Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Christ explains the Gospel and its power, fruit, and impediments through various parables: First, of the seed and the sower, verse 3. Second, of the tares, verse 24. Third, of the grain of mustard seed, verse 31. Fourth, of the leaven, verse 33. Fifth, of the hidden treasure, the precious pearl, and the net cast into the sea, verse 43.
Vulgate Text: Matthew 13:1-58
1. On that day Jesus going out of the house, sat by the sea side. 2. And great multitudes were gathered together unto Him, so that He went up into a boat and sat; and all the multitude stood on the shore. 3. And He spoke to them many things in parables, saying: Behold the sower went forth to sow. 4. And whilst he sowed some fell by the way side, and the birds of the air came and ate them up. 5. And other some fell upon stony ground, where they had not much earth; and they sprang up immediately, because they had no deepness of earth. 6. And when the sun was up they were scorched; and because they had not root, they withered away. 7. And others fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8. And others fell upon good ground, and they brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. 9. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 10. And His disciples came and said to Him: Why speakest Thou to them in parables? 11. Who answered and said to them: Because to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 12. For he that hath, to him shall be given, and he shall abound; but he that hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath. 13. Therefore do I speak to them in parables: because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 14. And the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled in them, who saith: By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive. 15. For the heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut: lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 16. But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17. For, amen, I say to you, many prophets and just men have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them; and to hear the things that you hear, and have not heard them. 18. Hear you therefore the parable of the sower. 19. Whosoever heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, there cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart: this is he that received the seed by the way side. 20. And he that received the seed upon stony ground, is he that heareth the word, and immediately receiveth it with joy: 21. yet hath he not root in himself, but is only for a time: and when there ariseth tribulation and persecution because of the word, he is presently scandalized. 22. And he that received the seed among thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word, and he becometh fruitless. 23. But he that received the seed upon good ground, is he that heareth the word, and understandeth, and beareth fruit, and yieldeth the one a hundredfold, and another sixtyfold, and another thirtyfold. 24. Another parable He proposed to them, saying: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seed in his field. 25. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and oversowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26. And when the blade was sprung up, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared also the tares. 27. And the servants of the goodman of the house coming said to him: Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? Whence then hath it tares? 28. And he said to them: An enemy hath done this. And the servants said to him: Wilt thou that we go and gather them up? 29. And he said: No, lest perhaps gathering up the tares, you root up the wheat also together with them. 30. Suffer both to grow until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the tares, and bind them into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn. 31. Another parable He proposed unto them, saying: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field: 32. which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and dwell in the branches thereof. 33. Another parable He spoke to them: The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened. 34. All these things Jesus spoke in parables to the multitudes, and without parables He did not speak to them: 35. that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, saying: I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world. 36. Then, having sent away the multitudes, He came into the house; and His disciples came to Him, saying: Expound to us the parable of the cockle of the field. 37. Who answered and said to them: He that soweth the good seed, is the Son of Man. 38. And the field is the world. And the good seed are the children of the kingdom. And the tares are the children of the wicked one. 39. And the enemy that sowed them is the devil. And the harvest is the end of the world. And the reapers are the Angels. 40. Even as cockle therefore is gathered up and burnt with fire, so shall it be at the end of the world. 41. The Son of Man shall send His Angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all scandals, and them that work iniquity; 42. and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43. Then shall the just shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 44. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in a field, which a man having found, hid it, and for joy thereof goeth, and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. 45. Again the kingdom of heaven is like to a merchant seeking good pearls. 46. Who when he had found one pearl of great price, went his way, and sold all that he had, and bought it. 47. Again the kingdom of heaven is like to a net cast into the sea, and gathering together of all kind of fishes. 48. Which, when it was filled, they drew out, and sitting by the shore, they chose out the good into vessels, but the bad they cast forth. 49. So shall it be at the end of the world: the Angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just, 50. and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 51. Have ye understood all these things? They say to Him: Yes. 52. He said unto them: Therefore every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven, is like to a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old. 53. And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, He passed from thence. 54. And coming into His own country, He taught them in their synagogues, so that they wondered, and said: How came this Man by this wisdom and miracles? 55. Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brethren James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Jude? 56. And His sisters, are they not all with us? Whence therefore hath He all these things? 57. And they were scandalized in His regard. But Jesus said to them: A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. 58. And He wrought not many miracles there, because of their unbelief.
Verse 1: On That Day Jesus Going Out of the House, Sat by the Sea Side
The Syriac: Upon the shore of the sea. Christ, after He had as was His custom preached in the house, that is in the lodging which He had hired for His dwelling and His preaching at Capernaum, as I said at chapter 4, verse 13, dismissed the crowds so that they might attend to themselves and their affairs, and so that He might refresh Himself and His disciples with rest and food; soon, when He knew that the crowds, which were hanging upon His lips (being, as it were, enticed by His heavenly doctrine and spirit), would flow together in a greater number than the house could contain, He went out of the house to the most spacious shore of the nearby Sea of Galilee, and there preached by the parables that follow.
Verse 2: And Great Multitudes Were Gathered Together Unto Him
Because of the great number of the crowd, Christ went from the shore up into the boat, and from it, as from a pulpit, He preached to the innumerable crowd flowing about Him and occupying the seashore.
Verse 3: Saying, Behold the Sower Went Forth to Sow
And He Spoke to Them Many Things in Parables — that is, through parables, after the custom of that people and that age, as I said on Genesis 26 and following; as if to say, He spoke to them parabolically, that is, figuratively and obscurely.
Saying: Behold the Sower Went Forth to Sow — for sowing. The Arabic: that he might sow; the Greek, ὁ σπείρων, that is, the one sowing, or the sower. Note: fittingly the Gospel doctrine and preaching is compared to seed and to the harvest coming from it: for just as for a bodily harvest there is need of seed, earth, sun, rains and winds, so also there is need of similar things for the Gospel and spiritual harvest: for the seed is the word of God, or the Gospel and its preaching; the earth is the free will of each hearer; the sun is prevenient grace, illuminating and inflaming the free will, so that it may receive and digest the word of God, and from it produce the fruits of charity and all the virtues; the rain is the grace that waters, preserves, and promotes these good acts and motions of the will; the winds are temptations, which by agitating them more deeply root and strengthen them; finally, there is need of patience, in Greek ὑπομονή, that is, endurance in the labors and afflictions of ploughing, sowing, harrowing, weeding, etc., and of a long-suffering expectation of the harvest, that is, of the fruit and the reward.
Note: the end and scope, and so the sum, of this parable is that Christ teaches that He Himself is the sower, that is, the preacher of the Gospel in the earth, that is, among men, but with unequal fruit among different persons. First, for not all who hear the Gospel accept it and believe in it; — just as the seed, though sown in the earth, is not everywhere received: for example, in the way or beside the way where the ground is trodden and hard it strikes no roots. Second, not all who believe persevere in the faith, but some, when temptation persuades them, fall away; just as seed germinating in stony ground quickly withers at the sun's heat. Third, not all who persevere in the faith bring forth the fruit of good works; just as thorns choke the seed which otherwise springs up beautifully in good earth, so that it bears no fruit. Fourth, these things happen not through fault of the seed, that is, of the doctrine, but through fault of the earth, that is, of the hearers, and that a varied fault — some on account of stones, some on account of thorns: the stone is the flesh, the thorn is the world, the way is the well-worn habit of a secular and more licentious life, where the birds of the air, that is, the demons — swift as birds, most diligent and most voracious of souls — snatch away the seed that was heard, that is, the preached doctrine, from the memory and mind, while they divert those who dwell by the way, that is, men intent upon nature and natural prudence, upon common custom and manner of living, wanderers and idle and curious men, from consideration and penetration of the doctrine heard, and distract them to their accustomed vanities. Fifth, they receive the seed, that is the doctrine, in good earth, that is in a good heart, who begin to ruminate upon it and make progress in it; in the best earth, those who with all their strength apply themselves to its execution and to the perfection of virtues. Sixth, that seed bears a lesser fruit, another a greater, another the greatest, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some a hundredfold, and this on account of a greater or lesser sowing, that is, of the preaching and illumination of spiritual things, and the influx of grace, or on account of the greater zeal, cooperation, and effort of free will with grace. This is the sum of the whole parable, from which it is easy to understand it and all its parts: wherefore let us briefly treat each one.
Morally: let the preacher with Christ — who, driven by the force of love, went forth from the house, nay from heaven and the bosom of the Father, into the earth — go forth from the house of contemplation into the field of preaching, that what he has drawn from God in prayer he may pour forth into the people with great spirit, going about cities and villages, and let him preach more by the example of a holy life than by word: "Let him offer an example to others, and let him be to them, as it were, an abundance of speaking, a form of living," says Saint Augustine, book IV of On Christian Doctrine, chapter 29. Again let him invoke God, that what he himself speaks in the ear, God may speak in the mind. For, as Saint Gregory says, book XI of the Moralia, chapter 5: "It often happens that, when the heart of the hearer is not filled with the grace of God because of sins demanding it, he is admonished outwardly in vain by the preacher. For every mouth is dumb that speaks, unless He cry interiorly in the heart who inspires the words that are heard."
Verse 4: And While He Sowed, Some Fell by the Way Side
And While He Sowed, Some (seeds, or grains of seed) Fell by the Way Side, and the Birds of the Air Came and Ate Them Up. — "By the way side," that is, on the edge or boundary of the field adjoining the road, which is continually trodden and trampled under the feet of travelers, and is therefore not fit for receiving seed, but exposes the seed bare to be snatched up by birds. There is a gradation: for from the less fit earth in which the seed is sown, it rises gradually to the less unfit, the more fit, and the most fit. For the most unfit earth for seed is that which, on the way or beside the way, is trodden under all men's feet; stony ground is unfit; better is good earth mingled with thorns; the best is that which is entirely earthy, rich and moist. Moreover, the way is a mind worn and dried up by evil thoughts, says Rabanus; for such a mind does not grasp, does not feel, does not understand the doctrine of the Gospel which is contrary to its accustomed desires, because it is entirely fixed on the enticements of the flesh. Whence the Interlinear Gloss: "Such," it says, "are they who are neither pricked by preaching nor begin to act well."
