Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Christ confirms and seals with miracles the doctrine of the Gospel which He has taught from chapter V until now. So says St. Jerome. First, therefore, at verse 1, He heals a leper. Second, at verse 5, He cures the servant of the Centurion. Third, at verse 14, He frees the mother-in-law of Peter from a fever. Fourth, at verse 18, He commands two who wish to follow Him to renounce all possessions as well as parents, because the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. "And let the dead," He says, "bury their dead." Fifth, at verse 23, He calms a tempest on the sea. Sixth, at verse 28, He heals two demoniacs, and permits the demons who entreat Him to enter into swine, who immediately drown them in the sea.
Vulgate Text: Matthew 8:1-34
1. And when He had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed Him. 2. And behold, a leper came and worshipped Him, saying: Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. 3. And Jesus, stretching forth His hand, touched him, saying: I will; be made clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4. And Jesus said to him: See that you tell no one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony to them. 5. And when He had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, asking Him, 6. and saying: Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed, and is grievously tormented. 7. And Jesus said to him: I will come and heal him. 8. And the centurion answered and said: Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9. For I also am a man set under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this one: Go, and he goes; and to another: Come, and he comes; and to my servant: Do this, and he does it. 10. And when Jesus heard this, He marveled, and said to those who followed Him: Amen, I say to you, I have not found such great faith in Israel. 11. And I say to you that many will come from the East and the West, and will recline at table with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12. But the children of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 13. And Jesus said to the centurion: Go, and as you have believed, so be it done to you. And the servant was healed in that hour. 14. And when Jesus had come into the house of Peter, He saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever; 15. and He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose up and ministered to them. 16. And when evening had come, they brought to Him many who were possessed by demons; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick; 17. that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the Prophet, saying: He Himself took our infirmities, and bore our diseases. 18. And when Jesus saw great crowds around Him, He gave orders to cross over to the other side. 19. And a scribe came to Him and said: Master, I will follow You wherever You go. 20. And Jesus said to him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. 21. And another of His disciples said to Him: Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father. 22. But Jesus said to him: Follow Me, and let the dead bury their dead. 23. And when He entered into the boat, His disciples followed Him. 24. And behold, a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered by the waves; but He was sleeping. 25. And His disciples came to Him and awakened Him, saying: Lord, save us, we are perishing! 26. And Jesus said to them: Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Then rising up, He commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm. 27. And the men marveled, saying: What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him? 28. And when He had come across the strait into the region of the Gerasenes, there met Him two men possessed by demons, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass by that way. 29. And behold, they cried out, saying: What have we to do with You, Jesus, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time? 30. Now there was, not far from them, a herd of many swine feeding. 31. And the demons begged Him, saying: If You cast us out, send us into the herd of swine. 32. And He said to them: Go. And they came out and went into the swine, and behold, the whole herd rushed headlong down the steep into the sea, and perished in the waters. 33. And the herdsmen fled, and going into the city, reported everything, including what had happened to those who had been possessed by demons. 34. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their borders.
Verse 1: Crowds Follow Him from the Mountain
1. AND WHEN HE HAD COME DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN, GREAT CROWDS FOLLOWED HIM. — Stirred up either by the voice or by the fame of His teaching and sermons; for He was teaching as one having authority, as we have just heard. I have already said at the beginning of chapter V, from Luke, that this sermon of Christ delivered up to this point was given after His descent from the summit of the mountain in a level place, that is, in the middle of the mountain, where there was a level plain; from which Christ, having now finished His sermon, descended into the lower valley below. So says Franciscus Lucas.
Jansenius thinks differently, who holds that Matthew here by hysteron proteron places the descent of Christ from the mountain later, because he relates that Christ departed elsewhere: for Matthew has not until now mentioned the descent of Christ from the mountain, but only Luke at the beginning of the sermon of Christ already reviewed, which he in VI, 17 asserts was delivered in a level place.
Verse 2: The Leper Worships Him
2. AND BEHOLD, A LEPER CAME AND WORSHIPPED HIM, SAYING: LORD, IF YOU WILL, YOU CAN MAKE ME CLEAN. — The same miracle is described by Mark, I, 40, and Luke, V, 12; from both it seems to be gathered that this miracle did not happen immediately upon the descent at the foot of the mountain: for Luke says it happened in one of the cities; and because Luke, IV, 23, and Mark, I, 23, first narrate other miracles performed by Christ. But the narrative of St. Matthew seems more orderly, according to which it must be said that this miracle of Christ was the first after His descent from the mountain. So say St. Jerome, Jansenius, and others; therefore when Luke says it happened in one of the cities, understand it as "near" one of the cities. For by the law, Leviticus XIII, 45 and 46, lepers are commanded to be entirely separated and kept away from cities and camps, lest they communicate their leprosy to others: although others hold that only dwelling in cities is forbidden there, not passing through them; therefore this leper is seen to have been cured by Christ while passing through the city. This city, as is gathered from verse 5, was Capernaum, near which this leper seems to have been cured; for the mountain from which Christ was descending is adjacent to this city, as I said at chapter V, 1. See the Chronotaxis which I prefixed to this Commentary.
How great, how incurable, and how contagious the disease of leprosy is, is clear from the fact that lepers are kept away from the company of men both by the ancient law and by the practice of all nations. For in lepers the contagion is with a seed, by which they can infect healthy people through touch, the stench of their sores, and their putrid breath. As a result, their face is disfigured by the contagion and taint of the disease, their hair falls out, their nostrils are distended, their bones are eaten away, their tongue swells, their breath stinks, and in short every kind of disease and every symptom is found as companion and attendant in the leper. Therefore physicians rightly teach that the elephantine disease can indeed be disguised, but never cured. How, says Avicenna, will leprosy be cured, since it is a universal cancer, when a particular cancer knows no remedy?
Furthermore, regions that are hot, sandy, salty, and unequally assailed by heat and cold are subject to melancholic diseases and especially to leprosy. Such is Judea and part of Egypt. Whence Galen, book II to Glaucon, says: "And so in Alexandria very many suffer from elephantiasis, both on account of their diet and the heat of the region." Physicians prescribe as remedies for leprosy viper wine, mercury, theriac, and drinkable gold; but these do not have the power to remove fully-formed leprosy that has become established by habit, or to renew the skin and flesh of lepers whose entire bodily frame has been disfigured.
He worshipped — that is, by falling on his knees and face, for Mark adds γονυπετῶν, that is, falling on his knees before Him; Luke has πεσὼν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον, that is, falling on his face. The leper did this not merely to show civil honor, but rather to render the religious worship of latria to Christ, as is evident from so humble a petition of such great faith; for he did not say: If You ask God, as Moses did, but: "If You will, You can make me clean," as if to say: I know that You are of equal power with God the Father, and consequently Lord of diseases, so that You can command leprosy by sovereign right, and drive it from me by Your mere command. I ask therefore that You be willing and deign to do this; if You will it, the matter is done, I am healed. So say St. Chrysostom, homily 26; Theophylactus, Euthymius, Maldonatus, and others. Hence St. Chrysostom says: "To the spiritual physician he offers a spiritual reward, namely a faithful prayer, than which we offer nothing more worthy to God." And the Glossa Interlinearis says: "The will confers the power;" for as great as God's will is, so great also is His power; for whatever He wills, He can immediately do, according to that saying: "Whatever the Lord willed, He did in heaven and on earth" (Psalm 134:6). For in God, will, power, and the other attributes are equal and on a par, because they are divine, immense, and infinite.
The leper therefore had faith in the divinity of Christ, partly from His interior illumination and inspiration, partly from the miracles which Christ had already performed in great number during the first year of His preaching. For this leper was healed in the second year, as I said in the Chronotaxis. Furthermore, "if You will" denotes a desire for healing mixed with resignation: for he resigns and submits himself to the will of Christ, so that if He wills, He may heal; if He does not will, He may not heal. For diseases and leprosy are often useful or necessary for the salvation of the soul, and this God knows, but man does not: wherefore one must resign oneself to the judgment and will of God, and ought not to ask for such things absolutely, but conditionally, namely if it pleases God and will be profitable for the salvation of the soul.
Verse 3: Jesus Stretches Forth His Hand and Cleanses the Leper
3. AND JESUS, STRETCHING FORTH HIS HAND, TOUCHED HIM, SAYING: I WILL; BE MADE CLEAN. — "Stretching forth": First, to show that He was above the law, which forbade touching a leper, Leviticus XIII, inasmuch as He touched the leper not for the purpose of contaminating (for God is uncontaminable), but of healing, says Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion, chapter IX; and, as St. Chrysostom says, it is not bodily but spiritual leprosy that is an impediment to virtue. Moreover, the law did not forbid contact with a leper except on account of the danger of contagion, namely lest the one touching be infected with the same disease: but this danger did not exist in Christ, but rather a certainty of healing the leper. Therefore Christ by touching the leper was not acting against, but rather according to the mind of the law. So say St. Chrysostom and Tertullian in the passage cited.
Second, He touched him out of benevolence, to show His affection toward him. Hence the Glossa Interlinearis says: "He extends His hand, who extends the effect of mercy," namely, "when He bestows the help of divine mercy," says Remigius.
Third, He touched him so that the saving power of Christ's flesh might be revealed, says St. Cyril, inasmuch as it could drive away leprosy by the mere touch of His hand. For the word "hand" (manus) is derived from "flowing" (manando), because it flows from the arm, and from the hand flow the fingers and their works: thus from the hand of Christ flowed miracles and benefits, and His power flowed from God, to whom He was hypostatically united. Hence Victor of Antioch, on chapter I of Mark, says: "The Word, wishing to demonstrate that He has an inseparable union with the flesh, performed most of His miracles and signs through the ministry of the body." And Bede says: "God extended His hand and touched human nature in the Incarnation, and restored to the temple those who had been cast out of the camp of the people of God (the lepers), so that they might offer their bodies as a living sacrifice to Him of whom it is said: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek" (Psalm 109).
I will, be made clean. — Punctuate these words with a comma or colon in between, so that Christ first says: "I will"; then commands: "Be made clean," says St. Jerome. Therefore mundare here is not the active infinitive, but the imperative of the passive verb mundor, meaning "be cleansed" or "may you be cleansed." For in Hebrew it is הטהר (hittaher), in Greek καθαρίσθητι (katharistheti), that is, "be clean." From this the Fathers prove the omnipotent divinity of Christ: Maldonatus cites them at length. Hence St. Ambrose, on chapter V of Luke, 12, says: "He says 'I will' against Photinus; He commands, against Arius; He touches, against Manichaeus." For Photinus taught that Christ was a mere man, and not God, to whom belongs the omnipotent will by which He says: "I will, be made clean." Arius teaches that Christ is less than the Father, and therefore does not command, but receives the commands of the Father. Manichaeus taught that Christ had flesh not real but phantasmal, and therefore could neither truly touch nor be touched. All these things Christ here refutes both by His words and by His deeds.
