounded in Christ and the law of Christ, in fear and love as upon the firmest rock, does not care for the blasts of persecutions, nor the waves of flatteries, nor the gentle breezes of promises, nor the north winds of threats, nor the rain-clouds of reproaches, nor the storms of beatings, but in his vocation and office, in the fear and love of God, he stands unshaken, like the Marpesian cliff, like a rock that is battered on all sides by the waves of the sea, tossed by winds, struck by hail and lightning, and yet remains unmoved and unconquered. An example was St. Peter, who, made firm in the rock, that is, in the love of Christ, overcame all adversities. Hence, in Acts IV, 20, when commanded by the chief priests to cease preaching Christ, he replied: «We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.» Citing this passage, St. Chrysostom here, sermon 25, says: «Consider, he says, the great height of an unconquered mind. You have seen the rock laughing at the murmur of the waves. You have seen the house utterly immovable against the blasts of the winds. For what is far more admirable, they were not only not deterred by adversities, but even drew from them greater constancy, and drove their persecutors into the greatest alarm. For whoever strikes a diamond is himself struck more; and whoever kicks against the goad is without doubt pricked himself and wounded by his own blows; and whoever attacks those who hold to virtue is himself certainly undermined, and his malice becomes weaker the longer he fights against virtue. And just as one who wraps fire in a garment does not extinguish it but burns the garment; so also those who persecuted and arrested and frequently imprisoned those established in virtue made them indeed more illustrious through all these things, but utterly destroyed themselves. For however great the adversities you have suffered for justice, you will become that much mightier and firmer.»
With a similar figure, St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 28, portrays the Christian philosopher: «There is a certain tree depicted in paintings, he says, which when it is cut, it flourishes, and fights against the iron, lives through death, and sprouts from being cut, and when it is consumed, it grows.» This tree is not real but fabulous, says the commentator on Nazianzen; if, however, you want a real one, take the vine, which the more it is pruned, the more it sprouts and bears fruit. Such also is the Horatian law, which, trimmed by harsh double-axes, draws wealth and spirit from the very iron. Nazianzen continues:
«Such indeed appears to be the philosophical man. For he flourishes amid torments, and considers the troubles of life to be a harvest of virtue, and in adversities he rejoices and glories: preparing himself in such a way that he is neither puffed up by the weapons of justice on the right hand, nor bent by those on the left, but in adverse circumstances remains always the same, like himself, and is found all the more proven, like gold in the furnace.» Then in detail through various conditions and ranks of men he shows the same thing, and finally concludes that three things are unconquerable, namely God, an Angel, and a Philosopher: «These two, he says, cannot be seized or overcome: God and an Angel. The third is the Philosopher, in matter free from matter, in the body uncircumscribed, on earth heavenly, in sufferings impassible, readily allowing himself to be conquered in all things except greatness of soul, and by the very fact that he allows himself to be conquered, he conquers those who seem to be his superiors.»
Verse 26: The Foolish Man Who Built His House Upon the Sand
26. AND EVERY ONE WHO HEARS MY WORDS AND DOES NOT DO THEM, SHALL BE LIKENED TO A FOOLISH MAN WHO BUILT HIS HOUSE UPON SAND. — Rightly is the instability and disobedience of one who hears the words of Christ and does not do them compared to sand. First, because just as sand is soft, shifting, and fluid, so that it cannot take the place of a solid foundation, and consequently what is built upon sand yields and collapses when waves and winds rush in; so likewise an unstable and disobedient mind cannot be the foundation of solid virtue and perfection, but immediately succumbs and falls before an oncoming temptation, whence the edifice of virtues resting upon it immediately collapses, as Christ explains in the following verse.
Second, sand is dry; whence "arena" (sand) is derived from "ariditas" (dryness), says Varro, or from "haerendo" (clinging), because it clings to itself particle by particle: so an unstable mind, which does not do what it hears, is dry and empty of the sap of truth and the divine Spirit, and clings attached to the earth and earthly things.