Verse 5: And Other Some Fell Upon Stony Ground
As if to say, Others fell upon stony ground, which, because they had there little earth and much rock, could not drive deep (Greek βάθος, that is, depth) roots; wherefore they at once began to bubble up and germinate, and sprang up before their time. Hence, being as it were precocious, they soon failed: "For what comes quickly, perishes quickly." He adds the reason.
Verse 6: And When the Sun Was Up, They Were Scorched
And When the Sun Was Up, They Were Scorched (Greek ἐκαυματίσθη, that is, they were burned up by heat or by the sun's heat, they perished by heat, both the seeds and the sprouts precociously bursting forth from them), and Because They Had No Root, They Withered Away. — For because they had a thin layer of earth, beneath which immediately there was rock, hence partly from lack of moisture and partly from the force of the sun reflecting its rays upon the rock, thus increasing and intensifying the heat, they were dried up and burned up. Moreover, the rock is the hardness of a stubborn mind, says Rabanus, in which there is no depth, that is, no depth of earth, that is, no deep pliancy of a soul obedient and trained in heavenly disciplines. Whence such persons delight only for an hour in the sweetness of the word heard and of the heavenly promise; but they do not fix the root of saving desire, and therefore by the heat of the sun — that is, the fervor of persecution — they are burned through impatience; because the word of God had not firmly clung to their mind, and so they dry up, that is, they lose the greenness of faith, says the Interlinear. Again Saint Chrysostom: "In souls which are rock, rich earth can be made; and which are the way, they can cease to be trampled; and the thorn, it can be destroyed. Christ spoke to all, even though He foresaw the future, so that He could say: What ought I to have done, and have not done? in which He teaches His disciples not to be slothful, even if many of their hearers perish."
Verse 7: And Others Fell Among Thorns
"Among thorns," that is, into earth producing thorns: among thorn bushes. "And they grew up," in Greek ἀνέβησαν, that is, they rose up, that is, they sprang up and spread out more quickly than the good seeds, which rise up gradually and slowly (for darnel grows easily, wheat with difficulty, and therefore the wheat is choked by the darnel), and so they choked them now as they were sprouting into stalks, both because they snatched away the moisture and nourishment from them through their roots, and because they deprived them of free air and of room to grow and spread themselves: these thorns Christ, in verse 22, interprets as riches.
Verse 8: But Others Fell Upon Good Ground
The Arabic: For one, a hundred; and for another, sixty; and for another, thirty. This disparity of fruit arises from the disparity both of the earth and of the cultivation. For rich earth, if well cultivated, brings forth from one grain a hundred grains; another less rich, sixty; another more barren, thirty. Moreover, the good earth is the faithful and devout conscience, says the Interlinear.
Note: only the fourth part or lot of the seed — namely, that which fell on good earth — bore fruit; for the remaining three lots of seed, namely those which fell by the way, upon stony ground, and among thorns, perished and bore no fruit; so from hearing a sermon few profit, but far more bear no fruit.
Verse 9: He That Hath Ears to Hear, Let Him Hear
Christ uses this phrase when the matter is obscure and symbolic, or arduous and difficult, in order to arouse the attention and zeal of the hearers. "Ears to hear," that is, has ears for hearing, he who diligently listens and attends to the words of Christ with this intent: that he may grasp and ruminate upon them, obey them, and carry them out in deed. For many listened to Christ out of curiosity, to hear something new, learned, lofty, elegant; but not to imprint what they heard upon their minds and put it into practice. Such had no ears to hear. Such still are many, who listen to sermons for their elegance or their learning, not that they may change their lives — concerning whom God says in Ezekiel, chapter 33: "Thou art to them, as a musical song, which is sung with a sweet and pleasant sound; and they hear thy words, and do them not."
Verse 10: Why Speakest Thou to Them in Parables?
As if to say, The unlearned crowds do not grasp parabolic and symbolic discourses; why then dost Thou multiply them to them? Why dost Thou not plainly unfold Thy meanings to them, that they may understand them?
Verse 11: Because to You It Is Given to Know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven
The Arabic: You have been given the knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but they have not been given it. The reason why Christ spoke to the crowds in parables was that most of them were still incapable of the heavenly and Evangelical doctrine; or they did not believe, and some even mocked; the Scribes also together with their followers slandered Him and held Christ to be an impostor and false Prophet: wherefore they did not have "ears to hear," which Christ demanded in verse 9. But where there is no hearing, pour not out speech, says the Wise Man. Christ therefore tacitly stimulates them to put on ears to hear and to examine His discourses spoken in parables, and humbly, with zeal to obey, to beg Him for their explanation, and so to make themselves capable of Evangelical preaching. When they shall have done this, He promises that He will clearly explain the things which here He sets forth in parables.
Moreover, Christ indicates that this capacity for wisdom cannot be obtained by one's own strength, but must be suppliantly asked of God; for it is God's gift, which He has given to the disciples of Christ and denied to others, leaving them in their blindness and perfidy; as if to say: Yours, O Apostles, is this grace and happiness, that God has given you faith in Me, and that for this reason I plainly announce to you His mysteries, while to the rest I speak only in parables. For faith is the gift of God. Therefore give thanks to God continually for it, and pray to God for the others that He may equally give them ears to hear, as He has given them to you: for then I shall expound My parables plainly, as I expound them to you. Whence Mark 4:11 has: "To them that are without, all things are done in parables," that is, to the unbelievers, who are outside the faith and the Church, all things are spoken and done by Me parabolically, that is, obscurely through symbols and enigmas, lest they despise, deride, and cavil at them. For, as Bede says: "Not only those things which the Lord spoke, but also those things which He did, were parables, that is signs of mystical things," hidden from the unbelieving Scribes and Jews, according to that word: "Give not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine," Matt. 7:6. Wherefore Mark adds: "That seeing they may see, and not see (not understand), and hearing they may hear, and not understand: lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them;" as if to say: They are blinded and obstinate, and therefore they persist in their blindness and perfidy, nor do they admit the light of truth which I offer. And this blindness is the punishment of the preceding sins which they committed. All these things will become more evident from what follows.
Note: the word "that" (ut), when Mark says "that seeing they may see, and not see," signifies not cause and intention, but consequence and effect. For Christ in speaking parabolically did not intend positively to blind them, but only to permit that which followed from Christ's parables, namely that the Scribes and Jews, blinded by envy and concupiscence, though seeing so many miracles of Christ and hearing His heavenly wisdom, still should not believe, nor should they understand the things seen and heard; but they should bear themselves just as though they had not seen or heard them.
Verse 12: For He That Hath, to Him Shall Be Given
The Arabic: And he that hath something, it shall be given him, and shall be added; and he that hath not, etc. It is a maxim bearing the form of a proverb, as Salmeron, Franciscus Lucas, Maldonatus, and Jansenius note, and it is most true; for to the richer it is given, from the poor it is always taken away. For in a like manner God daily heaps new graces and benefits upon His faithful and elect (such as were the Apostles), that they may abound in virtue and sanctity; but from the unbelieving, ungrateful, and unworthy, whom He neglects and despises (such as were the Jews), He gradually takes away His gifts both of grace and of nature.
The sense is, first, as if to say: He who has faith shall be given the knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God, for these cannot be known without faith; but he who has no faith, the good which he has shall be taken away from him; as if to say: To you, O Apostles, because you believe in Me as the Messiah, it is given constantly and plainly to hear from Me the mysteries of God and of heaven, by which you are carried away day by day more into hope and love of Him. But from the Jews and Scribes, who are unwilling to believe in Me as their Messiah, God will take away the slender knowledge and understanding they have of God and of heaven; nay, He will deprive them of the Church, the kingdom, the priesthood, the temple, the sacrifice, their fatherland, and every sacred and civil thing, so that — profane and perfidious — they will wander about the whole world, vagabond and wretched. So Saint Jerome, Euthymius, and Hilary, who expounds thus, as if to say: He who has faith will grasp the mysteries of faith. But the Jews, not having faith, lost even the Law which they had.
Secondly, as if to say: They who have ears to hear, that is, for hearing — namely those who bring to Me a sincere affection, that is, a pure desire and zeal for faith and truth, as you do, O Apostles, by the gift of God — to these I shall plainly open the heavenly truth, and shall constantly promote them on the way of virtue and spirit by which they may reach the kingdom of God. But those who do not have this pure desire for the truth, but indulge their lusts, superstitions, and errors, as you do, O Jews and Scribes, from these that little knowledge which they have of God and divine things shall likewise be taken away, and they shall become wholly blind; and therefore to you, O Jews, I Christ speak not plainly, but obscurely in parables, as follows: "For he who has a small spark of good and does not arouse and kindle it through the spirit and spiritual things, it must of necessity be extinguished," says Theophylact; for zeal is what advances the zealous in letters and likewise in virtues: if you take away zeal, knowledge and virtue, even that already acquired, will gradually fail. So Saint Chrysostom, Bede, Remigius, Saint Thomas, and others.
Thirdly, Saint Augustine, in book I On Christian Doctrine, chapter 1, expounds "hath" by "uses," and applies it to preachers; as if to say: The preacher who has doctrine — that is, uses the doctrine given to him by God, and vigorously preaches it and communicates it to others — him the doctrine and words which he speaks and preaches shall never fail, God suggesting them; but if one does not use his doctrine, gradually he himself will forget it and lose it. For thus "to have" is taken for "to use" in chapter 25, verse 29. So we find by experience that vigorous preachers, the more they preach, the more they abound in words and spirit, like fountains from which, as much water as flows out, just as much flows back in from elsewhere.