St. Jerome notes that Christ responds pertinently and equally to the twofold petition of the leper. For first the leper had asked: "If You will," that is, would that You would will it; Christ responds: "I will." Second, "You can make me clean;" Christ responds: "Be made clean," that is, may you be cleansed, and be clean: therefore Christ grants more than the leper expressly asks, for at that very instant He completely healed him, indeed made him vigorous, cheerful, and strong both in body and even more in soul: for those whom Christ healed in body, He also healed in soul, and made them just and holy, so that He might bestow upon them full integrity of mind and body. For the works of God are perfect; and Christ by His generosity exceeds the merits and desires of suppliants, so that we may learn from Him to do the same and be most generous both toward God and toward our neighbors.
And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. — That is, immediately the man was cleansed from his leprosy, as the Arabic version translates. There was nothing between Christ's command and its effect. "For He spoke, and all things were made" (Genesis I), because His will is omnipotent, and therefore is His very omnipotence. This is a hypallage or inverted expression; for leprosy cannot be cleansed, since it is in itself wholly unclean and contagious, but rather the man is cleansed from leprosy. By this deed Christ showed that He had come into the world as a physician, so that He might cure all diseases and purge all impurities. Note the word "immediately," for from it is clear that Christ healed the leper not by natural remedies; for these work gradually, and heal slowly, but by divine power, which operates in an instant, according to that saying: "He spoke, and they were made" (Psalm 148:5). For God's speaking and commanding is efficacious, and is the same as doing, because His will is altogether identical with His omnipotence.
Verse 4: Show Yourself to the Priest, for a Testimony
4. AND HE SAID (Mark: He threatened, that is, He commanded with a stern and threatening countenance: so Euthymius) TO HIM, JESUS: SEE THAT YOU TELL NO ONE. — He commanded this to avoid ostentation and to teach us not to boast of our virtues and gifts, but to conceal them. So says Chrysostom. For if we do this, while we keep silent God will cause us to be revealed against our will, and this with great edification to those who hear, and greater glory to those who act. Hence Mark adds, I, 45: "But he (the leper) began to publish and to blaze abroad the word, so that He could no longer openly enter into the city, but was outside in desert places, and they came to Him from all sides."
But go, show yourself to the priest (Mark: the chief of the priests, who during the turn of his course presided over the other priests actually ministering in the temple), and offer the gift which Moses commanded for a testimony to them. — "He sends him to the priests," says St. Jerome, "out of humility, so that He may seem to defer to them; then so that they, either believing, may be saved, or may become inexcusable; finally so that He may not seem to break the law." And Origen says: "He sends him to the priests, so that they may recognize that he was cleansed not by the custom of the law, but by the operation of grace, etc. So that all who see the gift being offered might believe in the miracle."
The gift to be offered by lepers cleansed from leprosy to the priest was a lamb, or if the leper were poor, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons. Leviticus XIV, 13 and following.
For a testimony to them — namely to the priests; for the chief of the priests, although one man, nevertheless had many attendant lesser priests. Some understand "testimony" as the law, as if to say: Offer the gift just mentioned, so that you may fulfill the law which Moses commanded, Leviticus XIV, to be observed by the priests and the people in the purification of a leper; for the law is often called a "testimony" in Psalm 118 and elsewhere, namely of the divine will, because it testifies what God wishes to be done by us. But nothing prevents "testimony" from being taken here in its proper sense.
More plainly, therefore, and more genuinely, refer "for a testimony" to the verbs "show" and "offer," as if to say: Show yourself to the priests, and offer to them the gift prescribed by the law, so that they, seeing you free from leprosy, and therefore offering the gift prescribed for the cleansed, may know from this ocular testimony that you are truly healed, and so they themselves may be witnesses of your healing, and may testify to the people that you have truly been cured of leprosy, and thus by their testimony according to the law you may be restored to the common society and fellowship of men.
There was therefore a twofold, indeed a threefold testimony. The first was what the leper presented to the priests concerning himself having been cured of leprosy, which was a visual display and inspection of his body and limbs, which the priests performed, and if they saw that he was truly cured, they accepted the gift offered by him in thanksgiving to God; if not, they rejected it.
The second testimony was what the priests themselves bore to the people about the leper being truly cured; hence they applied to him the lustration or expiation prescribed by the law, Leviticus XIV, which was a legal ceremony removing the legal irregularity contracted from the uncleanness of leprosy, and restoring the man cleansed from leprosy to the fellowship of men, and to the temple and sacrifices, so that, being now clean, he could freely take part in them with the others.
The third testimony was of the greatest importance, namely, Christ commanded the leper now cured to show himself to the priests, so that they, from this miracle, might recognize Him to be the Messiah; or at least, convicted by this irrefutable testimony, they might be condemned for their unbelief. So say St. Jerome, Chrysostom, and St. Ambrose on chapter V of Luke, 14.
Tropologically: leprosy signifies mortal sin, especially contagious sin, such as heresy above all, on account of its extreme foulness and contagion. So say St. Augustine, book II of Questions on the Gospels, Question XL; Theodoret, Radulphus, and others, on chapter XIV of Leviticus. Hence the cleansing of leprosy is a symbol of the sacrament of penance and sacramental confession, by which sins are expiated, the power and efficacy of which from the type of leprosy against heretics is proved by St. Jerome, on chapter XVI of Matthew (where from this he proves that priests ought to know the species and varieties of sins), and St. Chrysostom, book III On the Priesthood, where he teaches that the office of Christian priests is far more efficacious and excellent than that of the Aaronic priests formerly was, because to the latter it was granted not to cure leprosy, but only to declare it cured; but to the former it was granted not merely to declare sins uncured, but truly to cure and forgive them.
And for this reason Christ willed that His first miracle after the descent from the mountain, where He had taught the law of the Gospel, should be the healing of a leper, both because in Syria and Judea the disease of leprosy was common and frequent, and there were many lepers; and because the characteristics of leprosy most aptly represent through tropology the foulness and harm of sin, just as the cure of leprosy represents the remission of sin: and therefore Christ in His Passion took on the form of a leper, so that He might take upon Himself and cure the leprosy of our soul. Hence Isaiah LIII, 4: "Truly, He bore our infirmities, and He carried our sorrows; and we esteemed Him as a leper, and as struck by God and humiliated. But He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins." See what I said about leprosy at Leviticus XIII and XIV. For this reason Christ appeared in the form of a leper to the monk Martyrius, and allowed Himself to be carried on his shoulders to the doors of the monastery, and there He disappeared; but in such a way that Martyrius did not feel the weight, because He who was being carried was carrying the one who carried Him, says St. Gregory, homily 39 on the Gospels.
In the same form of a leper Christ appeared to St. Louis, Bishop of Toulouse, who was the nephew of St. Louis, King of France, and allowed his feet to be washed by him, as is recorded in his Life.
Verse 5: The Centurion Comes to Him at Capernaum
5. AND WHEN HE HAD ENTERED INTO CAPERNAUM, THERE CAME TO HIM A CENTURION, BESEECHING HIM. — This is the second miracle of Christ, by which He confirmed the doctrine delivered on the mountain. So says St. Jerome. From this passage we gather that the leper was first healed by Christ near Capernaum, as I said a little earlier. Moreover, the leper was a Jew; but the Centurion was a Gentile, namely a commander of a hundred soldiers from a Roman legion (for at that time Judea, having been subjugated by Pompey, Julius Caesar, and Augustus, was held by the garrison of Roman commanders and soldiers), and sometimes of more, as Vegetius teaches in book I of On Military Affairs; wherefore in him the calling of the Gentiles was prefigured and begun. L. Dexter, in the Chronicle which recently came to light, says this Centurion was C. Cornelius, a Spanish Centurion, whose son C. Oppius, likewise a Centurion, stood by Christ on the cross as a guard and attendant, and seeing the signs that then occurred in the heavens, the sun, the earth, and the rocks, was converted to Christ: both preached Christ in Judea and in Spain. So says Dexter. About whose authority and reliability I have treated more fully at the end of the Chronotaxis which I prefixed to the Acts of the Apostles.
He came. — Here is the first discrepancy: for Luke, VII, 1, narrates the same miracle differently. For he does not say that the Centurion himself came to Christ, but that he first sent Jews to Him, then his friends, who might ask for and obtain this favor, namely healing, for his servant. Therefore from Matthew, the account in Luke must be supplemented at this point with the fact that, after the Jews and friends, the Centurion himself finally came last to Christ as He was already approaching, either out of respect, or because of the paroxysm of the disease and the imminent danger of death, as St. Chrysostom, homily 26, Theophylactus, and Euthymius hold: unless you say that the Centurion is here stated to have come to Christ, and to have supplicated Him and responded, not in person, but through his envoys and friends, as Bede and St. Augustine think, book II of On the Agreement of the Evangelists, chapter XX. Moreover, the Jews commended the Centurion's petition to Christ, saying: "Because he is worthy that You should do this for him. For he loves our nation, and he himself built our synagogue for us," as Luke says, VII, 4.
Verse 6: My Servant Lies at Home Paralyzed
6. AND SAYING: LORD, MY SERVANT LIES AT HOME SICK OF THE PALSY, AND IS GRIEVOUSLY TORMENTED. — "Servant" (puer), that is, a slave, as Luke has it, VII, 3. For servants in their subjection, obedience, and reverence toward their masters are like children. This is a catachresis. Moreover, this servant was dear and precious to the Centurion, says Luke.
He lies at home sick of the palsy. — Like a corpse in bed, "with all his limbs everywhere limp, and corrupted for the function of standing and acting," says St. Hilary; "for paralysis is a dissolution of the nerves," says Celsus, book II, chapter 1. "For it is a disease in which half the body is dissolved, with motion and sensation being cut off," says Galen, book IV of his Commentary; hence it is called by the Greeks hemiplegia, that is, semi-apoplexy, namely when the disease has settled upon only one half of the body; for when the whole is affected, it is called apoplexy: now I see that both, says Celsus, book III, chapter XXVII, are called paralysis.