Third, just as sand is blown away by the wind and scattered in all directions; so also a light and inconstant mind is swept by every surge of desires and temptations into every concupiscence.
Fourth, just as sand is extremely fine and comprises millions of tiny grains or granules; so an unstable heart is filled and cut to pieces with a thousand thoughts and desires for trifling and petty things.
Tropologically: the foolish and worldly man builds upon sand, that is, upon the creature, says Salmeron, which like sand is barren of good; and fluid, so as to fall into sin; and shaken by waves, because it is tossed by labors and temptations. For it is dry, or absorbent and insatiable, because creatures cannot satisfy man. It is also manifold, because the wicked are innumerable, and the number of fools is infinite. Sand therefore is the entire people of the devil, barren and hardly united, tossed by great labors and without number, just as the people of God is a unity, like rock, both strong and fruitful; because, although many are called, few however are chosen.
Hence Elias of Crete, on oration 1 of Nazianzen: «Sand, he says, is pride, a vain opinion of oneself, the desire for empty glory: whatever is built upon it is blown away and collapses at the slightest breeze of adversity.»
Finally the Gloss: «Every conscience, it says, that is not fixed in hope upon God, does not stand firm in temptations.» For the root and fuel of all temptations is inconstancy of mind and distrust of God, as I showed at Ecclesiasticus II, 6, on those words: «Believe in God, and He will restore you; and direct your way, and hope in Him.»
Verse 27: The House Fell, and Great Was Its Ruin
27. AND THE RAIN DESCENDED, AND THE FLOODS CAME, AND THE WINDS BLEW, AND THEY BEAT UPON THAT HOUSE, AND IT FELL, AND GREAT WAS ITS RUIN. — "They beat upon" — in Greek prosepesan, that is, they struck against; the Arabic has "they smote."
The rain signifies the temptation of the world; the floods, of the flesh; the winds, of the devil. For rain descending from on high and irrigating the earth, causing it to swell, rise, and become fertile, signifies the ambition for honors and the desire for wealth, which the world offers to a vain and inconstant man, by which he, enticed, falls away from the law of God and subsequently from faith itself, and apostatizes.
The floods, which arise from the earth and lap around the house, signify the temptations of the flesh, namely gluttony and lust, which arise from the flesh itself and, by delighting and flattering it, as it were lap around it, so that one departs from the continence and purity which the law of God prescribes.
The winds, which blow into the house from the air sideways and invisibly, signify the temptations of the devil, who is an invisible spirit and the prince of this air; for he thrusts and breathes a thousand evil thoughts and passions into our imagination so secretly that you often do not know whether they come from an Angel or from the devil. For Satan transforms himself into an angel of light, II Corinthians XI, 14; therefore he tosses and spins light and inconstant men at his pleasure, so that they turn aside from the observance of God's commandments to their own desires, and thus plunge into hell; just as a house built upon sand, shaken by the blasts of winds, falls with a great crash and collapses into the valley or abyss below.
Verse 28: The Crowds Were Astonished at His Teaching
28. AND IT CAME TO PASS WHEN JESUS HAD FINISHED THESE WORDS, THE CROWDS WERE ASTONISHED AT HIS TEACHING. — So new, clear, solid, paradoxical, unheard-of, heavenly, and divine was it, as well as the new and divine manner of teaching. For "were astonished" the Greek is exeplessonto, that is, they were struck out of their senses, that is, they were stupefied, overwhelmed, so that it seemed to them that their mind and soul were snatched away and shaken out of them.
The crowds. — That is, the common people, not the rulers, says St. Chrysostom; whence it is clear that this sermon was delivered by Christ before the people, as I said at the beginning of chapter V, although St. Augustine, book II On the Harmony of the Gospels, chapter XIX, says: «Perhaps, he says, one should understand the crowd of disciples, from whom He had chosen the twelve.»
Here therefore ends the entire Sermon of Christ on the Mount, containing the whole law and perfection of the Gospel; and although its precepts are disparate and not connected to one another, if anyone nevertheless desires an order and some degree of connection among them, let him read Bellarmine, book IV On Justification, chapter III, at the end.
