Cornelius a Lapide

Matthew X

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

In the proper historical order this chapter ought to be joined immediately to the election of the Apostles and Christ's Sermon on the Mount, as I have already said: wherefore it ought to be linked to chapter VIII after verse 13, and placed after the healing of the Centurion's servant. Thus the Gloss: "The events related from the healing of Peter's mother-in-law up to this point," it says, "were done before the Sermon on the Mount was delivered, which is clear from the election of Matthew; for he was chosen on the mountain. Here, then, it returns to the order of the narrative after the healing of the Centurion's servant." In this chapter, therefore, Christ sends out the twelve Apostles (whose names are here listed) as laborers into the harvest to preach, and first gives them the power of casting out demons and healing the sick; secondly, at verse 5, gives them twelve precepts, the chief of which are these: first, that they evangelize the Jews, not the Gentiles; second, that they preach gratis and in poverty; third, that they wish peace upon their hosts; fourth, that they be prudent as serpents, and simple as doves. Thirdly, at verse 17, He foretells that they will suffer many persecutions from unbelievers. Fourthly, at verse 27, He emboldens them against these, and with many arguments strengthens them to an intrepid profession and propagation of the faith. Fifthly, at verse 40, He promises an ample reward to those who receive the Apostles, just as if they had received Christ Himself.

Vulgate Text: Matthew 10:1-42

1. And having called His twelve disciples together, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity. 2. And the names of the twelve Apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; 3. James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4. Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. 5. These twelve Jesus sent forth, commanding them, saying: Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into the cities of the Samaritans enter not; 6. but go rather to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel. 7. And as you go, preach, saying: The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 8. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons: freely you have received, freely give. 9. Do not possess gold, nor silver, nor money in your belts; 10. nor bag for the journey, nor two tunics, nor shoes, nor a staff: for the laborer is worthy of his food. 11. And into whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy: and abide there until you depart. 12. And when you come into the house, salute it, saying: Peace be to this house. 13. And if indeed that house be worthy, your peace shall come upon it; but if it be not worthy, your peace shall return to you. 14. And whoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, going forth out of that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. 15. Amen I say to you: It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city. 16. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore as prudent as serpents and as simple as doves. 17. But beware of men; for they will deliver you up in councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you; 18. and you shall be brought before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 19. But when they deliver you up, be not anxious how or what to speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what to speak. 20. For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you. 21. The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the son; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death; 22. and you shall be hated by all men for My name's sake: but he who shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved. 23. And when they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another. Amen I say to you, you shall not finish all the cities of Israel, before the Son of Man comes. 24. The disciple is not above the master, nor the servant above his lord. 25. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the good man of the house Beelzebub, how much more those of his household! 26. Therefore fear them not. For there is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed, nor secret that shall not be known. 27. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach upon the housetops. 28. And fear not those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body into hell. 29. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father. 30. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31. Fear not therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows. 32. Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven; 33. but he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. 34. Do not think that I came to send peace upon the earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. 35. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36. and a man's enemies shall be they of his own household. 37. He who loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter above Me, is not worthy of Me. 38. And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me, is not worthy of Me. 39. He who finds his life shall lose it; and he who loses his life for Me shall find it. 40. He who receives you, receives Me; and he who receives Me, receives Him who sent Me. 41. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he who receives a just man in the name of a just man, shall receive the reward of a just man. 42. And whoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.

Verse 1: Having Called His Twelve Disciples, He Gave Them Power over Unclean Spirits

Verse 1. AND HAVING CALLED HIS TWELVE DISCIPLES (APOSTLES) TOGETHER, HE GAVE THEM POWER OVER UNCLEAN SPIRITS, TO CAST THEM OUT, AND TO HEAL EVERY DISEASE AND INFIRMITY. — Note: Christ, just before delivering the Sermon on the Mount, chose out twelve Apostles from the crowd of disciples, as Luke clearly teaches in chapter VI, 13: "He called," he says, "His disciples, and chose twelve of them, whom also He named Apostles: Simon, whom He surnamed Peter," etc. He therefore chose twelve Apostles, that is, His principal legates, whom with full authority and power He sent through the whole world to announce His Gospel to all nations: for He chose also seventy-two others, but these He called not Apostles but disciples, although these too were sometimes by the ancients called Apostles (that is, legates of Christ), and in truth they were such, but with lesser power, being subject and subordinate to the twelve Apostles. These twelve, therefore, Christ now sends forth, that they may begin to execute the office to which He had called them, and under Him as their master while still living may serve their apprenticeship, which afterwards, when made priests and bishops after His death, they would most fully carry out and consummate. Wherefore Christ constituted the Apostles princes of the Church, by whose office and dignity — and even by whose names — all the faithful, as well martyrs as confessors and virgins, are honored to this day; for upon them He founded the Church, as appears from Ephesians II, 20, and Apocalypse XXI, 19. So St. Thomas, on chapter VIII to the Romans, at verse 23, on the words: "We ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit."

Furthermore, the power of the Apostles in the Church was the greatest, and far greater than that of bishops. For the Apostles were taught and sent immediately by Christ the Lord, as Christ's legates a latere, with absolute power throughout the whole world, and with the supreme authority over the whole Church, so that everywhere they might: first, preach the Gospel, and confirm it by the gift of tongues and by miracles, and also commit it to writing — for the Apostles had the power of writing canonical books, as in fact Matthew and John wrote Gospels, canonical Epistles, and the Apocalypse; secondly, so that everywhere they might found Churches, and feed and rule all the faithful wheresoever among the nations; thirdly, so that they might institute and ordain priests and bishops, and the whole hierarchical order, as well as the ceremonies of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist and of all the Sacraments.

Note: in this threefold power the Apostles were peers and equals among themselves and with St. Peter, yet they were subject to him as to their head and superior; whence Peter at verse 2 is placed among them — nay, is named first.

HE GAVE THEM POWER OVER UNCLEAN SPIRITS (that is, demons), THAT THEY MIGHT CAST THEM OUT. — For just as the Angels are clean and holy, so the demons are unclean and wicked, and therefore most foul, being full of pride and hatred of God, and of wrath and envy toward men, to draw them into lust and uncleanness (to which they know men to be most prone) and into every kind of wickedness, and thence into hell.

AND THAT THEY SHOULD HEAL EVERY DISEASE. — In Greek νόσον, that is, sickness: both of these powers were given to the Apostles by way of a permanent habit, not in the sense that God implanted in them a physical habit by which they cured all illnesses (for such a habit cannot be given), but in the sense that His omnipotence, being promised to them, always so attended them that whenever they wished to cast out demons or cure illnesses, God immediately cast them out and conferred health. Moreover, this power was given them for the authority of their preaching, namely that they might confirm it by miracles and persuade the people. So the Gloss.

Verse 2: The Names of the Twelve Apostles — Simon, Called Peter, the First

Verse 2. 2. AND THE NAMES OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES ARE THESE: THE FIRST, SIMON, WHO IS CALLED PETER (Syriac Kipho, that is Cephas, meaning Rock or Peter), AND ANDREW HIS BROTHER; JAMES THE SON OF ZEBEDEE, AND JOHN HIS BROTHER. — The reason why Christ chose precisely twelve Apostles, neither more nor fewer, is that they might correspond to the twelve Patriarchs who were the sons of Jacob. For as these were the fathers of the Jews, so the Apostles were the fathers of all Christians. So St. Jerome, Augustine, Chrysostom, and the Fathers commonly. Other mysteries of this number are brought forward by Rabanus, and from him by St. Thomas in the Catena: "The number twelve," he says, "arising from three and four (multiplied together), signifies that they were to preach the faith of the Trinity to the four quarters of the world; it was prefigured in the twelve sons of Jacob, the twelve princes of the sons of Israel, the twelve fountains of Elim, the twelve stones of the rational, the twelve loaves of proposition, the twelve spies, the twelve stones of which the altar was made, the twelve stones taken from the Jordan, the twelve oxen upholding the brazen sea, the twelve stars in the crown of the Bride, of whom in the Apocalypse, the twelve foundations of the city, and the twelve gates." See more in Toletus, on chapter VI of Luke, annotation 19.

THE FIRST, SIMON, WHO IS CALLED PETER. — Beza, in order to abolish the primacy of Peter and of the Roman Pontiffs who succeed him, thinks that the τὸ primus is read by mistake and should therefore be expunged; but all the Greek, Latin, and Syriac codices consistently read it, and even the Hebrew one which Munster the Innovator contends to be Matthew's very autograph. Nor is it credible that this passage was corrupted by the Greeks, so that they themselves added πρῶτος (that is, "first"); for they are schismatics and deny the primacy of Peter: they would therefore rather have struck out the τὸ πρῶτος, if they could have honestly done so. Finally, everywhere in Scripture, when men enumerate the names of the Apostles, Peter is placed first and Judas last, although in the order of the others they differ and vary, as appears from Mark III, 16, Luke VI, 14, and Acts I, 13.

Now Peter is called the first of the Apostles not by age, since Andrew was older than he, as Epiphanius testifies, Heresy 51, in the middle; nor by calling, since Andrew was called by Christ before him, as appears from John I, 41; nor by love, since of all men St. John was loved most by Christ, and therefore at the Last Supper he leaned on Christ's breast. It remains therefore that Peter is first among the Apostles by excellence and authority, because namely he was their head, superior, and ruler: wherefore among the others no order is given, nor is this one called second, that one third, because all were equals and equally subject to Peter; and from this τὸ primus is derived the primacy of Peter, which all the ancient Greeks and Latins confessed. Hear St. Chrysostom: "The first of all the Apostles, and as it were their summit, was that unlearned and rude man." St. Jerome, Against Jovinian, book I, ch. XIV: "For this reason," he says, "one is chosen among the twelve Apostles, so that by the appointment of a head occasion for schism might be taken away." Ambrosiaster, on II Corinthians XII: "Andrew followed the Savior before Peter: and yet it was not Andrew who received the primacy, but Peter." See further in Bellarmine, On the Roman Pontiff, book I, ch. XVIII.

Peter therefore, as the first and chief of the Apostles, could command the Apostles and, if they erred in faith and morals, correct them; could settle their disputes, divide the provinces, and, if any of them fell away, substitute others in their place — as he substituted Matthias for Judas the traitor, Acts I. For this subordination of the Apostles, Bishops, and all the faithful under one head and Pontiff was necessary for the unity, concord, stability, and good government of the Church, as St. Cyprian teaches in his book On the Unity of the Church: "The primacy," he says, "is given to Peter, that one Church of Christ and one chair may be shown forth," etc. Hence, secondly, Peter alone among the Apostles had ordinary power, and therefore in that power the Roman Pontiffs succeed him. For Blessed Peter established his pontifical see at Rome, and sat in it, and fell as a martyr: but the other Apostles had power delegated by Christ, in which therefore no one succeeded them.

You will say: Bishops are said to succeed the Apostles. I reply: This is said only by a certain analogy and accommodation, because Bishops share with the Apostles the Episcopal order and jurisdiction, and because Bishops likewise stand out above the other priests, just as the twelve Apostles did above the 72 disciples: otherwise Bishops lack the Apostolic power, and that threefold power which I assigned at the beginning of this chapter; and the power of Bishops extends only to their own dioceses, but that of the Apostles to all the nations dispersed throughout the whole world.

SIMON, WHO IS CALLED PETER. — Christ changed Peter's name, and whereas he was formerly called Simon, He called him in Syriac Cepha or Cephas, that is, Rock or Peter, because He destined him after Himself to be made the rock and foundation of the Church, according to that word of Christ to Peter: "You are Simon son of Jonah: you shall be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter," John I, 42. Simon in Hebrew is the same as "hearing" or "obedient," such as was Peter, who, when Christ called him to follow Him, at once, leaving his nets, obeyed, above at chapter IV, 20.

AND ANDREW HIS BROTHER; JAMES THE SON OF ZEBEDEE, AND JOHN HIS BROTHER. — Mark places James and John before Andrew, and makes him fourth. Luke does the same in Acts I, 13. But in his Gospel, ch. VI, 14, he places Andrew before both, as Matthew does here. So too in the case of some other Apostles the order is varied by the other Evangelists, to show that among them there was no fixed order, but that they were in all respects equals in dignity and office. Whence Cajetan here: "Peter alone," he says, "is here marked out in order and described as first, to suggest that it very much pertains to Christian knowledge to know the primacy of Peter, while it is of no importance to know the order of the Apostles among themselves." But the more probable order is that which Matthew here assigns to the Apostles, since he was a careful historian of Christ and a guardian of chronology. Christ therefore, on the mountain, calling from among His disciples to the Apostolate (for to the discipleship of Christ Philip is expressly recorded to have been called first, John I, 43), first — says Abulensis here, Questions XXVIII and XXIX, and Ribera on Apocalypse XXI, verse 16 — called out and named Peter; secondly Andrew, thirdly James, fourthly John, and then the rest in the order Matthew assigns here, except that he for modesty's sake puts himself after Thomas, whereas he should have been placed before him, as Luke and Mark do place him, and as St. Jerome, Chrysostom, Euthymius and others teach: and in this order of Matthew, St. John in Apocalypse XXI, 19, setting forth the twelve foundations of the heavenly Jerusalem as the twelve Apostles, assigns to each his own place with a gem: "The first foundation," he says, "is jasper; the second sapphire; the third chalcedony; the fourth emerald; the fifth sardonyx; the sixth sardius; the seventh chrysolite; the eighth beryl; the ninth topaz; the tenth chrysoprase; the eleventh hyacinth; the twelfth amethyst." The first, jasper, signifies Peter, for the firmness of his faith; the second, sapphire, Andrew, for his heavenly life and character; the third, chalcedony or carbuncle, James, burning with zeal; the fourth, emerald, John, green-fresh and a virgin; the fifth, sardonyx, Philip, for candor of soul; the sixth, red sardius, Bartholomew flayed; the seventh, chrysolite of sea-color, Matthew the penitent; the eighth, polished beryl, Thomas, polished and strengthened by Christ in the faith of the resurrection; the ninth, topaz, James the Less, radiant with golden sanctity; the tenth, chrysoprase, Jude Thaddaeus, who like a sharp-tasting leek pursues heretics with keen wisdom — for πράσον means "leek"; the eleventh, hyacinth, Simon the Cananaean, for his very sweet character; the twelfth, amethyst, the humble and least Matthias. I have treated this matter at length in Apocalypse XXI, verse 16 ff.; and in Exodus XXIV, verse 17, where the same twelve gems adorn the rational of the High Priest — that is, the breast of Christ.

Finally, among these twelve Apostles neither Paul nor Barnabas is named, nor were they — because these two were called to the Apostolate by Christ not while He was living on earth, but when He was already glorious and reigning in heaven; and therefore they had power and spirit equal to that of the twelve Apostles.

ANDREW. — In Greek the name means the same as "manly," "strong," "hero": for ἀνήρ means "man," and ἀνδρεία means "manliness," that is, fortitude: for many of the Jews, being already subject to Alexander the Great and the Greeks, had learned Greek and adopted Greek names, as I showed at chapter IV, verse 18. So Pagninus, Caninius and others. Such was Andrew, namely manly and heroic in preaching and in suffering, longing for the cross out of the strength of his love for Christ; he had earlier been one of the disciples of St. John the Baptist, nay rather the first of them all, says Gaudentius of Brescia in his treatise On the Dedication of a Church, and having been sent by St. John to Christ, was the first to come to know Him, and brought to Him his brother Peter, John, chapter I. Hence Epiphanius, Heresy 51, thinks he was older than Peter, although Bede reckons him younger, on the ground that here he is called Peter's brother.

JAMES THE SON OF ZEBEDEE — that is, his son, as is clear from Luke V, verse 40. This James, surnamed the Greater, the Apostle and protector of Spain, was the first of the Apostles to fall as a martyr for the faith of Christ, being beheaded by Herod Agrippa, about whom I have said more at Acts XII, verse 2.

JOHN HIS BROTHER. — This is the beloved disciple of Christ, about whom I have treated at length in the prologue to the Apocalypse, his Epistle, and his Gospel. Jacob in Hebrew is the same as "supplanter"; John is the same as "gracious and merciful," or "one in whom there is grace," or "grace of the Lord," says St. Isidore in Etymologies book VII, ch. IX: "For Jesus loved him more than the other Apostles." But concerning the name of John I shall say more at Luke I, verse 13. These are the sons of Zebedee, that is, of the "generous and bountiful." So Pagninus and Angelus Caninius in Names of the New Testament, ch. XIII.

3. PHILIP, AND BARTHOLOMEW; THOMAS, AND MATTHEW THE PUBLICAN; JAMES THE SON OF ALPHAEUS, AND THADDAEUS. — The Syriac: Philippus and Bar Thoulmai and Thoumo, Mathai the publican, and Jaacoub son of Chalphai, and Labbi surnamed Thaddi. Philippus in Greek is from ἵππος, that is, "lover of horses," horseman, warlike. So Pagninus and Caninius, for the Hebrews, being already subject to the Greeks, had adopted Greek names, as I have said; for Philip was as it were Christ's warhorse against the Jews, unbelievers and the impious, of whom in Apocalypse VI, 2: "Behold," it says, "a white horse: and he that sat upon him had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went forth conquering, that he might conquer." See what is said there. Although St. Jerome in his Names of Places (or whoever the author is; for it is clear that he is not St. Jerome, because the author shows himself ignorant of Greek and Hebrew, and in chapters XIV and XV writes many foolish and false things) interprets Philippus as "mouth of a lamp" from פה pe, that is, mouth, and לפיד lappid, that is, lamp, because his mouth, like a lamp, illumined the world, says Emissenus.

BARTHOLOMEW. — St. Jerome in Names of Hebrew Places, and from him Pagninus, interpret Bartholomew as "son of him that hangs up the waters"; for בר bar is "son," תלה thala "he hung," מים maiim "waters." Hence Rupert on John ch. I, and Osorius in a sermon On St. John, think that Christ on the occasion of Bartholomew changed water into wine at the wedding of Cana in Galilee, as though Bartholomew himself had been the bridegroom: which others refute. Truer is that Bartholomew in Hebrew is the same as "son of Tholmai," as Pagninus has it, or of Tholomaeus: for Tholmai was a frequent and ancient name among the Hebrews, as appears from Joshua XV, 14; II Kings III, 3. Less fittingly do some interpret Bartholomew as "son of Ptolemy," as if he had sprung from the Ptolemies, kings of Egypt — which Abulensis here refutes. So Bartimaeus means "son of Timaeus," and Barjona "son of Jonah," or of John.