And is grievously tormented. — In Greek, δεινῶς βασανιζόμενος, that is, gravely afflicted, vehemently tortured (as the Arabic version translates), and therefore about to die, as Luke says. This paralysis was sudden and acute, which created danger to life along with torment: for otherwise common paralyses are slow, and therefore lack both severe torment and danger. This torment seems to have been a convulsion and contraction of the nerves that originate from the brain; for when these are twisted or stretched beyond their nature, they produce the most severe pains, as the physician Guilielmus Ader shows from Galen, in his book On the Sick and Diseases Healed by Christ, chapter II, where he proves that all those patients were desperate and naturally incurable, and therefore their cure had been reserved by God for Christ as the chief physician: such was this paralysis. St. Ambrose teaches the same, epistle 75: "The Lord Jesus healed those," he says, "whom no one could cure," that is, would have been able to cure.
Moreover, Luke narrates the event somewhat differently; for he says thus, VII, 3: "And when he had heard of Jesus, he sent to Him the elders of the Jews, asking Him to come and heal his servant." Here is the second discrepancy; for Luke says: "asking Him to come;" but Matthew, and indeed also Luke, VII, adds that he said the contrary, namely: "Lord, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof; but only say the word (that is, command, while absent) and my servant shall be healed." The answer is that "asking" and "sent," insofar as they refer to "come," pertain to the Jewish envoys of the Centurion, who were of lesser faith and humility than the Centurion himself: for the Centurion only asked that Christ heal his servant; but the Jews added on their own that He should come, and by coming and touching heal him. He therefore sent the elders to Christ, asking on his own behalf that He heal; but through the elders, that He come. For what an envoy says is considered to be said by the one who sent the envoy.
Luke therefore, according to his custom (as is evident in chapter XIX), out of a desire for brevity combines the words and deeds of the Centurion and of the Jews, which must therefore be explained respectively, so that some things were said by the Jews, and some by the Centurion. For Luke means to say that the elders of the Jews, sent by the centurion, said to Christ: The Centurion asks You to come and heal his servant; where they add on their own "that You should come," thinking this was proper, and that the Centurion tacitly desired it.
Therefore what Luke adds: "And when they had come to Jesus, they earnestly besought Him, saying to Him," etc., signifies that they urgently pressed this petition of the centurion, that He would come and heal the boy, alleging: "For he is worthy that You should do this for him," — which words plainly signify that the petition which preceded was that of the elders, which Luke summarized for brevity, saying: "Beseeching Him, that He would come and save his servant." Therefore by those words he embraced by anticipation both the mission of the centurion and his petition, together with that of the elders, although the latter was made afterwards: hence he does not repeat it, nor narrate it as it actually happened.
Others answer differently, namely, that the centurion, when he had sent the Jews, through them asked Christ to come and, coming, heal the boy; but after the Jews had departed to Christ, having been enlightened by God, and his faith and humility growing, he repented, and wished and said that Christ should not come, but being absent should cure the boy. But in that case it would have to be said that the centurion lied when, as Luke says in verse 7, through the Jewish messengers first sent by him, he said: "Wherefore neither did I think myself worthy to come to You." For if he himself thought himself worthy that Christ should come to him, much more would he have thought himself worthy to come and approach Christ. Again, it would have to be said that he did not believe Christ was God; for he would not have dared to lie to God, inasmuch as he would know Him to be conscious of his lie.
Finally, the centurion first sent the elders of the Jews to Christ for the sake of honor, because he himself, as a Gentile, judged himself unworthy of the sight and converse of Jesus; for the Jews reckoned the Gentiles, inasmuch as they were idolaters, vile and impure, as dogs, as is clear from Matthew XV, 26.
Verse 7: I Will Come and Heal Him
7. AND JESUS SAID TO HIM: I WILL COME AND HEAL HIM. — Note the ready mind of Christ for doing good and healing the paralytic, whereby He offered more to the centurion than he himself had asked; but doubtless by this offer He wished to draw forth from the centurion's heart that faith and reverence which soon burst forth from him. Christ said it, and did it; whence Luke VII, 6, says: "And Jesus went with them."
Verse 8: Lord, I Am Not Worthy — Only Say the Word
8. AND THE CENTURION ANSWERING SAID: LORD, I AM NOT WORTHY THAT YOU SHOULD ENTER UNDER MY ROOF (into my house); BUT ONLY SAY THE WORD, AND MY SERVANT SHALL BE HEALED. — The centurion said this first to Christ through friends, when Christ was already approaching his house, as Luke VII, 6 says; then running up himself to Christ as He came, he said and professed the same thing in person, as St. Matthew here reports: for courtesy and civility altogether required that he should personally meet Christ and receive Him as He came and was now near. "Say the word," that is, with a word, as if to say: There is no need for You to be present and touch my servant, but only command while absent, and he will soon be healed. The centurion therefore believed that Christ was God, who everywhere as if present commands and works whatever He wills, or certainly that Christ was an extraordinary Prophet most beloved of God — namely the Messiah promised to the Jews, who in the name of God would command all things at will in Judea: "For He spoke, and they were made: He commanded, and they were created" (Psalm 32:9).
Verse 9: For I Also Am a Man Set Under Authority
9. FOR I ALSO AM A MAN SET UNDER AUTHORITY, HAVING SOLDIERS UNDER ME; AND I SAY TO THIS ONE, GO, AND HE GOES; AND TO ANOTHER (alii, alteri; thus Plautus uses alio for alii): COME, AND HE COMES; AND TO MY SERVANT: DO THIS, AND HE DOES IT. — "Under authority," that is, "I am set" in power, in command, in office, namely I am a Centurion, commanding a hundred soldiers. Thus the Author of the Imperfect Work, who here presses the centurion's argument from an equal, as if to say: If therefore having a small authority over a few soldiers, I command them at my nod, how much more will You, O Christ, who have full authority over all, command diseases? But that "under authority" is to be taken properly here is clear from the Greek, which has: ὑπὸ τὴν ἐξουσίαν, and from what he adds: ἔχων ἐπ᾽ ἐμαυτὸν στρατιώτας, that is, "having soldiers under me." Therefore, just as the centurion truly and properly had soldiers subject to him under his command, so in turn he was himself under the higher authority of his Tribune, or of the Roman Caesar, namely Tiberius. Thus St. Chrysostom, Leontius, the Gloss, Maldonatus, Jansenius, Franciscus Lucas, and others. It is an argument from the lesser to the greater, as if to say: If I, though set under Caesar's authority, nevertheless command at will the soldiers subject to me, "and say to this one: Go, and he goes; and to another: Come, and he comes," how much more will You, O Christ, who are under no one's authority, but are God omnipotent, Lord of all, be able by Your command — though absent — to say and order to the disease (the paralysis of my servant): "Depart," and it will immediately depart; and if You say: "Come," it will immediately come: for diseases are, as it were, Your soldiers and attendants, whom You send at Your nod against the guilty, and call back from the penitent and those who implore You. Thus St. Augustine, Sermon 6 On the Words of the Lord according to Matthew: "If I," he says, "a man under authority, have the power of commanding, what cannot You do, to whom all powers are subject?" St. Jerome ponders the centurion's "faith, in that he believed, he says, from the Gentiles that the paralytic could be healed by the Savior; his humility, in that he judged himself unworthy that the Lord should enter under his roof; his prudence, in that within the covering of the body he saw the divinity hidden, knowing that what was seen even by unbelievers would not profit him, but what lay hidden within."
Morally: if you will be in authority, learn to be under authority; if you will command, learn first to obey one commanding. Hear St. Bernard, epistle 42: "That you may safely preside, refuse not also to be subject, as you ought; for the disdain of subjection renders one unworthy of prelacy: let the subjects see in you what they may render back." He sets forth the very example of the centurion: "For being about to say: having soldiers under me, he first put: I am a man under authority, for whatever anyone adds, we have no suspicion of boasting. For humility has been set first, lest loftiness cast him down." For arrogance found no place where so clear a mark of humility had preceded. Because he did not boast of his subordination, he rightly deserved to be honored through his position of authority. He was not ashamed of the power over him, and therefore was worthy to have soldiers under him. He first gave honor to his superiors, so that he might justly receive it from his subordinates. Thus symbolically: if the soul wishes to rule the body, it must first submit itself to God; for if it rebels against Him, it will find the body rebellious against itself, as Adam experienced when he violated God's commandment not to eat the forbidden fruit. Thus the punishment of pride and disobedience is the fall of the flesh and lust.
Verse 10: I Have Not Found Such Faith in Israel
10. AND WHEN JESUS HEARD THIS, HE MARVELED — that is, at such great faith, humility, reverence, and devotion of the Centurion, who was not a Jew but a Gentile. Hence Origen says: "Consider, he says, how great or of what kind is that which the only-begotten God marvels at. Gold, riches, kingdoms, principalities in His sight are as a shadow, or a fading flower. Nothing therefore of these things is marvelous in the sight of God, as though it were great or precious, but only faith; this He marvels at, honoring it, this He esteems as acceptable to Himself."
One may ask whether there was truly admiration in Christ. I take as a premise the common opinion of the theologians that in Christ, besides the divine knowledge He had as God, there was a threefold knowledge as man: First, the beatific knowledge, through which He beheld the essence of God and, enjoying it, was blessed. Second, infused knowledge, through which, by means of ideas implanted in His soul by God from the very instant of His conception, He knew all things. Third, experiential knowledge, through which what He already knew by infused knowledge He daily saw, heard, and perceived through experience.
I answer therefore that in Christ there was not properly and absolutely admiration — that is, one that would spring from the depths of His heart and its foundation. The reason is that admiration arises and occurs in us from the fact that we see or hear something new, unusual, and unknown; but Christ, through His infused knowledge, already knew all things before they happened. Hence nothing was new, unknown, or unexpected and admirable to Him, since He was omniscient. Nevertheless, Christ aroused in Himself through experiential knowledge, when He experienced something great and new, a kind of superficial interior act and exterior gesture of admiration, in order to teach others to admire the same thing. So says St. Augustine; hear him in his book On Genesis Against the Manichaeans, chapter 8: "But who had produced that faith in him, if not He Himself who was marveling? And if another had produced it, why would He marvel, who had foreknowledge? Therefore, what the Lord marvels at, He signifies should be marveled at by us, who still need to be moved in this way: for all such movements of His are not signs of a troubled mind, but the teaching of a master." So also St. Thomas, III Part, Question XV, article 8.
Hence the wise man marvels at nothing. And Cyrus, king of the Persians, taught his people to marvel at nothing, because the King is higher and superior to everything in the world. He who, with St. Paul, dwells in heaven, marvels at nothing on earth. St. Cyprian says admirably in his treatise On Spectacles: "Never," he says, "will anyone marvel at human works who has recognized himself to be a son of God. He casts himself down from the pinnacle of his own nobility, who is able to admire anything after God."