Verse 13: Therefore Do I Speak to Them in Parables
Behold, here Christ plainly opens the cause which He brought forward in verse 11, why He Himself spoke to the Jews and Pharisees in parables, namely because although they themselves had already previously refused to hear Christ openly teaching and preaching about repentance and the way to the kingdom of heaven — that is, to understand, to obey and to believe — and, though they saw His holiness and miracles, declined to recognize Him as Messiah from these signs and to worship Him. They deserved therefore that Christ should speak to them obscurely and by parables. For He was teaching in Capharnaum, where there were wealthy merchants, given over to their riches, luxury and pomp; others were Scribes and Pharisees, or their followers. These men scorned — nay, ridiculed and slandered — Christ's doctrine about heaven, about the contempt of wealth, about humility, poverty, repentance, and so on. For this reason Christ deliberately took refuge in parables, which they could not ridicule or slander since they did not understand them. He therefore spoke to them in parables, not because they were absolutely reprobate, but because they were unworthy, ungrateful, and incapable; for they had listened to Him as He taught and preached plainly and most clearly, more out of curiosity and a desire to slander than out of a desire to believe, as is clear from the previous chapter, verses 2, 10, 14, 24, 38, and chapter XI, verse 23, where Christ thunders the woe of eternal damnation upon the citizens of Capharnaum: "Thou shalt go down even unto hell; for if in Sodom had been wrought the mighty works that have been wrought in thee, perhaps it had remained unto this day." Thus Saint Hilary, Chrysostom, Euthymius, Theophylact and Bede. I admit, nevertheless, that among this crowd of unbelieving Jews there were mingled many who were good, or at least had mixed motives in their desire to hear Christ for the sake of their salvation; but because these were mixed in with the crowd of unbelievers opposing Christ, therefore along with them it was granted to them to hear only parables, so that from these, though they did not understand them, they might at least conceive admiration and reverence for Christ, which would then further move and urge them on. Indeed, as Saint Chrysostom says, Christ spoke in parables to all the Pharisees and Scribes, however malignant and obstinate, with this intention and this end: that He might instill in them a sincere desire to examine the parables, to believe in Christ, and to be saved, and might sharpen that desire once instilled; and that, having suffered a temporary blindness in the parables which they did not grasp, they might more eagerly seek the true Light, Christ, and demand from Him the explanation of the parables. And Mark intimates this, IV, 33, saying: "With many such parables He spoke to them the word, according as they were able to hear," namely, that those who could understand and grasp them should grasp them, while those who could not should be prompted to search out their explanation and to demand it from Christ.
Verse 14: And the Prophecy of Isaiah Is Fulfilled in Them
That is, you shall not understand that which you see and hear in Christ.
Verse 15: For the Heart of This People Is Grown Gross
He cites Isaiah, VI, 9 and 10, where for "grown gross" our Vulgate translates "blind," that is, "he shall blind" (the Chaldean has: "I make foolish the heart of this people"). The Hebrew is הַשְׁמֵן (husmen), which means "fatten, make gross the heart of this people, and burden its ears." Hence note that blinding, making gross, and hardening are attributed both to God, as the one who abandons a man already blinded, grown gross, and hardened, leaving him in his blindness and supplying him with its occasions; and also to the man himself, because properly and of his own accord he blinds himself, makes himself gross and hardens himself, while clinging tenaciously to his own darkness and vices, closing His eyes to the divine light, and stiffening and shutting the edge of his mind against the doctrine of Christ. Hence the Seventy on Isaiah VI, whom our Vulgate follows, reading the word husheman with different vowel points, translate in a clearer and more inward sense: "The heart of this people is grown gross" — that is, directly by itself, indirectly by God; especially since the preceding words signify that they were blinded against Christ not so much by God as by their own cupidity, pride, malice, hatred and envy. See what I said on Isaiah VI, 9 and 10, where I explained these things at length.
Verse 16: But Blessed Are Your Eyes, for They See
Take "eyes and ears" as meaning both those of the body and still more of the mind; as though He said: Blessed are you, O Apostles, because you draw the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom from Me through your eyes and ears, both the external eyes and ears of the body, and the inward ones of the soul; for with the eyes of the body you see My holy manners, gestures, mysteries, miracles; with your ears you hear My heavenly doctrines; but, what is far greater, with the eyes and ears of the mind, God enlightening it, you grasp, believe, and understand these same things, which the Jews do not do. For the soul, just like the body, has its own eyes and ears — nay, it is itself wholly eye and wholly ear, so as to be able to perceive and understand whatever is seen and heard.
Verse 17: Many Prophets and Just Men Have Desired to See the Things That You See
For, as Christ says in John VIII, 56: "Abraham rejoiced that he might see My day; he saw it and was glad." The voice and vow of Jacob is: "I will look for Thy salvation, O Lord," Genesis XLIX, 18; and of Isaiah XLV, 8: "Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a Saviour." This was the meaning, this was the desire of all the Patriarchs, of all the Prophets, of all the Saints of the Old Testament: to behold and to hear the Messiah, the Redeemer, Teacher and Saviour of the world.
It is reported that Saint Augustine had three wishes: first, to see Christ conversing in the flesh; second, to behold Rome triumphing in the splendor of the Empire; third, to hear Paul thundering from the chair. The same wish was — and still is — the wish of many.
Verse 18: Hear You Therefore the Parable of the Sower
Hear You Therefore the Parable (that is, the explanation of the parable) of the Sower.
Verse 19: Every One That Heareth the Word of the Kingdom and Understandeth It Not
Every One That Heareth the Word of the Kingdom (of heaven, namely, how great and of what sort it is, and by what ways and means it is to be obtained), and Understandeth It Not, There Cometh the Wicked One (ὁ πονηρός, that is, that wicked one par excellence, namely the devil), and Catcheth Away That Which Was Sown in His Heart: This Is He That Received the Seed by the Way Side. — Luke expresses this more clearly, VIII, 11: "The seed, he says, is the word of God. And they by the way side are they that hear; then the devil cometh, and taketh the word out of their heart, lest believing they should be saved."
Fittingly the Word of God, or the Gospel, and its preaching are compared to a seed and to sowing. First, because just as the word is scattered and sown from the mouth of the preacher, so the seed is scattered and sown by the hand of the sower. Second, just as the word is received by the ear and heart of the hearer, so the seed is received and conceived in the bowels of the earth, so that it may bring forth shoots. Third, just as the seed is the parent of all crops and fruits, so too the Word of God is the parent and cause of all good works. Fourth, as the earth without seed brings forth nothing but nettles, tares and thorns, so too the mind of man without the Word of God brings forth nothing but what is vain, vicious and harmful. Fifth, just as seed, in order to bear fruit, must be sown and received into soil that is neither hard nor stony, dry nor thorny, but soft, moist, pure and well-watered; so too the Word of God, in order to bring forth spiritual fruits, must be received by a heart that is soft, pliable, pure, and inclined toward virtue and piety. This is what James says, I, 21: "With meekness receive the ingrafted word." See what is said there.
Again, Palladius, book II of On Agriculture, title 35, to prevent seeds from being gnawed by moles, mice, ants, field-pests and locusts, suggests as a remedy that the seeds first be macerated in harsh and bitter substances. "Serpents," he says, "are driven away by almost any austerity, and harmful spirits are stirred up by the innocence of a strongly-scented smoke. Let us burn galbanum, or stag's horns, lily roots, goat's hooves. By this means all monstrous creatures are kept off." So too Pliny, book XIX, chapter 10, teaches that the chickpea keeps caterpillars off vegetables, and adds: "If the seed of vegetables is sown after being soaked in its juice (that is, of wormwood), they report that the vegetables will be subject to no animal." See him also on the faults and remedies of seeds, book XVIII, chapter 17, where among other things he says: "They think that seeds previously steeped in wine are less subject to disease." In like manner, in order that we may keep the seed of the Word and grace of God in our hearts unimpaired by the corrosion of sensual pleasures, it must be macerated by sobriety, fasting, penances, and other austerities of life; for these drive out from the mind every putrefaction and greedy seizing after delights.
Sixthly, just as the earth must be plowed, manured, harrowed, hoed, weeded, and so on, in order that the seed may germinate in it and bring forth fruit; so too the heart of men must be subjugated, purged, and cultivated by the laborious acts of penance, mortification, obedience, and other virtues, in order that the Word of God may in it bear fruit as Isaiah says, XXXII, 20: "Blessed are ye that sow upon all waters, sending thither the foot of the ox and the ass." See what is said there.
Seventhly, just as a seed, in order to sprout, needs rain, sun, and sky; so too, in order that the Word of God may take root in the mind and bring forth the shoots of good desires and deeds, it must be watered by grace and warmed by heavenly charity. This is what Isaiah says, LXI, 11: "For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth her seed to germinate; so shall the Lord God germinate justice (through the Word of the Gospel scattered by Christ and the Apostles), and praise before all the nations."
Eighthly, just as the seed once received into the earth must, in order to bear fruit, be loosened, broken, opened and die; so too the word in the heart of man, in order to bear fruit, must by meditation be loosened, broken down, ground up, and as it were die, and must likewise break down and mortify the heart itself — according to that saying of Christ: "Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit," John XII, 24. Again, in order that the earth may bring forth fruit from the seed, it must endure the plow, the harrow, rains, hail, winds, and the like; so also the faithful, in order to bring forth fruit from the Word of God, must endure many adversities.
Ninthly, the seed must first put down roots into the earth, then shoot forth into sprouts and branches, then blossom into flowers, and finally from these produce fruit; so too the Word of God must first be rooted in the mind, then bring forth the shoots of good thoughts and the flowers of good desires, so that at last it may produce the fruits of good works.
