Cornelius a Lapide

Matthew IX

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

Christ first heals a paralytic, both in soul and in body. Second, at verse 9, He calls Matthew. When the Scribes murmured that He associated with tax collectors, He responds that He was sent as a physician of souls to heal sinners. Third, at verse 14, to the disciples of John the Baptist, who fasted frequently, He gives the reason why His own disciples do not yet fast. Fourth, at verse 18, He heals the woman with the hemorrhage, and raises from death the daughter of Jairus. Fifth, at verse 27, He gives sight to two blind men, and at verse 32, He restores speech to a mute man, and heals all the sick, and seeing the great harvest of people, He wishes many laborers to be sent into it.

Vulgate Text: Matthew 9:1-38

1. And entering into a boat, He crossed over and came into His own city. 2. And behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic: Take courage, son, your sins are forgiven you. 3. And behold, some of the Scribes said within themselves: This man blasphemes. 4. And when Jesus had seen their thoughts, He said: Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5. Which is easier to say: Your sins are forgiven you; or to say: Arise, and walk? 6. But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins — then He said to the paralytic: Arise, take up your bed, and go into your house. 7. And he arose and went into his house. 8. And the crowds, seeing this, were afraid and glorified God, who had given such power to men. 9. And as Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man sitting at the tax office, named Matthew. And He said to him: Follow Me. And he arose and followed Him. 10. And it came to pass, as He was reclining at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and His disciples. 11. And the Pharisees, seeing this, said to His disciples: Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and sinners? 12. But Jesus, hearing this, said: Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. 14. Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying: Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast? 15. And Jesus said to them: Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16. And no one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for it pulls away its fullness from the garment, and the tear is made worse. 17. Neither do they put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the wineskins perish. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved. 18. While He was speaking these things to them, behold, a certain ruler came and worshiped Him, saying: Lord, my daughter has just died; but come, lay Your hand upon her, and she will live. 19. And Jesus, rising up, followed him, and so did His disciples. 20. And behold, a woman who had suffered a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His garment. 21. For she said within herself: If I only touch His garment, I shall be saved. 22. But Jesus, turning and seeing her, said: Take courage, daughter, your faith has saved you. 23. And the woman was saved from that hour. 24. And when Jesus came into the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a tumult, He said: Depart; for the girl is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at Him. 25. And when the crowd had been put out, He went in and took her by the hand. And the girl arose. 26. And the report of this went out into all that land. 27. And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying: Have mercy on us, Son of David. 28. And when He had come to the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them: Do you believe that I can do this for you? They said to Him: Yes, Lord. 29. Then He touched their eyes, saying: According to your faith let it be done to you. 30. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus sternly warned them, saying: See that no one knows about this. 31. But they, going out, spread His fame in all that land. 32. And as they were going out, behold, they brought to Him a mute man having a demon. 33. And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds marveled, saying: Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel. 34. But the Pharisees said: By the prince of demons He casts out demons. 35. And Jesus went about all the cities and towns, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. 36. And seeing the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and cast down, like sheep without a shepherd. 37. Then He said to His disciples: The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few. 38. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest.

Verse 1: Crossing Over to His Own City

1. AND ENTERING INTO A BOAT (Greek πλοῖον, that is, a ship), HE CROSSED OVER (sailing back to the nearer shore of the Sea of Galilee, from which He had come, as is clear from viii, 48) AND CAME TO HIS OWN CITY. — Sedulius understands Bethlehem, in which Christ was born. St. Jerome, however, takes it as Nazareth, for He was raised there. Better, St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Euthymius, Jansenius, Maldonatus, and others generally understand Capernaum, in which Christ spent the most time: for, at ch. IV, 13, Matthew said that Christ, having left Nazareth, dwelt there, and that the miracle of healing the paralytic which follows took place in Capernaum, Mark teaches at II, 3: for just as Christ ennobled Bethlehem by His birth, Nazareth by His upbringing, Egypt by His flight, Jerusalem by His Passion, so He adorned Capernaum by His dwelling, preaching, and working of miracles.

Verse 2: A Paralytic Brought on a Bed — Take Courage, Your Sins Are Forgiven

2. AND BEHOLD THEY BROUGHT TO HIM A PARALYTIC LYING ON A BED. — For paralysis so dissolves the nerves (which are the instruments of motion) of the body, that a man becomes unable to walk, indeed to move himself, and becomes like an animated corpse, living only to his own suffering, and therefore almost incurable, and to be confined to a bed as if in a living tomb. Mark, II, 3, says the paralytic was carried by four bearers: from whom learn to care not only for your own salvation, but also for that of your neighbors, and that diligently; both because charity demands it, and because God often scourges the good along with the wicked, since the good neglect to rebuke, prevent, and correct the sins of the wicked, as St. Augustine teaches, book I of De Civitate Dei, ch. IX.

AND JESUS, SEEING THEIR FAITH, SAID TO THE PARALYTIC: TAKE COURAGE, SON, YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN YOU. — "Their," that is, of those who were bringing the paralytic to Christ: for when they could not bring the paralytic into the house to Christ because of the crowd, they carried him to the roof (for the roofs of houses in Palestine are not peaked, as in Germany, but flat and much flatter than those in Italy), then they opened the roof, indeed, removing the tiles, they broke through and dug it open; for Mark, II, 4, says: "They uncovered the roof," and from there lowered the sick man from above by straps and ropes before Christ, all of which shows their great faith, hope, and devotion toward Christ. "Their" therefore, that is, of the bearers, says St. Ambrose, Haymo, and Jerome. St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, and Euthymius add: also of the paralytic himself: for by this faith he wished to be carried to Christ and lowered through the roof before Him; nor would he have heard from Christ: "Your sins are forgiven you," unless he had had faith. Moreover, this faith is the faith of miracles, which includes a firm confidence in the future miracle and the healing to be obtained from Christ. See Canon 38.

Morally: learn here that the measure of prayer is faith and hope: for what you hope for from Christ, that you will obtain; for the more you expand the bosom of the soul through hope, the more capable and worthy you make it for God to fill it with His gifts, according to that saying: "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it" (Psalm 80:11). And: "I opened my mouth and drew in the spirit" (Psalm 118:131). For this reason Christ said to him:

TAKE COURAGE, SON. — The Syriac has: be of good heart, that is, be confident that you will be miraculously healed by Me, and first in soul from sins, then consequently in body from paralysis; for on account of sins God afflicted you with this disease. So say St. Jerome, Theophylactus, Euthymius. Note: this paralytic already had faith and hope in Christ, as I showed a little above; but Christ bids him to strengthen and increase it. Moreover, Christ by this outward word: "Take courage, son," and still more by the inward breath and prompting of His grace, aroused the paralytic to an act of great faith, hope, sorrow for sins committed, and firm purpose of embracing a new and holy life, likewise love of God above all things, so that he might become capable of the forgiveness of sins and dispose himself for it: for Scripture elsewhere requires these dispositions; yet Christ here and elsewhere names and requires faith alone, and attributes healing to faith, especially of the body, because faith is the first root and origin of hope, fear, sorrow, and love of God; and faith in Christ especially needed to be instilled at that time. See Canon 11. Therefore heretics find nothing here to prove that faith alone properly justifies; especially because here it is a question of the faith of miracles and healing, which even they themselves distinguish from justifying faith. Add that Christ speaks as much or more about the faith of the bearers, which could not justify the sick man and paralytic itself.

SON. — For he is truly a son of God to whom sins are forgiven, says Haymo. Note here Christ's kindness, by which He addresses the paralytic with the sweetest words, saying: "Son." Hence St. Jerome exclaims: "O wonderful humility! He calls 'son' one who was despised and feeble, utterly dissolved in all the joints of his limbs, whom the priests did not deign to touch."

YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN YOU. — "You," who are now contrite through My inspiration, and disposed to forgiveness and justification, as I said. The Greek is ἀφίενται, that is, they have been forgiven, that is, they are forgiven. It is a Hebrew interchange of tenses. Similar is Luke VII, 47.

St. Chrysostom notes that Christ first forgave the paralytic's sins, then healed him, so that on the occasion of the calumny of the Pharisees, which He foresaw would follow from this word and deed of His, He might prove His divinity to them, and that by a triple miracle as an irrefutable argument, namely: first, by declaring and revealing their secret thoughts and murmurs against Christ, as they said within themselves: "This man blasphemes"; second, by healing the paralytic; third, by working this miracle of healing for the same purpose, namely that through it He might prove and demonstrate that He had the power to forgive sins.

Yet in a more literal and genuine sense, the closer reason was to show that paralysis and other diseases often arise not so much from natural causes as from sins; therefore He first forgives sins, then heals the paralytic, because the cause must first be removed, so that once it is removed the effect may be taken away, namely paralysis and disease, as if to say: In the right order of nature I wish first to remove the cause of the paralysis, namely sins, then to cure the paralysis itself: "To demonstrate that he had been struck with bodily infirmity on account of past sins," says Haymo; and Theophylactus: "Showing, he says, that the paralysis was from sins." So also St. Jerome, Euthymius, and others.

Hence it is established by canon law that physicians should first look after the health of the soul rather than the body of the sick person, as is clear from the chapter Cum infirm. on Penance and Remission, and this is strictly observed in Rome, where physicians of the body cannot attend a sick person after the third day of illness, especially a dangerous one, unless the patient immediately purges his soul from sins by sacramental confession. For, as St. Basil says, Rule LV among the longer rules: "If indeed diseases are like certain scourges for sins, by which nothing else is effected but that we change our lives for the better." See what was said at Ecclesiasticus, XXXVIII, 1 and following.

Again, interpreters conclude from this passage that those who were healed bodily by Christ were generally also healed spiritually and justified by Him: for this happened to this paralytic: both because this befitted the generosity of Christ, that He should give not a partial, but a complete and perfect salvation: "For the works of God are perfect" (Deut. XXXII); and because the health of the body is referred to the health of the soul; and because the health of the body often depends on the health of the soul; and finally because Christ came into the world and into the flesh chiefly to confer spiritual salvation. This is what Christ says, John VII, 23, of another paralytic healed by Him: "I have made a whole man well on the Sabbath." The same is expressly taught by St. Thomas, III p., Q. XLIV, art. III, ad 3; Maldonatus, Barradius, and others.

Verse 3: The Scribes Say: This Man Blasphemes

3. AND BEHOLD, SOME OF THE SCRIBES SAID WITHIN THEMSELVES (the Syriac has, in his soul, that is, in his mind): THIS MAN BLASPHEMES, — because He takes away from God His proper power of pardoning sins, and claims it for Himself; which is indeed a grave insult to God, and therefore blasphemy. So they reasoned: for they supposed Christ was not God, but a mere man; for this was their perpetual and obstinate error, which drove them to the continual persecution of Christ, even to His death and the Cross. Hence Mark, II, 7, adds that they said: "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" For sin is an offense committed against God, and a violation of the divine majesty; and this no one but God Himself can pardon.