And He said to those following Him: I have not found such great faith in Israel. — The Arabic version has: in any one of Israel. The Greek is more forceful: not even in Israel have I found such great faith as in this Gentile Centurion. Understand: I have not found it, namely among the common people since the time of My preaching; for without doubt the faith of the Blessed Virgin, Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist, etc. was greater. Or, as Chrysostom says, I have not found such great faith, namely proportionally, because this man was a pagan and a Centurion, while the others were Israelites and believers; hence the same faith in him was more remarkable and admirable than in them. The same Chrysostom ranks the faith of the Centurion above the faith of the Apostles at the beginning of their calling; Origen, however, ranks it above the faith of Martha and Mary Magdalene. Hear St. Chrysostom: "Andrew believed, but when John said: Behold the Lamb of God. Peter believed, but when Andrew proclaimed the Gospel to him. Philip believed, but by reading the Scriptures. And Nathanael first received a sign of divinity, and so offered his confession of faith." Hear also Origen: "Jairus, a ruler of Israel, asking for his daughter, did not say: Speak the word, but: Come quickly. Nicodemus, hearing about the sacrament of faith, said: How can this be? Mary and Martha say: Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died — as if doubting that the power of God could be present everywhere."
Verse 11: Many Will Come from East and West
11. AND I SAY TO YOU, THAT MANY SHALL COME FROM THE EAST AND THE WEST, AND SHALL RECLINE WITH ABRAHAM, AND ISAAC, AND JACOB, IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. — "From the east and the west," that is, from the farthest regions of the Gentiles. For on the occasion of the Centurion, who was a Gentile, He foretells the calling of the Gentiles (of whom this Centurion was the firstfruits) and the rejection of the Jews. He alludes to Isaiah 43:5 and following, where from the four quarters of the world the calling of the Gentiles, their grace and glory, is foretold. "They shall recline," that is, they shall rest, say St. Hilary and Euthymius. But the Greek is ἀνακλιθήσονται, that is, they shall recline at table, as if they shall take their place at a banquet, as guests feasting at a splendid banquet; for the kingdom of heaven and the heavenly glory and happiness of Christ and the saints are often compared to such a banquet, on account of the supreme rest, joy, security, and satisfaction. He alludes to that passage in Psalm 16:15: "I shall be satisfied when Your glory shall appear." And Psalm 35:9: "They shall be inebriated with the plenty of Your house, and You shall give them to drink of the torrent of Your pleasure." This heavenly banquet, as the nuptial feast of the Lamb, that is of Christ, St. John vividly portrays in Revelation 19:7 and following, and Christ Himself in Luke 22:22.
With Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. — These three are named and celebrated here and elsewhere above all other holy Patriarchs and Prophets. First, because these three were the first Fathers and Patriarchs of the Jews, singularly chosen and selected by God for this purpose. Second, because they were the heads of the Commonwealth and Church of God. Third, because they gave singular examples of faith and religion. Fourth, because these three were heirs of the promise concerning the land of Canaan to be possessed by their descendants, as a type of the heavenly kingdom promised to them and their followers. Hence God calls Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and gloried in their name among the Jews.
Verse 12: The Children of the Kingdom Cast into Outer Darkness
12. BUT THE CHILDREN OF THE KINGDOM SHALL BE CAST OUT INTO THE OUTER DARKNESS: THERE SHALL BE WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH. — "The children of the kingdom," that is, the Israelites who were destined and called to the kingdom; because they were descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom and to whose descendants God had promised both the earthly kingdom of Judea and the spiritual kingdom of eternal glory in heaven. By a similar Hebraism, they are called children of death, of Gehenna, and of the resurrection — those who are consigned to death and Gehenna, or destined and appointed by God to the promised resurrection.
Morally: if you are a child of the kingdom, do the works of the kingdom, do works worthy of heaven, live like an Angel. For thus Christ said to the Jews: "If you are children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham" (John 8).
Into outer darkness — of Gehenna. He persists in the metaphor of a banquet in the heavenly kingdom, and therefore of the most luminous place. On this topic, note that most of the ancients did not eat lunch, or ate only sparingly and lightly as a snack, but only dined at supper, and then satisfied and cheered themselves. Therefore they celebrated banquets not at lunch but at supper, and this for the sake of leisure and freedom, and so as not to break the day, as Horace says in Book I, Ode 1, but to devote it entirely to business. Hence dining rooms were called supper rooms. Concerning the Hebrews, this is clear from Sacred Scripture, where mention is frequently made of supper and the supper room, rarely of lunch, as is evident in the supper of Darius, 3 Esdras 2:1; of Holophernes, Judith 12:10; of Herod, Mark 6:21; of Martha, John 13:2; and 1 Corinthians 11:20. Philo teaches the same about the Essenes, in Book 21 of On the Contemplative Life. Indeed there is no mention of lunch in the Old Testament, except in Tobit 2:4 and Daniel 13:43, and in Esther, when the Jews were brought to Assyria and Babylon and lived there among the Gentiles and ate according to their custom. I make one exception: Jeroboam, king of Israel, who invited to lunch the Prophet who had restored his hand, 3 Kings 13:7. But this king was an idolater and the author and goldsmith of the golden calves which the Israelites worshipped. Hence it is no wonder if, being more gluttonous, he celebrated lunches.
To be sure, they considered eating to be an animal and base activity, and therefore unworthy of daylight and worthy of darkness; hence they were ashamed of it and took care that the sun would not see them eating.
Because therefore in ancient times they did not eat lunch at midday, but dined in the evening and at night, they used abundant lighting. Hence Lucretius, Book II: "That lights might be supplied for nocturnal feasts." So also Horace, Book III, Ode 2. In the dining rooms therefore and at banquets there was light, but outside them there was darkness, which is therefore here called outer, because outside the banquet hall. For in Greek it is not ἔσχατος, that is, uttermost, but ἐξώτερος, that is, outer darkness, which is found outside and beyond the place of the banquet. Hence Luke 13:28 has: "You shall see yourselves cast out." The meaning therefore is, as if to say: The children of the kingdom, that is, the Jews, destined from the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for the heavenly kingdom, shall on account of their perfidy — because they refused to believe in Christ — be cast out from the kingdom and the heavenly feast into the outer darkness of Gehenna, in Greek ἐξωτέρας, that is, exiled from the light of the heavenly banquet and kingdom, utterly alien and most remote, namely into the deepest and most obscure darkness. For Gehenna is at the center of the earth, which is distant from the surface of the earth by three thousand miles and more; therefore such great opacity of earth causes great darkness in Gehenna. That this is so is clear: First, from the fact that the Hebrew חיצון (chitson), which is used here in Matthew, is derived from the root chuts, just as the Greek ἐξώτερος from ἔξω, that is, outer from outside; because these darknesses are outside the kingdom and the heavenly banquet, in which the blessed feast and reign as children of light. Second, because in a similar manner Christ, in chapter 22:13, cast the servant who did not have a wedding garment out of the banquet into the outer darkness. Third, because for the same reason John says of Gehenna and the damned in Revelation 14:20: "The winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress up to the bridles of the horses for one thousand six hundred stadia." For after the day of judgment there will be only two places for men, namely heaven for the elect and the blessed, and Gehenna, or the lake and Tartarus, for the reprobate and the damned. Therefore those who are excluded from heaven, where the most brilliant city of the kingdom and banquet will be, shall be banished outside it into the lake and the most obscure Tartarus. And this is what Luke 13:28 says: "When you shall see Abraham, etc., in the kingdom of God, but yourselves cast out." And verse 25: "When the master of the house has entered and shut the door, you shall begin to stand outside." And Christ, John 6:37: "Him who comes to Me, I will not cast out." And 15:6: "He shall be cast out as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he burns." And Revelation 3:12: "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more." And 11:2: "But the court, etc., cast out." And 22:15: "Outside are dogs and sorcerers." So says St. Jerome. Therefore Cajetan is less correct in thinking that the outer darkness is opposed to interior darkness which obscures the mind: so that the outer would be sensible, excluding sensible light, while the interior would be spiritual, stripping the mind of interior light.
Moreover, although "exterior" is a comparative form, it here has the force of a positive, because the positive form is lacking, or rather of a superlative, as Jansenius holds. "Exterior" therefore means outermost, placed far outside the house or place. The outer darknesses, then, are darknesses most remote from heaven and light, Tartarean, most profound. For it will be a great punishment for the damned to be excluded from heaven, that is, from the fellowship of God, the Angels, and the Blessed, and to be thrust with the demons into the dark prison, indeed Tartarus — which the theologians call the punishment of loss, and which is equated with, indeed by many placed above, as being more grievous and bitter than, the punishment of sense, namely fire and burning, which is nevertheless also understood here by the outer darkness. Finally, the kingdom of heaven, which is the most luminous and most happy place of the Blessed, is called a banquet because it is full of every pleasure and joy and all delights, in which the Saints perpetually feast, as it were. For by the outer darkness is denoted the prison of hell and its torments, by synecdoche and metonymy, because there the fire, being most intense, is also most smoky and dark, and torments the damned, as St. Basil attests in his earlier Exposition of Psalm 28. And that fire shines only to this extent: that the damned may see their own punishments and those of their companions and thereby increase them, as St. Gregory teaches, Book IX of the Moralia, chapter 46 or 66.
Finally, by darkness here understand both corporeal and spiritual. Hence St. Augustine, on Psalm 6, by these darknesses understands the blindness of mind — arising from a practical judgment in the damned that is most false and most perverse, and from the supreme hatred of God the Avenger that flows from it, and the consequent obstinacy and impenitence. For the damned, out of hatred and rage against God because He torments them so severely in Gehenna, judge that God, the virtues, and everything that God loves are to be hated by them. Hence they can love nothing but evil, out of their supreme rage against God and their despair of their own salvation.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. — By this phrase is signified the supreme torment of the damned in Gehenna, namely: by weeping, the supreme sorrow; by gnashing, the supreme horror. For those who are horribly tormented and tortured weep with their eyes, wail with their voice, and gnash with their teeth.
One may ask first whether the damned in Gehenna, after resuming their bodies on the day of judgment, will truly weep and shed tears. Maldonatus affirms this. Others more correctly deny it: both because the most burning fire of Gehenna would restrain all tears, if there were any, and immediately dry them up; and because infinite rivers would not suffice for these eternal tears lasting through all ages; and because the same bodies will always be preserved intact by God in the eternal fire without nourishment, change, or excretion of waste or tears — otherwise the entire body, indeed infinite bodies, would gradually have to be dissolved into tears. By weeping and tears, therefore, understand here catachrestically sobs, groans, wails, and all the gestures and laments of mourners that are usually joined with weeping.