Tenthly, the entire force of a tree, shrub, and plant is in the seed; for from it the entire tree and plant and all its parts and members (which it has proportionally similar to the members of an animal and a man) come forth. For this reason many have judged that the seed is animated; and Aristotle hints at this, book II of On the Generation of Animals, chapter 1. For the seed, once cast into the earth, soon produces living shoots as though itself alive. In like manner, the entire force of virtue, perfection, and spiritual health — by which a man is made spiritual, holy, and perfect — is contained in the Word of God as in a seed: for this, unfolding itself and germinating in the mind, brings forth all the actions of all the virtues.
Eleventhly, different seeds produce different fruits: as the seed of the pear produces a pear, of the plum a plum, of the cherry a cherry, of wheat wheat, of barley barley, and so on; so too the different maxims of the Gospel produce different affections in the mind — the maxims of humility produce humility, those of patience patience, those of penance penance.
Twelfthly, just as for the generation of offspring father and mother come together; so for the production of fruit, seed and earth come together — but in such a way that the earth draws all its power of producing this or that fruit from the seed. In like manner, for a good work there come together the Word of God (both external and, still more, internal) and the free will of man, which must cooperate with the Word of God, but in such a way that it draws the entire power to produce a spiritual, supernatural and divine work — one pleasing to God and meritorious of eternal life — from God's Word and grace (as the Council of Trent teaches, session VI), just as it draws from free will the fact that the work is free, not coerced or necessitated. For the internal word, which God speaks in the soul, rousing and strengthening it to acts of penance, patience, charity, religion, and so on, is nothing other than the very grace of God, enlightening the understanding and strengthening the affection or will, and kindling it toward the divine works of the virtues. But this internal word — that is, this grace — God is accustomed to add to the external word of preaching, so as to animate it, as it were; for otherwise, without grace, it would be as it were inanimate, ineffectual, and unable to produce such great works. Therefore what the preacher speaks externally in the ear, God must speak internally in the heart in order that fruit may come forth.
Finally, just as from a stronger and more efficacious seed, and from better soil, a better fruit is produced — for example, better wheat, better barley — so too from more powerful preaching and God's grace, and more fervent cooperation of free will, is produced a more outstanding act of virtue, a work more excellent and heroic. Hear Pliny, book XVIII, chapter 24: "The best seed is of one year; two-year-old seed is worse, three-year-old worst of all, and beyond that sterile. The seed that has settled at the bottom of the threshing-floor is the one to be kept for sowing, for it is the best, being the heaviest; the best grain is that which is red and which, when broken with the teeth, has the same color inside; the worse kind is that which has more white within." Then he lays down the following laws of sowing. First: "in moist places sowing should be done more quickly; the reason is that the seed should not rot in the rain; in dry places more slowly, so that the rains may follow, lest the seed, lying long without germinating, perish." Second: "it is a matter of skill to scatter evenly. The hand should match the step, and always go with the right foot." Third: "seed must not be transferred from cold to warm places, nor from early-ripening to late-ripening ones." Fourth: "sow more in rich soil, less in poor." Fifth: "that oracle is to be observed, 'do not exhaust the crop,'" that is, lest you wear out all the fruit by excessive yield; for, as Columella says, "it is a fact that a field is emptied by excessive over-cropping." Sixth, Pliny adds: One must sow "when the moon is in Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, or Aquarius. Virgil orders wheat and spelt to be sown at the setting of the Pleiades, barley between the equinox and the winter solstice, but vetch, beans and lentils when Bootes is setting." All these things mystically apply to preachers of the Gospel in their sowing.
And Understandeth It Not. — He does not notice, does not grasp, does not penetrate the force and the meanings of the Word of God, because some other occupation, desire or care, or the devil himself, turns and draws away his mind to think of other things.
This Is He That Received the Seed by the Way Side. — That is, he received the seed of the Word of God, as though Christ said: This man — and his heart — is signified by that part of ground which, lying in the road or by the roadside, has received the sower's seed. Hence Vatablus, by hypallage, renders it thus: "This (seed) is what was sown by the wayside." For just as seed falling on the road or beside the road is rejected by the trampled and hard ground, and therefore, lying exposed upon the earth, is snatched up by the birds; so likewise the seed of the Word of God in a heart hardened by the habit of sinning is not received, but is immediately snatched away by the devil who drives the heart on to its accustomed sins. Such a man therefore, in reality, has the name, appearance, and form, not of a field but of a roadway, not of a hearer but of a despiser. For which reason every cast of the seed of the Word of God is absolutely in vain and wasted in him, inasmuch as he is so hard and unfit.
Moreover, the unsuitability of road-beaten earth for receiving seed is removed if the earth itself is well worked up, first with the plow and then with the hoe, so that it becomes soft and tender enough to conceive the seed: for plowing wears away the footpath, and a hedge closes the passage to those who tread it down; then let it be manured, but moderately and fittingly. For as Pliny says, book XVIII, chapter 23: "A field, if it is not manured, grows cold; if it is too much manured, it is scorched: it is better to manure often than beyond measure. The hotter the soil, the less manure is to be added — such is the principle." In like manner, the unsuitability of a heart hardened, as if by a callus, through a vicious habit for receiving the Word of God must be removed by compunction, which cleaves and softens the hardness of the heart; and by the hoe of continence, which breaks vicious desires and subjects them to right reason and to God's law.
Verse 20: And He That Received the Seed Upon Stony Ground
And He That Received the Seed Upon Stony Ground (that is, received the seed — for as the seed is said to be sown, so also the ground; but the seed in an objective, and the ground in a passive sense), Is He That Heareth the Word, and Immediately Receiveth It With Joy. — Vatablus: And what was sown on stony ground, this signifies the man who, and so forth.
Verse 21: Yet He Hath Not Root in Himself, but Is Only for a Time
This is the second condition of ground receiving seed, better than the one that went before. For the former, on the plainly hard road, cast back the seed; but this, having some soft earth, receives and conceives the seed, but only for a short time. The meaning, then, is as follows: Like ground sown on rock is the heart of that hearer who hears the Word of God and receives it with joy in his mind, conceives, ruminates upon, and approves of it, because he is delighted by its beauty, rectitude, equity, holiness, and the hope of attaining happiness — according to this saying: "The justices (laws and precepts) of the Lord are right, rejoicing hearts," Psalm XVIII, 9. Hence it quickly springs up into the blade — that is, into a devout affection toward the faith and the other works of piety. But, because in his heart he has little soil and more rock — that is, because he has more of a wicked custom hardened and petrified in his own pleasures than of an earthy inclination toward pious matters — hence the Word of God cannot strike a deep root in him; but he is "temporal" — that is, not constant in the faith, but "for a short time," as the Arabic version renders it, "he believes"; for when he perceives that the Word of God runs counter to his cupidities and the vices to which he has grown accustomed, he dashes away and rejects it as though it were hard and stony ground. Hence Luke says, VIII, 14: These are they "who believe for a while, and in the time of temptation fall away" from the Word and the faith of God — or at least from the law which the faith commands him to follow. Therefore, when tribulation arises from private persons, or persecution from public magistrates who threaten to take away from him, on account of the Word and faith of God, his life, wealth, pleasures, or honors — things to which he has grown accustomed and to which he is bound by love — he is presently scandalized, that is, as the Syriac has it, offended; and being offended, he draws back from the faith or from its profession and practice, and, as Luke says, "departs," fails, apostatizes.
Saint Gregory gives an example, homily 45 on the Gospels: "The stony ground, he says, had no moisture; because that which had sprouted up, it did not lead through to the fruit of perseverance. For many, when they hear the word against avarice, detest that same avarice and praise contempt for all possessions; but soon, as soon as the mind sees something it craves, it forgets what it had been praising. Many, when they hear the word against lust, not only do not desire to commit acts of uncleanness of the flesh, but are even ashamed of those already committed; but soon, as soon as some form of the flesh appears before their eyes, the mind is caught up into desire, as though nothing had ever been deliberated against these very desires; and it does things worthy of condemnation which, whatever it remembers it has done, it has itself already condemned. Often we are pricked with compunction against our faults, and yet, after the weeping, we return to the very same faults."
Verse 22: And He That Received the Seed Among Thorns
And He That Received the Seed Among Thorns (that is, who received the seed of the Word of God), Is He That Heareth the Word (Vatablus: The seed which was sown among thorns signifies the man who, and so on), and the Care of This World, and the Deceitfulness of Riches, Choketh Up the Word, and It Becometh Fruitless. — This is the third lot and condition of ground receiving seed, and better than the second in the degree that thorns present less impediment to germination than stones do. This ground therefore notes the heart of a hearer which is overgrown, as it were with thorns, by riches and worldly cares; for these dash down and choke the sprouting seed of the Word of God before it can bring forth the ripe fruits of the virtues.
Note: riches are aptly compared to thorns, because, like thorns, they distract, prick, and torment the mind, so that a rich man is often not at leisure to think about divine matters. Hear Rabanus: "They are rightly called thorns, because with the stings of their own cares they lacerate the mind, and, as though by strangling it, do not allow it to bring forth the spiritual fruits of the virtues."
And Saint Gregory, homily 15 on the Gospels: "Who would ever have believed me, if I had wished to interpret 'thorns' as meaning riches — especially since thorns prick, whereas riches delight? And yet they are thorns, because with the stings of their cares they lacerate the mind, and when they drag it all the way down into sin, they draw blood as though from an inflicted wound."
The Care of This World, — that is, of worldly and temporal affairs: for example, concern for a wife, children, household, station, office, or rank which one has, or which one seeks for oneself or for one's own. This, like a thorn with its prickles, lacerates the mind — that is, distracts, disturbs, bites, wounds, gnaws at it — according to the line: "Love is a thing full of anxious fear"; whereas, on the contrary, the care of salvation and of divine things gathers, calms, heals, and quickens the mind.
Hear Saint Gregory, homily 15: "They choke, because with their importunate cares they strangle the throat of the mind; and while they do not allow any good desire to enter the heart, they kill, as it were, the passageway of the vital breath. It should also be noted that there are two things that He joins to riches — namely, cares and pleasures — because they assuredly both weigh down the mind through anxiety and dissolve it through the tide of enjoyment."