THOMAS. — In Greek δίδυμος, that is, "twin"; for תאם means "to twin," concerning which see John XX, 24.

MATTHEW THE PUBLICAN. — Note the humility of Matthew, who, while the others keep silent, publicly confesses himself to be a publican, that is, a sinner. Of him I have spoken at the beginning of the Commentary and at chapter IX, verse 9. Matthew in Hebrew is the same as "given," or "gift of God," in Greek Dositheus or Theodorus, says Caninius. He is also called Levi, that is, "added" or "set alongside" Christ and the Apostles, Mark II, 14. So Bede, Euthymius, Pagninus, Caninius.

JAMES THE SON OF ALPHAEUS — that is, son of him, as the Arabic and Syriac have it. Alphaeus in Hebrew is the same as "learned" or "teacher." That Alphaeus, the father of James, was another than the Alphaeus who was father of Matthew, Mark II, 14. For this Alphaeus was the husband of Mary of Cleophas, who is called the sister of Mary the mother of the Lord, John XIX, 25. Hence Helecas, bishop of Saragossa, who continued the Chronicle of L. Dexter, and others, think Alphaeus to be the same person as Cleophas, although Baronius denies it — of which matter more will be said on John XIX, verse 25. Alphaeus by Mary begat James and Jude. This James is called the Less, either because (as some hold) he was younger in age, or rather because he was later in calling, than James the Greater, who was the brother of John. He is also called "brother of the Lord," because a kinsman of Christ and very like Him; he was the author of the Epistle of St. James, and the first bishop of Jerusalem, about whom I have said much in the Preface to the Epistle of St. James.

THADDAEUS — this is Jude, author of the Canonical Epistle, who had three names; for he is surnamed Thaddaeus, that is, "of the breast," and Jude of James (namely of James the Less, brother of Jude, Jude 1:1); and Lebbaeus, as the Greek and Syriac have here, that is, "little heart," says Jerome, for לב leb means "heart": so also Angelus Caninius in his Names of the New Testament, ch. XIII: or, as others, "Leonine"; for לביא labi is "lion," because the first Judah, the patriarch, son of Jacob, was called a lion, Genesis XLIX, verse 9. Concerning Jude I have said this in the Preface to his Epistle.

4. SIMON THE CANANAEAN, AND JUDAS ISCARIOT, WHO ALSO BETRAYED HIM. — Simon is here called "Cananaean," not because he was descended from the Canaanites — as Munster will have it, who in the Hebrew gospel of St. Matthew names him כנעני kenaani, that is, "Canaanite," a descendant of Canaan, but wrongly, for all the Apostles were Jews. He is therefore called Cananaean because he was born in Cana (whence strictly he ought to be called "Canaean," says Caninius) of Galilee; indeed Nicephorus book VIII ch. XXX, and Baronius think that he himself was the bridegroom at the wedding to which Christ was called and where He turned the water into wine, John II. But because Cana in Hebrew signifies "zeal," hence "Cananaean" — that is, "zealot" — was also his title, says St. Jerome, by allusion both to the city of Cana and to his zeal. Just as if you should call some strong man born at Valencia "Valentinus" or "Valens," to signify that he was born at Valencia and was also mighty in strength. In a similar way Simon is called Cananaean, that is, "Zealot," because he was born at Cana, and had a great קנאה kina, that is, zeal.

AND JUDAS ISCARIOT. — So called as if from קריות Kerioth, איש Isch kerioth, that is, "a man of Kerioth," descended from Kerioth, a city of the tribe of Judah, concerning which see Joshua XV, 25. So Angelus Caninius in his Names of Hebrew Places, ch. XIII; whence the Syriac renders it Ihoudo Scarioutoh. Others more correctly think that he was so called because he came from the village of Iscarioth in the tribe of Ephraim, not far from Samaria. So St. Jerome here, and on Isaiah chapter XXVIII, verse 1, as well as Maldonatus, and Adrichomius in his Description of the Holy Land, page 28, number 60. Iscariotes in Hebrew is the same as "mercenary"; for שכר sachar is "wages," and this fits Judas aptly, since he sold Christ for thirty pieces of silver. So St. Jerome. Christ chose Judas, though He knew he would become His betrayer, both because He willed to suffer his betrayal, and to add it to the accumulation of His passion — for He willed that passion to be complete in every kind, and therefore He willed also to suffer from His disciples and to be betrayed by His own Judas: for He willed to suffer every kind of torment and from every kind of men; and also to teach us to do good not only to the good and the thankful, but also to the wicked and the ungrateful. Hear St. Ambrose in his fifth book on Luke: "Judas is chosen, not through imprudence but through providence: namely Christ willed to be betrayed by him, so that you, if deserted by a companion, if betrayed by a companion, may bear moderately the fact that your judgment erred and your benefit perished." See St. Jerome on Isaiah XXVIII, 1, on the words: "Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower, the glory of his exultation," which the Seventy translate: "Woe to the crown of the injury of the mercenary of Ephraim, the flower falling from the glory upon the head of the fat mountain," which he mystically interprets of Judas the traitor, "who," he says, "from the tribe of Ephraim, and from a village of that same tribe, Iscarioth, sold the Lord for a price, but the flower of Apostolic glory fell upon the most fat mountain, of which we think it is said: Jacob ate and drank, and was filled, and grew fat, and the beloved kicked back. Or according to the Hebrew: Upon the valley of the fat ones, that is, Gethsemane, in which name the very place is signified, where Judas betrayed the Lord." And after some remarks: "The traitor was drunk not with wine, but with avarice, and with the incurable fury of asps, and with the food of the devil, who entered into him after the morsel, and utterly devoured him, because his prayer was turned into sin, and not even his repentance had the fruit of salvation."

Verse 5: Go Not into the Way of the Gentiles, but to the Lost Sheep of Israel

5. THESE TWELVE JESUS SENT FORTH, COMMANDING THEM, SAYING: GO NOT INTO THE WAY OF THE GENTILES (Syriac: of the profane ones), AND INTO THE CITIES (the interpreter reads "malas," "the wicked cities"; now they read εἰς πόλιν, that is, into a city, that is, into the cities, or into any of the cities: it is an enallage of number) OF THE SAMARITANS ENTER YOU NOT. 6. BUT GO RATHER TO THE LOST SHEEP OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL.

"Into the way of the Gentiles," that is, to the Gentiles; for the way of the Gentiles stretches and leads to the Gentiles. It is a Hebraic catachresis and metalepsis. Similar is Jeremiah II, 18: "And now what have you to do in the way of Egypt?" as if to say: Why do you go into Egypt, why do you implore the aid of the Egyptians?

This is the first precept of Christ, which He Himself, sending forth the Apostles to preach, assigns to them, namely, that they should not go to the Gentiles and Samaritans, but to the Jews; the true reason of which was that Christ willed His advent and the Gospel to be preached first to the Jews: for these were the sons of the kingdom, and the sons of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, etc., to whom the Messiah, that is, Christ, had been promised by God; for otherwise the Jews could have taken exception against Christ and the Apostles, and said: You are not the true Messiah, because You preach to the Gentiles and Samaritans; for the Messiah was promised by the Prophets to us Jews, not to the Gentiles. This precept was only temporary; for it lasted only throughout the whole time of Christ's life: for after His passion and resurrection, Christ sent the Apostles to evangelize the Gentiles throughout the whole world; for then was taken away the division of Jews and Gentiles, and out of both was made one fold and one Shepherd, as is clear from Matthew xxviii, 19, and Acts i, 8. So say St. Jerome, Chrysostom, Euthymius, and others everywhere. This is what Paul says: "For I say that Christ Jesus was minister of the circumcision (that is, of the circumcised, namely the Jews) for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the Fathers."

Verse 7: Preach, Saying the Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand

7. AND GOING, PREACH, SAYING: THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND.

This is the second precept of Christ to the Apostles, and indeed the chief one, namely, that as they go about Judaea they should preach, invite, and impel men to the kingdom of heaven, as if to say: By My soon-coming death I shall open heaven to men, which has been closed for so many thousands of years because of Adam's sin; and so I shall open the way for entering it: therefore invite all to take this way, and to invade and occupy the kingdom of heaven with courage, trampling upon earthly desires. See what is said in ch. iii, verse 2, and ch. iv, verse 17. This was the sum and compendium of the preaching of Christ and the Apostles, in which is included the preaching of penitence and of the renunciation of the vices and of all those things which keep men away from or hinder them from the kingdom of heaven. Moreover, it was declared by this preaching that the time of giving the kingdom of heaven had come and was shortly to be fulfilled: likewise with how great alacrity and diligence each and all ought to prepare themselves to obtain this grace of the heavenly kingdom now offered; and how grave a punishment awaits those who do not receive so great a grace, or neglect it. So Jansenius.

Note first: Christ pairs all the Apostles and assigns to each a companion, so that He constitutes six pairs of Apostles; for to Peter He joins Andrew, to James John, to Philip Bartholomew, to Matthew Thomas, to James the Less Jude, to Simon Judas Iscariot, so that each might have from his companion assistance in preaching, as well as testimony; for this cause He sent them two by two. Luke x; Mark VI, 7.

Again, among the Apostles Christ chose a triple pair of brothers, namely Peter and Andrew, James and John, James the Less and Jude; some add also Simon the Canaanite, whom they claim to have been a brother of James and Jude, so that He might teach how dear to Him is philadelphia, that is, brotherly love, according to that of Ecclesiasticus xxv, 1: "In three things is my spirit pleased, which are approved before God and men: the concord of brethren, and the love of neighbors, and man and wife that agree together." And Proverbs xviii, 19: "A brother that is helped by his brother, is like a strong city." See the remarks on both passages.

Note secondly: that many of the Apostles were kinsmen and cousins of Christ, such as James and John, James the Less and Jude; for Christ chose the Apostles not that they might be wealthy and elegant princes, but for labors, poverty, crosses, stings, and martyrdoms. Hence He gave them abundance of goods, not temporal, but spiritual, as the order of charity requires, by which one ought to wish and procure for parents and kinsmen a greater grace and holiness than for others. Add that it was fitting that the Word taking flesh should also more closely unite to His divinity through grace those who were more closely joined to Him by flesh, and therefore He made His mother most holy, then St. Joseph, as the foster-father, then Joachim and Anna, as grandfather and grandmother; John the Baptist and Elizabeth, James and John, James the Less and Jude, as His kinsmen and cousins: for because they were by kinship of flesh closer to the humanity of Christ, hence they were also more closely united to His divinity by grace; just as the flesh and humanity of Christ were most closely joined to His divinity, indeed hypostatically united. Therefore in Christ there was here no vice of respect of persons, as there is in Prelates who contrary to right do so.

Verse 8: Heal the Sick, Cast Out Demons — Freely You Have Received, Freely Give

8. HEAL THE SICK, RAISE THE DEAD, CLEANSE THE LEPERS, CAST OUT DEMONS.

This is Christ's third precept, by which He commands that they use the power of miracles, given them in verse 1, liberally for the common good of the world, and thus by miracles show that their preaching is not human but divine; and that they demonstrate to the whole world that the faith which they preach flows from God, and that by the health of bodies they may induce health, indeed eternal salvation of souls: for to this end He gave them the power of healing bodies, that through it they might persuade men of the faith of Christ and heal souls from unbelief.

FREELY YOU HAVE RECEIVED, FREELY GIVE.

This is Christ's fourth precept. By "freely you have received," He excludes the occasion of pride, says St. Chrysostom, since they know that they have this power not of themselves, but have received it from God freely without their own merit: just as "freely give" excludes the occasion of avarice and simony, namely that they should not sell their miracles for a price received. Again they are admonished to be liberal in exercising this power, inasmuch as they received it freely from God without labor and merit, to this end, that they themselves should liberally expend it for the benefit of others: for what we receive freely and abundantly, that we liberally bestow, like fountains which, the more water they send forth, the more they admit and receive within. The sense therefore is, as if to say: That gift of healing the sick, raising the dead, etc., is such and so great, that you could not attain to it by your labor and industry, but it has been freely bestowed on you by God, and therefore you ought to use it freely, so that you not only do not sell it for a price, but neither receive gifts offered for it, as Elisha, healing Naaman from leprosy, rejected his gifts, and punished with leprosy Gehazi, who secretly received them, IV Kings v, 16. This is what Isaiah foretold of Christ, LV, 1: "All you that thirst, come to the waters, etc. Come, buy without money and without any exchange wine and milk;" for this liberality befitted the highest King and Prince, namely Christ our Lord, and therefore He willed the Apostles to be most far removed from every appearance, indeed every shadow, of simony and avarice, so that they should receive no gift, lest men should think them to be seeking their own wealth and purses, and therefore turn away from the faith of Christ; wherefore the Apostles would have sinned and violated Christ's precept if they had received gifts on account of their preaching.

Thus St. Hilarion, as St. Jerome testifies in his Life, when he was curing very many sick, would admit none of their gifts, not even a fragment of bread, saying: "Freely you have received, freely give." And to a certain leading man (whose name was Orion), whom he had freed from a legion of demons, who pressed and insisted that he should accept a gift, at least to distribute it to the poor, he replied: "Do not be grieved, son; what I do, I do for myself and for you. For if I receive these things, both shall I offend God, and to you the legion shall return."

Moreover, the Provincial Council of Constantinople in its Synodal Epistle explains "freely you have received, freely give" of the Priesthood, that it should not be sold through simony; for here as well as among the other spiritual gifts of God, it is forbidden to sell it.

Note: the precise cause why the Apostles ought to give freely the charisms given to them by God, is not this, that they received them freely from God; for one who had received knowledge or a natural art infused by God, as Beseleel the craftsman of the tabernacle received, Exodus xxxi, would certainly be able to sell it, and teach it to others for a price received, as other masters of arts do. The precise cause therefore is this, that here the thing is of such a kind and so sublime, that it cannot be had by human industry, but must be received freely by God's gift alone, because it is divine, and therefore far surpasses and transcends every price, and this is what is signified by "freely you have received;" wherefore to wish to value it at a price and sell it, is to treat it unworthily as though profane, and to do to it and to God, from whom it has its sanctity, an unworthy vileness and injury, and therefore it is the crime of simony and sacrilege.

Hence it is clear that this precept is not one of positive law, that is, of divine law, but is of natural law, especially because Christ in the New Testament sanctioned no new positive precepts, except those of faith and of the Sacraments, as Theologians everywhere teach from St. Thomas, II part, Question C, article III, and Question CVII, articles II and III.

You will say: Therefore equally one who exchanges a sacred thing for another sacred thing is a simoniac by natural and divine law, because he does not give it freely. Adrian admits this, Quodlibet IX, to the 4th conclusion, letter E, but he replies by denying the consequence: for here to give freely is to give without wage or temporal price, as is gathered from what follows: "Do not possess gold," etc.; but sacred things do not have a temporal price: and this is not demanded or received when a sacred thing is exchanged for another sacred thing. So say St. Jerome, Chrysostom, and others. See Lessius, treatise On Simony, doubt 3. Let religious and apostolic men imitate this precept of Christ, because it makes most of all for Christ's glory and the conversion of souls, as I have manifestly learned from forty years of experience.

Wherefore St. Ignatius, founder of our Society, rightly in Rule 17 of the Summary of the Constitutions thus decrees: "All who are under the obedience of the Society should remember that they ought to give freely what they have freely received, neither demanding nor accepting any stipend or alms by which Masses, or confessions, or sermons, or any other office of those which the Society may perform according to our institute, may seem to be compensated, so that thus with greater liberty and for the edification of neighbors one may proceed in divine service."

True is that saying of Chilon in Laertius, bk. I: "Gold is tested by whetstones; the minds of men by gold." And that of Cicero, bk. II On Duties: "Men most admire him who is not moved by money;" indeed, one turns from it and flees as from a venomous serpent. Wherefore St. Antony, when he had seen a huge mass of gold on the way, marveling at the magnitude of the gleaming metal, ran at a rapid pace, as if shunning some fire, until he reached the mountain. Abbot Pambo rejected three hundred pounds of silver brought him by Melania. Blessed Barlaam, when Josaphat begged him to accept at least a little money for his own food and clothing (for he had received nothing for his companions), refused and replied: "If the possession of money were good, I would certainly have imparted it to them before myself: but since I know that its possession is destructive, neither them nor myself will I ensnare in such snares."

As often as money was offered to St. Vincent Ferrer, who was preaching through castles, he forbade it to be received by his companions.

St. Francis, as St. Bonaventure testifies in his Life, ch. VII: "Money," he says, "to the servants of God is nothing other than the devil and a venomous serpent."

Finally, St. Peter to Simon Magus when he offered money: "Your money," he said, "be with you unto perdition." Acts VIII, 20.

Verse 9: Possess Neither Gold, nor Silver, nor Money in Your Belts

9. DO NOT POSSESS GOLD, NOR SILVER, NOR MONEY IN YOUR PURSES.

"Nor money," that is, any other kind, for example copper; hence in Greek it is μηδὲ χαλκόν, that is, nor bronze. For there are three kinds of money, gold, silver, and bronze; indeed, all money, says Budaeus, De Asse, was first bronze, then silver, and finally gold. "In your purses," that is, in pouches or wallets, as the Syriac translates. For of old they used to hang purses and wallets from belts, or weave or attach them to belts, especially soldiers and travelers: whence the proverb: "He has lost his belt," of one who has no money: hence moneybags were called belts (zonae). See Nebrissensis, Quinquagena 50. Whence also Gracchus in Aulus Gellius, bk. XV, ch. XII: "When I set out from Rome," he says, "the belts which I took full of silver, these I brought back empty from the province." Emperor Alexander, in Lampridius: "A soldier," he says, "is not afraid unless he is clothed, shod, armed, and has something in his belt." Pescennius Niger in Spartian forbade soldiers to carry a belt with them into battle; but if they had any money, they were to entrust it publicly, to be recovered after the battle, thus both taking away from them the material of luxury, and depriving the enemy of plunder, if any adversity should happen.

Whence Matthew more fully says: "Do not possess." But Christ did not here expressly state that, because He presupposes it as already done by the Apostles. For the Apostles, called by Christ, having left all things, even ship and nets, followed Christ.