One may ask second whether in Gehenna there will truly be gnashing, by which the damned gnash their teeth. The answer is affirmative: for gnashing here arises from the bitterness and horror of the punishments; those who are tortured on the rack gnash their teeth and strike them against each other. Some add that there is gnashing in Gehenna from extreme cold, for from this gnashing of teeth properly arises; although Jansenius and others, in Gehenna, think that there is only supreme fire, and therefore deny that there is cold there; yet many hold the opposite view, namely that there is also extreme cold there, and that the damned are tortured and burned by it, according to Job 24:19: "Let him pass from waters of snow to extreme heat." So say Philip the Presbyter, Bede, Lyra, and St. Thomas on that passage, and St. Augustine, in the book On the Threefold Dwelling, chapter 2; and St. Jerome, on chapter 10 of St. Matthew, who says: "We read most fully in Job 24:16 that there is a threefold Gehenna, of extreme fire and cold" — as if therefore it is called the Gehenna of fire because there is also a Gehenna of cold. But more on this subject in Job 24:43.
Verse 13: As You Have Believed, So Be It Done
13. AND JESUS SAID TO THE CENTURION: GO, AND AS YOU HAVE BELIEVED (Arabic: according to your faith), LET IT BE DONE TO YOU. AND THE SERVANT WAS HEALED IN THAT HOUR — at that very moment when Jesus said "let it be done." "Go," that is, return joyful and eager to your home. It is a word of granting and conceding what is asked; hence there follows: "And as you have believed, let it be done to you." You believed that I, though absent, could heal your servant by a word alone; let him therefore be healed, absent, by My word "let it be done." From this it appears that Christ did not enter the Centurion's house, nor touch his servant or speak to him, but in the place where the Centurion met Him, saying: "Lord, I am not worthy, etc.; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed," He immediately cured him, in order to confirm him in faith and to show that He was the Messiah, indeed God — namely: great faith merits great things, great confidence obtains great things; as much as you hope from God, so much will you obtain. Hence St. Bernard, in sermon 15 on Psalm "He who dwells," explains tropologically God's promise to Joshua, chapter 1: "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, shall be yours," and says: "Hope in God, all you congregation of the people; for whatever place your foot shall tread upon, shall be yours. Your foot is surely your hope, and however far it shall advance, it shall obtain, provided it is fixed wholly on God, so that it may be firm and not waver." For since God is most generous, and is greatly honored by the confidence we place in Him, He does not allow Himself to be overcome by our confidence, but purposes to surpass it. Hence that saying of the same St. Bernard, sermon 3 On the Annunciation: "Hope alone obtains a place with You, O Lord, for Your mercy, nor do You pour the oil of mercy except into the vessel of confidence."
Tropologically: from the Centurion let masters learn how much care they should bestow on their servants, and at what great value they should hold them. For this servant was precious to him, as Luke says, and therefore he summoned Christ at such great expense of the elders and friends to cure him. In turn, servants should serve their masters with greater zeal, love, and reverence. Hear Ecclesiasticus 33:31: "If you have a faithful servant, let him be to you as your own soul; treat him as a brother." See what is said there. Seneca wisely says, though a pagan, in Epistle 47: "They are slaves, you say? But they are human beings. They are slaves? Rather, they are comrades. They are slaves? Rather, they are friends. They are slaves? Rather, they are fellow slaves, if you consider that fortune has the same power over both." Then he adds examples of servants who, treated well by their masters, "were ready to offer their neck and to turn upon their own head the danger that threatened their masters." Therefore the common saying is false: "we have as many enemies as we have slaves." For we do not have them as enemies, he says, but we make them so by treating them inhumanely. Therefore every master, superior, and prelate should do for his servants and subjects what this Centurion did for his servant — especially to lead them to Christ to be healed of diseases of the soul rather than of the body.
Mystically: the Centurion represents every person who presides over his members, senses, powers, and faculties as over soldiers, so that they may fight and serve God. "The life of man upon earth is a warfare" (Job 7). Therefore if any sense or appetite in him grows weak and labors with the paralysis of gluttony, sloth, lust, pride, etc., let him approach and invoke Jesus with humility and confidence through the intercession of friends, that is, of the Saints, and not desist until he obtains health for it.
Verse 14: Peter's Mother-in-Law Sick with a Fever
14. AND WHEN HE HAD COME INTO PETER'S HOUSE, HE SAW HIS MOTHER-IN-LAW LYING SICK WITH A FEVER. — This is a hysterologia, or inverted order. For this miracle and the other deeds of Christ which Matthew subsequently narrates up to the end of chapter nine happened before the healing of the leper and the servant of the Centurion, indeed before Christ's ascent and sermon on the mount, as can be gathered from Mark 1:22 and 29, and Luke 4:32 and 38, and from Matthew himself. For Christ's sermon on the mount was delivered before the twelve Apostles, and consequently before St. Matthew himself, who nevertheless describes his own calling after these events, in chapter 9:9. Namely, Matthew wished at the beginning of Christ's preaching to write a summary of the doctrine delivered by Christ on the mount, and then to weave together in order the miracles by which Christ confirmed the same doctrine both before and after the sermon. Because this miracle of healing Peter's mother-in-law occurred in Capernaum, where also occurred the healing of the leper and the centurion's servant, Matthew therefore places it here in the narrative order after the Sermon on the Mount.
Verse 20: Foxes Have Holes, but the Son of Man Has Nowhere to Lay His Head
20. AND JESUS SAID TO HIM: "FOXES HAVE HOLES" (in Greek φωλεούς, that is, dens, caves) "AND THE BIRDS OF THE SKY HAVE NESTS" (in Greek κατασκηνώσεις, that is, shelters woven from branches and foliage of trees. St. Cyprian, Book I To Quirinus, chapter XI, and St. Augustine, Book XXII Against Faustus, chapter XLVIII, translate it as "lodgings"), "BUT THE SON OF MAN HAS NOWHERE TO LAY HIS HEAD." — As if to say: Cheap, useless, and harmful animals, such as foxes and birds, especially birds of prey, have their nests; but the Son of Man — that is, I who was born of a virgin and made man — have nothing of My own, not even a pillow, or a bed, or a bench on which to rest My weary head and body. Foxes and birds are therefore richer than I, and have more comfort than I have. You think I live comfortably and lavishly — you are mistaken; for I do not even have as much of My own as the birds and foxes, which have small and very poor dwellings for resting and raising their young.
He uncovers the hidden sore of avarice in the Scribe, as if to say: You desire to follow Me because you see that I am popular with the people on account of the healings and benefits I confer on them. Hence you hope that by following Me you can increase your wealth and scrape together many goods, as though I were enriching Myself and My followers through the Gospel — but you are wrong; for I, as a master of perfection, am poor and devoted to poverty, and I wish My disciples to be the same, so that, freed from the care of temporal things, they may devote themselves entirely to Me and to God, and to preaching, in which they may strive by word and example to lead all to heavenly things and to heaven itself. Hearing this, the Scribe fell silent, and, frustrated in his hope, withdrew from Christ's sight, as Matthew tacitly implies here. In a similar manner, Christ responded to the sons of Zebedee who, through their mother, sought the first places in His kingdom, and He offered them His cup of suffering and martyrdom: "Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink?" (Matt. 20:22). So St. Hilary, Theophylactus, Euthymius, and St. Jerome: "Why," says Jerome, "do you wish to follow Me for the sake of riches and worldly gain, when I do not even have a small lodging?" And St. Augustine, in On the Words of the Lord: "Proud and deceitful, you will not follow Me." The same St. Augustine, in Questions on the Gospels, Question V: "It is understood," he says, "that this man, moved by miracles, wished to follow Christ out of vainglory — which the birds signify — and feigned a disciple's obedience — which feigning is signified by the name of the fox." And the Interlinear Gloss: "Pride," it says, "has made a nest in your heart."
With this saying of Christ, St. Jerome, in Epistle I to Heliodorus, inviting him to his desert in Syria, spurs him on: "The Son of Man," he says, "has nowhere to lay His head, and you measure out spacious porticoes and vast expanses of roofs? If you are waiting for a worldly inheritance, you cannot be a co-heir of Christ." And a little earlier: "Why are you a Christian with a timid spirit? Look at Peter's abandoned net; look at the tax collector rising from the tax booth immediately becoming an apostle, etc. The servant of Christ has nothing except Christ."
Let religious imitate this example of Christ, uniting themselves to God through their profession of poverty and expecting their nourishment from His providence. Hence St. Francis, commending poverty and exhorting his followers to it, urged them not to be ashamed of begging: "Do not," he said, "be embarrassed to ask for alms, because the Lord made Himself poor for us in this world, by whose example we chose the way of truest poverty. For if out of love for Him we chose the way of poverty, we should not be ashamed to beg for alms: it is not fitting for heirs of the kingdom of heaven to blush at the pledge of a heavenly inheritance. For this is our inheritance, which the Lord Jesus Christ acquired and left to us, and to all who wish to live by His example in holy poverty." He added that those asking for alms offer more to the givers than they receive from them: "Because," he said, "you offer them the love of God, saying: 'For the love of the Lord God, give us alms,' in comparison with which heaven and earth are nothing." And again: "This evangelical poverty," he said, "is the foundation of our order, so that by its firmness it is made firm, and by its overthrow it is utterly overthrown. Therefore, as much as the brothers decline from poverty, so much will the world decline from them, and they will seek and not find. But if they embrace my lady Poverty, the world will nourish them, because they have been given to the world for its salvation: for they owe the world a good example, and the world owes them the provision of necessities. But when they break their good example through a betrayed faith, the world will withdraw its hand by a just censure." So the Annals of the Franciscans.
From this passage, therefore, the heresy of those who condemn the voluntary poverty professed by religious is refuted. The author of this heresy was a certain Desiderius the Lombard, in the time of Pope Alexander IV, and another in the same period named William of Saint-Amour, whom St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure powerfully refuted. Wrongly, however, on the opposite side, heretics called Apostolici inferred from this same passage that this poverty was necessary for salvation for all Christians, as St. Augustine attests in Heresy 40. Equally wrongly, the Waldensians or Anthropomorphites, and the Waldenses, or the Poor of Lyon, and Wycliffe, concluded from the same text that bishops and priests were not permitted to have possessions, but that they had to live on alms alone, because Christ lived on alms. But Christ did this and counseled it as the more perfect course, and did not command it as necessary for salvation. Hence this error is refuted by many decrees and councils.