Verse 29: He Taught as One Having Authority
29. FOR HE WAS TEACHING THEM AS ONE HAVING AUTHORITY, AND NOT AS THEIR SCRIBES AND PHARISEES. — For He was teaching (He used to teach; for the phrase signifies the custom and frequency of teaching) as one having authority (exousian, that is, authority; the Syriac has "dominion"; others, "right"; others, "freedom"), and not as their Scribes and Pharisees.
First, because Christ taught with great authority serious, weighty matters of the highest importance for salvation, and truth itself; but the Scribes taught lightly on frivolous and trifling matters, such as rites and ceremonies, and the frequent washings of hands, body, and cups.
Second, because what Christ taught in His speech, He did in His deeds, and He taught more by example than by word. For great authority accrues to the teaching of one who teaches if he actually practices the good that he teaches. «The road to virtue through precepts is long,» says Seneca; «short and effective through examples.» Hear St. Gregory, book XXIII, Moralia VII: «For what is first practiced and then spoken is taught with authority. For doctrine loses its confidence when conscience impedes the tongue. Therefore He did not suggest to him the power of lofty speech, but the confidence of good action. Whence it is also written of the Lord: 'For He was teaching as one having authority, not as the Scribes and Pharisees'; for singularly and principally He alone spoke from the power of goodness, because through no weakness did He commit any evil. For from the power of His divinity He possessed that which He ministered to us through the innocence of His humanity.»
Third, Christ taught with great spirit and fervor, and with great force and efficacy to persuade; the Scribes taught dryly, coldly, and superficially.
Fourth, Christ confirmed His teaching with miracles; the Scribes could do nothing of the sort. Moreover, Christ had a wondrous grace of speaking, according to those words: «They wondered at the words of grace that proceeded from His mouth.» Luke IV.
Fifth, the Scribes taught as interpreters of the law; but Christ as a Legislator sent from heaven, with heavenly wisdom and majesty; He therefore had His own proper right to teach. So say Bede and Theophylact. Whence Christ, in John III, says: «What We know, We speak, and what We have seen, We testify.» And John the Baptist says in the same place of Christ: «He who comes from above is above all. And what He has seen and heard, this He testifies.»
Sixth, in teaching, Christ sought only the glory of God and the salvation of men; the Scribes, however, sought their own glory and the applause of men.
Seventh, while teaching exteriorly, Christ interiorly illuminated the mind with His holy inspiration and the light of grace, and inflamed the affections of His hearers, so that He made even unlearned and dull men wise, and the sluggish and cold He made fervent.
Finally, the teaching of Christ was most correct, most useful, most upright, most sublime, most perfect, containing full and consummate perfection in all matters pertaining to morals. Hence He corrected the interpretations of the law put forth by the Scribes as defective, useless, imperfect, indeed false and erroneous, in chapter V.
Let the Christian orator and preacher imitate Christ in these matters, so that he may teach more by his life than by his word, after the example of St. Basil, of whom St. Gregory Nazianzen writes, Oration 20: «The speech of Basil was thunder, because his life was lightning.» So let him use his freedom, authority, and vigor of speaking so as to act as a Doctor with his students, and be effective in teaching and persuading. Such a man will be the master of the chair, the lord of the pulpit; such a man will teach and preach as one having authority, in the manner of Christ, as St. Paul and the Apostles did. St. Malachy, says St. Bernard in his Life, so tamed a certain wrathful and furious woman, and therefore intolerable to all, that she seemed unable to become angry, and this with a single word, saying: «In the name of the Lord Jesus, I command you to be angry no more» — which St. Bernard prefers to the raising of the dead performed by the same St. Malachy, «because there an exterior man was raised, but here an interior man came back to life.» Thus Blessed Francis Borgia said of St. Ignatius of Loyola: «He spoke as one having authority,» because his speech was effective, and he drove men wherever he wished. Ribadeneira testifies to this in his Life.