Verse 4: Why Do You Think Evil in Your Hearts?

4. AND WHEN JESUS HAD SEEN THEIR THOUGHTS, HE SAID: WHY DO YOU THINK EVIL IN YOUR HEARTS? — Mark adds, II, 8, that Jesus knew and saw this "by His spirit," as if to say: Jesus knew and saw the secret blasphemies of the Scribes not through another revealing them, as the Prophets knew, but by Himself and His own spirit pervading and penetrating all things: from which the Fathers rightly prove against the Arians the divinity of Christ, because Christ is a cardiognostes, that is, an inspector of hearts, which is proper to God alone. So says St. Jerome, who also adds: "And in a way, being silent, He speaks: By the same power and majesty with which I behold your thoughts, I can also forgive men their sins." So also St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Euthymius, and others. Hence Chrysologus, sermon 50: "Grasp, he says, the marks of Christ's divinity; see that He has penetrated to the hiding places of your thoughts."

You will object: The Scribes could have replied and said: You, O Jesus, do indeed know and reveal our secret thoughts, but not by Your own spirit (for You prove it to us by no argument); but by another's, namely God's: therefore You are indeed a Prophet, but not on that account God, so as to forgive sins; or You forgive them, not by Your own power, but by God's. I answer: If the Scribes acknowledged Jesus to be a Prophet, they certainly should have believed that He was not lying, but speaking the truth, when He said that He had of Himself the power to forgive sins, and therefore was God.

Again, in the Old Testament no Prophet was given the power to forgive sins, but this was promised through the Prophets to the Messiah alone; therefore from this they should have recognized Jesus as the Messiah, and consequently as God, as is clear from other passages of Scripture, especially with the addition of the miracle of healing the paralytic, and the other great and many works which Christ performed for this purpose, to prove that He was God.

Finally, because Christ, just as He healed the paralytic by His mere command and His own authority, so also He forgave his sins, and thus in all His other miracles He conducted Himself in such a way, and directed everything He did to this end, that He might prove and persuade that He was the Messiah, that is, the Son of God in assumed flesh, and the Savior of the world, and the redeemer from sins promised by Moses and the Prophets. On the contrary, the Prophets and Saints, when they work miracles, or forgive sins, or reveal secrets or future things, openly proclaim that they do so by God's revelation, or by invoking Him, or at least sufficiently and more than sufficiently indicate it.

Verse 5: Which Is Easier to Say?

5. WHICH IS EASIER TO SAY: YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN YOU, OR TO SAY: ARISE, AND WALK? — "To say" is to command, and by commanding to effect efficaciously. It is a metalepsis.

You will ask, which of these two is absolutely more difficult?

I say first: in itself it is more difficult to forgive sins than to heal a paralytic, indeed than to create heaven and earth. The a priori reason is: First, because sin and the sinner, as the enemy of God, are far more distant from God than paralysis and the paralytic, indeed than all created things, which are good in themselves, indeed than the very nothing from which they were created; for nothing is opposed to being and to God only negatively and privatively; but sin is diametrically and contrarily opposed to God: for no contraries are more opposed to each other than supreme goodness and supreme malice, that is, God and sin. Second, because the forgiveness of sins belongs to a higher order than nature and all natural things: for it pertains to the supernatural order of grace, and brings grace with it. But grace is the highest participation in the divinity; for by grace we become "partakers of the divine nature" (II Peter, I, 4). So expressly teach St. Augustine, tract. 72 on John, and St. Chrysostom here, and St. Thomas, II, II part., Question CXIII, art. IX.

I say second: Christ, however, seems on the contrary here to propose the forgiveness of sins as easier than the healing of the paralytic, as though the latter were more difficult than the former: both because it was more difficult with respect to the Jews; for to men who grasp natural and corporeal things more readily than spiritual and hidden ones, it so appears; and because the former is less dangerous than the latter; for he who says: "I forgive you your sins," cannot be accused of lying, whether he actually forgives them or not, because neither sin nor the forgiveness of sin can be seen with the eyes; but he who says to a paralytic: "Arise, and walk," exposes himself and his reputation to the evident danger of being shown false: for in fact, if the paralytic does not rise, he will be accused and convicted of falsehood, imposture, and lying by all. So we say: It is easier to write about Tartar affairs than Italian, because in the latter case many can convict you of falsehood, but in the former no one can.

Hence Christ pointedly does not say: "Which is easier, to forgive sins, or to heal a paralytic," but "to say: Your sins are forgiven, or to say: Arise, and walk?" Note the word "to say"; for it is easier and less dangerous to say: Your sins are forgiven, than to say: Arise, and walk, for the reason I have given.

Finally, the healing of the paralytic is a physical work, and physically more difficult than the forgiveness of sins, which in itself is merely a moral entity, just as sin, or fault and offense, is merely a moral entity.

Jansenius adds that, with respect to God, both are equally easy and divine; for both are miraculous, and therefore require the infinite power and omnipotence of God.

Moreover, although the healing of the paralytic is in itself a lesser work than the forgiveness of sin, yet He validly proves the latter from the former, that is, from the healing He proves that He has the power to forgive sins, because even one miracle, such as the sudden healing of the paralytic, is a certain argument for the truth, if it is performed and done to prove it, as I said at ch. VII, 22.

Verse 6: The Son of Man Has Power on Earth to Forgive Sins

6. BUT THAT YOU MAY KNOW THAT THE SON OF MAN HAS POWER (the Syriac has, dominion) ON EARTH TO FORGIVE SINS (THEN HE SAID TO THE PARALYTIC): ARISE, TAKE UP YOUR BED, AND GO INTO YOUR HOUSE. — Note the phrase "Son of man"; for Christ forgave sins, not only as God by His omnipotence, but also as man authoritatively and meritoriously; for since His humanity was hypostatically united to the divinity, and subsisted in the divine person of the Son of God, therefore He was able to merit and satisfy in full measure for the sins of the whole world; for which reason this primary authority after God and the power of excellence to forgive sins was given to Him, which He could also communicate to others, namely to the priests He instituted, as His ministers, to the extent that they might be able to forgive sins: hence St. Thomas, III part., Question LXIV, art. III: "The power of excellence of Christ, he says, consists in four things: first, that the merit and power of His Passion operates in the Sacraments; second, that the Sacraments are sanctified in His name; third, that He Himself, who gave the Sacraments their power, was able to institute them; fourth, that He can confer the effect of the Sacraments (namely the forgiveness of sins and grace) without the Sacrament." This power is proper to Christ alone, as He is man, and therefore was communicated to no priest or Pontiff, indeed not even to St. Peter.

THEN HE SAID TO THE PARALYTIC. — These words are the Evangelist's, who wished to weave together both the event and the words of Christ at once. Hence they are placed in parentheses by the Syriac and some Latin versions. They mean that Christ turned His speech and attention from the murmuring Scribes to healing the paralytic.

ARISE, TAKE UP YOUR BED, AND GO INTO YOUR HOUSE. — "Arise," shaking off the paralysis, healthy and vigorous, so that you may prove it, and declare it to the Scribes and all the people: "Take up your bed," so that now, being cured, you may carry him who a little before carried you, a paralytic, according to that saying of Sedulius in this place: "He himself bore back his own reward with pleasing recompense."

In place of "bed" Mark, II, 8, has "pallet" (grabatus). And a grabatus, says Sipontinus, is a small bed on which we are accustomed to take a midday nap, so called as if carabatus, because we recline our head upon it: for the Greeks call the head καρᾶν, and something traversable βατόν. Whence Martial: "A three-legged pallet went along, and a three-legged table."

Verse 7: He Arose and Went to His House

7. AND HE AROSE, AND WENT INTO HIS HOUSE. — "He arose" suddenly; for Christ's word was deed. "And he went," having lifted the bed upon his shoulders, as Christ had commanded, and that as a sign of the perfect health recovered from Christ.

S. Simeon Stylites imitated this example and miracle of Christ, as his Life records, which Surius, in volume I, recounts from Theodoret. When, he says, a certain tribune of the Saracens had brought to him one of his own men, a paralytic, asking that he heal him: "The holy man, having ordered him to be brought into the midst, commanded him to detest the impiety of his ancestors. When he had obeyed these words, and was asked whether he believed in the Father, and in the Only-begotten Son, and in the Holy Spirit, he said that he believed. If you believe, said Simeon, arise. And when he had arisen, Simeon ordered him to lift that tribune — a man certainly most corpulent — upon his shoulders and carry him as far as the tent; and he, taking up the burden, immediately carried off the one he had been ordered to. By this miracle the spectators were indeed struck with amazement, and praised God. Simeon had commanded this after the example of the Lord, who had commanded the paralytic to take up his pallet." In like manner S. Bernard, at the request of the King of France, cured a paralytic by marking him with the sign of the cross, and ordered him to take up his pallet.

Tropologically: St. Gregory, homily 12 on Ezekiel: "By the bed or pallet, he says, on which the flesh has its rest, the flesh itself is signified; but by the house, the conscience is figured. Take up therefore your pallet, that is, carry the bed on which you were carried; for it is necessary that each one who has been healed should bear the reproach of the flesh in which before he lay sick. What therefore is it to say: Take up your pallet, and go into your house, unless it be: carry the temptations of the flesh, in which hitherto you have lain, and return to your own conscience, that you may see what you have done?" For it comes about by the just judgment of God, that a sinner who first consented willingly to temptation, afterwards, as a penitent, feels the same temptation unwillingly. For penance does indeed remove sin, but not the habits and evil inclinations to sin which the sinner himself contracted and put on through bad custom. Hence St. Mary of Egypt, after her conversion, for 17 years felt the sharp stings of lust, because for that same number of years she had lived basely in the same, as her Life, by Zosimus, records.

Verse 8: The Crowds Marveled and Glorified God

8. AND WHEN THE CROWDS SAW IT, THEY WERE AFRAID AND GLORIFIED GOD, WHO HAD GIVEN SUCH POWER TO MEN. — In place of "they were afraid" the Greek has ἐθαύμασαν, that is, "they marveled"; but the effect of marveling is fear, or reverence: whence Luke V, 26 says, "ecstasy seized them all," that is, a sort of sacred fear and trembling flowing from astonishment at so great a miracle and bursting forth into the glorification of God. Whence Mark adds that they said: "For we never saw it thus." Luke: "For we have seen marvelous things today." For he was paralytic throughout his whole body. For Mark adds that he was carried by four, because it was a universal paralysis creeping through the members of the whole body. This paralytic is a different man from the one whom John mentions at V, 2, who was healed at the Probatic Pool, because that man was healed in Jerusalem, this one in Capernaum; that one had no man to help him, this one was carried by four; that one did not believe as this one does, to whom it is said: "Be of good cheer, son."