The Deceitfulness, — that is, the seductiveness of riches; riches are themselves deceitful, because they seduce the mind away from God and from salvation toward vain and hurtful wealth, which is the cause of many sins and often of damnation, pursued by fair means and foul. They are called deceitful because they do not deliver what they promise — namely, pleasure and delight, as the Interlinear Gloss says — nay rather, instead of this they often call down upon a man the eternal punishments of hell. Hear Saint Jerome: "Riches are flattering, doing one thing and promising another. The possession of them is a slippery thing, since they are carried here and there, and with an unsteady step either desert those who have them, or flood in upon those who do not. Hence the Lord too declares that the rich enter the kingdom of heaven with difficulty, because riches choke the Word of God and soften the rigor of the virtues."
And Saint Gregory, homily 15 on the Gospels: "They are deceitful, he says, because they cannot remain with us for long; they are deceitful, because they do not drive out the poverty of our mind. But the only true riches are those that make us rich in virtues. Therefore, dearest brethren, if you desire to be rich, aim for the heavenly kingdom. If you love the glory of high station, hasten to be enrolled in that supreme court of the Angels."
Verse 23: But He That Received the Seed Upon Good Ground
But He That Received the Seed Upon Good Ground (that is, received the seed of the Word of God), Is He That Heareth the Word, and Understandeth, and Beareth Fruit; and Yieldeth One a Hundredfold, Another Sixty, and Another Thirty. Understandeth It (he considers it with his mind, ruminates, penetrates, proves, tastes, and retains it), and Bringeth Forth Fruit — both of good works, which the Word and the Law of God command or counsel to be done, and of the corresponding reward and glory in heaven. Whence Luke adds, "in patience," in Greek ἐν ὑπομονῇ, that is, in long-suffering — namely, after the manner of a farmer, waiting long after the sowing of good works and the labors of patience, hoping and expecting from them the fruit and the harvest of the heavenly reward. "Good ground," says Saint Gregory, homily 13, "yields its fruit through patience. The grape is crushed under the heels and flows into the savor of wine; the olive, pressed by its bruisings, abandons its amurca (its lees) and fattens into the liquor of oil; by the threshing of the floor the grains are separated from the chaff, and cleansed, they come through to the barn," and so on.
Hence Saint Bonaventure, on Luke chapter 8, says that the good hearer hands himself over entirely to the Word of God, together with all the powers of his soul — namely, the intellect, the will or affection, the memory, the faculty of acting, and the faculty of suffering. He hands over the intellect and the will, because he receives the word into a good and best heart; the memory, because he retains the word; the faculty of acting and suffering, because he brings forth fruit in patience. On the contrary, bad hearers, says Hugh, store the Word of God like wheat on the threshing-floor — that is, in notebooks and books, never sowing it and never eating from it; and for that reason they will never reap, and so on.
And Yieldeth (fruit) — One a Hundredfold, Another Sixty, and Another Thirty. — The Syriac has: And one (the man who has been sown, that is, who has received the seed of the Word of God, by the power of that seed brings forth) a hundred, another sixty, another finally thirty. "It should be noted," says Saint Jerome, "that, just as in the bad ground there were three diversities — namely, by the wayside, on stony and on thorny places — so in the good ground there is a threefold diversity: the hundredfold, the sixtyfold, and the thirtyfold fruit. And in the former, or even in this latter, the substance is not changed, but the will; and it is the hearts of both unbelievers and believers that receive the seed."
Further, the hundredfold fruit of the Word of God is called the greatest, just as the greatest fruit of a seed is when, from one grain or one measure, a harvest of a hundred grains or measures is gathered — as Isaac gathered, Genesis XXVI, 12. The sixtyfold fruit is called middling and average; the thirtyfold, great but at the lowest level; for this is precisely and literally all that Christ here intends. A definite number is set down for an indefinite one; otherwise He might have added: "one brings forth fortyfold fruit, another twentyfold, another fiftyfold," and so on. Hence from this passage, against Jovinian and Calvin, the inequality of merit — and consequently of the heavenly reward of good works — is rightly proved. So Saint Chrysostom, homily 45; Saint Augustine, On Virginity, chapter 46; Nazianzen, oration 28, which is to Maximus; and others.
But the Fathers, whatever Calvin may sneer or cry out, truly apply these specifically to different states of life. First, Saint Jerome here and in book 1 Against Jovinian; and Saint Athanasius in his Letter to the monk Ammon; and others, assign the hundredfold fruit to virgins, the sixtyfold to widows, and the thirtyfold to upright and holy married couples.
Secondly, Saint Cyprian, in his book On the Habit of Virgins, and Saint Augustine, in book I of the Gospel Questions, Question IX, volume IV, ascribe the hundredfold fruit to martyrs, the sixtyfold to virgins, and the thirtyfold to married people. Hear Saint Augustine: "I hold that the hundredfold belongs to the martyrs, on account of the holiness of their life or the contempt of death; the sixtyfold to virgins, on account of their leisure from destruction, because they do not fight against the custom of the flesh — for leisure is wont to be granted to sexagenarians after military service or after public duties; the thirtyfold to the married, because this is the age of fighters, since they have the sharper conflict, not to be overcome by lusts."
Thirdly, the author of the Opus Imperfectum here, homily 31, gives the hundredfold to the martyrs; the sixtyfold to those who follow voluntary poverty and the Evangelical counsels; the thirtyfold to those who are content with the mere observance of the commandments.
Fourthly, Euthymius and Theophylact give the thirtyfold to beginners, the sixtyfold to the proficient, and the hundredfold to the perfect. So too Nazianzen, in oration 28: "From the thirtyfold, he says, progressing to the sixtyfold, he has proceeded to the hundredfold, so that, continually making new advances like Isaac in Genesis XXVI, he may at last become great, walking from virtue to virtue (Psalm LXXXIII) and singing the Songs of Ascents, setting ascensions in his heart."
Fifthly, Remigius: "The seed," he says, "bears thirtyfold fruit when it begets a good thought; sixtyfold, when good speech; a hundredfold, when it leads to the fruit of a good work."
Verse 24: The Kingdom of Heaven Is Likened to a Man That Sowed Good Seed in His Field
Another Parable (the Syriac adds: enigmatically) He Proposed to Them, Saying: The Kingdom of Heaven Is Likened to a Man That Sowed Good Seed in His Field. — That is, what takes place in the kingdom of heaven is similar to what takes place in a field, when someone sows it and his enemy over-sows it with tares. Whence Mark, IV, 26, has it thus: "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep," etc. For the whole parable is compared to the whole thing signified, not part to part: otherwise the sowing man would properly not be like the kingdom, but like the king of heaven. There is a similar comparison in the same chapter XI, 16. See Canon 26.
Verse 25: But While Men Were Asleep, His Enemy Came and Oversowed Tares
As though to say: By night, while men are sleeping, in secret from everyone his enemy came, who, envying the happiness and the happy crop of his rival that was springing up so prosperously, sowed tares over it in order to destroy it. The phrase "while they were asleep" is added for the elegance of the parable; for envious men are accustomed to plot these frauds and these damages while others are asleep. As though He said: When a favorable time seemed to the rival for the crop to be spoiled, which is wont to happen when the husbandman sleeps, then he comes secretly and scatters the tares. Symbolically: Saint Jerome and Saint Augustine, Question XI on Matthew, take this sleep to mean the negligence and carelessness of the bishops and pastors of the Church, or the death of the Apostles; for taking this occasion, heretics and the impious sowed the tares of their heresies and crimes. Hence let the faithful, and especially pastors, morally learn to watch and keep guard over both their flock and the wolves, lest they sow tares. To these in the first place applies the saying: "The life of mortals is a watch." For, as another says: "To sleep more than to watch is the life of dormice, not of men."
Tares (Zizania). — In the Hebrew Gospel one finds חרולים charulim, that is, nettles, thistles. Moreover, zizania is a Gospel word, unknown to Cicero and Demosthenes, signifying darnel and every impure plant that spoils and adulterates a crop — such as wild oats, according to Virgil's Georgics I: "Unhappy darnel and barren wild oats dominate." For avenae (wild oats) are so called as though from avidae (greedy), from their greed to occupy everything — just as habenae (reins), which are the restraints of horses, are named from habendi potestas (the power of holding), as Agratius says. Every impurity in seed is called zizania, says Saint Augustine, Questions on the Gospel according to Matthew. Tertullian, in his book On Prescription against Heretics, ch. XXXI, interprets zizania as wild oats: "The parable," he says, "first establishes the good seed of wheat sown by the Lord, but afterward introduces the adulteration of barren hay — the wild oats (the tares) — brought in by the enemy, the devil;" whence he concludes: "that the later offspring" of heresy "is to be assigned to falsehood." Hence, in his book On the Soul, ch. XVI, he calls the sower of the tares "the over-sower of wild oats, and the nocturnal interpolator of the wheat crop." Hear Saint Isidore, Etymologies book XVII, ch. IX, at the end: "Zizania, which the poets always call unhappy darnel, because it is useless and unfruitful; foenum (hay) is so named because flame is nourished by it; for φῶς means flame. We call a bundle of hay a manipulus (handful), and it is called manipulus because it fills the hand."