Symbolically, St. Jerome: "Gold," he says, "we often read as meaning understanding, silver as speech, bronze as voice; these we are not permitted to receive from others, but to possess when given by the Lord."

You will ask whether these precepts of Christ on not possessing money, shoes, staff, and two tunics, given to the Apostles, were perpetual, or only temporary? St. Hilary, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose in bk. IX on Luke; St. Augustine in bk. II On the Consensus of the Evangelists, ch. xxx, and from them Maldonatus hold that they were perpetual, so that the Apostles throughout their whole life, in which they preached to the Gentiles, were bound by this form and kind of poverty. Others everywhere hold that they were temporary, and bound them only for that time in which, while Christ lived, they were preaching to the Jews.

I say first, that these precepts were properly and precisely given to the Apostles only for that time in which they were first sent by Christ two by two to preach throughout Judaea, so that by this contempt of wealth and by this angelic and heavenly life they might persuade the Jews that they were Apostles of the true Messiah, that is, Christ, who, descending from heaven into flesh, was calling all men, with earthly things despised, to heavenly life and glory. This is clear:

The fifth is this precept about not possessing wealth, given by Christ to the Apostles for three reasons. The first, that being freed from every earthly affection as well as solicitude, they might wholly depend upon the providence of God, confident and secure that it would provide them abundantly with all necessities. The second, that they might devote themselves wholly to the Gospel, and turn all their thoughts and cares to preaching it. The third, that they might give to all nations an illustrious example of simplicity, sobriety, poverty, contempt of wealth, holiness, and a lofty and heavenly mind, by which, through this angelic life, as St. Chrysostom and Euthymius say, they might draw all to love and admiration of themselves: "For nothing," says Euthymius, "so renders men admirable as a frugal life, content with whatever comes to hand." Wherefore Christ here forbids the Apostles not only the preparation of money for a journey, as Jansenius holds, but every possession whatever, as is clear from the phrase "Do not possess;" for this possession would have distracted and hindered the Apostles by its care much more than provisions for the journey. So Maldonatus.

You will say: Luke IX, 3, explains this precept of Christ, saying: "Take nothing for the way," in Greek εἰς ὁδόν, that is, for the way and for completing the journey. Maldonatus replies that by "the way" their whole pilgrimage and mission is to be understood, and consequently their whole life, according to that passage of verse 5: "Go not into the way of the Gentiles." You may say more simply: Christ expressly forbids the Apostles only to carry money with them for provisions, but implicitly under this forbids every possession of temporal things and of anything assessable in money: for he who, for example, possesses a field or a house, by that very fact possesses virtually price and money; for a house or field is assessable by price and money.

First, from verse 5, on which these following precepts depend: "Go not," He says, "into the way of the Gentiles, etc., but go rather to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel." For the Messiah had first to be shown and proved to the Jews, so that, with them receiving Him, the Gentiles might more easily receive Him.

Secondly, this is clear from Luke xxii, 35, where Christ, speaking of this past mission and precept, says: "When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, did you want anything? But they said: Nothing. Then said He unto them: But now," etc., where "I sent" signifies that this precept had already elapsed; and "now" signifies that something different is now being commanded to them, namely, that they should take a scrip and buy a sword.

Thirdly, because the Apostles, setting out through the Gentiles, went to unbelievers, who at first sight turned from them as if enemies of their gods, and did not deign to give them lodging and food, until through miracles and sanctity of life they should induce them to believe: therefore before they could persuade them to faith, they had to provide for themselves in food, especially because they often went with a great company of catechists, interpreters, and other helpers. Whence Paul, setting out to Jerusalem, was accompanied by Sopater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Caius, Timothy, Tychicus, and Trophimus, as is clear from Acts xx, 4. Wherefore the Apostles permitted a pious, honest, and wealthy woman to accompany them, who might feed them. This is clearly seen in I Corinthians ix: "Have we not power to lead about a woman, a sister (a Christian), as also the other Apostles?" Christ Himself did the same, who permitted Magdalene and other pious women whom He had converted to accompany Him according to the custom of the nation, and to sustain Him and His own, as is clear from Luke viii, 3. Indeed Judas "had the purse," etc., "and carried the things that were put therein." John xii, 6. And in John vi, the disciples say to Christ: "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?"

You will press further: Why did Christ not Himself keep the precept which He gave to the Apostles about not carrying money? I reply: Christ Himself kept it, because He did not carry the purse, but Judas; and when at the beginning He began to preach alone, He was wholly without purses, as is clear from that saying: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of Man has not where to lay His Head," Matthew viii, 20. But as for feeding the 12 Apostles and the 72 disciples, whom He led with Him, He permitted Judas to carry the purse, because otherwise it would have been impossible to feed them. For who would have willed or been able to receive so great a multitude of men in hospitality and continuously sustain them? But He sent the Apostles through Judaea only two by two: and two men could easily find lodging and food with some pious man. In a similar way St. Francis Xavier, setting out for the Indies, brought no provisions onto the ship; indeed, he refused those offered by the king of Portugal, but begged food from the sailors and passengers daily, because he was alone. But now, when fifty and a hundred from the Society of Jesus and from other orders are more often sent to evangelize the Indies, they must have provisions either with themselves or with another. For who among the sailors or passengers could or would wish to feed all of them daily for six months of navigation? So St. Vincent Ferrer, who in Apostolic manner traveled through the provinces of Europe evangelizing, led with himself hundreds, indeed thousands, and had his own procurators, who provided each with food and other necessities. For the natives could not have borne these expenses.

Fourthly, the same thing is clear from Acts iv and v, where all the first faithful offered their goods to the Apostles, from which they themselves and all the others lived. Indeed even Paul, who otherwise with lofty mind sustained himself and his companions by the labor of his own hands, making tents and selling them, yet in the Roman prison, and afterwards on other occasions, lived from the alms of the Philippians, as is clear from Philippians iv and following.

Fifthly, so teaches St. Chrysostom, hom. 9 on the epistle to the Philippians: "Those precepts," he says, "were temporary, and not perpetual;" and St. Thomas and St. Anselm, Hugo, Dionysius the Carthusian, Jansenius, Barradius, Toletus, Francisco Lucas here, and Bellarmine, bk. I On Clerics, ch. xxvi. Hear St. Thomas: "Before the passion," he says, "the Apostles were sent to the Jews. Now among the Jews it was the custom that they had to provide for their masters: therefore Christ commanded the Apostles to carry nothing when He sent them to the Jews. But this was not the custom among the Gentiles. Therefore when they were sent to the Gentiles, leave was given them to carry provisions: accordingly they carried them, when they preached to others than the Jews."

I say secondly, these precepts nevertheless as regards their substance and purpose — which was to show a mind alien from avarice, and to display a great contempt of all earthly things and a desire for heavenly things, as well as confidence in God and in His providence (for this is what Christ willed to impress upon the Apostles by these precepts, and this the Apostles did actually carry out when, having received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they thought, spoke, and did nothing but heavenly things) — wherefore these precepts of Christ the Apostles observed not only as regards their purpose, but also as regards their mode, precisely to the letter, whenever and wherever they were able to do so: indeed Paul added to these precepts a counsel, that he should not receive expenses of sustenance from the faithful, but should provide food for himself by the labor of his hands. And only this much the Fathers cited at the beginning meant. Imitating this example of Apostolic poverty, St. Francis, when he sent his brothers two by two to evangelize, gave them no other provision than this: "Cast your care upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you."

Verse 10: Nor Scrip, nor Two Tunics, nor Shoes, nor Staff — The Laborer Is Worthy of His Food

10. NOR SCRIP FOR YOUR JOURNEY, NOR TWO COATS, NOR SHOES, NOR A STAFF: FOR THE WORKMAN IS WORTHY OF HIS MEAT.

A scrip is a pouch, or traveling bag, in which travelers carry bread and food which they eat on the way; whence the proverb: "A beggar's scrip is never filled."

NOR TWO COATS.

Understand "changes of raiment," that is, two pairs of tunics, says St. Thomas, so that you might put on now one, now the other: otherwise He does not forbid being clothed in two tunics at once for reason of cold or necessity, for even Christ Himself was clothed in two, as is clear from John xix, 23. So say St. Jerome, Jansenius, and Maldonatus.

More simply, Lyranus, Toletus, and Barradius understand a single tunic here to be prescribed absolutely; for in Judaea, being a hot region, one tunic is enough. Whence also Christ had only one outer garment: for that seamless inner one served in place of a shirt or undertunic; and over the outer they used to cast a cloak. Whence Euthymius, in ch. xxvi of Matthew, teaches that Christ had only three garments, namely an undertunic, a tunic, and an outer garment, such as with us is the toga or cloak.

St. Francis, in the church of St. Damian, hearing this Gospel recited at Mass, in which Christ, when sending His disciples to preach, gave the Evangelical form of living, namely that they should not possess gold, nor money in their belts, nor a scrip for the journey, nor two tunics, nor shoes, nor a staff, when Mass was ended asked to have it more clearly explained to him, and when this was done, flooded with incredible joy, he said: "This is what I desire, this is what I long for with all my heart." This was the beginning, this the cause of his conversion; this was his institute, to emulate Apostolic poverty. Wherefore Christ's disciple immediately put all these things into execution, that he might fully obey Christ and the Gospel, and conform himself to them: and so he loosed his shoes from his feet, laid aside his staff, rejected his scrip, cursed money, content with one tunic, and having cast away his leather thong, took a rope for a belt and kept it through his whole life. So St. Bonaventure in ch. III of his Life, and others: whence both in life and in death he expressly declared: "The Lord Himself revealed to me that I ought to live according to the form of the Holy Gospel."

NOR SHOES,

— double, that is, two pairs of shoes, as well as of tunics, say St. Thomas and Cajetan, and St. Augustine hints at this, bk. II On the Consensus of the Evangelists, ch. xxx. But Euthymius holds that Christ first here in Matthew forbade shoes to the Apostles, and then afterwards in Mark permitted sandals to them. But Mark speaks of the same place and time as Matthew here, as is clear to one who compares the two.

You might more simply say that here shoes are forbidden which cover the whole foot, not sandals, that is soles which guard only the sole of the foot lest they strike against rocks; for these Mark, ch. vi, verse 9, teaches were granted to the Apostles. For Judaea is a rugged and rocky region, as well as hot: wherefore sandals protect the feet against rocks and ward off heat, because on the upper side they leave the feet bare. So say St. Jerome, Euthymius, Jansenius, Toletus, Maldonatus, and St. Augustine, bk. II On the Consensus of the Evangelists, ch. xxx: but shoes squeeze the foot and, as it were, imprison it, so that it may be less free and ready for the journey, and they often heat it too much. Therefore Christ forbade shoes to the Apostles as they traveled through Judaea, so that they might be more ready for the journey, and that He might remove from them excessive care for their feet.

Shoes (calcei) are called in Greek ὑποδήματα, that is, "things bound underneath," because in antiquity they were fastened above with laces, as is still done among many peoples. Moreover, that the Apostles used sandals after Christ's ascension is clear from Acts xii, where the angel says to Peter: "Bind on your sandals," in Greek "your sandals." And such is the sandal of St. Andrew, which at Trier in the cathedral church was shown to me by the Reverend Lord Provost. Such also were worn by the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, as is clear from the ancient images of them in the codex of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus, which are extant in the Vatican, which I took care to have copied and prefixed to the major prophets. And such the image of the Blessed Virgin at Rome painted by St. Luke presents: for the boy Jesus in her arms is painted with sandals, which are bound to the foot above by laces, so that the feet and the toes of Christ's feet are entirely uncovered and bare, while only the sole of the foot is covered by the sandal. Such also by Christ's example were worn by St. Francis, and his followers the Capuchins.

This example of Christ and the Apostles was followed by many of the first Christians, who walked without shoes. Lucian testifies to this in his Philopatris, where he describes the garb of a Christian: "A tattered cloak," he says, "without shoes or covering, walking with head bare and hair shorn." "So too Plato," says St. Jerome here, "commanded that the two extremities of the body (head and feet) were not to be veiled, nor ought they to be accustomed to the softness of head and feet. For when these have firmness, the other parts are stronger."

About the cloak, there was once an adage among the Christians: "From the toga to the cloak;" that is, he has passed from Gentilism to Christianity: for the Gentiles wore the toga, and Christians the cloak. Whence Tertullian, in the book On the Cloak, ch. v: "Of shoes," he says, "we will say nothing, that torment proper to the toga, that most unclean guardianship of the feet, both real and false. For how better it is to stand barefoot in cold and heat, than booted in a shoe. A great fortification for walking from the cobbler. The Venereal have provided effeminate boots (shoes)." But most clearly Clement of Alexandria, bk. II Paedagogue, ch. xi: "For a man," he says, "it is becoming to have no shoes, except if he is a soldier. For to be shod has no small kinship with being bound. The best kind of exercise is to go with bare feet, both for health and for quickness of movement, where necessity does not forbid; but if we are not undertaking a journey, and cannot bear to walk barefoot, soles are to be used; these the Attics call κονίποδας, because, as I conjecture, the feet come near to the earth. John suffices as a witness of thin and simple footwear, who said he was not worthy to loose the thong of the Lord's sandals, for He who displayed to the Hebrews the figure of true philosophy did not wear fancy shoes."

Symbolically: St. Augustine, book II On the Agreement of the Evangelists, chapter 30, says: "Mark says they were shod with sandals or soles, by which the foot is neither covered from above nor bare against the ground; for the Lord wished that the Gospel should neither be hidden nor rest upon earthly comforts."

Again the Gloss: "The Apostle must cast aside gold, that is, worldly wisdom; silver, that is, eloquence; money in the belt, that is, hidden wisdom; the bag, that is, the burden of the world; shoes, that is, the examples of dead works."

Hear St. Jerome, Epistle 24 to Marcella on the death of Lea: "She, he says, whom the secrets of a single chamber walled in, who seemed poor and slight, whose life was thought madness, follows Christ and says: 'Whatsoever we have heard, so also we have seen in the city of our God,' and the rest. Wherefore I warn, weeping and groaning, and testify, that while we run the way of this world, we be not clothed with two tunics, that is, a double faith; nor be weighed down by the skins of shoes, namely dead works; nor let the bag of riches press us to the ground; nor let the help of the staff, that is, of worldly power, be sought; nor let us wish to have both Christ and the world at once, but let eternal things succeed the brief and transitory; and since every day (I speak according to the body) we die beforehand, let us not in other respects reckon ourselves perpetual, so that we may be able to be perpetual."

Nor a staff. — You will say: Mark vi. 9 has the contrary, namely, "but only a staff." I answer that St. Mark speaks of משען (mischan), that is, a staff, or cane and support upon which one leans. For this is the symbol of poor travelers, who walk leaning on a staff to ease their weariness, just as Jacob walked while traveling into Mesopotamia, Gen. xxxii. 10. But Matthew here speaks of מטה (matte), that is, a staff for defense or vindication, which Christ forbids to the Apostles; in place of which Moses, the lawgiver of the hard-hearted Jews, bore one, with which he both crushed Pharaoh through the ten plagues and chastised the rebellious Jews; but not so Christ, whose law is the spirit of love and sweetness.

Secondly, מטה (matte) signifies a rod, or a staff with which one strikes and smites others, as teachers flog their pupils with rods, concerning which Ps. lxxxviii: "I will visit their iniquities with a rod." And Exod. xxi. 20: "He who strikes his slave or his maidservant with a rod"; indeed the weapons of country folk and the poor are rods and staves. Hence David went forth against Goliath equipped with no other arms than a staff and a sling, 1 Kings (Samuel) xvii; and Ezekiel, chapter xxxix, treating of the slaughter of Gog, says: "They will burn the arms, shield and spear, bow and arrows, the staves of their hands and the lances." And Isaiah x: "Assyria, the rod of My fury." Therefore by "staff" here understand synecdochically any kind of arms; for these Christ forbids to the Apostles, whom He bids to trust not in arms but in God, and to be witnesses and heralds of divine protection, and to propagate the faith not by fighting but by suffering. For, as St. Jerome says, "He who has the Lord's help, why should he seek a staff?"

Thirdly, משען (mischan) signifies a prop, a rod and staff on which to lean; and this Christ permitted to the Apostles, both because it is the mark of poor travelers and because it serves for the relief of journey and labor.

Moreover John Alba, Book of the Elect, p. 337, takes the staff to mean that upon which a token-match and sign of friendship was carved, so that the staff is the same as the tessera of friendship which travelers would show when they turned aside to unknown friends, that they might be received by it as friends. Hence when they renounced the friendship, they were said to break the tessera of friendship, namely the staff that bore the token of friendship; so that Christ's meaning is, as it were: Do not lean upon human supports, do not carry a token of friendship to be received by it; for God will provide for you both lodging and host. But there is no mention here of a tessera or friendship, only of a staff.

Symbolically: the staff denotes the power of the Apostles, says St. Augustine, book II On the Agreement of the Evangelists, chap. xxx. Note that the Greek ράβδος, that is, "rod," signifies three things: first, the emblem of honor and power, such as the kings' scepter, the consuls' fasces, the rod of praetors and judges, which in Hebrew is called שבט (schebet), whence "scepter," concerning which David, Psalm ii: "You shall rule them with a rod of iron." And Ps. xliv: "The rod of equity, the rod of Your kingdom." And Isaiah chap. xiv: "The Lord has crushed the staff of the wicked, and the rod of rulers." Hence also lictors and messengers were called ραβδοφόροι, that is, rod-bearers, through whom magistrates announced what they wished to be done; for their emblem was the rod which they bore. So also, Lyranus says, the teachers of the Jews carried a rod in their hand as an emblem of doctrine, as now schoolmasters carry a ferrule. This Christ forbids to the Apostles, because He bids them show forth modesty and humility, not authority and imperious power.