Again, from this passage it is clear that poverty and its force and essence consist in this: that one should have nothing of one's own, nor be attached to anything as one's own property; but should keep one's affection free from all private possession, reserving and resigning it to God alone. This is not opposed to — indeed, it is in conformity with — possessing things necessary for life in common. Hence all religious, except the Franciscans, by decree of the Council of Trent, Session 25, chapter III, may possess goods, even immovable property, in common, lest they be forced to beg and be anxious about acquiring food daily, and lest they be burdensome and onerous to the faithful. For Christ with the Apostles had goods in common, of which Judas was the receiver and dispenser, as is clear from John 12:6. The most holy and most learned founders of religious orders had the same and commanded the same — such as St. Augustine (who, in Epistle 109, commands nuns that whatever they had in the world, they should wish to be common to all in the monastery); St. Basil, St. Benedict, St. Bernard, St. Bruno, and the rest. See St. Thomas, II-II, Question 188, article 7. Indeed, even the Emperor Justinian, in Authentic Collation I, Constitution V, § Illud, and Collation XI, Constitution IV, § Si qua, issued a law commanding that the goods of those who become monks should by that very fact belong to the monasteries.
Tropologically: St. Gregory, Book XIX of the Moralia, chapter 1: "Cunning foxes," he says, "hide in dens and run through winding passages; birds lift themselves up by flight. Therefore, deceitful and proud demons are signified as dwelling in that man's heart, and Christ's humility cannot rest in a proud mind." And Rabanus: "Heretics, like foxes, are crafty; like birds — that is, evil spirits — they had their nests in the hearts of the Jews."
Symbolically: St. Bernard, in the Declamationes: "He censures," he says, "the prudence of the flesh in the fox's den; in the bird's nest, the pride of the heart. The prudence of the flesh is that by which some who renounce the world, fearing to entrust themselves entirely to the divine will, reserve something for themselves — which corrupts the whole mass."
Well known is that saying of St. Basil to a senator who was renouncing the world, but on the condition that he keep something of his goods for himself: "You have lost the senator, and you have not made a monk" — which Cassian and others cite and commend.
Son of Man. — That is, a man born from a man. So Christ everywhere calls Himself, out of a zeal for humility, because He, though He was God, deigned for us to become incarnate and to be made man.
But whose son is Christ? First, the pagans understood "man" to mean Joseph; hence they contended that He was begotten and born from the seed of Joseph, not from the Holy Spirit, as St. Justin attests in Question 66 to the Orthodox. But from Scripture and the Creed it is established that Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
Second, Theophylactus: "Christ," he says, "is the Son of Man, that is, the Son of the Blessed Mary, virgin and His mother; for 'homo' is of common gender, said of a woman as much as of a man, just as the Greek ἄνθρωπος. But the masculine article τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, that is, 'of the man,' stands against this."
Third, and better, others say: Christ is called the Son of Man, that is, the son of Abraham or David; for it was promised to them that from their descendants the Messiah, or Christ, would be born. Hence He is called in Scripture the son of these men.
Fourth, others say: Christ is the Son of Man, that is, of men — namely the patriarchs and kings from whom Matthew wove the genealogy of Christ in chapter 1.
Fifth, and best of all, Christ is the Son of Man, namely of Adam, because He was descended from Adam, just like all other men. For Adam is called absolutely "man" and the parent of all the rest; hence "Adam" in Hebrew means the same as "man." For He alludes to Ezekiel 2:1, where Ezekiel, who was a type of Christ, is called "son of man" — in Hebrew בן אדם, that is, "son of Adam." Hence St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 4 On Theology: "Christ," he says, "is called the son of Adam, as the Hebrew words indicate, to show that He had no human father, but that through His Virgin Mother He drew His lineage all the way from Adam. For He willed to be born from Adam, in order to repair the sins of Adam and his descendants who fell in him." Hence also St. Augustine, Book II On the Agreement of the Evangelists, chapter 1: "He commends to us," he says, "what He mercifully deigned to be for us, and as though commending the mystery of His wondrous Incarnation, He more frequently instills this name into our ears."
"Son of Man" signifies more than simply "man," because a man can be created by God alone, as Adam was created; but "son of man" signifies one descended from Adam, the common parent, so as to indicate: First, the immense humility of Christ, who deigned to be born from a sinner and to take upon Himself in the earthly body He assumed that man's miseries and death. For "Adam" is derived from "adamah" (earth); just as "homo" from "humus" (soil); "mortalis" from "mors" (death). See the commentary on Ezekiel 2:1.
Second, the wondrous brotherhood and love of Christ with men, by which He willed to be born in Bethlehem from the same common parent of all, Adam, so that He might become the brother and blood-relative of all men, and that He might be most intimately grafted into and united with human nature and with the company of men through human generation and natural birth from a human being — in the manner I explained at chapter 1, verse 18 — according to that text: "A child is born to us, and a son is given to us" (Isaiah 9:6). "Son of Man," therefore, denotes Christ's supreme gentleness, familiarity, and condescension, as well as the tender caresses of love by which He offers Himself to men as a son of man, and as a little child to little children, so that they may delight and take pleasure in Him as in a most sweet little boy and a most gentle little brother, according to that text: "My delight is to be with the children of men" (Proverbs 8). Why do you fear, O man, to approach Jesus? Behold, He is the Son of Man! Why do you dread, O sinner, the wrath of God? Run to Jesus, the Son of Man, who was made a little child for you. There is no sweeter child in the world, no more tender little son; for He was made the Son of Man so that He might give Himself to men as the price of death and as the delight of love: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). And: "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28).
"Son of Man," therefore, is a proper name, or rather one appropriated to Christ. This was a marvel of condescension, a marvel of love, a marvel of all ages: that the only-begotten Son of God deigned for the sake of men to become the Son of Man, so that He might dwell with men and teach them the holy way, and by His cross redeem, save, and beatify them in heaven. For ἄνθρωπος (that is, "man"), as Plato says in the Cratylus, is derived as though from ἀναθρῶν ἃ ὄπωπε, that is, "contemplating what he has seen." Others derive it as from ἄνω ῥέπων, that is, "tending upward" — namely, toward heaven. Hence Christ says of Himself: "No one has ascended to heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven" (John 3:13). He, therefore, is truly ἄνθρωπος, and He likewise makes His followers ἀνθρώπους — those who, having left the earth, look to and strive for nothing but heavenly things, according to that text: "If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above" (Col. 3:1).
Accordingly, St. Jerome, in Epistle 26 to Pammachius, a Roman patrician who had professed the monastic life, thus spurs him to perseverance: "However much you abase yourself, you will not be more humble than Christ. Suppose you walk with bare feet, are clothed in a dark tunic, make yourself equal to the poor, graciously enter the cells of the destitute; suppose you are the eye of the blind, the hand of the weak, the foot of the lame; suppose you carry water, chop wood, build a fire — where are your chains? Where the spitting? Where the slaps? Where the scourges? Where the cross? Where is death? And when you have done all that I have said, you will be surpassed by your Eustochium and Paula, if not in works, then certainly in sex."
Verse 21: Lord, Permit Me First to Bury My Father
21. AND ANOTHER OF HIS DISCIPLES SAID TO HIM: LORD, PERMIT ME FIRST TO GO AND BURY MY FATHER. — This disciple was not one of the twelve Apostles, but another called by Christ to follow Him. For here we must supply from Luke, chapter IX, that Christ had first said to him: "Follow Me." He did not reject Christ's call, but wished to follow more freely after he had fulfilled the pious duty of his father's funeral, says the Gloss. Therefore, from the disciple's response, which Matthew here narrates, we are to understand and supply Christ's question and call, which Luke records, according to Canon 18.
Lord. — He addresses Christ reverently and obediently, calling Him Lord, as if wishing to subject himself to His service, whereas the earlier Scribe rather boldly called Christ "Teacher" — so that deservedly the former was left aside, while this man was accepted. As much evil as there was in the Scribe, so much good there was in this man, says St. Augustine, Sermon 2 On the Words of the Lord.
Permit me first to go and bury my father. — Theophylactus, on Luke chapter IX, and following him Francis Lucas, think the father was still alive, as if to say: Allow me to remain with my father, who is now old, and to serve his old age until he dies; then, having fulfilled my duty of piety, I will follow You. He therefore asked for a longer delay. More plainly and precisely, St. Chrysostom and others judge that the father was already dead — for one is not buried unless dead. Therefore Christ called him opportunely and most gently, as if to say: Your father is already dead; follow Me. I will be to you a far better father: he needed your help, you need Mine. He gave you carnal life; I will give you spiritual and eternal life. He formed you like himself in body; I will make you like Myself in soul — that is, in grace and glory. For I will make you a preacher and apostle of My Gospel.
Clement of Alexandria, Book III of the Stromata, chapter 14, thinks that Philip, later an apostle, was the one to whom Christ said: "Let the dead bury their dead." But this seems to be contradicted by the fact that Philip had already been called by Christ and was following Him, as is clear from John 1:43 — unless one says that Philip had previously been following Christ, but when he heard that his father had died, he asked Christ for permission to bury him, but did not obtain it. Hence he is called here a disciple: "Another," it says, "of His disciples said to Him: Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father" — so that with him buried, I may fully adhere to You and constantly follow You in all things. And this is plausible enough, especially since Clement holds it as certain.
Verse 22: Let the Dead Bury Their Dead
22. BUT JESUS SAID TO HIM: FOLLOW ME, AND LET THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD. — Jesus calls him a second time, repeating that "Follow Me" — namely, before his excuse and after it — because He efficaciously wished him as His disciple. Hence He dispels the impediment the man raised, and forbids him to return to bury his father — but in such a way that He presents the most just reasons for His prohibition, by which He instructs, consoles, and encourages the one called to follow the vocation immediately. He therefore says: "Let the dead bury their dead." Note here that Christ does not condemn the burial of the dead, which is a work of mercy praised in Tobit, but wishes to teach that when God calls, one must obey immediately. For God knows our impediments, and when He calls us in the midst of them, He wills us to break through them, and He tacitly promises and pledges His grace and help to do so. Therefore He commands that the following of God and the divine vocation must be preferred to burial, even of parents — that is, the divine to the human, piety to nature, God to man. Christ plays on the word "dead": for by the first "dead" He signifies those who are spiritually dead — that is, unbelievers and those destitute of God's faith and grace, say St. Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine, in Question VI on Matthew; by the latter "dead" He means those who are corporally dead. For just as the body separated from the soul is dead, so the soul separated from God is dead; for just as the life of the body is the soul, so the life of the soul is God, says St. Augustine.