The tares, then, are darnel hostile to crops and whatever is contrary to wheat. Hear Pliny, book XVIII, ch. XVII: "For darnel and caltrops, and thistles and burs, no less than brambles, I would reckon among the diseases of crops rather than among the plagues of the earth itself." The etymologist wishes ζιζάνιον to be said as it were σιτιζάνω, because it sits beside the crops and grows up together with them; for σῖτος means wheat, and ζάνω means "I sit beside." Others prefer it to be a Syriac word; for the Syriac here has זיזני zizane; the Arabic זואן zauan; and in Chaldaic ב means to nourish, and דו means species or figure. For it has the appearance of an edible grain, but is not such. However, the Syriac and Arabic were translated from the Greek Gospel; whence they graecize and often adopt Greek words, as here they adopt zizane, which is clearly derived from the Greek ζιζάνια, it seems — and thus this word seems to be Greek rather than Syriac. The French call it ivraie, the Saxons dolck, the Germans droncaert, because it intoxicates: for it produces in those who eat it dizziness, stupor, and a kind of drunkenness. Hence the tares mystically signify heretics and sinners, especially those who by word or example spoil and corrupt others, as Saint Augustine, Saint Chrysostom, Saint Gregory, and others teach; for the tares harm the wheat and choke and kill it, both because they suck out the nourishment — namely the juice of the earth — and snatch it from the wheat; and because by their bitterness and malignity they infect, corrupt and strangle the earth, and consequently the wheat that springs up from it. This is Christ's second parable of the tares, by which He tacitly rebukes the Scribes and Pharisees, His rivals, who over their seed of the word of God — that is, over the Gospel preaching — kept sowing the tares of calumnies, saying that Jesus was opposing Moses, not keeping the Sabbath, associating with sinners and prostitutes, having familiarity with the demon, and casting out demons in Beelzebub, etc.; by which they concluded that Jesus was not the Messiah, but a magician and impostor, and so they turned the people away from Him and from His Gospel, which they were eagerly listening to, and they crushed and choked the good seeds of faith and piety and the desires cast by Christ into their hearts. Therefore they themselves were the tares, that is, the wicked seeds of the devil.
Verse 26: But When the Blade Was Sprung Up, Then Appeared Also the Tares
For the first shoots of the tares and of the wheat are alike, so that one cannot be distinguished from the other; but when they have grown, then by their dissimilarity they betray themselves, so that you can easily tell the tares from the wheat.
Verses 27-29: The Servants Came and Said, Didst Thou Not Sow Good Seed?
For the tares entwine and intertwine themselves with the roots of the wheat, so that if you wish to pluck them up, you must pluck up the wheat as well.
Verse 30: Suffer Both to Grow Until the Harvest
"To grow" — in Greek συναυξάνεσθαι — that is, to grow together, to increase equally. "Gather up" — after the crop has been reaped, separate the tares from it that they may be burned; for it would be too long and laborious before the harvest to reap or pluck one by one the tares scattered here and there among the crop. This is the parable, which Christ will explain in verse 37.
Verses 31-32: The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like to a Grain of Mustard Seed
31. Another parable He proposed unto them, saying: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. [Luke 13:19; Mark 4:31.]
Verses 31, 32. Which Is Indeed the Least of All Seeds: but When It Is Grown, It Is Greater Than All Herbs, and Becometh a Tree, So That the Birds of the Air Come and Dwell in the Branches Thereof. — The Arabic version: so that the birds of heaven are shaded beneath its branches. This is Christ's third parable, of the grain of mustard seed, whose occasion and cause Saint Chrysostom assigns: "Because the Lord had said," he says, "that of the seed three parts perish and one is saved, and among that which is saved again, much loss is suffered on account of the tares which are oversown; lest they should say: Who then will the faithful be, and how many? consequently He removes this fear by the parable of the grain of mustard seed, and therefore it is said: He proposed to them another parable, saying: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took," etc.
You will ask first: What here is called the kingdom of heaven, which is like to a grain of mustard seed? First, Saint Hilary here, in Canon 13, understands Christ Himself: "To a grain of mustard seed," he says, "the Lord compared Himself, most sharp and the least of all seeds, whose virtue and power is kindled by tribulations and pressures. This grain therefore after it had been sown in the field, that is when He was seized by the people and handed over to death, was buried in His body as in a field by a certain sowing, and grew beyond the measure of all herbs, and exceeded all the glory of the Prophets. For in place of an herb, the preaching of the Prophets was given as to a sick Israel; but now the birds of heaven dwell in the branches of the tree raised from the ground on high: namely the Apostles, extended by Christ's power, and we understand them as overshadowing the world in the branches, to whom the Gentiles will fly in hope of life, and harassed by the whirlwind of breezes, that is by the spirit and breath of the devil, will rest as in the branches of the tree." Thus also Saint Gregory, Moralia Book XIX, chapter XI, whom hear explaining this whole parable part by part concerning Christ: "For He Himself is the grain of mustard seed, who planted in the burial of the garden, rose up a great tree. For He was a grain when He was dying; a tree when He was rising. A grain through the humility of the flesh; a tree through the power of majesty. A grain, because we saw Him, and there was no comeliness; but a tree, because beautiful in form above the sons of men. The branches of this tree are the holy preachers. And let us see how widely they are extended. For what is said of them? Their sound has gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. In these branches the birds rest, because the holy souls, who lift themselves on certain wings of virtues from earthly thought, breathe again from the weariness of this life in their sayings and consolations." Saint Augustine has similar things, Sermon 33 On the Saints.
You will say, how can Christ be called the kingdom of heaven, since He Himself is not the kingdom, but the King of heaven? The answer is: As the king is as it were the head in the kingdom, so the kingdom in turn is as the body in the king, as in its head. Wherefore the king represents the whole commonwealth and kingdom. Hence according to the rule of Tichonius, often in Scripture the things which belong to the Church (which is the kingdom of Christ) are attributed to Christ, and vice versa. The answer is second: The sense is plain, as if to say: Similarly it is handled in the kingdom of heaven, as if someone in it, as in the field of God, should sow a grain of mustard seed, that is Christ, who grows most high and spreads Himself everywhere. We heard a similar phrase in verse 24.
Second, more plainly and fittingly, the kingdom of heaven and the grain of mustard seed is the Church, especially the primitive Church, so Saint Chrysostom; or faith, as Saint Augustine would have it; or rather the Gospel and Evangelical doctrine (although all these come back to almost the same thing), as Saint Jerome, Saint Ambrose, Bede and others would have it: for He first compared it to the seed, verses 3 and 24; second, to the grain of mustard seed, this verse; third, to leaven, verse 33; fourth, to a treasure hidden in the field, verse 44; fifth, to a precious pearl, verse 46; sixth, to a net cast into the sea, verse 47. This is called the kingdom of heaven, because through it God reigns in us and leads us to His kingdom in heaven.
You will ask second: Why is the Gospel compared to a grain of mustard seed, and what are the analogies between them? Answer. The first is, that Christ by this parable intends to signify the immense power, fruit and propagation of Evangelical preaching, inasmuch as it began with Christ from a slender beginning, and through a few Apostles spread into the whole world. For the grain of mustard seed is "the least of all seeds," that is of all seeds, as the Syriac and Arabic have it. In Greek, μικρότερον πάντων σπερμάτων, that is less than all seeds: less, that is the least: understand this according to the common manner of speaking of men, whereby we call the least that which is very small and one of the smallest; for otherwise precisely the seed of poppy, rue, sage, basil and other herbs is smaller than the grain of mustard seed; thus Evangelical preaching first stood in Christ and a few Apostles, and was the smallest.
Second, the grain of mustard seed, especially in Syria, grows into a tree, so that in its branches "dwell," the Syriac has 'nest,' "the birds of heaven"; so the Gospel grew and occupied the whole world, so that in its branches dwell the birds of heaven, that is men sublime in knowledge and sense; likewise kings and princes, as is clear from Daniel IV, 9 and 19; some take it as Angels, for these are winged and most swift. Hear Saint Augustine, Sermon 33 On the Saints: "A branch is Peter, a branch is Paul, a branch is blessed Lawrence, whose birthday we celebrate today. The branches are all the Apostles or Martyrs of the Savior, to whom if anyone wishes to hold himself firmly, he is not at all submerged by the waves of the age, but rather lurking under their shadow, will not suffer the burning of Gehenna, and will be secure from the storm of the diabolical tempest and from the burning fire of the day of judgment."
Third, and especially, in the mustard is noted the fiery power and efficacy of the Gospel: "For Pythagoras," says Pliny, book XX, chapter XXII, "judged that mustard has the primacy among those whose power is borne upward; since nothing else penetrates more into the nostrils and brain." The grain of mustard seed pertains to the fervor of faith, says Saint Augustine; "For the dogmas of the Pharisees," says Saint Jerome, "when they have grown, show nothing biting, nothing vital; the whole thing bubbles up flaccid and withered into herbs and grasses, which quickly dry up and fall away. But Evangelical preaching, which seemed small in the beginning, when it has been sown either in the soul or in the whole world, does not rise up into herbs, but grows into a tree."
Fourth, mustard ought to be crushed; for when crushed it breathes forth its fiery power and breath: so Evangelical preaching was crushed by a thousand pressures and persecutions in the Apostles, and then exhaled its fiery power and strength.
Fifth, mustard, as Pliny testifies, book XX, chapter XXII, being sharp and biting provokes tears; it purges phlegm and the superfluities of the brain, makes excretions easy, is chewed for toothache, ground with vinegar is smeared on the stings of scorpions and serpents, dispels the poisons of mushrooms, is most useful for the stomach against the vices of the soul, and for the chest and lungs, avails against epilepsy, dropsy, asthma, lethargy, baldness, scab, stones and many other diseases: so the Gospel expels poisons, that is sins, by the vomit of confession; it is sharp and biting, because it teaches penance and the cross, provokes tears of compunction, heals and helps all the powers of the soul, and especially dries up concupiscences, expels vices, sharpens virtues: "For the bitterness of discourses is the medicine of souls," says Saint Augustine, Sermon 33 On the Saints.