For the laborer is worthy of his food. — He gives the reason why He forbade the traveling provision, etc. Because, He says, the Jews to whom you will preach will feed you, for the preacher is worthy of his food; by which He signifies both that the Jews ought to sustain those who preach the Gospel to them, and that preachers can rightfully live from this. "Let preachers," says St. Chrysostom, "receive their sustenance from the people, their reward from God." Yet elsewhere this sustenance is called a reward, by the likeness of laborers, to whom it is given as if a part of their wages, although in preachers it is not properly a wage, because preaching far surpasses and transcends every price and every human reward. St. Paul, 1 Cor. ix, calls it a stipend, by the likeness of soldiers, to whom it is given not as wages (for how small they are in comparison to the dangers they undergo!), but as the sustenance due to them. Labor therefore in the Lord's vineyard, O Apostles, and preach earnestly, and be not anxious about food, that is, about victuals and clothing, because God will abundantly provide for you from it, either through your hosts, or from elsewhere out of the richest treasures of His providence.

Verse 11: Inquire Who in the City Is Worthy, and There Abide

Verse 11. Luke 9:4; Mark 6:10. 11. AND INTO WHATSOEVER CITY OR TOWN YOU SHALL ENTER, INQUIRE WHO IN IT IS WORTHY, AND THERE ABIDE TILL YOU GO FORTH.

"Worthy," namely apt and fitting for the Gospel and for you as guests, that is, one who is God-fearing, religious, of proven life, eager for salvation, hospitable especially toward the poor and the pious, and above all toward preachers; and one who, as St. Jerome says, "knows himself rather to receive grace than to give it," by receiving you as guests — that is, because from you he receives faith, grace, and salvation, and cooperates with your preaching toward the conversion of many, which things are far greater than the lodging which he himself gives to you.

This is the sixth precept which Christ gives to the Apostles as they are about to preach throughout Judea concerning a host: namely, that they should not lodge with anyone either hostile to the faith of Christ (lest they be ill-treated by him) or of ill repute (lest he rub off his infamy on them), but with an upright man, inclined toward piety and hospitality, who would both willingly cooperate with their preaching and secure them a good name among his fellow citizens. "A host," says St. Jerome, "is to be chosen by the reputation of the people and by the judgment of the neighbors, lest the dignity of the preaching be sullied by the infamy of him who receives them."

AND THERE ABIDE TILL YOU GO FORTH. — Why? I answer: The first reason is, lest if the Apostles do not remain but change their lodging, they themselves be seen as fickle and inconstant. So St. Chrysostom, and Victor of Antioch on Mark 6. The second: lest they sadden their first host or bring disgrace upon him, by moving from him to another more distinguished host. So St. Ambrose and Chrysostom. The third: lest anyone say they are gluttons, seeking the more sumptuous tables of the wealthy. So Theodoret. The fourth: lest they wander about and roam through houses, and thus fall into inconveniences and dangers. Hear St. Ambrose, Sermon 32: "It is blameworthy that a man who proclaims the Gospel, and teaches that one must not err, should himself begin to wander through various places, and abandon the house to which he had said 'peace,' and sadden the host on whom he had conferred a blessing." Understand this with the qualification: unless they remained too long in the same place so as to become burdensome to the host, or unless some other just cause for moving arose; for then charity and prudence would advise changing lodging.

Verse 12: Entering the House, Salute It — Peace Be to This House

Verse 12. Luke 10. 12. AND WHEN YOU COME INTO THE HOUSE, SALUTE IT, SAYING: PEACE BE TO THIS HOUSE.

The Syriac has: pray peace upon it. This is the ancient greeting of the Hebrews, by which they invoke peace — that is, all peaceful and prosperous things (for peace brings these with it, whereas war takes them away) — upon the master of the house and his household. The Hebrews understood this as temporal goods, but Christ meant spiritual peace, namely grace, salvation, glory, and eternal happiness. For Christ came into the world to reconcile peace between God, men, and the Angels. Hence at His birth the angels sang: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will." Luke 2.

This is the seventh precept — that they should pray peace upon their host, and by praying it explore whether the host is worthy and fitting. For they will know this if he receives the greeting as graciously as those who greet him, kindly returns the greeting, and invites them to lodging. The Apostles therefore pray peace for the host: first, with God; secondly, with his household, neighbors, and all others. Hence St. Jerome: "Pray peace upon your host, and so far as lies in you, settle the wars of discord." Thirdly they pray peace, that is, all prosperity, all good things, both present and future and eternal. St. Chrysostom adds that the Apostles' greeting was not bare and verbal, but real and effective, and obtained the power of a blessing, so that they would actually confer upon a worthy host peace — that is, faith, grace, and salvation.

Verse 13: If the House Be Worthy, Your Peace Shall Come Upon It

Verse 13. Luke 10:6. 13. AND IF THAT HOUSE BE WORTHY, YOUR PEACE SHALL COME UPON IT; BUT IF IT BE NOT WORTHY, YOUR PEACE SHALL RETURN TO YOU.

"Worthy," that is, if (as I said a little before) the host is worthy, because he loves peace — that is, the Gospel and salvation; or, as Jansenius says, because he has been foreordained and predestined by God to peace — that is, to faith, grace, and the Gospel life; then indeed "your peace shall come upon it," because the host along with his household will accept the faith and grace of Christ which you pray upon him, and which a little afterwards you will more distinctly explain and preach to him.

BUT IF IT BE NOT WORTHY, — because the host rejects and repels your greeting and the invocation of Gospel peace, "your peace shall return to you;" in Greek ἐπιστραφήτω, that is, let it return, meaning it shall return, as our evangelist Matthew explains here, and Luke 10:6. For the Hebrews often use the imperative for the future. Note the prosopopoeia: for peace is here introduced as a person repulsed by the host, going elsewhere and leading away the Apostles, as if to say: If the host rejects your greeting of peace, nevertheless your greeting will not therefore be fruitless, because there shall come upon you that which you had prayed for him — namely peace, that is, all prosperity; and so it shall come about that the peace repulsed by the unworthy host shall as it were return to you, and lead you to another worthy host, who will eagerly receive it from you along with you into his lodging, and will believe your preaching, and become a Christian and a saint, and worthy of heaven and eternal life. A similar phrase is in Psalm 34:12-13, to which Christ here alludes: "They repaid me evil for good, etc. And My prayer shall be turned back into My bosom." As if to say: I David — and typologically I, Christ — prayed for My enemies the Jews and for their salvation, but they were ungrateful and rebellious toward Me; wherefore My prayer did not profit them because of their own malice: therefore it seems to have returned to Me, because it profited Me and My faithful from among the Gentiles who believe in Me. So Eusebius, St. Athanasius, and Hesychius on Psalm 34: "Into the bosom of Christ, that is, into the Church of the Gentiles, the prayer of Christ, turned away from the Jews, fell back." This is what Paul says to the Jews: "The word of God was to be spoken first to you; but because you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles." Acts 13:46, and Isaiah 9:8: "The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it fell upon Israel;" because, as St. Gregory explains, Morals, Book 2, Chapter 30: "Christ, whom the Jewish people spurned when He was coming to them, the Gentile people suddenly found." Though there may also be another, more literal sense of that passage, as I said in that very place.

Therefore the greeting and peace, repulsed by the host, returns to the Apostles — not only as regards merit (as St. Jerome holds), as if to say: the reward and merit of your greeting, benevolence, and charity will return to you, because this merit properly does not return, but remains with the one who greets, whether the one greeted be worthy and grateful or unworthy and ungrateful; but peace also returns properly, just as an envoy, repulsed by him to whom he is sent, returns to the master who sent him, because the greeting repulsed by the unworthy one, returning as it were to the Apostles, is in their power, and as it were places itself in their hand, that they may offer it to the worthy — who receive it with great reverence and thanksgiving, together with the Apostles who give the greeting, into the lodging both of their house and of their mind, and who give themselves wholly over to Christ and the Apostles as though to Christ's envoys and vicars.

Verse 14: Shake Off the Dust from Your Feet

Verse 14. Luke 9:5; Mark 6:11. 14. AND WHOEVER SHALL NOT RECEIVE YOU, NOR HEAR YOUR WORDS: GOING FORTH OUT OF THAT HOUSE OR CITY, SHAKE OFF THE DUST FROM YOUR FEET.

Luke and Mark add: "For a testimony unto them."

SHAKE OFF THE DUST, — either by taking off their sandals and striking them together so that the dust might be shaken out of them (so says the Abulensis, Question 83, who holds that the Apostles did this twice, once in the city and a second time outside the city); or by striking their sandals against the ground, or rubbing them against a stone or some piece of wood, so as to wipe away the dust.

You will ask, why this? I answer: First, St. Jerome: "The dust," he says, "is shaken off as a testimony of the labor undertaken, because they had entered the city and the Apostolic preaching had reached even to them." And Theophylact: "Or because they testify," he says, "that they had made a great journey on their account, and it had profited them nothing." So also St. Chrysostom.

Secondly, "Shake off the dust" as though impious on account of the impious inhabitants, to signify that they are as it were anathema, and that you wish to have nothing in common with them — as being men under a curse and condemned to eternal damnation — not even their dust. So St. Jerome, Theophylact here, St. Ambrose on Luke 9, and St. Augustine in the Questions on the Gospel from Matthew, Question 7.

Thirdly, so that this dust shaken off by us may, on the day of judgment, be a witness of their unbelief and impiety, and accuse them before Christ and convict them as guilty of hell. And this is what Luke means: "For a testimony to them," that is, against them. St. Hilary and Origen, in the 4th homily on Genesis chapter 18. Hilary says: "By the sign of the dust shaken off the feet, the curse of anathema is left behind." Thus Barnabas and Paul shook off the dust from their feet, when repulsed by the Jews at Antioch of Pisidia, Acts 13:51. He alludes to the Prophet who, having been sent by God to Bethel to Jeroboam the idolater, and rejected by him, shook the dust of his feet against him — by the very fact that, at God's command, he returned to his home by another way than the one by which he had come, 3 Kings 13:9.

This is the eighth precept of Christ, commanding the Apostles to shake off the dust against those who resist the preaching, in order to show them the unworthiness of their inhospitality, strike terror into them, and threaten them with the eternal destruction of hell. By this He tacitly commands the Apostles to be stout-hearted, so that they not be dismayed when they see the Jews rejecting the Gospel, but rather rise up against them sharply as divine avengers, and subject them as it were to anathema.

Verse 15: More Tolerable for Sodom in the Day of Judgment

Verse 15. Luke 10:12. 15. AMEN I SAY TO YOU, IT SHALL BE MORE TOLERABLE FOR THE LAND OF SODOM AND GOMORRHA IN THE DAY OF JUDGMENT, THAN FOR THAT CITY.

As if to say: Those who reject the Apostles will be more gravely punished and damned than the Sodomites, who were burned up by heavenly fire in the horrendous conflagration of the whole Pentapolis, a terrifying example for all ages, because they sin more grievously than those Sodomites.

You will ask, how is this true, since sodomy is a most grievous crime against nature and one that cries to heaven? I answer that sodomy is counted among the gravest crimes, but only within the species of lust, or only as contrary to the natural law of continence; for otherwise it is well established that heresy, infidelity, blasphemy, sacrilege, despair, hatred of God, etc. are graver sins than sodomy. Therefore those who reject the Apostles and the faith, grace, and salvation of Christ, sinned far more grievously than the Sodomites, and that not by one sin but by a manifold one, namely: first, of infidelity; secondly, of disobedience; thirdly, of ingratitude; fourthly, of inhospitality; fifthly, of rebellion and contumacy against God, contrary to both the natural and the divine law; and they were inhumanly and barbarously spurning His grace, which had been offered so benevolently and liberally and confirmed by so many miracles and benefits. So St. Hilary, Jerome, Bede, Theophylact, and others.

This also, in its own way, holds true of those who reject the Word of God, or His calling and holy inspirations — against whom God thunders in Proverbs 1:24: "Because I called, and you refused, etc., I also will laugh in your destruction." See what is said there.

From this, St. Jerome proves against Jovinian that the punishments of all the damned are not equal, and consequently neither are their faults; Anastasius of Nicaea also, in the Questions on Sacred Scripture, Question 17, from this shows that some of the impious are punished both in this life and in the life to come, just as the Sodomites were punished in this life and will be punished again on the day of judgment, being condemned to hell.

Furthermore, Christ fittingly compares those who reject the Apostles to the Sodomites. First, because just as these Sodomites were inhuman and barbarous and inhospitable (whence they wished to violate and defile the Angels who lodged with Lot, Genesis 19), so those who reject the Apostles show themselves inhuman and barbarous toward the Apostles, their guests. Secondly, just as those Sodomites were admonished by Lot but spurned him, so these are admonished by the Apostles, whom Christ sent as envoys for their salvation, to invite them most kindly to the faith and grace of Christ: wherefore they despise them far more inhumanly than the Sodomites despised Lot. Thirdly, just as the Sodomites were punished by fire and sulphur from heaven, so these will be punished by fire and sulphur in hell — but far more grievously; because if the Sodomites had heard the preaching of Christ and the Apostles, and had seen their signs and miracles, they would have believed and done penance, as Christ says at 11:23.

Verse 16: Behold, I Send You as Sheep in the Midst of Wolves — Be Prudent as Serpents and Simple as Doves

Verse 16. Luke 10:3. 16. BEHOLD I SEND YOU AS SHEEP (Luke 10:3 has: as lambs) IN THE MIDST OF WOLVES.

St. Jerome takes "wolves" to mean the Scribes and Pharisees; others take them to mean any enemies and persecutors whatever. No animal is so unarmed and weak as a sheep. Thus Christ sends the Apostles without weapons, indeed without staff and provisions, so as to show His own power and strength in them. He does not send them as lions, says Chrysostom, but as sheep, so that they by their own wondrous force and effectiveness may overcome the wolves and convert them into sheep. Hear Chrysostom: "Let those be ashamed who, like wolves, pursue their adversaries, when they see that countless wolves are overcome by a very few sheep. And indeed, so long as we are sheep, we easily overcome our enemies; but when we pass into the nature of wolves, then we are overcome; for then there is no protection for us from the Shepherd, who feeds not wolves but sheep."

St. Chrysostom notes, and following him Theophylact and Euthymius, that Christ here foretells future evils and persecutions to the Apostles for four reasons. The first is, that they may learn His foreknowledge; the second, lest these things be thought to befall them because of the weakness of the Master; the third, lest they be overwhelmed unawares; the fourth, lest they be disturbed in the time of the Cross, but by this mission and promise of Christ strengthen themselves to bear and overcome all things nobly.

Christ therefore here encourages His own, as if to say: Come, O My Apostles, I send you forth to the Jews, the Scribes, and the unbelievers, who will vex and persecute you; but consider, for "behold, I send you:" I, I say, who once sent Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and the other Prophets to Ahab, Jezebel, Manasseh, and the other impious kings, and emboldened, strengthened, protected, and when need arose delivered them, and at last permitted them to be slain by those kings, so that by their own blood they might seal My faith and religion, and obtain the laurel of martyrdom. The same I Myself now send you forth, and I will do the same things — nay, greater things — with you. I will be with you everywhere, I will assist you everywhere, so that both in life through a sheep-like innocence, and in death through a sheep-like meekness and patience, you may overcome all men and all things. Thus Absalom, when commanding his men to kill his brother Amnon, said: "Fear not; for it is I who command you: be strengthened and be valiant men." 2 Samuel 13:28.

Therefore, by this saying "Behold, I send you," is signified the divine authority, power, assistance, protection, and efficacy of Christ, which guards the Apostles — as innocent and unarmed sheep, exposed to the prey and slaughter of wolves (that is, of their enemies) — so that they may either convert them by preaching or conquer them by dying nobly. See St. Chrysostom, Homily on Pentecost, Vol. III. He commands the Apostles to be sheep and lambs: first, through innocence; secondly, through humility and meekness; thirdly, through patience, so that to all injuries, and to death itself for Christ, they may expose their body and all their members. Therefore whoever wishes to be a true servant, disciple, and Apostle of Christ, let him consider that he is being sent as a sheep among wolves, and therefore let him be prodigal of his life, let him esteem himself as lost, let him be prepared and resolved for labors and crosses, and to undergo death for Christ willingly.

The Duke of Alba, captain-general of the army of Charles V, had four hundred spirited and resolute young men, whom he called the prodigals of life and lost ones — in the common tongue, enfants perdus ("lost children"). These he would send into the thick of battle separately into the stronger flank of the enemy: they, being most audacious and most ready to fight, and certain they would die, would throw the enemy ranks into confusion, and by breaking them would regularly secure the victory. Such a lost man and prodigal of his own life let Christ's herald and Apostle esteem himself, so that as a victor he may subject the unbelievers and the impious to Christ. Such was the esteem Blessed Francis Xavier had of himself, going to the Indies, saying to his weeping friends: "Merchants sail to the Indies with such great expense and danger, prodigal of life for the sake of temporal merchandise; shall I not go for the same cause of God and of souls?" Nay rather, I would willingly lavish a thousand lives. No doubt he had meditated upon that saying: "My soul is always in my hands," so that I may offer it to whoever wishes to take it away.

Tropologically: St. Gregory, and following him St. Thomas in the Catena: "He who undertakes the place of a preacher ought not to inflict evils, but to bear them, so that by his own meekness he may mitigate the wrath of those who swell with anger, and that he, himself wounded in other afflictions, may heal the wounds of sinners. For even if at any time the zeal for rectitude demands that he rage against his subjects, let the very anger spring from love, not from cruelty; that he may both outwardly exhibit the laws of discipline, and inwardly cherish with fatherly piety those whom he chastises outwardly. But many, when they receive the rights of governance, become inflamed to lacerate their subjects, exhibit the terror of power, desire to appear as lords, scarcely recognize themselves as fathers, change the place of humility into the elation of domination, and if at any time they outwardly flatter, inwardly they rage; of whom it is said: 'They come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.' Against these things we must consider that just as sheep we are sent among wolves: therefore, keeping the sense of innocence, let us not have the bite of malice."

BE YOU THEREFORE WISE AS SERPENTS AND SIMPLE AS DOVES.

First, "that by prudence," says St. Jerome, "they may avoid snares, and by simplicity may do no evil." And the craftiness of the serpent is set forth as an example, because with its whole body it conceals its head, so as to protect that head in which life resides. In the same way, let us with the whole peril of the body guard our Head, who is Christ — that is, let us be eager to preserve the faith whole and uncorrupted.

Secondly, Rabanus: "The serpent," he says, "is also wont to choose narrow crevices, through which, passing, it sloughs off its old skin: in like manner, the preacher passing through the narrow way should utterly put off the old man." Hear Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 26: "The serpent," he says, "with skill and cunning puts off its old age, pressing itself into a certain narrow and tight crevice, and laying aside its senility. Therefore He wishes us also, through the narrow way and through affliction, to put off the old man, and to put on in place of it the new man, who is renewed according to His image."