Tropologically: paralysis is any vice of the soul, but especially the pleasure of the flesh, and the sloth (acedia) arising from it, which so prostrates the soul that it is unable to raise itself to virtue, to heaven, to God: wherefore the soul laboring under this disease must be lifted onto the roof by bearers — that is, by pastors, preachers, confessors, etc. — that is, to the pursuit of salvation and of heavenly things, and from there must be let down through the tiles to the feet of Christ, and must be sought with suppliant and fervent prayer, that He Himself may heal it by His grace, and restore to it the motion and perception of spiritual things; and then, when it has been healed, it should give thanks to Christ its Savior, and not sit idle, but depart into the house of its own mind and conscience, that it may purge it from vices and adorn it with the acts of all the virtues. It therefore ought to trust in the Lord, because He alone can supply all its imperfections. It must rise from the sleep of sin and from the bed of depraved custom, considering where it had been laid low — which is done through confession. For as he who rises, so he who confesses, reveals himself: it must take up the bed, which pertains to satisfaction, which, when enjoined, is carried as a kind of burden. The flesh also, which like a bed delighted and bore the dead spirit, after remission and satisfaction ought to be to a man in the manner of a burden, as it was to him who said: "Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" — Romans, chapter VII, 24. So Salmeron, Jansenius, Toletus, and others.

Anagogically: take these things as referring to heavenly glory, of which the Psalmist says, Psalm CXXI: "I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord." For at the resurrection the Lord will say: "Arise (namely, from death), take up your bed (that is, take up your body adorned with glorious endowments), and go into your house," that is, into the eternal and heavenly dwelling.

Furthermore, there are many analogies between paralysis and sloth. First: Just as paralysis arises from cold and from thick and sticky humors, when these besiege the nerves, so that the passage of vital and animal spirits to the instruments of the senses is hindered — whereby it comes about that motion and sensation are impeded, as Galen teaches, book II On the Causes of Symptoms, chapter 1; so also sloth arises from spiritual coldness and a lack of charity, through which a person becomes insensible to divine things and immobile toward good works.

Second: Paralysis is a loosening of the nerves. If the injury occurs in the brain itself, the person immediately becomes powerless and insensible in all parts; if it strikes all the nerves of the body, it at once deprives the whole body of sensation and motion, and brings swift death through the loss of respiration. Therefore paralysis belongs to the same genus as torpor, but differs from it in degree, says Galen in the same place, book I, chapter 5; for torpor is a mild form of paralysis, says the same author below, near the end of book I. So sloth is a torpor and paralysis of the soul, which so seizes and numbs all its powers that it seems incapable of all duties of piety; therefore it brings about a sure death of the soul through sin. Just as the little fish which, from the torpor it induces, is called the torpedo, or remora, because it delays and stops the ships to which it attaches itself, even though they are driven by the wind; so sloth delays and inhibits all the powers and actions of the soul, and with its torpor as it were stupefies, dulls, and blunts them.

Third: Paralysis in the body follows from the dominance of phlegm; it is also a condition of black bile, or melancholy, whence it occurs when melancholic humors are conceived, says Galen. So sloth arises from phlegmatic and flowing pleasures of the flesh, from the excess of wine and the flood of lust. Likewise from melancholic thoughts and emotions, which lead a person, even unknowingly, into the morose desires of pride, anger, lust, and revenge.

Fourth: "Paralysis, says Galen, follows apoplexy." Conversely, paralysis is an apoplexy of the whole body. So sloth causes the living soul to appear as if dead and struck by apoplexy.

Fifth: "A dull pulse tends toward paralysis, says Galen." So, when a person has no sense or pulse for spiritual things, it is a sign of approaching supreme and lethal sloth.

Sixth: "Paralysis, says Galen, causes heaviness, so that the body seems ponderous and leaden, and therefore takes to the sickbed." So sloth makes the mind heavy and leaden, so that it seems fixed to the wretched sickbed of the desires of the flesh; hence it is inclined to idleness and sleep, as well as to gluttony and lust. See Cassian, book X of the Institutes, chapters II and III.

Seventh: "Apoplexy or sideration (and consequently paralysis) most frequently occurs in the elderly, and in winter and in an abundance of rains," says Hippocrates, Aphorism XVI, XXIII, and XXXI, section III. So sloth attacks veterans when the fervor of their novitiate has cooled. For the length of time begets weariness of labors, especially when the fervor of charity, as well as of youth, has grown lukewarm, and one is overwhelmed by a multitude of various sensual thoughts, as if by an abundance of rains.

Eighth: "To cure a severe apoplexy (and paralysis) is impossible; a mild one, however, is difficult," says Hippocrates, Aphorism XLII, section II. The same may be said of sloth and sadness. Hear St. Chrysostom, epistle 8 to Olympias: "Sadness is a cruel torment of souls, a certain inexplicable pain, and a judgment worse than every judgment and punishment. For it is like a venomous worm, destroying not only the flesh but even the soul itself. And a moth reaching not only the bones but the heart; and a kind of perpetual executioner, not tearing the soul apart but consuming its strength; and a continual night, and profound darkness, and a storm and whirlwind: a hidden fever, burning more powerfully than any fire, and a battle that has no rest."

Ninth: "Paralysis is cured or diminished by hot substances, such as saliva and euphorbium," says Galen; likewise by bodily exercise. So charity, that is, the love and fervor of God, overcomes sloth; likewise the exercise of both body and mind. For, as Cassian says, book X of the Institutes, last chapter: "It has been proven by experience that the assault of sloth must not be fled by retreating, but overcome by resisting." Therefore one who suffers from sloth must forcefully shake off the torpor and violently compel oneself to labor; and if one does this, one will overcome and cure sloth.

Verse 9: The Calling of Matthew — Follow Me

9. AND AS JESUS PASSED ON (that is, departed, went away, proceeded; so Euthymius) FROM THERE, HE SAW A MAN SITTING AT THE TAX OFFICE, NAMED MATTHEW, AND HE SAID TO HIM: FOLLOW ME. AND HE ROSE UP AND FOLLOWED HIM. — Telos in Greek means a tax or tribute: hence telonium is the name for the place or building where sailors and merchants paid the customs duty on ships and merchandise. In it sat the telonarii or publicans, that is, the purchasers and collectors of the tax revenues (hence the Persian version translates "at the tax office" as "in the house of payment"; the Ethiopic as "in the marketplace," because in a public place, such as a marketplace, goods and the customs on goods were paid), such as Matthew was (whence it is likely that his house was at Capernaum, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee; for ships and goods would put in there), who had purchased at a fixed price the public tributes and customs due to the senate and people of Rome from their subjects, and exacted them from those sailing past and putting in. So Adrichomius in his Description of the Holy Land, p. 114, n. 92. Jansenius adds in chapter XXXIII of the Concordia Evangelica that those who have more carefully surveyed the Holy Land assert that the place from which Matthew was called, outside Capernaum near the sea, is still pointed out to this day. Mark and Luke say that Matthew was sitting at the tax office, because by "tax office" they understand not a building but the table at which they counted the money to be paid as customs duty.

Mystically: Blessed Peter Chrysologus presses the phrase "sitting at the tax office" in sermon 29: "He was indeed sitting, because he could not stand, weighed down by the burden of covetousness and wholly bent over by his guilty conscience of fraud. Gold, heavy by nature, is made heavier still by excessive avarice. Hence it is that it depresses the one who possesses it more than the one who carries it, and weighs down hearts more grievously than bodies. It is born in the deep earth, and runs through the lowest veins in blind windings, and while it always returns to its own nature, it casts heavenly souls down to the depths."

On the contrary, Zacchaeus, once he had unloaded his mind from earthly riches, is said to stand: "Standing, Zacchaeus said to Jesus: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor" (Luke 19:18).

NAMED MATTHEW. — Matthew names himself, both out of a zeal for humility, so as to confess to the whole world that he was a publican and sinner, and out of gratitude, so as to proclaim the extraordinary grace of Christ toward him, just as St. Paul does, 1 Timothy 1:13: "It is a faithful saying, he says, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the first." See what was said there.

FOLLOW ME, — you who have already heard Him preaching heavenly doctrine at Capernaum and confirming it with many miracles, and especially with the recent healing of the paralytic. He calls Matthew "already subdued by the fame of His miracles," says Chrysostom. See here Christ's condescension, by which He calls Matthew the publican, and therefore infamous among the Jews, not only to grace, but also to His own household and most intimate friendship and the Apostolate.

AND HE ROSE UP AND FOLLOWED HIM. — Note here the efficacy of Christ's calling, as well as Matthew's prompt obedience. Hear St. Jerome here: "Porphyry and Julian Augustus find fault in this passage either with the incompetence of the lying historian, or with the foolishness of those who immediately followed the Savior, as though they irrationally followed any man who called them, when such great virtues and such great signs had preceded, which there is no doubt the Apostles had seen before they believed. Certainly the very splendor and majesty of His hidden Divinity, which shone even in His human face, could draw to Himself those who saw Him at first glance. For if the magnet stone and amber are said to have such power that they attract rings, straw, and chaff to themselves, how much more could the Lord of all creatures draw to Himself those whom He willed?"

Just as the magnet draws iron to itself, amber draws straw, the sun draws vapors; so Christ drew Matthew to Himself, and in this drawing communicated His own virtues to him, and especially an extraordinary love of God, contempt of the world, zeal for poverty, zeal for souls, ardor for preaching, etc. See what I said about the efficacy and effects of the grace by which Christ drew Saul to Himself and made him Paul, at Acts 9:6.

Hear the manner of St. Matthew's conversion, which he himself revealed to St. Bridget, praying at his tomb at Amalfi, book I of the Revelations, chapter 129: "My will at that time (of the tax office) was such that I did not wish to defraud anyone, but I desired to find a way to separate myself from that office and to cling with my whole heart to God alone. When therefore my most beloved Jesus Christ was preaching, then the word of His calling was inflamed like fire in my heart; His words tasted so sweetly to me that I thought no more about riches and honors than about chaff; indeed it pleased me more to weep and to rejoice that my God willed to call so small and so great a sinner to grace. Clinging also to my Lord, I began to fix His words more ardently in my heart, which night and day I pondered as if tasting the sweetest food."

Verse 10: Many Publicans and Sinners Reclined with Jesus

10. AND IT CAME TO PASS, AS HE SAT AT TABLE IN THE HOUSE, BEHOLD MANY PUBLICANS AND SINNERS CAME AND SAT DOWN WITH JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES. — "In the house" of Matthew himself, who out of a zeal for humility is silent about himself concerning what is virtuous; he reveals what is his fault, namely that he was a publican. This is clear from Luke, chapter 5, verse 29, where he says: "And Levi (for so Matthew was also called; for he had two names, as did many other Jews) made Him a great feast in his own house." Hence Matthew's fellow publicans and similar sinners were invited to it, so that, attracted by Christ's kindness and teaching, they might be led in like manner to follow it. For the Pharisees shunned them as sinners and did not deign to eat or speak with them; therefore the publicans preferred to follow Christ rather than the Pharisees. For a sign of true conversion is to strive to convert others from the same or similar sins. For good is self-diffusive; and charity urges one to procure the salvation of other lost souls, once a person has experienced it and its sweetness in himself.