Sixth, mustard by its sharpness seasons foods and makes them tasty; so too the Gospel makes savory everything which is hard and arduous, by the example of Christ and by the hope of the future glory which it promises. Saint Augustine teaches nearly all these things, Sermons 31 and 33 On the Saints, which are the 2nd and 4th on Saint Lawrence: the same sermons exist among the works of Saint Ambrose, volume V, sermons 19 and 20 on the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, but the style more smacks of the phraseology of Saint Augustine. There therefore he says thus: "The grain of mustard seed is great, not in appearance, but in power. At the first appearance of its form it is small, cheap, despised, not providing taste, not carrying around an odor, not indicating sweetness; but when it begins to be crushed, immediately it pours forth its odor, exhibits its sharpness, exhales food of flaming taste, and is kindled with such fervor of heat, that it is a wonder so much fire was enclosed in such trifling things, since even men take the seed as food, especially in wintertime, with great satisfaction for its pleasantness, inasmuch as they drive back colds, expel humors, and warm the inner parts of the viscera. Often also they apply a medicine to the head from this, that if anything be infirm, if anything be sick, it be cured by the fire of mustard."
Then applying these qualities of mustard to the Gospel and the Christian faith, he adds: "So therefore the Christian faith also at first appearance seems to be small, cheap and slender, not showing its power, not displaying pride, not administering grace. But when it begins to be crushed by various temptations, immediately it puts forth its vigor, shows its sharpness, breathes the heat of belief in the Lord, and is tossed with such a burning of divine fire, that it itself burns and compels those who share in it to burn with it: as in the holy Gospel two of the disciples said, while the Lord was speaking with them after His passion: Was not our heart burning within us on the way, while the Lord Jesus opened to us the Scriptures? Therefore the grain of mustard seed warms the inner parts of the members, but the vigor of faith burns up the sins of hearts; and the former removes the harsh coldness of chill, but the latter expels the diabolical cold of sins. The grain of mustard, I say, boils away the humors of bodies, but faith consumes the streams of lusts. And by it medicine is provided for the head; but by faith our spiritual Head, who is Christ the Lord, is more often refreshed, and moreover by the comparison of mustard the holy odor of faith is enjoyed, as the blessed Apostle says: For we are the good odor of Christ unto God."
Tropologically: you may adapt all these things to the faithful soul, and especially to the apostle, or to the one suffering and the martyr, hearing the word of God like a grain of mustard seed, ruminating upon it, preaching it and transmitting it into his own heart as well as into the hearts of others. Hence to Saint Lawrence, to whom the Church adapts this Gospel on his feast, Saint Augustine thus attributes these things in the place already cited: "Therefore we can compare the holy martyr Lawrence to a grain of mustard seed, who, crushed by various sufferings, deserved through the whole world to be fragrant with the grace of martyrdom. He who before, constituted in the body, was humble, unknown and cheap, after he was vexed, lacerated, burned, poured forth the odor of his nobility to all the Churches throughout the whole world. Rightly therefore is the comparison joined to him: for indeed the grain of mustard seed, when it is crushed, is kindled; Lawrence, when he suffers, is inflamed. The former is moved by the fervor of its crushing, the latter sighs forth fire with much vexation. The mustard, I say, is boiled in a warm little vessel; Lawrence is roasted on the gridiron by the fire of flames. Blessed Lawrence the martyr therefore was burning outwardly with the fires of the raging tyrant, but inwardly the flame of Christ's love scorched him more greatly." The Arabs have a proverb: "A grain of pepper prevails over many and great gourds," because if it is crushed, it puts forth fiery power and thrusts it into the nostrils of all. You may say the same of the grain of mustard seed. Let the faithful soul therefore be a grain of pepper or of mustard, so that everywhere it may breathe divine fire and breathe it upon all, and thus may pepper all, and make them similar to itself, that is, effective and burning in the love of God.
Verse 33: The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like to Leaven, Which a Woman Took and Hid in Three Measures of Meal
He Spoke to Them Another Parable: The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like Leaven, Which a Woman Took and Hid in Three Measures of Meal, Until the Whole Was Leavened. — This is Christ's fourth parable of leaven, by which, as also by the parable of the mustard seed, He shows the power and efficacy of Evangelical preaching and teaching, as if to say, Saint Chrysostom says: "Just as leaven transmutes much flour into its own virtue, so you (O Apostles) will transmute the whole world." Saint Chrysostom notes the word "hid," as if to say: "So also you, when you shall have been subjected to your assailants, then you will overcome them; and just as leaven is indeed buried, yet not destroyed, but gradually transforms everything into its own condition, so likewise it will happen in your preaching. Therefore, do not fear because I have said that many tribulations will come upon you; for thus you will shine, and will overcome all."
You will ask, why does Christ compare the Gospel to leaven? It is answered: Leaven is a portion of kneaded, soured flour, so called because it grows through fermenting. Hear Pliny, book XVIII, chapter 11, describing the manner in which leaven is made: "Now (for formerly it was made in another way, as he himself had related a little before) leaven is made from the flour itself, which is first kneaded, before salt is added, to the consistency of porridge, and left until it sours: ordinarily, however, they do not heat it, but only use material set aside from the day before. And it is plain that it is nature's way that fermentation occurs by sourness, just as bodies are stronger that are fed with leavened bread; for among the ancients, special wholesomeness was attributed to the heaviest wheat."
Again, leaven (says Albertus Magnus), although small, by its warmth ripens the moisture of the whole mass of flour; once kneaded, it converts almost the whole into itself and ferments it, elevates it by its sourness, and makes it as it were spiritual and airy, renders it savory and prepares it for digestion, so that wholesome bread is made, nourishing, sustaining, and strengthening the person. In like manner the Gospel, through a few Apostles subdued by much tribulation and death, converted the whole world to itself, and makes the heart of each one fervent with the love of God, savory to God, pleasing, ripe, perfect, and elevates it from earthly things to heavenly. The woman who ferments is the Church, or the power and wisdom of God, says Saint Augustine, book I of Questions on the Gospels, Question XII, and Caesarius, Dialogue IV.
Tropologically: Saint Augustine, book I of Questions on the Gospels, Question XII: "The leaven," he says, "signifies love, because it makes things grow warm and stirs them up. The woman signifies wisdom. By 'in three measures of flour,' we may understand either those three things in man — with all the heart, with all the soul, and with all the mind; or those three fruitful measures, a hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold; or those three kinds of men: Noah, Daniel, and Job." Rabanus adds: "He says 'until the whole was leavened,' because charity stored in our mind must grow so far as to change the whole mind into its own perfection: which indeed is begun here, but will be perfected in the future life."
Furthermore, how Christ, the Apostles, and those like them are the leaven of the Church, indeed of the whole world, hear Saint Ambrose teaching, in sermon 21 on the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany: "Though leaven be small in size, simple in appearance, and common in nature, it carries within such strength that, when it has been hidden in the flour, this juice makes the whole mass to be what it is itself, and thus always diffuses the entire heap by the vigor of its sprinkling, so that it turns all that great mass of meal into leaven, and so the thing itself by its own strength acquires for itself a mass of its own proper vigor. Women do this, that they may diligently supply their husbands with more wholesome bread and profitable food." Then applying this to Christ: "Therefore if the Lord is the wheat (as He Himself says, John 12:24), and the Lord is the leaven, since leaven is usually made only from wheat: rightly then is the Lord compared to leaven, who, although in appearance He was a man, small in humility, cast down in weakness, nevertheless prevailed inwardly with such virtue of wisdom that the world itself could scarcely contain His teaching; and when He began to diffuse Himself throughout the whole world by the vigor of His divinity, at once He drew every kind of men into His own substance by His own power, so that He might pour the yoke of His Holy Spirit into all, that is, make all Christians be what Christ is." He adds that just as leaven is broken and dispersed throughout the whole mass of flour, so that it may leaven it, so Christ "by diverse sufferings was broken, torn, and dissolved, and His juice — which is His precious blood — was poured out for our salvation, that by mingling Himself He might solidify the whole human race which lay dissolved in diverse caverns." See also Saint Chrysostom here, homily 47, where among other things he says: "If twelve men (the Apostles) leavened almost the whole flour of the world, consider carefully how great is our malice and sloth, who, though we are now innumerable, cannot convert these remnants of the nations — we who ought to suffice for a thousand worlds." The same was lamented by Saint Boniface, the Apostle of the Germans, whose saying this was: "Formerly golden priests celebrated in wooden vessels; now wooden priests celebrate in golden vessels."
In Three Measures of Meal. — "Satum," or, as it is in Hebrew, seah, is a kind of dry measure, equal to the bath, which is a measure of liquids, containing an Italian modius, or, as Saint Jerome and Josephus say in book 15 of the Antiquities, chapter 11, a modius and a half. Saint Jerome elsewhere renders satum as modius. Since then three modii make one ephah, as is clear from Ruth 2:17, just as ten gomers make one ephah, as is clear from Ezekiel 45:11, it follows that a satum was a third part of an ephah, and a thirtieth of a cor. Finally, a satum contained three Attic modii, says Josephus. Now, the whole flour signifies all men seasoned and leavened by the faith of Christ, as by a spiritual leaven.
The three measures are the three parts of the world, namely Asia, Africa, and Europe. These are represented by the three sons of Noah: for the descendants of Shem inhabited Asia, those of Ham Africa, and those of Japheth Europe. So Caesarius, brother of Saint Gregory Nazianzen, Dialogue IV, and Saint Augustine, sermon 32 On the Words of the Lord according to Luke.
Mystically, Saint Ambrose, Theophylact, and Saint Jerome: The Gospel, they say, ferments and unites to itself the three measures, that is, the three parts of man, namely spirit, soul, and body; likewise the three appetites, namely the rational, the irascible, and the concupiscible, "so that in our reason," says Saint Jerome, "we may possess prudence, in our anger hatred against vices, in our desire a longing for virtues."
Symbolically, Saint Hilary: The grace of the Gospel, he says, was hidden in the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets, but now has appeared in the faith, hope, and charity of the Holy Trinity, "so that what the Law established and the Prophets announced, the same might be fulfilled by the advances of the Gospels;" or, as others say, that it might be confirmed in the threefold work of God, namely creation, redemption, and glorification; or, as others say, because the Gospel makes the faithful threefold, namely beginners, proficients, and the perfect, and brings forth fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold.