Thirdly, Remigius: "The Lord beautifully admonishes the preachers to have the prudence of the serpent, because the first man was deceived by the serpent, as if to say: Because the enemy was cunning in deceiving, you be prudent in delivering; he praised the tree, do you praise the power of the Cross." Hilary adds: "He promised a false immortality and divinity, saying: 'You shall be as gods'; do you promise the true immortality and divinity, and promise that those who believe shall be like the Angels."

Fourthly, serpents, when they grow old, gliding through a narrow hole, shed their old skin so as to put on a new one, as Aristotle testifies, Book 8 of the History of Animals, chapter 17. So you, O Apostles, put off the old age of the mind by renewal of spirit and meditation on eternity. For the way to heaven is narrow, and must always be renewed by virtue, says St. Augustine, Book 2 of On Christian Doctrine, chapter 16.

Fifthly: "The prudence of the serpent," says Bede, "is that it sets one ear against a rock, and closes the other with its tail, so as not to hear the charmers." And St. Augustine, on Psalm 57:3, commenting on the words "Like the deaf asp that stops her ears:" "The serpent," he says, "presses one ear against the earth, and stops the other with its tail;" so let the disciple and Apostle of Christ close his ears against the suggestions of the devil and of wicked men with his tail and with the earth — that is, with meditation on the end, on the gate of death, and on the sepulcher, and let him say to himself: "Remember, man, that dust you are, and unto dust you shall return."

Sixthly, the serpent sees most keenly, whence the adage: "The eye of a serpent." Thus let the Apostle look upon all things with the keen intuition of the mind, so that he may avert evils and summon goods. Again, the serpent is most crafty: whence what it does, it does not by strength, but by its own craftiness and prudence: wherefore it pours out its venom only most cautiously and above all at the time opportune for harming. So also let the Apostle prudently watch for the occasions of preaching, and see what is suitable to each place, time, and person, and what is most effective for persuading. So Basil, in the Shorter Rules, question 245.

AND SIMPLE AS DOVES.

Because, as Remigius says, "simplicity without prudence can easily be deceived, and prudence is dangerous unless it is tempered by simplicity." And, as St. Gregory says, Book 4, Letter 31 to Maurice: "So that the craftiness of the serpent might sharpen the simplicity of the dove, and the simplicity of the dove might temper the craftiness of the serpent."

For "simple," the Greek is ἀκέραιοι; which, if you derive it from κέρας (i.e., "horn") and the privative α, means the same as "without horns, without harm, without vengeance, innocent, harmless," as St. Basil says in the place cited; but if from κεράννυμι, i.e., "I mix," and the privative a, it means "without mixture, unmixed, candid, sincere" — those who utter without disguise with the mouth what they feel in their heart. First then He commands, "that by prudence they may avoid snares, and by simplicity may do no evil," says St. Jerome. For the dove is without gall and harms no one.

Secondly, St. Chrysostom: "Anger," he says, "is not extinguished by anger, but by meekness: it is not enough to suffer evils, but neither is it permitted to be disturbed — which is the dove's way."

Thirdly, Theophylact and Euthymius note that doves, although they be bereaved of their young, nevertheless return to the same nests and masters. As if to say Christ meant: So also you, O Apostles, do not be mindful of injuries done to you, but gentle and loving return to help and convert those by whom you have been hurt and harassed. This is the ninth precept of Christ; the tenth follows.

Verse 17: Beware of Men — They Will Deliver You Up in Councils

Verse 17. Luke 21:12; Mark 13:9. 17. BUT BEWARE OF MEN; FOR THEY WILL DELIVER YOU UP IN COUNCILS.

In Greek, εἰς συνέδρια, that is, into councils — into the assemblies of magistrates and judges, that by them you may be judged and condemned as blasphemers, as it were, against God, or rather against their gods. The Syriac has: they will deliver you up to the house of judgments, that is, into the praetoria. "Beware of men:" first, of the feigning and treacherous, who will carry you off to the councils and hand you over to the judges for punishment — just as the priests in England, Scotland, and Japan now most carefully avoid them for this very reason; secondly, "of men," namely of plotters, who will lay snares for you by perplexing and politically-motivated interrogations, so as to draw from your mouth something said against the laws or the kings, that they may accuse you before them; thirdly, "of men," namely of persecutors, who will seek your life. "Beware" therefore, that is, conduct yourselves cautiously, so far as can be done consistently with your duty, that you may avoid their betrayals, ambushes, and persecutions; but most especially beware of falling away, lest you yield to their persuasions and threats so as to deny Christ and consent to their perfidy; rather, for Christ's sake steadfastly expose yourselves to scourges and meet death.

Morally: learn from this that every man must be on his guard against men — nay, against himself inasmuch as he is a man, because man is a wolf to man.

Therefore let no one say: I am unhappy and born in an unlucky time; for I cannot become a martyr, since the persecution of men has ceased, there is now no Nero, no Decius. For anyone can become a martyr, if he bravely resists his own desires, fears, and temptations out of love for God. Your desire is your Decius; your fear is your Nero; your temptation is your Julian. A companion persecutes you, mocks you, heaps reproaches upon you, slanders you; fever, catarrh, asthma torment you. If you patiently bear these things out of love for God, you are a martyr of patience, as Job was. Does gluttony urge you to gorge yourself with wine and delicacies? Resist, and you are a martyr of abstinence, as Daniel was. Does ambition solicit you to exalt yourself above others and seek the foremost dignities? Pluck it out of your mind, and you are a martyr of humility and modesty, as Saint Francis was. Does a superior command harsh things repugnant to your senses? Obey, conquer yourself, and you are a martyr of obedience, as Abraham was in offering his Isaac, Genesis XXII. Does lust tickle you? Mortify it with fastings and torture it with hair-shirts, and you will be a martyr of chastity, as Joseph was. Study, teach, preach, labor, go forth to the Indies to save so many perishing souls, and you are a martyr of charity, as Blessed Xavier was.

The Savior of the world: to each evil, says Saint Chrysostom, He adds a mitigation, for it is no small consolation to suffer for Christ's sake. Wherefore the Apostles, having been scourged, "went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus." Acts 5:41.

"For a testimony," — both of My true faith, which you preach; for of this your martyrdom will be a notable testimony: hence many, seeing the steadfastness of the Apostles and martyrs in torments, were converted to Christ: so Saint Hilary; and of the perfidy, obstinacy, and condemnation of the persecutors. "To them," namely the Jews and Gentiles, who will likewise persecute you, and before whose governors you will be dragged. He notes that the Apostles were to suffer much, not only from the Jews in Judaea, but also from the Gentiles, when they would go out to them after His death. Moreover, "to them" and to the Gentiles properly means, as if He said, against them — namely the Jews — and against the Gentiles; as if to say: Your being brought before tribunals and your free confession of My faith, and therefore your condemnation and punishment, will be a public testimony to the whole world, showing that the Jews and Gentiles are justly cut off and damned, both in this life and on the day of judgment, because they did not believe your preaching, and because they persecuted and killed you, the true heralds of God. Hence Euthymius: "For a testimony," he says, that is, for the refutation of the Jews and Gentiles, lest they afterwards be able to say that they had not heard your preaching. And Theophylact: "For a testimony," he says, that is, for a mark and rebuke of those who do not believe.

Verse 18: In Their Synagogues They Will Scourge You — Led Before Governors and Kings

Verse 18. AND IN THEIR SYNAGOGUES (where the law was read and violators of the law were punished) THEY WILL SCOURGE YOU. — Thus in them Peter and the Apostles were scourged, Acts 5:40, and Paul, 2 Cor. 11:24: "From the Jews," he says, "five times I received forty stripes save one; thrice I was beaten with rods," etc.

AND YOU WILL BE LED BEFORE GOVERNORS (of provinces) AND KINGS FOR MY SAKE, FOR A TESTIMONY TO THEM AND TO THE GENTILES. — The Syriac: for a testimony both to themselves and to the Gentiles. Thus Paul was led captive to Felix and Festus, governors of Judaea, Acts 23:24ff.; James the Less to Ananus the High Priest, by whom he was ordered to be killed; Peter and James the Greater to king Agrippa, who beheaded James, Acts 12:23. The same suffered persecution everywhere from the Jews scattered throughout Greece and the whole world, and was dragged before the governors of the provinces, as is clear from Acts 13:45ff. Peter and Paul were led to Nero, by whom at last slain, they underwent a glorious martyrdom. Thus Saint Andrew was led to Aegeus, proconsul of Achaia, and by him crucified. Saint John was brought before Emperor Domitian, by whom, having been placed in a cauldron of boiling oil, he came out more splendid. Saint Matthew was led to Hirtacus, king of Ethiopia; Saint Thomas to the Brahmans; Saint Bartholomew to the brother of Polemon, king of India, by whom he was flayed alive. Hence it is clear that these things pertain not so much to the first mission of the Apostles into Judaea (for then they are not recorded to have suffered any such thing), as to the others undertaken throughout the course of their subsequent life. Therefore to these Christ here extends and enlarges His discourse.

FOR MY SAKE; — because you preach My faith and religion, that is, that I am the Messiah, the Son of God,

Verse 19: Be Not Anxious How or What to Speak

19. BUT WHEN THEY DELIVER YOU UP, TAKE NO THOUGHT HOW OR WHAT YOU SHALL SPEAK; FOR IT SHALL BE GIVEN YOU IN THAT HOUR WHAT YOU SHALL SPEAK. — This is the eleventh precept of Christ, in which He commands the Apostles not to be anxious about their reply to the questions of the governors, because He promises He Himself will suggest it to them. "Take no thought" — understand: anxiously, fretfully, unseasonably, as though trusting in yourselves and your own prudence alone, and distrusting Christ and God (whose cause, honor, and will are here at stake). Hence the Greek is μὴ μεριμνήσητε, that is, "be not anxious and worried," as our Interpreter renders it in Luke 12:11. Therefore He does not forbid prudent forethought about the answer, but anxious and excessive worry. In a similar sense He forbade worry about tomorrow's food, 6:25, that the faithful may learn to depend on God's providence and humbly invoke it daily.

Wherefore a martyr, in questionings and torments, must constantly invoke God, that He may supply both wisdom to answer and courage to endure. This is what Luke 21 says Christ said and promised: "I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist or gainsay." Thus of Saint Stephen Luke says in Acts 6: "They were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke." So Saint Francis, setting out for Syria in hope of martyrdom to the Sultan of Babylon, "with such constancy of mind," says Saint Bonaventure in his Life, chapter 9, with such virtue of soul and such fervor of spirit did he preach Jesus Christ to him, that that Gospel word was truly shown in him to be fulfilled: "I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist or gainsay." For even the Sultan (previously most hostile to Christ) listened to him willingly, admiring in the man of God the fervor of his spirit, and seeing his virtue, and the more urgently invited him to stay longer.

A brilliant literal example stands in the Life of Saint Lucy of Syracuse, who, being ordered by the prefect Paschasius to sacrifice to the gods, when she boldly refused, the prefect threateningly said: "Words shall cease when it comes to blows." To whom the virgin replied: "The servants of God cannot lack words, to whom it was said by Christ the Lord: When you stand before kings and governors, take no thought how or what you shall speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what you shall speak: for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit who speaks in you." When Paschasius had questioned her: "Is the Holy Spirit in you?" She answered: "Those who live chastely and piously are a temple of the Holy Spirit." But he said: "I will order you to be taken to a brothel, so that the Holy Spirit may depart from you." To whom the virgin said: "If you order me to be violated against my will, my chastity will be doubled for a crown." Wherefore Paschasius, inflamed with anger, ordered Lucy to be dragged where her virginity would be violated; but by divine power it was brought about that the steadfast virgin stood so firmly, that by no force could she be moved from her place. See here the admirable prudence of the virgin, with which she so wisely and courageously answered each question, that the prefect was struck dumb: for indeed the Holy Spirit was speaking in her.

Tropologically: Saint Augustine, Book IV On Christian Doctrine, chapter 15, teaches that a preacher ought to pray and study before his sermon: "But at the hour of the discourse itself," he says, "let him rather think it fitting for a good mind what the Lord says: Take no thought how or what you shall speak: for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father, who speaks in you."

Verse 20: Not You Who Speak, but the Spirit of Your Father

20. FOR IT IS NOT YOU WHO SPEAK, BUT THE SPIRIT OF YOUR FATHER, WHO SPEAKS IN YOU. — As if He said: You will speak to the governors, not from yourselves and your own prudence and spirit, but from the Holy Spirit, who will suggest wisdom and courage to you, so that you may answer the governors wisely and boldly. Therefore in you it is not so much you yourselves who speak, as the Holy Spirit. Just as in Balaam's ass the Angel spoke, Numbers 22:28, so in Peter and the Apostles the Holy Spirit spoke before the High Priests. Acts 4:13.

Verse 21: Brother Shall Deliver Brother to Death

21. AND THE BROTHER SHALL DELIVER UP THE BROTHER TO DEATH, AND THE FATHER THE SON; AND THE CHILDREN SHALL RISE UP AGAINST THE PARENTS AND SHALL PUT THEM TO DEATH, — because they believe in Me, or preach Me. Christ fortifies the Apostles and the faithful in advance by the prediction of future persecutions, which they will suffer even from unbelieving kinsmen, brothers, and parents, who, forgetful of natural kinship and piety, will persecute the faith and the faithful unto death, so that in these things they may stand firm, and bravely bear torments, prisons, and death itself inflicted by them, rather than deny Christ and the faith. Hence Bede: "He foretold the coming disturbance," he says, "so that, as it were, being known beforehand, they might bear it more lightly." For foreseen darts strike less, and, as Saint Hilary says: "The knowledge of impending things contributes much to the acceptance of endurance." Thus Saint Barbara was killed by her own father for the faith of Christ. So too Saint Christina, and Saint Lucy the Martyr was accused of the Christian faith by her own son Euprepius, and crowned with martyrdom by the judge on September 16, in the year of the Lord 303. Saint Paul, the first hermit, that he might not be betrayed by his brother, that is, by the husband of his sister, fled to the desert, as Jerome attests. Saint Wenceslaus, prince of Bohemia, was treacherously slain by his brother Boleslaus and his mother Drahomira, both unbelievers. Finally, the Emperor Domitian killed Flavius Clemens, a Roman Consul, his cousin, and Flavia Domitilla, his kinswoman, for the Christian faith. The Emperor Maximian killed Artemia, his Christian sister; Diocletian, his wife Serena, Saint Caius the Pope and his brother Saint Gabinius with his holy daughter Susanna, his kinsmen, because they were Christians, with martyrdom.

These things happened not so much in the first as in the second mission of the Apostles through Judaea and the whole world, after the death of Christ. Wherefore Jansenius thinks there is here a hysterologia (inversion of order); for he holds that these things were said by Christ not then, but shortly before His death, as Luke 21:16 has it. But others better judge that Matthew, who is strict about order, set these down in their own place and order in which they were said by Christ; but that Christ rehearsed and impressed them upon the Apostles again shortly before His death, when they were soon to happen, to encourage them to constancy in the imminent adversities. For Matthew repeats and reiterates some of these things below, 24:10 and 13, as said by Christ when about to go to His death.

Verse 22: You Shall Be Hated by All for My Name — He Who Perseveres to the End Shall Be Saved

22. AND YOU SHALL BE HATED BY ALL MEN FOR MY NAME'S SAKE: BUT HE WHO PERSEVERES UNTO THE END, HE SHALL BE SAVED. — "All," that is, many, commonly all, as happened in councils, tribunals, and theaters of the martyrs: for the faith and preaching of Christ crucified was at first new and paradoxical to the whole world. Hence the Jews, accustomed and attached to their Moses, and the Gentiles to their gods, commonly rose up against the Apostles who preached it, and against the few faithful converted to it. Thus often τὸ "all" in Scripture signifies many. For we commonly speak thus: when we see very many doing something, we say "all" do it, that is, most do.

BUT HE WHO PERSEVERES — in patience. For the Greek is ὁ ὑπομείνας, that is, he who shall have endured, namely these persecutions and adversities, "unto the end," both of the persecutions and of life: "he" alone and entirely "shall be saved" with salvation, happiness, and eternal glory, as though he will be rewarded and crowned for his patience. It is not enough to have endured and conquered once, twice, three times; but for the crown it is necessary to endure and conquer unto the end, according to that of Apocalypse 2: "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." See what is said there: "That you may endure to the end, look constantly to the end." For the crown of patience is perseverance. Hear Saint Bernard, Epistle 129: "Perseverance earns glory for men, a crown for virtues. It is the vigor of strength, the consummation of virtues, the nurse for merit, the mediator for reward, the sister of patience, the bulwark of sanctity. Take away perseverance, and obedience has no reward, nor benefit grace, nor fortitude praise."

Verse 23: When They Persecute You in One City, Flee into Another

Verse 23. 23. BUT WHEN THEY SHALL PERSECUTE YOU IN THIS CITY, FLEE INTO ANOTHER. — "Not by fearing the passion," says Bede, "but by avoiding it, so that the occasion of tribulation might become a seedbed of the Gospel," namely, so that the preaching of the faith might not be cut off by the killing of the preachers, but might be spread elsewhere by them as they fled, and so that fleeing they might serve the Gospel and other places, indeed even the same place from which they fled, either in absence or on return. Therefore this flight was a victory; for they fled not out of fear, but out of love of Christ, that they might propagate His faith. Thus the Tartars, while fleeing, shoot arrows at the pursuing enemies, and pierce them and kill them.

You will ask: is this a precept, or merely a permission? I answer: Partly it is a precept, namely when the necessity of the Church and of the faith requires flight, or when there is danger of one's own fall: for "he does not deny Christ by fleeing, who flees precisely in order not to deny," says Saint Chrysostom. So Saint Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 1 Against Julian, and Saint Athanasius, Book On His Own Flight. For if he himself had not fled the rage of the Arians, they would have triumphed in the East over the faith of the Homoousios (which seemed to stand in Athanasius alone). Partly it is counsel, namely when from flight greater benefit and perfection for oneself or others is hoped for. Partly it is permission, as when someone greatly fears and shudders at torments, and is not bound by some necessity or obligation (e.g., because he is a bishop or pastor) to remain in the place where persecution rages. On this see Saint Augustine, Epistle 180 to Honoratus, and Saint Thomas, II-II part, Question 185, article 5, and Abulensis here, Question 110. Otherwise to flee is unlawful, namely if thereby danger of salvation or scandal is created for faith, justice, the sacraments, and the sheep — that is, the faithful — as is clear from John 10:11 and 12. And these things which I have said are not of positive law, but of natural and divine law. Therefore this is the twelfth precept of Christ, given to the Apostles about to go to preach.