Moreover, the office of the publicans, although in itself lawful and able to be exercised without sin, nonetheless because it was often held by men utterly devoted to profit and avarice, who extorted taxes greater than was fair, especially from the poor, hence among the Jews the publicans were infamous and considered quasi-public sinners, just as among Christians public usurers are regarded. In addition, the Jews of old contended that as a people dedicated to God they ought not to be subject to the Romans, who were Gentiles and idolaters, nor to pay them tribute, for this would be against the liberty and dignity of the children of God. Therefore they detested the publicans who collected taxes; indeed this was the cause of the Jewish rebellion, on account of which they were destroyed by Titus and Vespasian, as is clear from Josephus.

SINNERS. — These are distinguished here from the publicans, as associates from associates. Therefore "sinners" here seem to be the name for dissolute Jews who, caring little for the Jewish law and religion, lived in the manner of the Gentiles or were falling away to paganism: hence they were familiar with the publicans; therefore they were hated by the Jews, like the publicans. For the Jews called themselves the faithful and holy people, because God had so called them, Exodus 19:6. Therefore they called those who apostatized from themselves and their law "sinners."

Verse 11: Why Does Your Master Eat with Publicans and Sinners?

11. AND WHEN THE PHARISEES SAW IT, THEY SAID TO HIS DISCIPLES: WHY DOES YOUR MASTER EAT WITH PUBLICANS AND SINNERS? — This is not the voice of those asking a question, but of those making an accusation, as if to say: Christ your master acts against the law of God and the traditions of the Fathers: so why do you listen to Him and follow Him? For He associates with sinners, and therefore breathes upon you either their sins or their infamy: why then do you not dismiss Him who is infamous and who brings infamy upon you? This was the fallacy of the Pharisees, which Christ refuted and dissolved.

Verse 12: The Sick Need a Physician, Not the Healthy

12. BUT JESUS, HEARING (from the report of the disciples; for the Pharisees did not dare to raise this objection to Christ directly) SAID (not to the disciples, but to the Pharisees; for He turned to those from whom the murmuring had come, as is clear from what follows): THOSE WHO ARE WELL HAVE NO NEED OF A PHYSICIAN, BUT THOSE WHO ARE SICK. — As if to say: Those who are in good health do not need a physician, but those who are ill. Just as a physician is not infected by the disease of the sick but rather conquers the disease and drives it away, and therefore it is not a disgrace but an honor for a physician to be among the sick and to cure them, and all the more so the greater their illness: so likewise I, who have been sent from heaven to earth by God the Father to be the physician of sinful souls, am not contaminated by their diseases and sins by associating with them, but rather I cure and heal them, which is My highest praise (as well as their highest good), and all the greater as the sins are greater and more serious. I therefore am the physician of sinners, not their companion. But you, O Pharisees, are not the physicians but the companions of sinners, and therefore contaminated, infamous, and worthy of reproach. Yet you wish to be considered just and holy by the people, and therefore I do not associate with you (as you would wish), both because the healthy, that is, the just — which you claim to be — do not need a spiritual physician, and because I abhor your pretense and hypocrisy.

Verse 13: I Desire Mercy and Not Sacrifice

13. BUT GO (as if to say: Depart from Me, get out of My sight; for it is the voice of one repelling and rejecting), AND LEARN WHAT THIS MEANS (which Hosea says, chapter 6, verse 6): I DESIRE MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE. — That is, I prefer mercy to sacrifice, even though sacrifice is nobler and the act of a nobler virtue, namely religion. As if to say: Follow mercy, as I do, so that you may save sinners. I prefer, I say, mercy and to have compassion on wretched sinners, rather than to offer sacrifices with you to God, for the reasons I discussed at Hosea, chapter 6, verse 6. See what was said there, where I noted the dignity and pre-eminence of mercy.

Rightly does St. Bernard exclaim here, sermon 16 on the Song of Songs: "O Wisdom, with what art of healing do You restore the health of my soul with wine and oil! Powerfully gentle, and gently powerful; powerful for me, and gentle to me! Your name is oil poured out, not wine poured out; for I do not wish You to enter into judgment with Your servant. But oil, because You crown me with mercy and compassions. Oil indeed, which as it floats above all the liquids with which it is mixed, clearly designates that Name which is above every name."

FOR I HAVE NOT COME TO CALL THE JUST, BUT SINNERS. — The Greek adds eis metanoian, that is, "to repentance": and so Luke and the Arabic version have it here. For otherwise Christ also called Nathanael, who was already just, to follow Him. Likewise the Blessed Virgin, St. John, and Elizabeth, who were already holy, He called to greater holiness and perfection; but nonetheless the prior holiness of these too, and indeed of the first Fathers, such as Abraham, Moses, and David, flowed from the foreseen merits of Christ. For this reason St. Augustine, book III Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, chapter 4, calls Abraham and all the ancient saints children not so much of the Old as of the New Testament, that is, disciples and Christians of Christ: for all, as children of Adam the sinner, needed the redemption, faith, and grace of Christ: "For all have sinned and need the glory (glorious grace) of God" (Romans 3:23). So St. Chrysostom.

Otherwise St. Hilary, Jerome, Bede, Theophylactus, and Euthymius explain it as follows: I have not come to call the just, that is, those who proudly but falsely esteem and boast themselves to be just, when they are in fact sinners and hypocrites, such as you are, O Scribes and Pharisees.

Verse 14: Why Do Your Disciples Not Fast?

14. THEN THE DISCIPLES OF JOHN CAME TO HIM, SAYING: WHY DO WE AND THE PHARISEES FAST OFTEN, BUT YOUR DISCIPLES DO NOT FAST? — "Then" indicates that this happened shortly afterward; Mark suggests the same, chapter 2:18, and Luke, chapter 5:33, who all connect this narrative directly to the preceding murmuring. Therefore the Pharisees, having been refuted by Christ with a just argument, here devise another accusation, and direct it not at the disciples but at Christ Himself. They therefore suborn the disciples of John, so that on the occasion of a fast they share in common with them, they might accuse Christ of not fasting with His disciples. That this is the case is indicated by Mark, chapter 2:18, saying: "And the disciples of John and the Pharisees were fasting, and they come and say to Him: Why, etc." This was a fast not prescribed by law (for Christ with His own observed this and all other legal obligations exactly), but either ordained by the masters, or voluntarily assumed by the disciples at the encouragement of their masters. Hence Luke, chapter 5:33, says they said: "Why do the disciples of John fast frequently and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink?" As if to say: You wish to be our reformer and master of perfection, so why do we fast while you with your followers indulge yourselves? "The disciples of John" together with the Pharisees, as Mark has it, meaning that the Pharisees instigated and emboldened the disciples of John to raise this very matter with Christ, which is why Luke mentions only the Pharisees; but the disciples of John raised the matter with Christ in their own name and that of the Pharisees, which is why Matthew names only them here. They press and urge Christ with the authority of John the Baptist (for this was supreme among the Jews), but ignorantly and presumptuously: "This was therefore a proud question, says the Glossa Interlinearis, and full of Pharisaical arrogance." "For the disciples of John are to be reproved, says St. Jerome, both for their boasting about fasting, and because they allied themselves with the Pharisees whom John had condemned, and because they calumniate the one whom John had preached." So that proud Pharisee was not so much praying to God as boasting about himself, saying: "I fast twice in the Sabbath," that is, in the week (Luke 18:12). Moreover, that the disciples of John said these things out of zeal for their master John in envy of Christ, in order to prefer John to Christ, is gathered from John 3:26. We see a similar zeal even now from time to time in men who are otherwise upright, who strive to set their own founder or patron above all others, in which matter they are still carnal and childish, and betray a hidden vanity and arrogance, by which through their master they themselves contend to excel all others. Such were the Corinthians, saying: I am of Paul, I am of Cephas, I am of Apollo, whom the Apostle sharply rebukes as carnal, 1 Corinthians 3:3: "For whereas, he says, there is among you jealousy and strife, are you not carnal and walking according to man?" etc.

Verse 15: The Children of the Bridegroom Cannot Mourn While He Is with Them

15. AND JESUS SAID TO THEM: CAN THE CHILDREN OF THE BRIDEGROOM MOURN AS LONG AS THE BRIDEGROOM IS WITH THEM? BUT THE DAYS WILL COME WHEN THE BRIDEGROOM SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY FROM THEM, AND THEN THEY SHALL FAST. — The Bridegroom is Christ, because He betrothed human nature and through it the Church to Himself in the Incarnation and joined it with a perpetual bond of marriage. This marriage Christ began through grace on earth, Matthew 22:2, but through glory He will consummate it with the elect in heaven, where there will be the perpetual wedding of the Lamb, Revelation 19:7. Hence John the Baptist calls himself the friend of the bridegroom, that is, of Christ, John 3:29, and the disciples of Christ had heard this: hence they knew that Christ was called the Bridegroom. "The children of the bridegroom," in Greek huioi nymphonos, that is, children of the bridal chamber, and "of the wedding," as Mark has it, 2:19, that is, those who rejoice in the wedding and bridal chamber of the bridegroom and fully enjoy the nuptial joys, namely the close companions and intimate friends of the bridegroom, who are admitted to his private chamber and bridal room, to associate with him familiarly and hear his secrets. Our translator renders it "children of the bridegroom" because nymphon signifies both the bridegroom and the bridal chamber or wedding room, as Suidas and the Syriac translate it. By a similar Hebraism, "children of obedience" are those who love and rejoice in obedience; "children of iniquity," those who love iniquity; "children of pride," those who eagerly pursue it and are very proud. "To mourn" means to fast. It is a catachresis: for they fasted in mourning, and fasting makes people sad, just as food and wine makes them cheerful and merry. Mourning therefore is a mournful fast. The meaning is, as if to say: It is no wonder that My disciples do not mourn and consequently do not fast, since they are enjoying Me as their Bridegroom and My wedding; for at weddings modest feasts and banquets are fitting, while fasting is unfitting. But the children of the servant, that is, the disciples of John the Baptist, who is My servant and who leads an austere and sorrowful life in order to lead people to repentance, and imposes the burdensome law of Moses (as still being in force) on his followers — these, I say, are suited to mourning, austerity, and fasting; these, for through mourning and the harsh works of fasting and penance, they were showing and preparing for sinners the way to the joyful wedding of the Bridegroom Christ; but the Bridegroom Christ would die and be taken away, and then His disciples would mourn and fast. He alludes to the ancient custom of mourning the dead with fasting; for those who grieve are accustomed to abstain from food. Thus the Hebrews mourned the dead Saul by fasting seven days, 1 Samuel 31:13; and those slain in battle, Judges 20:26; and Jonathan, 1 Samuel 7; and the calamity inflicted by Antiochus, 1 Maccabees 2:47.