The meaning, therefore, is as if He said: Let the dead — that is, the unbelievers (that is, the Jews who reject My faith), immersed in sin and the world, and destitute of God's grace and spirit — bury their own, that is, those analogically similar to themselves; or "their own," that is, their relatives and kin who are corporally dead, and perhaps also spiritually so. For I wish you to follow Me, who am the true Life, and to live with Me here through illustrious and perfect grace, and hereafter through surpassing glory, and to evangelize both to others, as Luke adds.
Hear St. Ambrose, Book VII on Luke chapter IX, verse 59: "Burial of a father's funeral is forbidden, so that you may understand that human things must be set aside for divine things. It is a good devotion, but a greater impediment. For he who divides his devotion diverts his affection; he who splits his care delays his progress. Therefore the greatest things must be attended to first. For the Apostles too, lest they be occupied with the business of distributing, appointed ministers for the poor; and when they were sent by the Lord, they were forbidden to greet anyone on the way — not because the duty of good will was displeasing, but because the pursuit of devotion was more pleasing."
The first reason, therefore, which Christ here sets forth for His call and for being followed, so that the one called may immediately follow and prefer it to his father's burial, is that other brothers or relatives survive who can bury the father, and to whom his burial more properly belongs than to this man called by Christ — precisely because they too are dead, and dead with a worse death, namely that of unbelief and sin. As if to say: Let the dead deal with the dead; for it befits unbelievers to bury an unbeliever. But you, who are alive in My faith and love, should deal with the living — namely, with Me and with My faithful and Apostles.
The second reason is the danger that, if you mingle with the dead — that is, with unbelievers — and associate with them, you may become one of them, and die mystically and become an unbeliever.
Third, lest while you attend to your father's burial, you then become entangled in the settlement of the will and other funeral business, by which you would be delayed from following Me — namely, lest you become embroiled with brothers and relatives in dividing the inheritance, paying debts, executing the testament, and the many other complications and lawsuits that arise in a house of mourning, and that require many months, even years, before they are settled. Christ wisely wished to cut short all these things for the young man; for just as one lawsuit begets another, so one complication begets another. So St. Chrysostom, Homily 28. Indeed, I have learned from experience that those who are called to follow Christ in religious life, if they entangle themselves in the wills of their relatives, are delayed for many years, become worldly, and lose their vocation, so that they never enter the religious life.
Tropologically: Christ signifies that those who devote themselves to the legacies and affairs of parents or relatives are occupied with the dead and with dead things; for they are absorbed in a house of death — that is, with parents, children, relatives who are dead and dying. As if to say: You have resolved to live for God, and have begun to be alive to Him through grace; therefore continue to live for Him, and serve the living God. Therefore leave dead and dying things to the dead and dying. So St. Jerome: "If the dead buries the dead," he says, "we should not be concerned about the dead, but about the living, lest while we are anxious about the dead, we too be called dead." Hence St. Basil, in the Monastic Constitutions, chapter XXI, from this passage shows how much harm attachment to parents and familiarity with them brings to spiritual and religious men.
And St. Chrysostom: "If now," he says, "for so brief a time, it is forbidden to be absent from spiritual things for the sake of burying parents, consider what punishment those deserve who always withdraw from things worthy of Christ, because they prefer the excessively worthless and contemptible business of worldly affairs to what is necessary — and that without any urgency."
Symbolically: St. Gregory, Book IV of the Moralia, chapter XXV: "The dead," he says, "bury the dead when sinners heap favors upon a sinner (by indulging him in his sins and fostering him by flattery). For what else is sinning but falling dead? And what is burying but hiding? But those who heap praises upon a sinner hide the dead man under the mound of their words." Hence he adds that such people, as if buried, scarcely rise from their sins; but Lazarus rose because he was buried by his sisters, who were not dead, but alive through charity.
Luke adds, 9:60: "But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God" — that is, the way by which one reaches the kingdom of heaven, namely through faith and a life conformed to the Gospel that Christ brought. "When," says St. Augustine, Sermon 7 On the Words of the Lord, "the Lord prepares men for the Gospel, He wills that no excuse of this carnal and temporal piety be interposed." For, as St. Chrysostom says, "it is far better to proclaim the kingdom of God and to draw others from death, than to bury a dead man who is of no use — especially when there are those who can perform all these duties." St. Gregory likewise taught in Book XIX of the Moralia, chapter XIV: "Sometimes," he says, "in our actions lesser goods must be set aside for the benefit of greater ones. For who does not know that there is merit in the good work of burying the dead? And yet to the man who had asked to be dismissed to bury his father, it was said: 'Let the dead bury their dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.' For the duty of this ministry had to be postponed to the office of preaching, because by the former he would have placed the bodily dead in the earth, but by the latter he would raise the spiritually dead to life."
Verse 23: Entering the Boat, His Disciples Followed Him
23. AND WHEN HE GOT INTO THE BOAT (to cross over, as I said at verse 18), HIS DISCIPLES FOLLOWED HIM. — In Greek εἰς πλοῖον, that is, "into a ship." Our translator rendered it "a little boat," because the boats used for crossing or fishing are usually small. Mark adds, 4:36: "They took Him just as He was" — namely, teaching the crowds standing on the shore, teaching, I say, "in the boat" and from the boat; as if to say: From a place on the sea near the shore, they took and brought Christ out into the deep sea — "and other boats were with Him."
Verse 24: A Great Tempest on the Sea, but He Was Sleeping
24. AND BEHOLD, A GREAT TEMPEST AROSE IN THE SEA, SO THAT THE BOAT WAS COVERED WITH WAVES; BUT HE WAS SLEEPING. — Mark: "And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were crashing into the boat, so that the boat was filling up." Luke: "And they were being swamped" — namely, by the waves of the billows — and the disciples themselves, in the boat and with the boat, "were in peril" of being submerged and drowned. Bede and Strabus (or the Glossa — for Strabus, a monk of Fulda, compiled this from the writings of his teacher Rabanus in the year of the Lord 840) are of the opinion that in this storm only Christ's boat was tossed, and not the others that accompanied it, so that Christ might show Himself to be the author of both the raging and the calming of the tempest. But it is more true that the other boats were tossed as well; for they were near, indeed very close to Christ's boat, and this God willed, so that the greater force of the storm and the greater power of Christ in calming it might be displayed. Moreover, He permitted — nay, through natural causes, such as vapors and winds, concurring with them naturally — Christ stirred up and sent this storm:
First, to declare His own power and that He is Lord of both the sea and the land, says Origen, homily 6 On Various Matters. Hence the Angel appearing to St. John set his right foot upon the sea, as though commanding it (Apoc. 10:2). For that Angel here represented Christ, as Bede says in the same place, along with Richard of St. Victor, Pannonius, and others.
Secondly, that He might train the disciples to endure not only the persecutions of men, but also the storms of winds, rains, tempests, and the like, which they were going to experience frequently and in great measure as they traveled around the world evangelizing. So Theophylact. Hence Chrysostom also gives this reason: "that He might train them as the world's athletes through temptations and fears."
Thirdly, that through the miracle of the calming of the storm the disciples and the other passengers might believe in Him — namely, that He is the omnipotent God.
St. Ambrose adds a fourth reason, and from him Bede: because this boat was carrying the wicked Judas. But it is uncertain whether Judas was impious at that time, or only turned out to be so afterwards.
Tropologically: this disturbance of the sea, says Chrysostom, was a type of the future temptations in the Church. For the boat upon the waves is the Church, and the soul in temptations by which it is sharpened and makes progress. "For a life without temptation is like a dead sea," says Seneca, Epistle 57. So too a man lacking temptation is like one who is drowsy or dead: temptation therefore rouses him to exert his strength to overcome it. Again, just as a storm drives boats so that they may reach their desired port more quickly, so too temptation spurs a man to greater zeal for virtue, by which he may be carried to heaven. On this point: "A pilot's skill," says Chrysologus, Sermon 20, "is not proved by calm weather, but by a stormy tempest: with a gentle breeze the lowest sailor steers the ship, but in the confusion of the winds the master's skill is sought." The tempest, therefore, of waves and winds is the temptation to pride, gluttony, lust, envy, and so on, as St. Augustine beautifully teaches, homily 3, question 17.
Moreover, let him who is assailed by temptation do what sailors do in a storm. For first they reef the sails, lest the raging wind snatch away the ship, whirl it around, and sink it. So let the tempted man reef the sails of his pleasures and give himself to fasting and penance.
Secondly, sailors flee into the deep sea, lest they dash their ship against the rocks and reefs; so let the tempted man flee the world and worldly things, and run back to God as to a sanctuary of salvation, and say with the Psalmist: "My soul refused to be comforted; I was mindful of God, and was delighted" (Psalm 76).
Thirdly, sailors throw their vessels and merchandise into the sea to lighten the ship of its load; so let the tempted man, through contrition and confession, cast forth the heavy weight of his sins, that he may lighten his soul. Hence the Doctors teach that those who are about to board ship for a sea voyage — especially a long and dangerous one — are bound to confess, so that they may place themselves in the state of grace, inasmuch as they are going to face the danger and moment of death, not once only, but often and in many ways.
Fourthly, the ship's captain, standing firm in great resolve and prevailing with ready counsel, searches out every means of avoiding danger. Let the tempted mind do the same. "A pilot," says St. Cyprian in his treatise On Mortality, "is known in a storm, a soldier is proved on the battlefield. Adversities do not call us away from the virtue of faith, but strengthen us in pain. How sublime it is to stand upright amid the ruins of the human race."
But He was sleeping. — This sleep was voluntarily assumed by Christ, yet natural nonetheless. First, so that the winds might grow stronger and the storm might increase, in the calming of which His power would therefore be more manifest and His authority the more greatly shown. So Chrysostom.
Secondly, "there is expressed," says St. Ambrose, on Luke chapter VIII, verse 24, "the security of power, in that while all were afraid, He alone was at rest without fear," so that in every similar tribulation we, fleeing to Him and fixing our hope in Him, should do the same — according to the words of Proverbs 12: "Whatever may happen to the just man, it shall not grieve him." And chapter 28: "The just, bold as a lion, shall be without fear." And that saying of the Poet:
Though the world, shattered, should crash upon him,
The ruins will strike a man who is undaunted.
Moreover, the pillow on which, as Mark attests, Christ was sleeping is mystically: first, a good conscience; secondly, resignation to the will of God; thirdly, trust in God's help and providence — for in this, the faithful man in every adversity rests secure and, as it were, falls asleep.