Hence by the example of Christ, the Apostles, Saint Athanasius, and others who fled in persecution, Tertullian is refuted, who in his book On Flight contends that flight is unlawful. Whence Saint Jerome, in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers, on Tertullian, teaches that this book of his is one of those which were written by him when already a heretic and Montanist against the Church. Moreover, Tertullian, to Christians who objected that Christ here commands flight, used to reply that this precept of Christ was temporary, given to the Apostles in the first mission through Judaea, because verse 5 preceded: "Go not into the way of the Gentiles;" and there follows: "You shall not finish the cities of Israel," etc. The same were wont to say Saint Jerome, Chrysostom, and Euthymius; but others commonly teach that this precept of Christ is perpetual, as are the others here. And this is clear, because it is of natural law, as I said. For although in verse 5 Christ sends the Apostles only into Judaea, nevertheless on the same occasion He gives them precepts for all of life. Wherefore, in Matthew 28 and Acts 1, we do not read that Christ, after His resurrection when already going up into heaven, gave them other precepts, especially since in every age the reason for the Apostles to keep these precepts was the same. So Origen, Homily 9 on the Book of Judges; Saint Athanasius, in his letter to the Orthodox; Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 1 against Julian; Jansenius, Maldonatus, and others.

AMEN I SAY TO YOU, YOU SHALL NOT FINISH THE CITIES OF ISRAEL UNTIL THE SON OF MAN COMES. — The Greek is οὐ μὴ τελέσητε, that is, "you shall not complete, you shall not finish," namely by traversing and converting the cities of Israel, that is, of the Jews. First, Saint Chrysostom, and from him Theophylact and Euthymius, explain this of the first mission of the Apostles into Judaea, as if to say: Flee from the city that persecutes you into another and another, because you will not outrun Me by going around Palestine, but before you have gone around it, I will return to you, and take you back to Myself. But in the first mission the Apostles were kindly received by the Jews; whence they did not need to flee, but returned rejoicing to Christ, as is clear from Luke 10:17.

Secondly, Bede expounds, as if to say: You will not convert the Israelites before My resurrection, after which I will return to you, and will send you to the Gentiles scattered throughout the whole world, where there will be a perpetual field for going around and preaching, and a constant field for labor. So too the Interlinear Gloss, Saint Thomas, Lyranus, Abulensis, Dionysius, and Cajetan.

Thirdly, others say: as if He said, You will not traverse Judaea by fleeing and preaching, until I return to it as your avenger and defender, to cut down and destroy through Titus and Vespasian the Jews who persecuted you.

Fourthly and genuinely, "you shall not finish," that is, "you shall not traverse," or rather, by traversing you will not perfect in the faith of the Gospel and Christian religion the cities of Israel, that is, the Israelite people, to whom I am now sending you, as I said in verse 5, before the second coming of the Son of Man, namely Christ unto judgment. For, as Paul teaches in Romans 11, it is necessary that first the fullness of the Gentiles, that is, all the Gentiles, enter the Church of Christ, and then all Israel shall be saved. As if He said: When they persecute you, flee from one city to another, because there will always be a place of flight for you, where you can usefully apply your labor among the Jews, and much more among the Gentiles; for there will not be lacking Jews or Gentiles to be converted and instructed in the faith even to the end of the world and the day of judgment. Hence Rupert takes "Israel" spiritually and mystically, that is, any of the faithful, who in all future ages among all Gentiles will always remain to be converted. Christ intimates that the Jews will be unbelievers of the Gospel until the end of the world, but then shortly before the judgment will be converted by Elijah and Enoch. So Saint Hilary.

Thus far the precepts of Christ given to the Apostles; there now follow the promises and incentives by which He encourages them bravely to overcome persecutions. The first incentive is, verse 24, the example of Christ, because He endured greater things from the Jews. The second is, verse 26, that God, after the persecutions, will make known the truth of the Gospel to the glory of Christ and the Apostles. The third, verse 28, that God, the Lord of the soul, is more to be feared than the persecutor of the body. The fourth, verse 29, that God will take singular care of them. The fifth, verse 32, that God will honor and glorify them in the presence of the angels forever.

Verse 24: The Disciple Is Not Above the Master

24. THE DISCIPLE IS NOT ABOVE THE MASTER, NOR THE SERVANT ABOVE HIS LORD. — Christ here encourages His disciples to the endurance of flight and of persecutions by Himself, says Chrysostom, that is, by His own example. As if to say: A disciple and servant, such as you are to Me, O Apostles, ought not to seek greater honor and popular applause than his master and lord has had, such as I am. If therefore I have suffered such slanders and persecutions from the Jews, and will suffer greater, so that at last I will be crucified by them, prepare yourselves likewise to suffer similar things from them and from the Gentiles. That this is the meaning is clear from the following verse. "It contributes much," says Saint Hilary, "to the undertaking of endurance, the knowledge of impending things, especially if the will for patience be assumed by example." Saint Jerome adds: "that they may count it in place of glory, if they are made equal to the Lord in sufferings."

Verse 25: If They Have Called the Master Beelzebub, How Much More His Household

25. IT IS ENOUGH FOR THE DISCIPLE THAT HE BE AS HIS MASTER, AND THE SERVANT AS HIS LORD. IF THEY HAVE CALLED THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE BEELZEBUB, HOW MUCH MORE THOSE OF HIS HOUSEHOLD! — As if to say: If Me, who am Christ the Master and Lord, indeed your father of the household (for there was a family consisting of twelve Apostles, of which Christ was head, ruler, and father), the Jews have mocked, slandered, and called Beelzebub, that is, the friend and companion of Beelzebub, saying: "By Beelzebub, the prince of devils, He casts out devils," Matthew 12:24; indeed, as their anger and hatred grew, they called Christ Himself Beelzebub, as is said here; if, I say, they have dared this against Me, who by so many miracles have proved to them that I am the Messiah and Son of God, how much more will they dare the same against you, My household, disciples, and servants! And if I have borne these things from them modestly and bravely, how much more ought you to bear the same in a similar way, nay rather to rejoice in them that you bear such things for Me, and that in this endurance you are made like unto Me and adorned as with My very garments and insignia!

Hear Saint Hilary here, Canon X: "Let no kind of injuries and insults terrify us, but rather let us embrace them in place of glory, if we are made equal to our Lord even by the conditions of His sufferings." And Tertullian, Book On the Good of Martyrdom, chapter 9: "Since the master," he says, "and the Lord Himself underwent persecution, and betrayal, and being killed, much more must servants and disciples expect the same, lest they seem, as if superior, exempted from iniquity, when this itself ought to suffice for their glory: to be made equal to the sufferings of their Lord and Master." For, as Saint Chrysostom says, Homily 11 on the Epistle to the Romans: "It is a great crown to have communion with the Lord." Hence Saint Ambrose, Book II On Abraham, chapter 7: "The exercised mind," he says, "does not bear before it the images of eagles or dragons; but in the cross of Christ and in the name of Jesus it advances to battle — with this sign brave, with this standard faithful."

Morally: let the faithful learn here that, when they give themselves to piety, they will be mocked and derided together with Christ and the Apostles, but let them bravely bear and despise all reproaches, and say with Paul: "It is a very small thing to me to be judged by you, or by man's day." Hence Saint Jerome, Epistle 39 to Marcella, speaking of Blesilla, daughter of Saint Paula, who, after her husband's death, had professed the life of a nun and was laughed at by worldly men: "Our Blesilla," he says, "will laugh, nor will she disdain to hear the rebukes of croaking frogs, since her Lord was called Beelzebub." Weightily Epictetus, in his Enchiridion, chapter 26: "If you desire," he says, "to undertake the study of wisdom, prepare yourself at once as though it were going to happen that you will be mocked, that many will deride you. But if you wish to make any progress, do not refuse to be thought mad and foolish on account of external things." Similarly Lactantius, in the Epitome of Divine Institutes, chapter 1: "Let us hold," he says, "innocence, let us hold justice, let us take on the appearance of foolishness, that we may hold true wisdom." Indeed Isaiah also in his own name, and in the name of the other Prophets and Apostles, says in chapter 8: "Behold I and the children whom the Lord has given me for a sign." And Saint Paul: "We are made," he says, "a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men." 1 Corinthians 4. See what is said in both places.

You will ask: who and what sort was Beelzebub? I answer: he was the god and idol of the Accaronites, as is clear from 2 Kings 1, 2, 3, 6, so called as though בעל זבוב baal zebub, that is, "lord of the fly," or "possessing the fly," because he was worshiped and invoked against the pest of flies. For so among the Greeks an epithet of Jupiter was ἀπόμυιος, as if "fly-averter," because they worshiped him for driving away flies. So the Cyrenaeans, when a multitude of flies brought pestilence, used to invoke Achor the god of flies to drive them away, as Pliny attests, Book 8, chapter 28. So finally the Arcadians and Eleans worshiped Myagrus or Myodes (by which name Josephus, Book 9 Antiquities, chapter 2, translates and calls Beelzebub), they worshiped, as it were, as a hunter and slayer of flies, as Pliny attests, Book 10, chapter 28, and Pausanias in the Arcadics. See Giraldus, On the Gods of the Gentiles. Hence also the idol of Beelzebub seems to have had the head of a fly. For the Septuagint renders Beelzebub as "god the fly." For in a similar manner the Egyptians painted and worshiped Apis, a god with the head and form of an ox; Anubis of a dog; Ammon of a ram or he-goat; Aesculapius of a serpent; and other gods and idols in the form of a lion, horse, eagle, and birds. Hence therefore the Jews, partly for mockery, partly out of abomination, called Lucifer, the prince of devils, Beelzebub, that is, "the fly-god" or "fly-catcher," and they said that Christ was such by the greatest insult and sacrilege. I will say more about Beelzebub at 2 Kings 1:2.

Moreover, the Greek codices both here and in Mark 3:22 and Luke 11:15,18,19, as well as Theophylact, Euthymius, Vatablus, consistently have Beelzebul instead of Beelzebub, which some interpret as "Baal" or "Jupiter of dung" (for zebul in Hebrew means "dwelling"; but in Chaldaic, Syriac, and Arabic, zebel signifies dung, because the devil through sin is most unclean, and therefore incites men to all kinds of uncleanness, especially drunkenness and lust, and dwells for the most part in tombs, gibbets, and filthy places together with his witches); and this by way of contempt, for flies settle on corpses and dung: and hence perhaps the name zebul, which Saint Hilary and other ancients give to the devil; unless you prefer to say that in Aeolic ζα is put for δια, so that zabulus is said for diabolus. But it must be read Beelzebub, not Beelzebul; for thus the Hebrew, Chaldaic, Syriac, and Arabic codices read it, as do Saint Jerome and others everywhere. And it is clear the Septuagint so read, from 2 Kings 1, where they render Beelzebub as Baal (that is, Jupiter or god) the fly; for zebub means fly, not zebul.

Verse 26: Fear Them Not — Nothing Is Covered That Shall Not Be Revealed

26. THEREFORE FEAR THEM NOT: FOR NOTHING IS COVERED THAT SHALL NOT BE REVEALED, OR HIDDEN THAT SHALL NOT BE KNOWN. — In Greek there is a beautiful paronomasia: "For nothing is covered which shall not be uncovered; nothing concealed which shall not be disclosed."

The sense is first, as if He said: Although the Jews slander you as if you were Apostles and messengers not of God but of Beelzebub, that is, of Lucifer, nevertheless do not fear their reproaches, mockeries, and jeers, because at last God will reveal your innocence, faith, and true religion, not only on the day of judgment, but even in this life, and will bring it about that those who before persecuted you as diabolical, once the truth is known, will honor, worship, believe, and obey you as divine and as God's messengers. So Saint Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius. For indeed virtue suffers the smoke of envy and infamy, but wrestling free, it breaks out into the flame of brightness and glory, and praise long suppressed shines forth with greater light.

It could secondly be expounded thus, as if He said: Do not fear nor shrink, O Apostles, from preaching My Gospel, because although at the beginning few may believe, so that it may seem to be covered and hidden, yet little by little it will creep forth, and at last its truth will become known to the whole world, will shine bright and gleam.

Hear Saint Ambrose, Book I On Jacob and the Blessed Life, chapter 8: "It is characteristic of a perfect man," he says, "not to succumb to those things which to most people seem terrible and frightful, but like a brave soldier to sustain the assaults of the most grievous mishaps, to enter into conflicts, and like a provident pilot to steer the ship in a tempest, and by meeting the rising waves, rather to avoid shipwreck by cutting the waves than by turning away. Such a man is not fearful in persecution, nor softer in torments; but like a strong athlete who strikes back at the one who beats him, if not with the lash of blows, surely with the lash of words, saying: Their blows have become as arrows of children. Who, though he wrestles with the gravest pain, does not show himself wretched, but displays, as it were a light in a lantern, that even amid harsh storms and the most violent blasts, his strength of soul shines and cannot be extinguished." Thus of old in his torments Vincent used to strike back at the tyrant, saying: "You will see that I can do more while I am being tortured, than you yourself while you torture." So the Apostles shone more brightly in the darkness of persecutions. Of whose virtue Saint Bernard in sermon 27 on the Canticle: "As the stars shine at night but hide by day," he says, "so true virtue, which often does not appear in prosperity, stands out in adversity."

Verse 27: What I Tell You in the Dark, Speak in the Light

27. WHAT I TELL YOU IN THE DARK, SPEAK IN THE LIGHT; AND WHAT YOU HEAR IN THE EAR (the Syriac: "what you hear into your ears"; the Arabic: "what you have heard with your ears") PREACH UPON THE HOUSETOPS. — For in Judaea the roofs are flat, so that one can walk, dine, and sleep upon them, and also preach from them as from a high platform. As if to say: What I say to you in private, this proclaim publicly. It is a catachresis; for "in the dark" and "in the ear" are the same as "privately and secretly"; "in the light" and "upon the housetops" are the same as "openly and publicly before all." So Saint Chrysostom, and Saint Jerome, who gives three senses: first, as if He said, "what you have heard in mystery, preach this more openly"; second, "what you have learned hiddenly, speak this publicly"; third, "what I have taught you in one corner of Judaea, this evangelize freely and boldly in the whole world."

Mystically: Saint Augustine, Book of Questions on Matthew, chapter 2: "What I say in darkness, that is, in fear," he says, "this preach in the light, that is, in the confidence of truth."

Verse 28: Fear Him Who Can Destroy Both Soul and Body in Hell

28. AND FEAR NOT THOSE WHO KILL THE BODY, BUT CANNOT KILL THE SOUL; BUT RATHER FEAR HIM WHO CAN DESTROY BOTH SOUL AND BODY IN HELL. — The Arabic: "into the fire of hell." As if He said: Do not out of fear of the death which the persecutors will threaten you with, deny My faith, or cease from the preaching of it commanded to you by Me, nor commit anything unworthy of it, because if you do this, you will incur a death both of body and of soul far more dreadful and more long-lasting, namely an eternal death in hell, where the damned die with an immortal death, because continually in mortal torments they live and endure, as it were in a living death and a dying life, according to that saying: "Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be extinguished," Isaiah 66:24. Truly Saint Chrysostom, Homily 5 To the People: "He who continually fears hell," he says, "will never fall into the fire of hell, being continually chastened by this fear."

This gnome of Christ properly regards a necessary and commanded matter; namely, He commands that through fear of tyrants we not violate the faith given to God and His law. It can, however, be extended to counseled matters, not commanded; but then it is of counsel, not of precept. Thus Saint Clement the Pope extended it to the counsel of virginity. For when Saints Nereus and Achilleus, servants of Saint Flavia Domitilla (who was already betrothed to Aurelian, son of a Roman consul), had persuaded her of virginity, and they asked Saint Clement to veil her and consecrate her as a virgin to God, Clement bravely answered: "For you, for her, and for me, as I see, the palm of martyrdom is prepared; but because Christ has decreed that we should not fear those who kill the body, let us despise a mortal man, that we may wholly obey the author of immortal life." He therefore consecrated Domitilla a virgin; hearing which, her betrothed Aurelian ordered Saints Nereus and Achilleus to be beheaded, and sent Saint Domitilla into exile on Pontia, where at last she underwent martyrdom by fire; and finally Saint Clement, submerged in the sea, obtained the same palm. Thus these four were glorious victims of virginity. This was a heroic act on their part: for they could lawfully have urged Domitilla, to escape the persecution, to marry Aurelian; but the love of chastity and of Christ won out. So their Acts have it in Surius, May 12.

With this very saying of Christ, Saint Stephen I, Pope and martyr, encouraged the faithful to steadfastness in the faith under the Emperor Valerian, who had stirred up the eighth persecution against Christians, decreeing that whoever should accuse a Christian would possess that man's goods and obtain whatever dignities he wished in the army. Therefore Saint Stephen confirmed the frightened Christians with this gnome of Christ, that they should despise earthly riches for the sake of heavenly ones, and pour out their lives for Christ in the hope of eternal life. And he confirmed his words by deeds, and went before his own as a leader to martyrdom. For while he was celebrating Mass, on hearing the noise of the soldiers, unmoved and undismayed he went on: and when it was finished, sitting on the chair, he intrepidly offered his head to the executioner to be cut off, in the year of the Lord 260. So his Life has it in Surius, August 2. Saint Cornelius, Pope and martyr, said and did exactly the same in the year of the Lord 255, on September 14, as is clear from his letter to Lupicinus.

INTO HELL. — This fear of hell and hope of eternal life was a most keen incentive for the Apostles and the martyrs to overcome bravely the racks, fires, lions, and all torments, as is clear in the Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, chapter 7.