Christ here signifies that beginners in faith and religion are to be treated gently and kindly, as being still tender and like children in spirit, until they grow and mature in virtue, lest if hard and arduous things are imposed on them at the beginning, they despair or abandon the path of virtue they have begun. Thus, following Christ's example, novices are treated kindly in well-established religious orders, and there they are, as it were, nourished with divine and human consolations, both from God and from their superior and master. For this reason St. Pachomius, who received the rule of his order from an Angel, wished novices to be gradually instructed and perfected in it over three years, just as Christ nurtured and educated the Apostles in His school for three years. The same saint severely punished a cook for not having prepared the breakfast he had prescribed for the younger members, as his Life records. This is the order of nature; for children must be nourished with milk, adults with solid and hard food.

To this point belongs the example of a most proven ancient abbot, who received guests with a meal before the canonical hour of repast, and when asked the reason, said: "Fasting, brothers, is always with me: but since I am about to send you on your way shortly, I cannot keep you with me continually, and so, receiving Christ in you, I ought to refresh Him; and when I have sent you on your way, I shall be able to compensate for the strictness of the fast in myself. For the children of the bridegroom cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them; but when he has departed, then they may lawfully fast." So report Cassian and Sulpitius, book IV in the Lives of the Fathers, chapter 32. The great St. Spiridon, Bishop of Trimythus, did something similar.

Moreover, after Christ's death the Apostles often fasted, and suffered hunger and thirst, and led an austere life in continual journeys, labors, persecutions, hunger and thirst, as the Apostle narrates at length about himself, 2 Corinthians 11. Likewise in the Life of St. Peter we read that he practiced severe penance, eating nothing but bread with olives, or, as St. Gregory Nazianzen says in his oration On the Love of the Poor, eating nothing but bread with lupins, or vegetables and legumes.

Hence in the Eastern Church, says St. Epiphanius, Heresy 73, near the end, Christians fast on the fourth and sixth day of the week, that is, on Wednesday and Friday, as is still done in Greece, Poland, and Holland. But the rest of the Western Christians abstain from meat on Friday and Saturday, because the Bridegroom was betrayed on Wednesday by the false Judas; on Friday He was crucified and died, was buried on the Sabbath, and was altogether taken away, as St. Augustine teaches in Epistle 86 to Casulanus. Innocent I adds, in his epistle to the Bishop of Gubbio, chapter IV, that one must fast on Friday and Saturday, because during those two days the Apostles, grieving at Christ's death, fasted. Epiphanius adds that in ancient times Christians, while fasting, ate nothing but bread, salt, and water, and this by decree of the Apostles.

From this passage the heresiarch Montanus introduced a second Lent after Easter (in which Christ was killed and died) and after Pentecost, under the pretext that the death of Christ ought to be mourned: but in that case Christians, their Christ now being dead, would have to fast their whole life long. Following Montanus, Tertullian, having already fallen into his heresy, in order to defend his fast, wrote the book On Fasting against the Psychics, that is, against the carnal and worldly Christians, as he himself called them.

Tropologically: St. Jerome says: "When the Bridegroom Christ has departed from us because of our sins, then most of all ought mourning and fasting to be undertaken."

But St. Hilary and St. Ambrose say: We have Christ the Bridegroom present with us, and we are continually fed with His Body in the Eucharist; but those to whom the Bridegroom is not present (through grace, such as those who live in mortal sin) continually fast and hunger, because they lack the food of life. St. Ambrose adds, in Luke chapter V, explaining the phrase "the bridegroom shall be taken away from them": "No one can take Christ from you, unless you take yourself away from Him. Therefore let not your boasting take you away, let not your arrogance take you away."

Symbolically: Christ signifies that He is not only the herald of the salvation and public joy of the whole world, but also its author, just as the bridegroom is the author of the banquet and the music and the wedding joy.

Verse 16: The Parable of the New Patch on an Old Garment

16. AND NO ONE PUTS A PIECE OF RAW CLOTH INTO AN OLD GARMENT: FOR IT TAKES AWAY ITS FULLNESS FROM THE GARMENT (the Arabic adds: "from the old one"), AND A WORSE TEAR IS MADE. — Note first: For "commissura" the Greek has epiblema, that is, an addition and a patch. St. Augustine and Tertullian (De Oratione, chapter 1) call it a plagula; the Syriac, a piece of cloth; others, a little patch; the Flemish plainly een lap; the Italians, un pezzo. Hence St. Francis wanted his brethren to wear patched garments, like the poor. For thus we see beggars wearing clothes stitched together from many small patches, often of different colors, so that if you count them all, you will often find a hundred, and from this they are called centones (patchwork cloaks).

OF RAW CLOTH, — that is, of cloth unfinished and uncombed, such as it is when it is brought from the weavers to the fullers to be prepared and dyed. This is clear from the Greek agnaphos; for alpha is privative, and gnapheus means a fuller. Hence that heresiarch of old who added to the Trisagion: "Who was crucified for us," as though the whole Trinity were crucified, or the whole Trinity were Christ, was called Peter Gnaphaeus (the Fuller), because his trade was that of a fuller. Luke has "a patch" and (calls it) "raw": hence the Italians call garments pannos; it is also possible that Christ used both expressions, namely "cloth" (panni) and "garment" (vestis).

FULLNESS (He calls it its wholeness) (that is, its own) from the garment, — namely the old one: for if you sew a piece of new cloth onto an old garment, you will take away its wholeness, so that it no longer seems to be one old garment, but two, that is, partly old and partly new.

Note secondly: The sense of the parable is, as if to say: An old garment, if it is torn, must be mended with a similar old patch and with a scrap of cloth, not with a new one: for a new piece, if it is sewn onto an old one, takes away the fullness, that is, the wholeness of it, that is, its own, from the garment, namely the old one to which it is sewn, so that it may not seem one whole, that is, a complete and homogeneous garment, but heterogeneous and multiform, because partly old and partly new, and therefore it deforms and disfigures it: and so he who has sewn such a new supplement or patch onto an old garment, seeing its ugliness, immediately pulls it off and takes it away, as Mark has it, chapter 2, verse 21.

AND (thus) A WORSE TEAR IS MADE, — than, namely, there had been before, when the garment was torn: "tear," I say, that is, the division of the old parts, which were similar to one another, by the addition of the new, and again by its removal. A worse tear is made, therefore, because what was added to mend it, this tears it the more: hence again it is cut out from it, and then a greater tear is made.

With a similar figure Tully (Cicero) said of Julius Caesar: "When Caesar wished to honor certain men (unworthy of senatorial rank), he did not adorn them, but rather disgraced the ornaments themselves," so says St. Jerome to Pammachius; just as one who puts a golden collar around a donkey does not honor the donkey but dishonors the collar.

Jansenius, with the Syriac, interprets it differently, as if to say: "he takes away" refers to the owner of the garment, who, offended by the dissimilarity and ugliness of the new and old cloth, takes away his own fullness, that is, his new supplement or piece which he had sewn to the old one to fill in its tear, from the old garment, and thus, when this has been taken away, a greater and worse tear is made in that garment. But this is more remote from the Latin version of the Vulgate translator.

Note thirdly: Luke, chapter V, verse 36, adds: "Otherwise he both tears the new, and the patch from the new does not fit the old," as if to say: Otherwise there occurs a tearing of the new cloth (because the patch is cut off from the new cloth to be sewn onto the old garment), and at the same time the new patch itself is lost, which Luke calls a commissura (patch), because when it has been sewn to the old one, it has no use there but is altogether unbecoming, and so it is pulled off and thrown away again.

Note fourthly: This parable is to be applied to the matter at hand thus, as if to say: Just as no one sews a new piece of cloth onto an old garment, but rather a new one onto a new garment and an old one onto an old; so I, who am the most prudent and kindest physician of souls, observing My disciples, who are the old garment and the old wineskins (as what follows shows), in their old and former habit, weakness, and freedom, do not yet impose upon them such harsh and rigid penances and fasts (since these are not prescribed by law, but voluntary and free), lest both the fruit of My teaching be lost among them, and they, driven by despair, abandon both Me and their own salvation: but I wait until they be renewed by the heavenly Spirit whom I shall send at Pentecost, so that, laying aside their old state and weakness, they may, renewed, take up new austerity and new fasts; and this not by compulsion and out of fear of penalties, as the Jews used to do, but willingly and out of love; for the new law of Christ is one of love and liberty, just as the old law was of fear and servitude. Thus it is clear that after Pentecost the Apostles frequently fasted, as is plain from Acts 13:2-3; 2 Corinthians 6:5; Acts 27:9, and elsewhere. So Euthymius, Theophylact, Maldonatus, Jansenius, and others. Less fitly does Tertullian, in De Oratione chapter 1 and in Contra Marcionem book III chapter 15, understand the old garment and the old wineskins to mean the old Law, and the raw and new cloth to signify the new Law or Gospel; for the new Law reformed the old and as it were made it new. For, properly and precisely, by the old garment and the new are meant the Apostles, still at that time old in respect to the old manner of eating freely and living freely, but at Pentecost to be renewed in the spirit of temperance and austerity, as I have said.

Verse 17: The Parable of New Wine in New Wineskins

17. NEITHER DO THEY PUT NEW WINE INTO OLD WINESKINS: OTHERWISE THE WINESKINS BURST, AND THE WINE IS SPILLED, AND THE WINESKINS PERISH; BUT THEY (that is, vintners) PUT NEW WINE INTO NEW WINESKINS, AND BOTH ARE PRESERVED. — Christ proves by three similitudes, or parables, that while He is present His disciples are not to fast: the first is that of the bridegroom and the wedding, verse 15; the second, that of the old and new garment, verse 16; the third, that of the new wine and new wineskins, here. The sense is, as if to say: Just as new wine, or must, by the violence of its bubbling spirit and its seething heat, bursts old wineskins, being as they are weak and worn, from which a double loss arises: first, that the wineskins are broken; second, that the wine is spilled: and therefore new wine must be poured into new wineskins, which, being new and strong, can withstand the force of the must, and not burst apart while it is fermenting: in the same way, new austerities and fasts are not to be imposed on My disciples who are still old, lest they be broken in spirit and depart; but I wait until they be renewed through the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and become strong and fervent in spirit, for then they will embrace these things of their own accord, as I said on verse 16. Truly did Horace say:

Unless the vessel is clean, whatever you pour in sours...