Thirdly, Origen, homily 6 On Various Matters: "Christ," he says, "was sleeping in body but awake in His divinity," so that the disciples, as Lyra says, being placed in danger, might run to Him more fervently and implore His aid. A figure of this is Jonah, chapter 1, who was sleeping while the others in the ship were in peril. See there, comment 1. Moreover, as to the nature of Christ's sleep, and how different it was from ours, see Toletus, on Luke chapter VIII, annotation 43.
Tropologically, the Glossa: "Christ sleeps," it says, "when we act more carelessly, and so a storm arises; but if faith rises again, He commands the winds and the waves."
Verse 25: Lord, Save Us, We Perish
25. AND HIS DISCIPLES CAME TO HIM AND AWAKENED HIM, SAYING: LORD, SAVE US, WE PERISH. — The Arabic version: "Lord, deliver us, for assuredly we are perishing." They who carried the Savior with them — nay, rather salvation and life itself — should not have feared; but their faith and hope in Christ were still small. Mark, 4:38, puts it more forcefully: "Master, does it not concern You that we are perishing?" As if to say: Do You have no care that we perish? Do You sleep so carelessly, and allow us to be drowned along with You?
Verse 26: Why Are You Fearful, O You of Little Faith?
26. AND HE SAID TO THEM: WHY ARE YOU FEARFUL, O YOU OF LITTLE FAITH? — The Greek is more forceful: ὀλιγόπιστοι, that is, "those of little faith."
He said — this He said before calming the tempest, as Matthew here narrates, although Luke and Mark narrate it after. For it was fitting that the extreme fear of the disciples should be calmed before the storm of the sea was, and that their collapsed faith should be lifted up, so that this faith might merit the miracle of the storm's calming. So Jansenius, Toletus, and others.
Of little faith — both because you do not seem fully to believe that I am God, and because you do not hope in My providence, nor do you believe that I, while sleeping, am able, or that I know and will to deliver you from danger. So St. Chrysostom.
"Faith" here can be taken first in its proper sense; secondly, for confidence — for faith begets and sharpens this. Moreover, fear is the cause of little faith, and little faith is the cause of little confidence. Luke puts it more forcefully: "Where is your faith?" In Greek ἡ πίστις, that is, "that faith," namely, the perfect faith in Me, which I have so often impressed upon you, and which you demonstrated when, leaving all things, you followed Me who called you. Christ indeed requires this faith in His miracles, that He may teach that it is most especially needed in temptations, and that it is the most effective remedy against them. Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 9 on Psalm "Qui habitat": "If the world rage," he says, "if the Evil One roar, if the flesh itself lust against the spirit, in You I will hope. For who has hoped in Him and been confounded?" And shortly after: "Why, if we understand these things, do we delay to cast off all our wretched, vain, useless, seductive hopes, and to cling with all the devotion of our soul, with all the fervor of our spirit, to this one hope alone — so solid, so perfect, so blessed? For it is written: He will help them, because they have hoped in Him."
Then rising up, He commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm. — For "commanded," the Greek is ἐπετίμησε, which corresponds to the Hebrew גער gaar, that is, "He rebuked" (as the Arabic translates it), "He chided" — as a master chides his servant. Hence Mark has: "He threatened the wind, and said to the sea: Peace, be still," that is, be quiet and restrain your roaring and your waves. Luke: "He rebuked the wind and the raging of the water."
By these words is signified the great force of the sea when it is stirred up and boiling over, which no human power, but only divine power, could check and calm. These words, therefore, signify the great dominion and empire of God, who commands the sea with the highest authority and power; for the roaring, raging, and furious tempestuous sea must be restrained and calmed by the great power of God. Here, then, Christ shows Himself to be God, inasmuch as He commanded the sea and the winds as their Lord; for the sea, at His command, yielded and ceased more swiftly than a servant rebuked by his master. Christ therefore "sleeps as a man, but commands as God," says the Interlinear Gloss.
Tropologically: how Christ, when contemplated in the mind and invoked, commands the persecutions of the Church and the temptations of the soul, is taught by St. Augustine, homily 3, question 17, which is found at the end of Volume X: "Have you heard an insult?" he says, "it is a wind; have you grown angry? it is a wave. Therefore, with the wind blowing and the wave rising, the boat is in peril, your heart is in peril, your heart is tossed. Hearing the insult, you desire to be avenged. And behold, you have been avenged, and by yielding to another's evil you have made shipwreck. And why is this? Because Christ is sleeping within you. What does it mean that Christ is sleeping within you? You have forgotten Christ. Therefore rouse Christ, remember Christ. Let Christ awake within you, consider Him. What did you want? To be avenged. It has slipped your mind that He Himself, when He was being crucified, said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He who was sleeping in your heart did not wish to be avenged. Rouse Him, recall Him."
And after a few words interposed: "Therefore I will restrain myself from my anger, and I will return to the quiet of my heart. Christ commanded the sea, and there was a calm. What I have said about anger, hold as a rule in all your temptations. A temptation has arisen — that is the wind; you are disturbed — that is the wave; rouse Christ, let Him speak with you."
Allegorically and anagogically, Bede: "The boat with its yardarm is the tree of the Cross, by whose benefit we, having been brought on and having emerged from the waves of the sea — that is, of the world — obtain the shore of our heavenly fatherland. The disciples also climb in, for He says: If anyone will come after Me, let him take up his cross, etc. Christ falls asleep, namely at the time of His Passion; the storm arises, that is, the persecution stirred up by the breath of demons. The disciples rouse the Lord, whose death they had seen, hoping for His resurrection. He rises by a swift resurrection; He rebukes the wind — that is, the pride of the devil; He calms the storm — that is, He breaks the rage of the insulting Jews; He rebukes the disciples — for after His resurrection He reproached them for their unbelief."
And there came a great calm. — For, as St. Jerome says, "all creatures recognize their Creator, and things which are insensible to us are sensible to Him. Great is the power, for from great power comes great calm." Origen: "It is fitting that the great should do great things." And Chrysostom, in his homily: "Instantly the tempest was dissolved, and no disturbance remained; and that word was fulfilled: He spoke, and the spirit of the storm stood still."
Verse 27: What Manner of Man Is This?
27. BUT THE MEN MARVELED, SAYING: WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS, THAT THE WINDS AND THE SEA OBEY HIM? — "Men" means not the disciples, but the sailors and others who were in the ship, says the Glossa Interlinearis, and in the ships accompanying it. For, as Origen says, the disciples are never named without honor. St. Jerome adds: "If anyone insists that the disciples are meant, it must be said that they are called 'men' because they did not yet know the power of the Savior." For "what manner," the Greek is ποταπός, which is a word not of simple inquiry, but of emphatic admiration, as if to say: Who, of what kind, of what country is this man? He does not seem similar to other men, but to be of another kind; he does not seem born from the earth, but fallen from heaven, because both the heavens and their winds obey Him, as their lord and master. Whence the Greek reads: "Because even the winds and the sea obey Him." Who then, of what kind and how great is this new Aeolus in Palestine, the God and Emperor of the winds? Thus they spoke, not yet knowing that Christ was the true and pure God.
Tropologically: St. Augustine, in homily 3 already cited: "Rather," he says, "imitate the winds and the sea; obey the Creator at the command of Christ: the sea hears, and you are deaf? The sea hears and the wind ceases, and you keep blowing? What? I speak, I act, I pretend: what is all this but to keep blowing and to refuse to cease at the word of Christ? Let not the waves overcome you in the disturbance of your hearts."
Verse 28: The Two Demoniacs in the Region of the Gerasenes
28. AND WHEN HE HAD COME ACROSS THE STRAIT INTO THE REGION OF THE GERASENES, THERE MET HIM TWO MEN POSSESSED BY DEMONS. — "Two": Mark 5:2 and Luke 8:27 mention only one, because that one was more notable and famous, as St. Augustine holds, in book II of De Consensu Evangelistarum, chapter 24, and because he was more savage; for he was possessed by a legion of demons, as Luke records. So say St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, and others.
The rest concerning these demoniacs healed by Christ is more clearly narrated by Luke, 8:27 through 40, and therefore I shall explain those matters more conveniently and fully in that place.
Hence some have thought that the demons had not yet received the ultimate punishment of their demerits, and were not to be condemned to be tormented in hell until the day of judgment: so St. Hilary seems to hold here, Canon 8, saying: "He cried out, he says, why does He begrudge them their abode, why does He assail them before the time of judgment?" The same opinion is attributed by some to St. Irenaeus, Justin, Lactantius, Eusebius, and Nicephorus; but I found nothing of the sort in their writings, nor do Hilary's words signify this, but only the same thing as the words of Matthew.
It is certain from Scripture and the Fathers that the demons, from the beginning of the world, as soon as they sinned, were condemned and tormented by the fire of hell, by which fire they are tormented even when absent, while having left hell they roam in this atmosphere, through the omnipotence of God. For the fire of hell, because it is a supernatural instrument of Almighty God, can therefore act upon the most distant things when God wills it.
What they therefore say to Christ: "Have You come before the time to torment us" — they are not deprecating the ancient, perpetual, and irrevocable torment of the fire of hell, but a new torment which they feared from Christ. This new torment was the expulsion from the human body which they possessed, as St. Chrysostom teaches, homily 26, and the diminishment of their dominion in tempting and vexing men; likewise, relegation to the prison of hell. For the demons rejoice while they are permitted to roam in this atmosphere, both because they have in it some freedom to wander through various provinces and to stir up storms, famines, diseases, plagues, etc.; and because in it they have the ability to tempt and afflict men. Therefore it is a torment for them to be banished to hell: for this is their quasi-imprisonment (for hell is the most confined and most distressing prison) and the ultimate restriction, to which they will be condemned forever by Christ on the day of judgment, in which there will be a public reprobation and condemnation of them, which will be their supreme punishment and shame before all the Angels and the Blessed. These demons therefore seem to fear lest Christ should anticipate the day of judgment, which they themselves thought was far off, and as Judge in it condemn them immediately to Tartarus, or at least banish them thither separately. So say Maldonatus, Toletus, and Suarez, book VIII De Angelis, chapter 2, number 13. Whence the Gloss here: "The demons are tormented," it says, "when they are cast out of bodies, in whose torture they delighted." St. Jerome adds: "The presence of the Savior is the torment of demons."
And St. Chrysostom: "From experience," he says, "they cry out; for they were being scourged invisibly, suffering unbearable things from the presence of Christ."
Verse 29: Have You Come Before the Time to Torment Us?
29. HAVE YOU COME HERE BEFORE THE TIME TO TORMENT US.