Victor of Utica, in Book III of the Vandal Persecution, relates that the matron Dionysia, when she was being stripped naked by the Arians in a high place and most severely beaten with rods, bravely answered: "Ministers of the devil, what you reckon will be to my reproach is itself my praise." And when she saw her only little son growing pale at the torments, she encouraged him by the recollection of hell, lest the king at any time say to his ministers: "Cast him into the outer darkness, where there shall be weeping of eyes and gnashing of teeth. That life is to be desired, which is possessed forever." And so by such words strengthening her son, she swiftly made him a martyr. Thus far Victor. In the same place he relates that Victorian, proconsul of Carthage, when urged by the legates of King Huneric to Arianism, answered: "Sure of God and Christ my Lord, I say what you may tell the king. Let him raise me up with fires, set beasts upon me, torment me with every kind of torture, if I consent, I am baptized in vain in the Catholic Church. For if this present life alone existed, and we were not to hope for that other which truly exists, the eternal, I would not have acted thus to glory for a little and temporally, and to show myself ungrateful — I who owe my faith to Him who entrusted it to me as creditor." At which the tyrant, stirred up, how long a time and with how great punishments he afflicted him, human speech cannot express. Who, exulting in the Lord, and happily finishing, received the crown of martyrdom. Thus Victor. Wisely Saint Flavian the martyr, in Surius at the end of February: "The body," he says, "does not feel torments, when the mind is in heaven, and has devoted itself to God with its whole mind." And Saint Ambrose: "A wise man," he says, "is not broken by the pains of the body, but even in troubles remains blessed."

Verse 29: Not One Sparrow Falls Without Your Father

29. ARE NOT TWO SPARROWS SOLD FOR A FARTHING (asse), AND NOT ONE OF THEM SHALL FALL ON THE GROUND WITHOUT YOUR FATHER. — "For a farthing," in Greek ἀσσάριον (assarion), which is a Roman word and a diminutive, as if "a little as" (assis), which Varro mentions in Book I On Analogy. Now the assarius was half of an as — not of that old as which was a pound-weight (for the as was a pound of copper, gold, or silver), but of the more recent one, which was a half-ounce, coined under the Papirian law, as Pliny attests, Book 33, chapter 3. Therefore the assarius was a quarter of an ounce, which was a copper coin of little value and price, and indeed two Roman brass quattrini (as I have seen with my own eyes) weigh nearly a quarter of an ounce, nay they plainly equal it, two and a half quattrini, which equal half a baiocco, that is, a quarter of a Belgian stuiver, which the Dutch call "een oort." For the Julius or Spanish "regal" is worth ten baiocchi, that is, five stuivers: for a baiocco is half a stuiver. Therefore the assarius is half a baiocco, or a quarter of a stuiver. Moreover, a baiocco at Rome contains five quattrini. Furthermore, the assarius is also called an as, as the interpreter here renders it, namely the lesser or halved one: for some royal coins are double, others single, and as it were halved. Vatablus interprets the as as four little denarii, which are worth approximately two and a half Roman quattrini. So then for an as, that is, for a trifling and very small price, two sparrows were sold. (Hence Euthymius interprets the assarius as a teruncius, or a very small obol.) This was their price in Judea in Christ's time. So Georgius Agricola, book II On External Weights.

IT SHALL NOT FALL ON THE GROUND, — that is, it shall not perish, shall not die. For birds, while they live, dwell and fly in the air; but pierced by arrows, or dying by some other means, they fall down to the earth. "Without your Father," that is, without the providence, care, will, and decree of your Father, as if to say: If God has so great a care and providence for little sparrows, how much greater will He have for you? — since He is properly your Father, not the sparrows': for He formed you rational beings in His own likeness, and through Christ re-formed you and made you like Christ, holy men and Apostles. Therefore He will not permit you to be harmed or slain by persecutors, except that through martyrdom He may bestow upon you a better, indeed a most blessed life and crown.

Symbolically St. Hilary: "The two sparrows," he says, "are the body and the soul, which are born as it were as sparrows, that they may fly to heaven on spiritual wings; but the sinner sells them for an as, that is, for a little pleasure, to the devil, so that they descend into Tartarus."

Verse 30: The Very Hairs of Your Head Are All Numbered

30. BUT THE VERY HAIRS (Syriac, pili, hairs; for capillus is so called as if capitis pilus, the hair of the head; yet pili are also found on other members) OF YOUR HEAD ARE ALL NUMBERED. — As if to say: God from eternity has fixed and decreed the number not only of your members but also of your hairs: therefore He knows it exactly, and carefully guards the hairs under this number, so that not even one perishes without His particular providence, as Luke says. For the things which have been numbered for someone and entrusted under a definite number, these He guards exactly, so that not even one is lost, but keeps them in the same number, to restore them at the proper time. Thus does God deal with us in our hairs.

Allegorically: "The hairs of Christ are firstly all the elect and those to be saved," says St. Jerome, for these adorn Christ as hairs adorn the head. Tropologically: the hairs are all the thoughts, speeches, and actions of the faithful and of the saints: so St. Cyril, book VIII on Leviticus. Again, the hairs are the most minute thoughts and intentions of the saints, which God knows exactly, guards, animates, directs, perfects, and rewards. So Damascene in his History of Barlaam and Josaphat, chapter IX.

Verse 31: You Are of More Value than Many Sparrows

31. DO NOT THEREFORE FEAR, YOU ARE BETTER (Syriac, more excellent) THAN MANY SPARROWS (in Greek διαφέρετε, that is, you surpass, you excel, you are superior). — As if to say: If God has care of sparrows, then much more of you; therefore rest secure in the fatherly bosom of His providence in every persecution and tribulation: for He Himself will free you from all, either by snatching you away, or by crowning you with martyrdom in death and bearing you to heaven, where there will be no more labor or pain.

Moreover, if sparrows, which on account of their chattering, and because they defile houses and steal the wheat, are driven from houses and hunted for their flesh to be killed, yet live carefree, without anxiety for their life, and resign it to God — and this from mere natural instinct, since they do not know God's providence — how much more ought you, who know that same providence by reason, believe it by faith, daily feel it by experience, and as it were touch it with your hands — commit yourselves wholly and confidently to Him? You, I say, who plead His cause, and propagate His faith and worship! For it is of these, if of any, that God has the very greatest care.

Verse 32: Whoever Confesses Me Before Men, I Will Confess Him Before My Father

32. EVERYONE THEREFORE WHO SHALL CONFESS (from this word the martyrs of old were called confessors) ME BEFORE MEN, I ALSO WILL CONFESS HIM BEFORE MY FATHER, WHO IS IN HEAVEN. — "Shall confess me," in Greek ἐν ἐμοί, that is, "in me." And presently: "I also will confess him," in Greek ἐν αὐτῷ, that is, "in him," meaning "him"; and so Tertullian reads it in the Scorpiace, chapter IX. Luke XII:8 has it likewise. In the Greek there is a Hebraism; for the Hebrews construct verbs of contact, whether spiritual or mental (such as confessing and professing someone), with the preposition ב, that is, "in," and they say הודה בי hoda bi, that is, "he confessed in me," meaning "he confessed me," as is clear from the antithesis He adds: "But whoever shall deny me, I also will deny him." Maldonatus interprets otherwise: "He shall confess," he says, that is, "shall glory in me," so as to correspond to the Hebrew התודה hitvadde, which, being a hitpael, signifies an action reflected back upon the agent, namely, confessing in oneself, that is, glorying. Finally, the τὸ "in me" has emphasis and notes many things.

For the sense is, as if to say: Everyone who, when questioned before tyrants concerning the faith, shall have professed openly, freely, and constantly that he believes in Me as in the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and that he clings tenaciously to Me and My teaching, and is willing to meet death in defense of it — and thus that Me and My name and religion should be openly honored and celebrated — him likewise will I profess before God, the Angels, and men to be My disciple, confessor, and martyr, and as such will I honor and celebrate him, and crown him with the laurel of martyrdom. This is what the Apostle says, Romans X: "With the heart a man believes unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Whence St. Basil, in his homily On the Forty Martyrs, relating how with one voice they professed themselves Christians before the president, exclaims: "O blessed tongues, which sent forth that sacred voice, which the air receiving became holy, which the Angels hearing applauded, by which the devil with his demons received a great blow, and which the Lord at length inscribed in heaven."

Martyrdom therefore is the confession of Christ and the profession of Christianity even unto the rack and a violent death, and it is for this reason the highest honor and love of Christ. Hence the Apostles and Apostolic men most ardently longed for martyrdom. St. Ignatius, in his epistle to the Romans, says: "My love is crucified: there is in me no fire of earthly matter, but of heavenly, and living water, which within me says: Come to the Father." The same: "It is a beautiful thing to die to the world unto God, that I may rise again to Him."

St. Basil, in his homily on St. Gordius martyr: "The martyrs," he says, "forestall heavenly glory by a violent and untimely death; swiftly they strive to pass over with but little labor from this life — which should rather be called a long perishing — and they disdain to wait for the final end of their age, useless, barren, unfruitful, foolish, and vain." Therefore they do not call death death, but, as St. Sophia says to her daughter Anastasia, in Surius under October 28: "A good departure out of an evil world, joy, gladness, pleasure, splendor, beauty, a light far sweeter and more beautiful than light itself."

St. Anthony, as Athanasius testifies, when those who were to be martyrs were being led in the persecution of Maximian to Alexandria, tearing himself from the monastery in hope of martyrdom, and following the future victims of Christ, said: "Let us go to the glorious triumphs of our brethren, that we too may be gathered together." St. Dionysius the Areopagite, having given up his bishopric at Athens to a successor, went to Rome out of desire for martyrdom, and thence to Gaul, that with the Apostles he might fall as a martyr: whence he bravely endured a glorious combat for Christ near Paris.

Tertullian wrote the Scorpiace, that is, a remedy against the Scorpions, namely the Gnostics, in the whole of which he treats of The Good of Martyrdom. St. Cyprian, following Tertullian as it were as his master in the usual manner, marvelously extols the martyrs and martyrdom, in his Exhortation to Martyrdom: "The glory of martyrdom," he says, "is inestimable, its measure infinite, its victory spotless, its title beyond price, its triumph immense."

The same author, in the same place and in his epistle to the Martyrs, adorns them scattered among other praises with these encomia: "The martyr is made a colleague in the Passion of Christ. Martyrs furnish the teaching of morals, confessors the beginnings of virtues. Martyrs will be future judges with Christ. Martyrs obtain the kingdom of heaven without delay. Martyrs gain the hundredfold fruit. The martyrs' triumph is glorious. The faith and fortitude of the martyrs is invincible. The martyrs' crown is the more lofty the longer it is. The martyrs' prayer deserves to be heard by God. The Church rejoices in the triumphs of the martyrs. By the martyrs' prerogative, the lapsed can be aided before God. The martyrs' memory, their passions and anniversaries are customarily celebrated with sacrifices in the Church. To the martyrs the heavens stand open in the time of persecution. Martyrdom lies in God's grace, not in man's power. Those who learn to despise death already willingly desire martyrdom. Martyrdom through the baptism of blood is the most excellent of all. The beginning of martyrdom was from Abel. The helper, witness, and approver of undergoing martyrdom is Christ. By martyrdom the entrance to the kingdom of heaven is laid open immediately."

Finally, the standard-bearer, prince, and leader of the martyrs is Christ. For this reason the first bishops and Fathers (as even Julian the Apostate was forced to admit against his will) "all flew to martyrdom as bees to a hive," says St. Chrysostom, in his oration on Juventinus and Maximinus the martyrs, volume III, at the end.

St. Hubert, succeeding St. Lambert the martyr in the bishopric of Liege, groaned that he did not also succeed him in martyrdom: "O unhappy me," he said, "whose sins have piled up into such a heap that I cannot be found fit and worthy of the company of so great a man, who undergoes the triumph of martyrdom and seizes the palm of martyrdom!" So runs his Life in Surius for November 5.

St. Dominic, scarcely having instituted his Order of Preachers, set out for the Saracens from desire of martyrdom, in the year of our Lord 1217. St. Francis panted so eagerly for martyrdom that, as St. Bonaventure testifies in chapter IX of his Life, he set out three times for the East in the hope of obtaining it: first, into Syria, in the sixth year of his conversion; second, in the seventh year from the founding of the Order of Minors, into Africa to the king of Morocco; third, into the Holy Land to the Sultan of Babylon, but always in vain — God indeed destining him for the more noble martyrdom of Christ's sacred stigmata.

Tertullian concludes his Apology for Christ and Christians thus: "But go on, good presidents, who become much more esteemed by the people if you immolate Christians for them. Torture, torment, condemn, grind us down, for your iniquity is the proof of our innocence. For this reason God suffers us to endure these things; for just recently, by condemning a Christian woman to a pimp rather than to a lion, you confessed that a stain on chastity is with us accounted more dreadful than any death. Nor yet does any more refined cruelty of yours avail, but is rather an allurement to our sect; we are made the more numerous as often as we are mown down by you: the blood of Christians is seed." And a little further on: "Who, when he has inquired, does not come forward? Who, having come forward, does not desire to suffer, that he may redeem the whole grace of God, that he may obtain from Him every pardon by the recompense of his own blood? For all sins are forgiven to this work. Hence it is that we even give thanks for your sentences there, for there is a contrast between the things of God and of man: when we are condemned by you, we are absolved by God."

The same Tertullian, against the Gnostics who taught that it was permissible to deny Christ with the mouth under torments, provided faith in Him was retained in the heart (the Priscillianists later taught the same thing, whose watchword was: "Swear, perjure yourself, but do not betray the secret").

I have noted more concerning martyrdom on Hosea, chapter XI, at the end of the chapter. See Victor of Utica, book III, III On the Vandal Persecution, where among other things he relates that by Hunneric, the Arian king, many of the orthodox were packed together, like troops of the slain, in a narrow prison where there was no room even to withdraw; and therefore the whole place overflowed with dung and urine, so that the stench and horror at that time surpassed every kind of torment; and yet the martyrs were singing hymns with exultation to the Lord: "This is the glory of all His saints."

Verse 33: Whoever Denies Me Before Men, I Will Deny Him Before My Father

33. BUT WHOEVER SHALL DENY ME BEFORE MEN, I WILL ALSO DENY (Syriac, I will disown) HIM BEFORE MY FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN. — Christ adds this so that whoever is not moved by the magnificent promise may be struck by the terrible threat: just as Christ will confess the one who confesses, so will He deny the one who denies Him, saying: "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who work iniquity" (Matt. VII, 23); that is, go to Lucifer, whom you have served, into hell. Matt. XXV, 12 and following.

Verse 34: I Came Not to Send Peace, but a Sword

34. DO NOT THINK THAT I CAME TO SEND PEACE UPON THE EARTH: I CAME NOT TO SEND PEACE, BUT A SWORD. — "Peace," namely earthly and worldly peace; for the spiritual peace of the mind and the peace of the union of the faithful with one another, and with God and His Angels, which leads to peace and eternal happiness in heaven, Isaiah foretold and promised that Christ would bring (Isaiah IX, 6 and 7, and LXV, 25); and this the Angels announced to men when Christ was born, Luke, chapter II, verse 14.

BUT A SWORD, — that is, "separation," as Luke has it, chapter XII, verse 51, and discord in faith and religion, namely, that I may properly separate through faith My faithful Christians from the infidels; but these, from that and taking the occasion, separate themselves from the faithful with infidel hatred, and despoil them of liberty, goods, and life. And Christ here chiefly intends this latter meaning, and it corresponds very well to Micah, chapter VII, verse 6, whence Christ took these words. So St. Augustine, book I of the Retractations, chapter XIX; and elsewhere, and indeed Luke so explains it in chapter XII, verse 51, and it is clear from what follows; for He continues:

Verse 35: I Came to Set a Man Against His Father — A Man's Enemies Are His Household

35. FOR I CAME TO SET (Syriac, that I might cause to disagree) A MAN AT VARIANCE AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW: 36. And a man's enemies shall be they of his own household. — The Syriac: and a man shall have for enemies the sons of his own house. Because, as St. Chrysostom says in his 2nd homily Against the Jews, it will come to pass that in one and the same house one shall be a believer and believe in Christ, another shall remain an infidel, and the father will wish to draw the son back from the faith to his former impiety. Foretelling this, Christ says: "I came to separate," etc. As if to say: To such an extent shall the power of the Gospel prevail that sons too will despise their parents, daughters their mothers, and parents their children — nay, they shall even lay down their soul (life) and all things for piety. So Chrysostom. Moreover, Christ alludes to, indeed quotes, Micah chapter VII, verse 6. Some think that Christ misuses Micah's words in a different sense and for a different purpose, but I reply that Micah is speaking literally of the calamity of the impious siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, as St. Jerome teaches in the same place, by which its inhabitants were so afflicted by sword, famine, and pestilence that even brother from brother, son from parent, wife from husband would snatch and carry off bread, house, or shelter, to take thought for himself alone.

But allegorically this battle of the Jews signifies the discord and struggle of the unfaithful — even of parents, brothers, and spouses — against the faithful, both Jews and Gentiles, in the time of Christ, especially when on their account they were incurring danger to their reputation, goods and honor, or even their life: for then brothers, sons, and other members of the household became enemies of their faithful brothers and parents; and in this allegorical sense Christ here quotes the words of Micah. For it is not necessary in an allegory or parable to adapt absolutely every single detail. See what is said on Micah, chapter VII, verse 6.

Verse 37: He Who Loves Father or Mother More than Me Is Not Worthy of Me

37. HE WHO LOVES FATHER OR MOTHER MORE THAN ME IS NOT WORTHY OF ME: AND HE WHO LOVES SON OR DAUGHTER MORE THAN ME IS NOT WORTHY OF ME. — That is, he is not worthy to have Me as Lord and Master, he is not worthy of My name, My fellowship, My grace, My kingdom, and the rest of My promises. Luke, chapter XIV, verse 26: "He cannot be My disciple," meaning he is not worthy to have Me as his teacher. The reason is that Christ, as God, Lord, Savior, and our Redeemer, is far to be preferred both to parents and children: therefore whoever puts them before Him, so as on their account to fall away from the faith or the law of Christ, treats Christ unworthily and does Him the greatest ignominy; and thereby makes himself unworthy to be counted in the family and school of Christ. So St. Jerome and others.