In the same way too, an austere and perfect life is only suitable for a soul purged from vices, pure and renewed; otherwise both the austerity and the soul itself grow sour and bitter.

Similar to this parable is the old proverb: "A new sieve on a new peg," which Nonius cites from Varro's Eumenides, where it is said that Zeno was the first to hang a new heresy on a new peg, because Zeno at Athens invented the new sect of the Stoics, and this with new arguments and paradoxes. And this other proverb: "A new swallow, a new spring"; hence the Rhodians, as Theognis testifies in Athenaeus book VIII, every year with public shouts used to welcome the swallow at the approach of spring, crying out: "Come, come, swallow, bringing fair seasons and fair years."

Opposed to these is the adage: "Hymettian honey new, Falernian wine old," which is customarily said when different things, namely new and old, are very well blended. For the Hymettian honey is that which is gathered on Hymettus, a mountain in Attica, and it is the most excellent, as Pliny testifies in book XI, chapter 13. Hence Martial, book VII, 87:

Let Hybla feed my bees, let Hymettus feed them.

For the best honey is the freshest, but the best wine is the oldest, as Macrobius testifies in Saturnalia book VII. If you blend the two, the drink will be most delicious. Hence the adage: "Mead that you would rightly mix must be blended with new Hymettian (honey) and old Falernian (wine)."

Verse 18: Jairus Comes: My Daughter Is Even Now Dead

18. AS HE WAS SPEAKING THESE THINGS TO THEM, BEHOLD A CERTAIN RULER CAME UP AND WORSHIPED HIM, SAYING: LORD, BEHOLD MY DAUGHTER IS EVEN NOW DEAD; BUT COME, LAY YOUR HAND UPON HER, AND SHE SHALL LIVE. — "A ruler," namely "of the synagogue," as Luke adds, who presided over the synagogue at Capernaum. For these things took place on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, near the city of Capernaum, as is clear from Mark 5:21, 22. Mark says "one of the rulers of the synagogue"; for there were several rulers over a single synagogue, who, namely, governed the synagogue and the people who gathered there, teaching and ruling them, as priests do now in churches. His name was "Jairus," as Mark has it, 5:22. Jairus, or as the Hebrews say Jair, is the same as "he will shine" or "he will give light," from the root אור or, which means "he shone." For Jairus, as head of the synagogue, gave light to the people and taught the Law.

HE WORSHIPED HIM, — namely, "he fell at His feet," as Mark and Luke have it.

MY DAUGHTER (twelve years old, as Luke has it) IS EVEN NOW DEAD; BUT COME. — Matthew, aiming at brevity, touches only the substance of the event rather than narrating the sequence of the history. For as is clear from Luke and Mark, the daughter was not yet dead when the father Jairus first came to Christ, asking and saying: "Come, lay your hand upon her, and she shall live"; and as they were going along together, a certain man ran up to Jairus, announcing the death of his daughter and warning him, since the matter was now hopeless, to leave Christ alone. Hence Christ, as it seems, strengthens him, wavering in faith, and to a firm faith and hope for healing his daughter raises him up; the father, raised in hope, follows Christ and leads Him to his house, again silently or expressly and in formal words asking Christ to raise his daughter, now dead, as Matthew records here.

St. Chrysostom and Theophylact interpret it differently: "She is dead," they say, means "she is at the point of death"; for the wretched are wont to exaggerate their afflictions and calamities so that they may more easily obtain the help they implore. St. Augustine adds, in Book II of De Consensu Evangelistarum, chapter 28, that the father could conclude that his daughter, whom he had left in her death agony, had died during the time of his journey: "For he had so despaired," says St. Augustine, "that he wished her rather to be brought back to life, not believing that she whom he had left dying could be found alive."

BUT COME, LAY YOUR HAND. — Jairus had seen or heard that Christ had healed many sick people at Capernaum by the imposition of His hand; therefore he hoped He would do the same for his daughter. For the imposition of the hand signifies both power and dominion, and a will that is inclined and attentive to healing. The faith of Jairus was less than that of the Centurion, who believed that Christ, though absent, could heal his servant by a word alone (chapter 8, verse 8).

Verse 19: Jesus Rises and Follows Him

19. AND JESUS, RISING UP, FOLLOWED HIM, AND SO DID HIS DISCIPLES. — In Greek egertheis, that is, "when He had risen." For it is likely that Christ was teaching the crowds while sitting, and rose up at Jairus's request. Note here Christ's readiness and promptness to do good and to help the afflicted. Let Christians imitate this: "Wonderful," says St. Chrysostom, "is Christ's humility and gentleness, immediately following the one who asks." He also demonstrated here the solicitude proper to prelates. St. Chrysostom adds that Christ, first approached by Jairus, walked more slowly, and spoke at greater length to the woman healed of the flow of blood, so that the girl might die in the meantime and the demonstration of the resurrection might be made manifest.

Verse 20: The Woman with the Flow of Blood Touches the Fringe of His Garment

20. AND BEHOLD, A WOMAN WHO HAD SUFFERED FROM A FLOW OF BLOOD FOR TWELVE YEARS CAME UP BEHIND HIM AND TOUCHED THE FRINGE OF HIS GARMENT. — The "woman" was from Caesarea (which was formerly called Dan, then Paneas, and then, after being enlarged by Philip the tetrarch, son of Herod, was called Caesarea in honor of Tiberius Caesar) Philippi, as is clear from the account narrated about her by Eusebius of Caesarea, Book VI of the History, chapter 14. The remaining details about this woman healed by Christ are narrated more fully by Mark, chapter 5; therefore they will be more conveniently explained there.

Verse 23: The Flute Players and the Tumultuous Crowd

23. AND WHEN JESUS HAD COME TO THE HOUSE OF THE RULER, AND HAD SEEN THE FLUTE PLAYERS AND THE CROWD MAKING A TUMULT. — "Flute players" who, as St. Ambrose says on Luke chapter 8, verse 52, were hired for funerals, playing mournful songs and dirges, stirring up grief and tears among friends and neighbors over the death of the deceased. And this was done not only by men, but also by women who were professional mourners, of whom Jeremiah says (9:17): "Call the mourning women, let them come, etc., and let them raise a lamentation over us: let our eyes shed tears, and our eyelids flow with waters." This was the custom among the Jews; the same custom existed among the Gentiles, who had their own mourners, both male and female, at death. Nonius Marcellus, Festus Pompeius, and Varro call them Praeficae, because they were placed in charge of the mourning; about whom Ovid says (Book VI of the Fasti):

The flute played at mournful funerals.

Lactantius Placidius, commenting on Book VI of Statius, and Theophylact here, note that the ancients played the trumpet at funerals of men, and the flute at funerals of boys and virgins (such as was Jairus's daughter here), and this was a sign of virginity, says Theophylact. Hence Statius, Book VI of the Thebaid:

The flute accustomed to escort the tender shades.

See on Praeficae Alexander ab Alexandro, Book II of the Geniales Dies, chapter 7, and Tiraquellus there.

Verse 24: The Girl Is Not Dead, but Sleeps

24. HE SAID: WITHDRAW (depart from mourning and lamentation), FOR THE GIRL IS NOT DEAD, BUT SLEEPS. — The girl was truly dead, as is clear from verse 18; yet Christ denies it and says she is sleeping. First, because, as St. Jerome and Theophylact say, to God and to Him for whom all things live, she was not dead; and because she was to be raised in the general resurrection that will take place on the day of judgment. For this reason the dead are everywhere in Scripture called "sleeping," both to soften the horror of death and the immoderate mourning of the dead by the name of sleep, and because of the hope of resurrection. And from this arose the pious Christian expression, so that when someone has died, they say: "He fell asleep in the Lord." See St. Paul, 1 Thessalonians 4:12 and following. Second, and better, because this girl was not dead in the way the crowd supposed, namely completely and absolutely, as if she could not be recalled to life, whereas according to God's extraordinary providence it could be done and was in fact about to happen immediately. Hence she seemed not so much to be dead as merely to be sleeping for a brief time. Thus Christ says that Lazarus, who had died but was soon to be raised by Him, was sleeping (John 11:11). So Maldonatus, Jansenius, Franciscus Lucas, Toletus, and others. Finally, death and sleep are closely related and akin; for death seems to be a prolonged sleep, and sleep seems to be a kind of death. Hence the Poet:

Fool, what is sleep but the image of cold death?

Moreover, the soul of this dead girl, as also the souls of others whom Christ and the Saints raised from the dead, was not judged nor condemned to hell or purgatory, but her judgment was suspended by God, because God willed to raise her again soon.

Chrysostom adds that by this expression Christ shows that it is as easy for Him to raise the dead from death as it is to rouse sleepers from sleep; and therefore death is not to be feared, because, when He approaches, death is not death, but sleep.

Verse 25: He Took Her by the Hand and She Arose

25. AND THEY RIDICULED HIM, — because, being carnal, they did not grasp the divine spirit, power, and purpose of Christ. Christ permitted this, says St. Chrysostom, so that the death of the girl might be more fully attested, and thereby the greater admiration for her raising would be, and so that they might believe in Christ who raised her.

AND WHEN THE CROWD HAD BEEN PUT OUT, HE ENTERED (with the parents of the girl, and Peter, James, and John, says Mark; for He wished these chief Apostles to be witnesses, as of His transfiguration, passion, death, and resurrection, so also of this amazing raising of the girl) AND TOOK HER BY THE HAND, AND THE GIRL AROSE. — Therefore Christ cast out the crowd; for they were not worthy, says the Interlinear Gloss, to see what they did not believe; and, as St. Jerome says, "they were unworthy" to behold the mystery of the resurrection, for they had mocked the one who was about to raise her. Christ teaches us, when we are attempting something great, to avoid crowds that distract the mind and tumults, so that the mind, fully collected, may attend to the work, and may be free for prayer and the invocation of God.

Tropologically: St. Gregory, Book XVIII of the Moralia, chapter 28, says: "The multitude of worldly cares must be cast out from the heart, so that the dead soul may rise again." Symbolically, the Gloss says: "When the scoffers were rejected, Christ entered the minds of the elect." Anagogically, St. Hilary says: "The crowd was expelled so that the small number of the elect might be understood."

HE TOOK HOLD. — In Greek ekratese, that is, He seized, held with force, took possession, just as a magistrate lays hands on an accused person when he apprehends, binds, and subdues him as a captive. This word therefore denotes the efficacy, power, and authority of Christ, by which He held the hand of the dead body, as one exercising dominion over it, commanding and powerfully bringing about that she should rise from death to life. For with His hand He raised the body lying on the ground, and called back her soul from the underworld into it, so that she might rise alive, saying and commanding in Syriac: Talitha, cumi, that is, "Girl, arise," as Mark has it (chapter 5, verse 41): "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wills" (John 5:21).

AND THE GIRL AROSE. — In Greek egerthe, that is, she woke up, she was aroused, as if to say: Christ raised her as easily as if He had awakened someone sleeping. Mark adds: "And He commanded them to give her something to eat (so that her raising might appear more certainly to be real), and her parents were astonished, and He ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened." Christ commanded this both out of a desire for modesty and humility, to teach us not to display our great deeds but to conceal them; and also to avoid the anger and envy of the Pharisees, lest He inflame still more by so great a miracle the jealousy already kindled by the many miracles He had performed.

Verse 26: The Fame Went Out into All That Land

26. AND THE FAME (of this miracle) WENT OUT INTO ALL THAT LAND, — namely throughout all Galilee. That is, everyone spread the news and celebrated this raising of the girl performed by Christ as a new, unheard-of, and divine work, and consequently they proclaimed Christ as a Prophet, indeed as the Messiah.

St. Hilary, Ambrose, and Jerome present an allegory concerning the Church: The woman with the flow of blood, they say, healed of the flow of blood (verse 22), signifies the Gentile people, who seized health and salvation of soul before the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, that is, before the Jews, who, after the fullness of the Gentiles has entered the Church, will be converted to it and will be saved at the end of the world. Hence the Gloss: "Jairus," it says, "that is, 'illuminating' or 'illuminated,' is Moses, who, seeing that the Lord would come in the flesh, prays for his daughter, that is, the Synagogue, which, educated in the Law and the Prophets, languishing in errors, dies in sins, yet in a house, that is, in the worship of God." And St. Jerome: "To this day," he says, "the Synagogue lies dead; and those who seem to be teachers (the Rabbis of the Jews) are flute players, singing a mournful tune of the flesh; and the crowd of the unbelieving Jews is not believing but making a tumult."

Tropologically: both the woman with the flow of blood healed of the flow, and the daughter of Jairus raised by Christ, signify the sinful soul, which Christ raises from the death of sin to the life of grace. But first the friends and flute players must be cast out, that is, wicked companions and evil spirits, who soothe the soul with their mournful song and hold it in the death of sin, while by flattery they suggest and sing that sin is not serious, or that youth should be indulged, or that it can be expiated by repentance in old age, etc. Then Christ touches it; in Greek kratei, that is, with great power, force, and authority He seizes it, gives it life, and raises it from the depths of death to the heights of life. Immediately she is commanded to walk, that is, to do good works, and to eat, that is, to be fed by the Eucharist, which may strengthen and confirm her life. Only the three chief Apostles are present — Peter, James, and John — to signify that Christ will raise sinners from death through the Apostles and their successors, and that this is the primary and highest power of the Apostles, about which Christ says: "Receive the Holy Spirit: whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained" (John 20:23). So Rabanus says: "The girl dead in the house is the soul dead in thought; she is said to be sleeping because she can be raised through repentance; the flute players are flatterers. She is raised in the house before a few, Lazarus before many, the young man outside the gate: for a public offense requires a public remedy, a light and secret sin can be wiped away by a lighter and secret repentance."

Finally, Christ is recorded to have raised only three dead persons. The first is this twelve-year-old girl, whom He raised immediately after her death. The second is the young man, the son of the widow, whom He raised at Nain as he was being carried to the tomb (Luke 7:11). The third is Lazarus, whom He called forth from the tomb after four days (John 11).

The first, the girl, denotes those who fall into sin because of their age (being young, ardent, and inexperienced), from frailty or weakness, but who, once touched by God and seeing their fall, easily repent and rise again; just as this girl immediately rose at the raising of Christ's hand. The second, the young man, denotes those who have repeated their sin so as to tend toward a habit of sinning; these are more difficult to recall: hence they need a more powerful and efficacious grace and impulse from Christ; just as Christ commanded the bearers of the young man to stop, and touching the bier, said imperiously: "Young man, I say to you: Arise." The third, Lazarus, denotes those inveterate in sin; these are recalled with the greatest difficulty. Hence they need the most efficacious grace and calling of God, as a symbol of which Christ, groaning, weeping, and crying out with a loud voice: "Lazarus, come forth," raised him. Accordingly, Rabanus and others symbolically understand in the girl raised from the dead, the repentance of one who has sinned only in thought and by the lingering pleasure of the mind; in the young man, the repentance of one who has carried his thought into action; in Lazarus, the repentance of one who has acquired the habit and custom of sinning. Finally, Christ teaches here that secret and lighter sins are wiped away by secret repentance, and therefore He raised the girl in the house, as it were secretly before a few; but public crimes require a public remedy, and therefore He recalled the young man and Lazarus to life publicly before the crowds.

Verse 27: Two Blind Men Cry: Have Mercy on Us, Son of David

27. AND AS JESUS PASSED ON FROM THERE (going out from Jairus's house), TWO BLIND MEN FOLLOWED HIM, CRYING OUT AND SAYING: HAVE MERCY ON US, SON OF DAVID. — These blind men had conceived faith and hope of recovering their sight from Christ, based on the very many miracles they had heard He had performed. Hence they cried out with a loud voice: "Have mercy on us," that You may drive away the misery of our blindness, which is the greatest affliction, and restore to us the light of our eyes, of the sky, and of the sun. For we believe that You are the Son of David, that is, the Messiah, to whom this cure of blindness and other diseases was promised by the Prophets, especially by Isaiah, chapter 35, verse 5, and chapter 61, verse 4. For the Messiah had been promised to David, as a son to be born from his descendants; hence everyone expected Him from his seed, since the scepter had already been transferred from Judah to Herod, a foreigner, in the time of Christ, according to the oracle of Jacob, Genesis 49:10. And therefore the Messiah was commonly called the Son of David by the Jews. So these blind men, though blind in their eyes, were clear-sighted in their mind, just as a lack of sight is not infrequently compensated by the vision and acuity of the mind. Hence someone exclaims: "O darkness brighter than all light! O most penetrating sight of blindness!" For this reason Didymus, the teacher of St. Jerome, was blind, but most clear-sighted in the explanation of Sacred Scripture. Hence St. Jerome calls him his "seer," and St. Antony, visiting and consoling Didymus who was grieving over his blindness, said: "Let it not trouble you, O Didymus, that you have been deprived of bodily eyes. For those are the eyes that mice and flies and lizards have; but rejoice, because you have the eyes that Angels have, through which God is seen, through which a great light of knowledge is kindled for you." So Rufinus, Book XI of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 7, where he testifies that Didymus, shining like a lamp with divine light, was head of the Alexandrian school, and that he himself was his student.

Verse 28: Do You Believe That I Can Do This?

28. AND WHEN HE HAD COME HOME, THE BLIND MEN CAME TO HIM, AND JESUS SAYS TO THEM: DO YOU BELIEVE THAT I CAN DO THIS FOR YOU? THEY SAY TO HIM: YES, LORD. — "Home," namely His own, which Christ had rented and inhabited at Capernaum, as I said at chapter 4, verse 13. Christ did not respond to the blind men crying out and asking for sight while on the road, but delayed until He came home. This was, first, to test them and to kindle their faith and desire for healing; second, to teach that perseverance is necessary in prayer. "Do you believe that I can do this (which you are requesting, namely that I give you sight)?" He does not say: "That I am going to do this," but "that I can do it?" Because faith primarily concerns the omnipotence of God; hence in the Creed we say: "I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth." And this faith aroused hope, so that the blind men might hope that Christ would actually do what He was able to do. Christ requires: "That as faith illuminates the mind, so it may restore light to the eyes," says the Interlinear Gloss. Away then with the faith of the Protestants, who believe that their sins have been remitted in particular on account of Christ's merits, and that they are righteous and children of God. They believe, I say, in their false opinion, by which they think they believe this with the most firm divine faith, when in fact they merely imagine and dream it. For what has not been revealed by God cannot be believed. But to you, O Luther, it has not been revealed that you are righteous; therefore you cannot believe it.

Verse 29: According to Your Faith Be It Done to You

29. THEN HE TOUCHED THEIR EYES, SAYING: ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH BE IT DONE TO YOU. — Christ heals by the touch of His hand, to show the saving power of His hands, and for other reasons stated above. "According to your faith be it done to you" — as if to say: You believe that I can give you sight, and you hope that I will actually do so; be enlightened then, as you believe and hope. See Canon 11. "The confession of the mouth merits the touch of piety," says the Interlinear Gloss.

Verse 30: Their Eyes Were Opened — See That No One Knows

30. AND THEIR EYES WERE OPENED, — that is, they began to see. This is a catachresis, for the blind men already had their eyes open, but they were deprived of sight, and so it was as if they had been closed. But Christ restored to them the faculty of seeing; hence He is said to have opened them. Likewise, to "open ears" means to restore the faculty of hearing to ears that are already open (Mark 7:35).

AND JESUS STERNLY WARNED THEM, SAYING: SEE THAT NO ONE KNOWS OF THIS. — In Greek it is enebrimesato, that is, He sternly threatened with groaning and rebuke, to show how much He abhorred the ostentation of miracles and vain glory, and to teach us to abhor the same.

Verse 31: They Went Out and Spread His Fame

31. BUT THEY GOING OUT, SPREAD HIS FAME IN ALL THAT LAND. — "Spread His fame" means they spread abroad His reputation and glory. For in Greek it is diephimesan auton, that is, they publicized Him, celebrated His fame everywhere, as Vatablus translates it. The blind men did not sin against Christ's warning by publishing this miracle of His, as Calvin would have it, because they prudently persuaded themselves that Christ had not commanded this absolutely, but had spoken more strictly only for the sake of modesty and propriety, for the reason already stated. Nor is this surprising, for the Fathers too are persuaded that Christ spoke in this way. Hear St. Chrysostom: "But to another He says: 'Announce the glory of God.' Namely, He teaches that those who wish to praise us for our own sake should be forbidden, but not if it is for the Lord's glory." And Gregory, Book XIX of the Moralia, chapter 18: "He gives an example to His servants, that they should desire their virtues to be hidden, yet that they may benefit others by example, they are revealed against their will; because of the remembrance of grace they cannot keep silent." And St. Jerome: "The Lord," he says, "fleeing the glory of boasting out of humility, had given this command, but they, because of the remembrance of grace, cannot keep silent about the benefit." And Theophylact: "You see," he says, "how He fled ostentation; but they spread it abroad not as disobedient, but as grateful."