Thus St. Saturus, when King Hunneric threatened him that, unless he became an Arian, he would give Saturus's wife in marriage to a camel-driver, and his wife, shuddering at this, begged Saturus to consent to the king, answered, like another Job: "You speak as one of the foolish women. I should be afraid, woman, if the bitter sweetness of this life were all there is: you are serving as a tool, O wife, of the devil. If you loved your husband, you would never be drawing your own man to a second death. Let them tear away the sons, separate the wife, carry off the substance — for my part, secure in my Lord's promises, I shall hold to His words: 'If anyone does not leave wife, children, fields or house, he cannot be My disciple.'" So Victor of Utica, book I On the Vandal Persecution.

The same author, in book III: "A matron," he says, "named Victoria, while in the sight of the crowd she was being burned by continuous hanging, was thus entreated by her already lost husband, with their children present: 'What are you enduring, O wife? If you despise me, at least take pity, impious one, on these little ones whom you bore. Why do you forget your own womb, and count as nothing those whom you brought forth with groans? Where are the covenants of conjugal love? Where the bonds of companionship, which long ago were drawn up between us by the law of honor in legal tablets? Look, I pray you, on your sons and husband, and hasten to fulfill the king's command, that you may save yourself from the tortures that still threaten, and at the same time be given back to me and to our children.' But she, listening neither to the tears of her children nor to the blandishments of the serpent, raising her affections far higher above the earth, held the world with its desires in contempt."

Verse 38: He Who Does Not Take Up His Cross Is Not Worthy of Me

38. AND HE WHO DOES NOT TAKE UP (from the Lord's hand upon his own shoulders, and like Christ carry it and bear it with an even mind) HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME IS NOT WORTHY OF ME. — "Cross," namely, that he be ready to bear for Christ reproaches, beatings, imprisonments, and even the harshest and most ignominious death, such as the death of the cross, which Christ deigned to endure for us; for, as St. Chrysostom says in the person of Christ, just as I brought you the highest blessedness, so I demand — nay, I require back — from you a singular obedience and affection, that you may be lions in My battle line.

Christ alludes to the future carrying of His own cross; for it is altogether fitting and just that, after Christ who carried the cross for us, we too, carrying our own cross out of love and reverence for Him, should follow Him and press toward heaven. That this is the genuine literal sense is clear from what follows. So St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others. Yet by "cross" here one may generally understand every tribulation sent by God. For the cross is so named from cruciatus (torment), says St. Gregory; and this must be bravely borne by Christians out of love and following the example of Christ their leader.

Mystically: the cross is mortification. So St. Gregory, homily 33 on the Gospels, Bede, and others. Hear Euthymius: "Christ calls 'cross,'" he says, "death to the things which are of the world, because the cross was an instrument of death. For he who follows Christ must be dead to worldly pleasures." Hear also the Gloss: "The cross is borne in two ways, either when the body is afflicted by abstinence, or when the soul is pained by compassion for a neighbor: the sins of our neighbors are the frying-pan of the saints." In a like manner St. Hilary and others take these words of a spiritual cross and martyrdom, by which one crucifies and cuts off from oneself the flesh, concupiscence, and vices. I say the same about the saying that immediately follows. St. Chrysostom adds that Christ mentions the cross in order gradually to prepare the minds of the disciples for His own cross and Passion.

Finally St. Jerome: "In another Gospel," he says, "it is written: 'Who does not take up his cross daily,' lest we think that the fervor of faith can suffice once only; the cross must always be carried, that we may always be taught to love Christ."

Verse 39: He Who Finds His Life Shall Lose It

39. HE WHO HAS FOUND HIS LIFE SHALL LOSE IT; AND HE WHO SHALL HAVE LOST HIS LIFE FOR MY SAKE SHALL FIND IT. — The word "invenit" is a past tense, not a present. For in the Greek it is ὁ εὑρών. The sense is, as if He said: He who has found — that is, acquired and gained — his soul, namely the bodily and temporal safety of his soul and life (to prevent ambiguity with what follows) when it was set in mortal danger before tyrants on account of My faith, through a denial of faith and of My name (for this must evidently be supplied from the antithesis that follows) — he shall lose his soul, that is, the eternal salvation of his soul, which alone is true salvation, and shall go into hell. And on the contrary, he who shall have lost the present life of his soul for professing My name and faith, so as to meet death and martyrdom for it, this man shall find the life, salvation, happiness, and glory of the soul eternal. So Theophylact and others. Similar is chapter XVI, verse 25, and Luke, chapter XVII, verse 33.

So also Tertullian, in the Scorpiace, chapter XI: "He finds his soul," he says, "who shall have denied Christ by gaining his life; but he shall lose it unto hell, who thinks by denying to gain it. He, however, loses it for the present moment, who is slain after confessing, but he shall find it again unto eternal life."

He therefore who indulges his soul, loses it; he who mortifies it, saves it. See here the paradox: life here consists in death, and death in life. For if you die for Christ, you will live; but if you deny Christ in order to live, you will die eternally. Hence Tertullian, in the Scorpiace, chapter V: "God willed," he says, "to dissolve death, to scatter torments by torments, to bestow life by taking it away, to help the flesh by wounding it, to preserve the soul by snatching it away." Therefore you cannot spend life to better use than by lavishing it for Christ, "for precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Psalm CXV). "Precious," says St. Cyprian, epistle II, "is this death, which buys immortality at the price of blood," according to the saying in Wisdom III: "And though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality."

Note: the Hebrew מצא matsa, that is, "he found," often signifies "he acquired, obtained, grasped, attained," as the Septuagint translate at Job, chapter III, 22; and Our Vulgate, 1 Samuel XXXI, verse 3. In like manner the Greek εὑρίσκω, that is, "I find," often means the same as "I obtain, procure, draw out, free, attain, acquire." And the Latin invenire is, as it were, "to come into something, to acquire and obtain something," says Donatus. Thus Cicero, Philippic I, says: "He who, on account of a stammering tongue and a stupid heart, has gotten (invenit) knowledge out of insult," that is, has acquired it. Pliny, in his Preface: "Thence he obtained (invenit) a divine name," that is, attained it. So one is said to "invenire" praise, death, fame, that is, to acquire them. So in Luke I, Gabriel says to the Blessed Virgin: "You have found grace with God," that is, you have come into God's favor, you have entered into His grace, you have gained and obtained His love. So the Apostle, Romans IV, 1: "What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found?" — that is, attained. In Genesis XXVI, 12, it is said: "Isaac sowed in that land, and he found" — that is, acquired — "in that same year a hundredfold." The reason is, that what anyone finds born on his own land, he acquires for himself. So here, "he who finds his life," that is, he who gains, acquires, and as it were makes come to him anew his life which has been exposed to mortal danger in persecution and as good as lost — by denying Christ, he "will lose it" in the other, blessed life. For a thing that was lost, if it be found, is reckoned as though acquired anew. It is a catachresis. For he who saves the life which the tyrant seeks by denying the faith, seems as it were to have found and obtained it anew.

Again, the Hebrew מצא matsa, that is, "he found," sometimes signifies "he sought" by a metalepsis, because strictly speaking nothing is found except what has been sought. So the sense is: he who "finds" is he who seeks to preserve his own life, and in seeking, acquires and preserves it. Thus Jonathan says to his servant: "Go and bring me the arrows," where the Hebrew has matsa, that is, "Go and find," meaning "seek for me the arrows," 1 Samuel XX, 21.

Moreover, matsa sometimes denotes liberty, sufficiency, abundance, capacity, or power, as in Psalm XX, 9: "Let Your hand be found upon all Your enemies," that is, let it be sufficient, let it be mightier and stronger than Your enemies. So here, to "find the soul" is to acquire for the soul — that is, for the life — liberty and abundance of goods and power, by denying the faith: for these things kings and tyrants were promising to those who denied Christ.

Verse 40: He Who Receives You Receives Me

40. HE WHO RECEIVES YOU, RECEIVES ME; AND HE WHO RECEIVES ME, RECEIVES HIM WHO SENT ME. — For he who receives an envoy, in the envoy receives the king who sent him, that through the envoy he may speak and act. But the Apostles are the envoys of Christ, and Christ of God: whoever therefore receives them, receives Christ in them, and in Christ God Himself, according to that saying of Paul: "For Christ we act as ambassadors, God as it were exhorting through us" (2 Cor. VI). So the Galatians did to Paul: "I bear witness to you," he himself says to them in chapter IV, "that, if it could be done, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me." And again: "You did not reject me, but received me as an Angel of God, as Christ Jesus." Here Christ proposes rewards to those who receive the Apostles, in order to provide for the Apostles in the poverty which He enjoins upon them — e.g., while they are preaching — and to confirm them in it, and to invite hosts to receive them gladly.

Verse 41: He Who Receives a Prophet Shall Receive a Prophet's Reward

41. HE WHO RECEIVES A PROPHET IN THE NAME OF A PROPHET SHALL RECEIVE A PROPHET'S REWARD; AND HE WHO RECEIVES A JUST MAN IN THE NAME OF A JUST MAN SHALL RECEIVE A JUST MAN'S REWARD. — "A prophet," that is, a teacher and preacher of the Gospel, such as the Apostles were. For formerly the office of the Prophets was not only to foretell the future, but also to teach the people and to preach the law and the word of God. "In the name of a prophet," that is, because he is a prophet, that is, a teacher and preacher of Christ. So St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Bede. See chapter VII, 15.

SHALL RECEIVE A PROPHET'S REWARD. — First, some explain this to mean: he shall receive a reward from the Prophet, and one far greater than any hospitality or entertainment, because from the prophet, that is, the preacher, he will receive the faith and grace of Christ, and likewise the prophet's prayers before God on behalf of his host.

Second, Euthymius: "He shall receive a prophet's reward," this is, he says, he will be equal in reward to the prophet and preacher, and will be held worthy of equal honors with him. This is sometimes true, namely when the host receives the preacher with as great a charity as that with which the preacher himself preaches, and with great fervor cooperates with him and is the cause that many are converted. For to the measure of charity corresponds the measure of heavenly glory and of essential beatitude. For in proportion as a man loves God, so great a vision of God will beatify him. For the degrees of vision and of glory correspond and are measured by the degrees of charity. Otherwise it is not true: for it is more to preach Christ, and therefore of greater merit and reward, than to receive the preacher with hospitality.

Third and genuinely: "he shall receive a prophet's reward," because, just as he cooperates with the prophet and helps him because he is a prophet and a preacher, so he will share in the labor, merit, and reward of the prophet — not equally, but proportionally, namely according to the proportion of his cooperation and of the charity with which he cooperates with the preacher. For so, by common law, the harborers of robbers and thieves are punished with a like, though not equal, penalty. For he who cooperates in another's virtue or crime draws upon himself the nature and merit of that other work, and thence its reward or punishment. So St. Chrysostom explains: "He shall receive that reward of a Prophet," he says, "which it is fitting that he should receive who welcomes a Prophet"; others say: "He shall be a partaker of the reward promised to the Prophets." St. Gregory gives a like interpretation, homily 20 on the Gospels: "For," he says, "even though the elm has no fruit, yet by bearing the vine with its fruits, it makes those fruits its own, because it supports well what is another's." For so the host, through the Prophet whom he receives, himself prophesies and preaches, and therefore receives the Prophet's merit and reward.

Here belongs the ancient law of warfare: "Equal shall be the share of him who goes down to battle and of him who stays with the baggage, and alike they shall divide the spoils of the enemies" (1 Samuel XXX, 24). Therefore he shall receive a Prophet's reward, that is, the reward of prophecy or preaching, because he helped and furthered it; for without him the preacher (being without food) could not have preached.

Finally, by "a prophet's reward" some understand the gift of prophecy, which St. Jerome, in his commentary on Obadiah, holds that Obadiah the prophet merited, because he had sustained the Prophets with bread and water during Jezebel's persecution: "This man," he says, "because he had nourished a hundred Prophets, received the gift of prophecy, and from a captain of the army becomes a leader of the Church. Then in Samaria he had fed a little flock; now in the whole world he feeds Christ's Churches." For he holds that the Obadiah who sheltered the Prophets hiding under Ahab (1 Kings XVIII, 13) is the same as the Obadiah who is the fourth among the minor Prophets. The same opinion is held by St. Epiphanius, St. Dorotheus, St. Isidore, and others, although it is more true that he was a different man, as I have shown in the prologue to Obadiah. In like manner Saints Marius and Martha with their sons, and many others, obtained martyrdom because they had visited and fed martyrs in prison, of which more shortly.

From this saying St. Ignatius gathers, in his epistle to the Smyrnaeans, that he who receives a martyr shall receive a martyr's reward: "Surely," he says, "he who honors one who is bound for Jesus Christ shall receive the reward of the martyrs." Hence in the histories of the martyrs we read that many of the faithful who visited, fed, comforted, buried, or by any other means cherished the martyrs, by that very fact deserved martyrdom and in fact became martyrs themselves — as is seen in St. Vitalis the martyr, father of Saints Gervase and Protase, who, while comforting St. Ursicinus who was wavering in death and martyrdom, was himself arrested and subjected to martyrdom. The same happened to St. Sebastian when he was comforting Saints Mark and Marcellian, and to Saints Marius and Martha with their two sons when they visited and aided martyrs held in prison at Rome, and to very many others.

HE WHO RECEIVES A JUST MAN IN THE NAME OF A JUST MAN (because he is just) shall receive a just man's reward — in the same way as I have already said of the Prophet; nay, even if the host be in sin, he will obtain the grace of repentance and will become just. For the Saints often persuade this to their hosts by word and example, and obtain it from God by prayer. Thus St. Francis, received into hospitality at Celano by a soldier, foretold his imminent death, persuaded him to confession, and obtained for him from God grace and eternal salvation; for the soldier immediately made his confession and expired at the beginning of the meal. See St. Bonaventure in his Life, chapter XI, and Wadding in the Annals of the Minors, year of Christ 1225, number 10.

Verse 42: A Cup of Cold Water in the Name of a Disciple Shall Not Lose Its Reward

42. AND WHOEVER SHALL GIVE TO ONE OF THESE LITTLE ONES A CUP OF COLD WATER TO DRINK, ONLY IN THE NAME OF A DISCIPLE; AMEN I SAY TO YOU, HE SHALL NOT LOSE HIS REWARD. — "Cold water," which is the cheapest thing, and belongs to the very poorest: "lest," as St. Jerome says, "anyone should allege the expense of firewood if it were warm," nor with respect to the cup does He consider the size of the vessel, for He does not say a congius or an amphora, but a cup or cyathus: for who is so weak or poor that he cannot give or carry a cup of water? And St. Augustine, sermon 62 On the Seasons: "Who will there be," he says, "who can excuse himself, since the Lord has promised to repay a reward even for a cup of cold water? And why did He say 'cold'? Lest perhaps some poor person should excuse himself on the ground of scarcity of wood, or say that he does not have a vessel in which to heat water."

In the name of a disciple, — that is, because he is My disciple; because he clings to Me and to My teaching; because he believes in Me; because he is a faithful Christian, that is, in My honor and out of regard and respect for Me. For this regard to Christ rectifies, ennobles, and exalts both the intention of the giver and the work itself, so that what has been conferred upon a Christian may seem done to Christ, and accordingly Christ reckons it as done to Himself, and recompenses such a work with a great reward. For if you do the same work with a different regard — say, because he is your servant, kinsman, or friend — it will be of little or no value or merit before God: for this is a natural almsgiving and act of mercy, whereas the former is an act of supernatural mercy. So Suarez and the Theologians. Hear Suarez, book II On the Necessity of Grace, chapter XVI, 10: "These words of Christ intimate that a work of mercy, if it be done to a man simply because he is a man, is of the natural order; but if it be done because he is a believer, and a fellow-citizen of the Saints and a member of God's household, it is a work of mercy of a higher order, that is, of the supernatural order."

A notable example is in the Life (extant in Surius under October 28) of St. Anastasia, virgin and martyr. For she, when her tongue was being cut out and her teeth were being pulled, growing faint and thirsty, asked for water. A certain Cyril offered it to her, and with that cup of cold water purchased the crown of martyrdom. For when Probus the governor had understood that this had been done by him as a Christian in a Christian manner, he subjected him to death and martyrdom.

From this saying of Christ some Theologians with Suarez probably conclude that grace is increased in a just man by more remiss acts: for example, if a just man has, let us say, degrees of grace intensive as eight, and elicits an act of almsgiving by giving, say, a cup of cold water to a poor man with an act remiss as three, by this very act he will merit an increase of habitual grace intensive as eight, so that with the three degrees added, it may become intense or extended as eleven.

It is proved first: because to receive a Prophet is an easy and common act, just like receiving a poor man or a guest; yet here the host, though already just and holy, will receive the reward of a Prophet, which is eternal glory — that is, certain degrees of the beatific vision, and therefore he will first receive in this life the degrees of grace corresponding to them, for degrees of glory correspond to degrees of grace. Let us suppose, then, that he had eight degrees of grace: now by this work of intensity only as three, three more degrees of grace will accrue to him; therefore a less intense work increases a more intense grace.

Second, to give a cup of cold water is a very small and very easy work, and therefore is commonly done with a remiss intensity: for to give, say, ten or twenty gold pieces is much greater and more difficult, and therefore requires a greater effort and intensity of will. And yet that work, though very small, has a reward, as Christ here says — namely, certain degrees of glory, and consequently just as many degrees of grace corresponding to them. Therefore a just man who has often elicited more intense acts of charity, and through them has received a habit of grace intense as twenty, if he gives a cup of cold water by a remiss act as two, will receive the reward of that work — namely, two degrees of glory, and consequently as many degrees of grace measured out to them: these two degrees will therefore increase the twenty degrees of grace, so that they become twenty-two.

Third, if a work that is objectively and as it were essentially lesser, such as giving a cup of cold water, increases the grace received from a work that is essentially and objectively greater, such as giving a hundred gold pieces to a poor man, why should not likewise (and indeed even more so) a work which is only accidentally lesser, namely, more remissly in its intensity, increases the grace received from a work which was only accidentally greater, namely because it was more intense and more ardent? Thus Suarez, vol. III On Grace, bk. IX, ch. III, no. 36.

Finally, Christ here signifies that no work, even the smallest one, bestowed upon a preacher, will lack its reward. Now such are the remiss works which the just perform in great numbers, and therefore they would lose the reward of very many works if remiss works did not increase a more intense grace (for few elicit acts so intense that they equal or exceed their habit) — the contrary of which Christ here teaches.