Verse 32: A Mute Demoniac Brought to Him

32. AND WHEN THEY HAD GONE OUT, THEY BROUGHT TO HIM A DUMB MAN, POSSESSED BY A DEMON. — The Greek kophon denotes "deaf" more than "dumb," but in Scripture it signifies either indifferently, says St. Jerome, and those who are deaf from birth are usually also mute. For those who hear nothing cannot utter the sounds and words that are spoken; for we learn nothing except what we hear. For hearing is the sense of learning, says Aristotle. Therefore, one who hears nothing has nothing that he can articulate and express. Hence from this man Christ did not require faith, as He required it from others. So St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius. Furthermore, the word "mute" is to be referred not to the demon, as Cajetan would have it, but to the man, as is clear from the Greek daimonizomenon, that is, "a demoniac." Hence the Syriac clearly renders: "They brought to Him a mute man, in whom there was a demon." This demoniac is different from the one of whom Luke speaks in chapter 11, verse 14, for Matthew treats of that one in chapter 12, verse 22. So Jansenius, although Maldonatus would have it be one and the same in both places. Here Christ fulfilled that oracle about Himself from Isaiah 35:5: "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, and the tongue of the mute shall be opened."

Verse 33: The Mute Man Spoke and the Crowds Marveled

33. AND WHEN THE DEMON HAD BEEN CAST OUT (at Christ's command), THE MUTE MAN SPOKE. — From this it appears that the demon had made him deaf and mute, although he was not so by nature, by impeding the use of his tongue and ears. Hence, once the demon was expelled, the mute man immediately heard and spoke; so St. Chrysostom. Wonderful was the kindness and mercy of Christ, by which He restored to health a man who did not ask, who did not even think of it, indeed who could neither speak nor think (for he was possessed by a demon), at the prayers alone of those who brought him. Indeed, where the calamity is greater, there Christ's compassion and assistance are nearer, according to the saying: "The abyss of our misery calls upon the abyss of divine mercy" (Psalm 41:8).

Tropologically: blindness is error in faith or morals, for every desire induces an error in practical judgment, so that a person judges, for example, that gluttony, lust, or usury should be chosen over God and God's law. Hence it is said in Proverbs 14: "Those who work evil go astray." Christ cures this when, by the light of wisdom and prudence which He pours into the mind, He shows that eternal things are to be preferred to transient ones, divine to human, heavenly to earthly. He mystically cures the mute man when He loosens the tongue of the blind sinner, which was previously held bound by the demon, so that he may confess his sins, invoke God, praise and celebrate Him. And therefore Christ first gave sight to the blind, then restored speech to the mute, because it is necessary that first, with the eyes of the mind opened through faith, we come to know Christ, and then our tongue must be loosed in His praises.

AND THE CROWDS MARVELED, SAYING: NOTHING LIKE THIS HAS EVER BEEN SEEN IN ISRAEL. — In the Israelite people, that is, among the Jews in Judea: as if to say, neither Moses, nor Elijah, nor Isaiah, nor any other of the Prophets performed as many and as great miracles as Jesus did. Therefore He is greater than they, and consequently He must be the Messiah or Christ. "They placed Christ above the rest," says St. Chrysostom, "because He healed swiftly, and cured infinite and incurable diseases."

Verse 34: By the Prince of Demons He Casts Out Demons

34. BUT THE PHARISEES SAID: BY THE PRINCE (through the prince, as the Syriac interpreter has it) OF DEMONS HE CASTS OUT DEMONS. — Just as among the Angels, so also among the demons, some are inferior and others are superior and princes, namely those who fell from the higher orders, and therefore are of a nobler nature (for the natural endowments in the demons remained intact after their fall). Hence those who fell from the order of Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones are the princes of those who fell from the lower orders of Dominations, Principalities, and Powers. And these in turn are the princes of those who fell from the still lower orders of Virtues, Archangels, and Angels. So too among soldiers, when they rebel, there are standard-bearers, captains, and colonels; for without these an army cannot be organized and governed, and indeed no commonwealth can exist without order and subordination. The prince of all Demons is Lucifer, just as St. Michael is the prince of the Angels, as I discussed at Apocalypse 12, Daniel 12, and Isaiah 14.

Note here how different was the disposition of the Pharisees from that of the crowds. For the crowds, out of simple sincerity, extolled Christ's miracles as performed by a divine man and by the Messiah. But the Pharisees, envying and resenting Christ, said that He was a magician and that He had a familiar demon, by whose magic art He performed such wonders, and not by divine power. This was an enormous blasphemy, which Christ powerfully refutes in chapter 12, verses 25 and following. But Christ, bearing and despising this with equal courage and gentleness, continues to do good, and compensates for and confutes the blasphemies with new miracles. Hence Chrysostom: "After insults, the Lord bestows benefits." There follows therefore:

Verse 35: Jesus Went About All the Cities and Villages

35. AND JESUS WENT ABOUT ALL THE CITIES AND TOWNS, TEACHING IN THEIR SYNAGOGUES, AND PREACHING THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM, AND HEALING EVERY DISEASE AND EVERY INFIRMITY. — "In body He healed, and also in mind," says Remigius. Christ had fixed His dwelling at Capernaum; from there He would go out, and on foot He went about preaching and healing in all the cities and villages of Galilee round about, with wondrous diligence, charity, zeal, labor, humility, patience, and fortitude. Matthew adds this in order to touch upon Christ's labors and works briefly, so that he would not be forced to enumerate them one by one, which would have been tedious and practically impossible.

AND VILLAGES. — A castrum is a place surrounded by walls, larger than a castellum and smaller than an oppidum (town); hence the diminutive castellum is used, meaning as it were a little castrum, a little town. Castella, therefore, are citadels or smaller walled towns; but in an extended signification, they denote villages and hamlets which have no walls — for this is the meaning of the Greek kōmas, and so it is taken here and elsewhere. As if to say: Christ visited, taught, and cured not only the citizens and respectable people in the cities, but also the poor and rustic folk living in the villages. Let priests and religious imitate this example of Christ. For this is the Apostolic life: to go around to cities and villages, and everywhere to bring aid to all without distinction, and to preach the kingdom of God, that is, the way of salvation by which they may strive toward the heavenly kingdom. Therefore, O preacher, do not go after the grand pulpits of great cities; for Christ taught in the hamlets and villages as much as in the cities, and so was the catechist and preacher, no less than the redeemer, of a few poor and rustic people. I have expounded the rest at chapter IV, 23.

Verse 36: Like Sheep Not Having a Shepherd

36. AND SEEING THE CROWDS, HE HAD COMPASSION ON THEM, BECAUSE THEY WERE HARASSED AND LYING DOWN, LIKE SHEEP NOT HAVING A SHEPHERD. — For "had compassion" the Greek is esplanchnisthē, that is, He was moved with pity from His inmost bowels, which the Hebrews express as racham; for rechem signifies splanchna, that is, the bowels. "Harassed," Greek eskylmenoi, that is, afflicted with various troubles and evils. The Syriac has "wearied." Remigius: "worn out with infirmities and languors." Rabanus: "harassed by various errors of demons." Others read eklelymenoi, that is, dissolved and scattered. "Lying down," scattered here and there. The Greek errimmenoi means cast about, abject, scattered, thrown down, for rhiptō means "I throw"; the Syriac has "dispersed"; the Arabic, "wandering." The Interlinear interprets "lying down" as growing numb through vain security. "Like sheep not having a shepherd." No animal is more simple, careless, stupid, improvident, and exposed to the prey of wolves and wild beasts — and therefore more in need of a shepherd — than a sheep. He notes that the Scribes and priests did not care for the salvation of the people, to teach them the way of salvation, and therefore were not shepherds but butchers of the sheep, seizing only the milk and the wool — that is, their own gains — from the people, whereas the simple people, like sheep, most of all needed a teacher and a leader. The Scribes, therefore, were not so much shepherds to the people as wolves, says St. Chrysostom, because by teaching wicked and perverse things in both word and example they were destroying the souls of the simple, especially when, by calling Christ a magician, they turned those who were inclined toward Christ away from Him.

Verse 37: The Harvest Is Great, but the Laborers Are Few

37. THEN HE SAYS TO HIS DISCIPLES: THE HARVEST INDEED IS GREAT, BUT THE LABORERS ARE FEW. — He calls "harvest" the multitude of the people, prepared to receive the Gospel and the doctrine of salvation, whose seeds the Prophets had sown. Whence Christ says in John 4:35: "Behold, look at the regions, for they are already white for the harvest" — that is, ripe for grasping the teachings of salvation, so that they may be brought into the storehouse of the Church. Hence St. Augustine, Sermon 42 On the Saints, chapter 1: "The Apostles," he says, "reaped among the Jews, but sowed among the Gentiles, because they had handed over to them the first doctrines of the faith as seeds." "But the laborers are few," because Christ alone and John the Baptist were laboring to teach the people; while the Scribes, idle, devoted themselves to their gains and pleasures.

Verse 38: Pray the Lord of the Harvest to Send Laborers

38. PRAY THEREFORE THE LORD OF THE HARVEST, THAT HE MAY SEND LABORERS INTO HIS HARVEST. — That is, that He may send you, O Apostles, and your helpers and successors, namely Apostolic men, and that He may suggest and inspire in them the wisdom, spirit, and zeal to preach effectively and to labor tirelessly, in so great a harvest of souls, lest so copious a harvest perish. "The Lord of the harvest": thus Christ tacitly names Himself, for He is the Lord of the Church, not only as God (for in that sense God the Father and the Holy Spirit also are Lord), but also as man, for as man He redeemed and purchased her with His own blood. Wherefore it is His to send the Apostles as laborers, who may reap this harvest with labor and sweat, and gather it into the storehouse of the Church, just as He actually dispatches the Apostles in chapter X and following. He therefore is to be invoked that even now He may send strong and tireless laborers into this harvest, which in many places is whitening and ripe. Whence St. Chrysostom: "He shows," he says, "first, that to preach worthily is a great gift, since He says this is to be prayed for; secondly, He tacitly shows that He Himself is the Lord, for He sent the Apostles to reap what He had sown through the Prophets." Remigius adds: The number of laborers was increased when the seventy-two other disciples were appointed, and when the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost upon the hundred and twenty faithful in Acts 2. Finally, Christ by this word tacitly spurs on the Apostles, that they may offer themselves to Christ for laboring in this harvest, and say with Isaiah 6:8: "Behold, here am I, send me."

Here ends the childhood of Christ, and the acts of the same from His baptism and first Passover up to the second Passover — that is, the acts of one year and some months. This was the 31st year of the age of Christ: see the Chronotaxis which I have placed before this commentary. On this account Jansenius here ends the first part of his Concordia. Yet it is true that Matthew here, in chapters V, VI, VII, and the beginning of chapter VIII, inserted Christ's Sermon on the Mount, which was delivered later, namely after the second Passover in the 32nd year of Christ, together with some miracles by which Christ confirmed it, such as the healing of the Centurion's servant and the cleansing of the leper — because Matthew wished by anticipation to give at the very outset a summary of the whole doctrine of Christ and of the Evangelical law, as I said at chapter V, verse 1. Wherefore this Sermon of Christ on the Mount, together with the calling of the Apostles in whose presence it was delivered, ought in the right order of time to be placed at the beginning of chapter X which immediately follows.