Allegorically, Saint Bernard, book V On Consideration: The Blessed Virgin, he says, in her womb joined and united the three measures, that is, the three natures of Christ, namely soul, body, and divinity, to the one hypostasis of the Word.
Anagogically, Caesarius, Dialogue IV: The woman who ferments, he says, is the power and wisdom of God, namely the Divinity of Christ; the three measures of flour are: "the first, the whole nature of mortals; the second, death; the third, the underworld," that is, hell and the tomb, in which the hidden body of Christ leavened all things into resurrection and life.
Verse 34: All These Things Jesus Spoke in Parables to the Crowds
As if to say, He spoke nothing to them except through parables, that is, parabolically.
Verse 35: That It Might Be Fulfilled Which Was Spoken by the Prophet
That It Might Be Fulfilled Which Was Spoken by the Prophet, Saying: I Will Open My Mouth in Parables. I Will Utter Things Hidden (Heb. חידות chidot, that is, riddles, as the Chaldee and Saint Jerome render it, Psalm 77:2) From the Foundation of the World. — The Arabic: And I will speak things hidden before the foundation of the world. Christ cites David, Psalm 77:2, who in that whole Psalm literally recounts and celebrates the benefits bestowed by God upon the Synagogue, that is, the Israelite people, from the beginning, that is, from their departure from Egypt under the leadership of Moses, passing through the Red Sea into the promised land, down to David; so that by these things he might stir the people to gratitude and to love and worship of God. Mystically, however, says Saint Jerome, David there was a type of Christ here, who utters and celebrates, through parables, the benefits bestowed by God upon the Church by Himself, and the mysteries formerly hidden concerning the land promised to her in heaven; where note: for 'parables' the Hebrew has משל mashal, which signifies any weighty and striking maxim, predominating as it were over others, for משל mashal means 'to rule,' and hence 'obscure and hidden,' whether it be a riddle, or allegory, or parable, or a properly-so-called maxim, as is clear here, chapter 15, verse 15. See what is said on Proverbs 1:1. Therefore, in that Psalm 77 there are not parables properly so called, but only weighty maxims, while here the likeness is both weighty maxims and parables properly so called; and so in either way this verse of the Psalm applies to Christ, since it applies to David only in one way; for in Scripture many things are said which more fully befit the thing signified by allegory than the allegory itself and its literal sense. This is clear in the magnificent promises made by God to David concerning the kingdom of Solomon, as of a son who would succeed him in the kingdom. For so many ample things are said in them that they fully and perfectly fit Christ alone, but typically and slightly Solomon, who was a type of Christ. See those things in 2 Kings 7:13. The same occurs in this place.
Verse 36: Then Having Sent Away the Crowds, He Came Into the House
Then, Having Sent Away the Crowds, He Came Into the House (that is, He returned into the lodging He had taken at Capernaum, whence He had gone out in the morning, verse 1), and His Disciples Came to Him, Saying: Explain to Us the Parable of the Tares of the Field. — For this seemed to them more obscure than the rest, and to contain harsher threats.
Verse 37: He That Soweth the Good Seed Is the Son of Man
As if to say, I am the sower of the good seed, namely of the Gospel and the word of God; for this I sow, that is, I preach not only through Myself, but also through My Apostles, but in such a way that they are only My instruments, My voices, and My heralds, while I alone am the author of the preaching, who, what they preach outwardly from My doctrine, I preach inwardly in the minds of the hearers, and I bring it about that they understand, love, embrace, and carry out in deed the same things through My grace, by which I illumine their intellect and inflame their will.
Verse 38: The Field Is the World; the Good Seed Are the Sons of the Kingdom
Now the Field Is the World; the Good Seed, These Are the Sons of the Kingdom; and the Tares Are the Sons of the Evil One. — "The world": for "their sound has gone out into all the earth," Psalm 18. The field therefore is the world, not the Church; for by the tares of this field many understand heretics, who are not in the Church, especially when they are manifest and public.
The Sons of the Kingdom. — These are the just faithful persevering in righteousness, and therefore chosen by God to be heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Hence, in verse 43, He calls them just, saying: "Then shall the just shine forth." "These are the sons of the heavenly Father, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," John 1:13.
Note: the just are here called "seed," because although the seed which Christ properly sows is the very word of God — both outwardly by speech through the mouth and inwardly sown by grace in the heart from Him, according to the saying in Luke 8:12: "The seed is the word of God" — yet because the fruit of this seed is the conversion and justification of the faithful, hence the just faithful are also called "seed," that is, the fruit of seed, and "harvest" by metonymy, whereby the effect is signified through the cause. Hence Christ explains this seed by the harvest and the harvesters into which it ends, in verse 39.
But the Cockle Are the Children of the Wicked One. — In Greek τοῦ πονηροῦ, that is, "sons of that evil one," or "of the malign one," namely the devil: so the Syriac and Arabic; and therefore they themselves are also evil and wicked, for a child follows its father; whence, just as the sons of God are good and divine, so the sons of the devil are evil, wicked, and devilish, because they are imitators of the devil's falsity, says Saint Augustine.
Note: by "cockle" and "children of the wicked," some understand heretics, because these are the greatest and most harmful cockle, inasmuch as they suffocate and overturn the faithful and the faith from their foundations. Thus Saint Chrysostom, Euthymius, and Saint Augustine, Book of Questions on Matthew, Question 11, who however retracts this very thing in book II of the Retractations, chapter 28, and teaches out of Saint Cyprian that the cockle signifies all the wicked who are in the Church. The same is taught by Saint Gregory, Saint Ambrose, Theophylact, and Saint Augustine, sermon 39 On the Saints: for all the wicked by their evil life harm the faithful and the Church, just as cockle harms the wheat and chokes it, and therefore they are called from "nequam" (wicked); for from "nequam" a man is of no worth, "for it would not even be worth so much as what is held to be least," says Festus; or, as Varro says: nequam is as it were nequidquam (for nothing); or, as others, from nequeo (I cannot), because he is good for nothing and suitable for no purpose. See Aulus Gellius, book VII, chapter 11. Wherefore the Novatianists wrongly infer from this passage — verse 29, where Christ forbids these tares to be uprooted and adds in verse 30, "Let both grow together" — that heretics are not to be punished or exterminated; for by the same logic they could conclude from the same passage that murderers and thieves are not to be punished, since these too are cockle. I say, therefore, that Christ here does not absolutely forbid that these tares be uprooted, but that no one should try to uproot absolutely everything, nor even then, when they cannot be distinguished from the wheat, or when there is a danger lest the wheat be uprooted together with them — as Christ Himself explains in verse 29, which does not apply when someone is a manifest heretic, and especially if he dogmatizes and infects others with his heresy: for such a one injures the faithful and the Church more gravely than a murderer; for the latter kills the body, but the former the soul. See 1 Corinthians 5:13; Galatians 5:12, where the Apostle commands that the impious, especially false teachers, be removed and extirpated. Thus Origen and Saint Augustine, who, although at first he thought heretics were not to be killed, nor even compelled to resume the faith they had professed in baptism, afterward however, taught by experience how obstinate and perverse heretics are, taught the contrary, as is clear in book II Against Parmenianus, chapter 2, and book II of the Retractations, chapter 5: "Because," he says, "I had not yet experienced either how much evil their impunity would dare, or how much their conversion for the better might be afforded by the zeal of discipline."
Tropologically: the Author of the Imperfect Work, homily 13, says: the cockle are the concupiscences, for example, the desire of vainglory secretly creeping upon a good work, which must be patiently tolerated against one's will, nor should a good work be abandoned on its account.
Verse 39: The Enemy That Sowed Them Is the Devil
Whose business it ever is to insert error into the truth, says Saint Chrysostom.
But the Harvest Is the End of the World. — For then God will reap all men through the angels, both evil and good, and will separate them on the day of judgment, and will gather the good into the heavenly barn, and hand over the evil to be burned by the fire of Gehenna, whence follows:
And the Reapers Are the Angels. — For the harvest, says Remigius, is the day of judgment, on which the good are separated from the evil, which will take place by the ministry of the angels; whence it is said below that the Son of Man will come with the angels to judge.
Verse 40: Even as Cockle Therefore Is Gathered Up and Burnt With Fire
Even as cockle therefore is gathered up and burnt with fire, so shall it be at the end of the world. The Son of Man shall send His angels,
Verse 41: And They Shall Gather Out of His Kingdom All Scandals
And They Shall Gather Out of His Kingdom All Scandals. — The evil ones, whom Christ earlier called cockle and sons of the devil, He here calls scandals, because by their crimes they were a scandal and a ruin both to themselves and to others: for they were the cause that these fell into Gehenna, whence in explanation He adds, "and those who work iniquity;" for the particle "et" here is exegetical and has the same force as "id est." Saint Chrysostom here notes that a twofold punishment is appointed for the impious, namely the punishment of loss, when He says: "They shall gather out of the kingdom," so that they shall not enter into His kingdom and shall be excluded from heaven; and the punishment of sense, when He says: "and they shall cast them into the furnace of fire." Saint Chrysostom: "See," he says, "the ineffable love of God toward men; for He is prompt to bestow benefits and slow to punishment. For when He sows, He sows through Himself; but when He punishes, He punishes through others: for to this end He sends His angels." Christ adds in verse 30: "Bind them into bundles to burn them," which Saint Gregory explains in book IV of the Dialogues, chapter 36: "The reapers the angels," he says, "bind the cockle into bundles to burn them, when they join like with like and with similar torments, so that the proud may burn with the proud, the lustful with the lustful, the greedy with the greedy, the deceitful with the deceitful, the envious with the envious, the unfaithful with the unfaithful. When therefore those who are alike in guilt are led to similar torments, because the angels assign them to their penal places, they bind them, as it were, as bundles of cockle to be burned."
Verse 42: And They Shall Cast Them Into the Furnace of Fire
And They Shall Cast Them Into the Furnace of Fire. — The "furnace" signifies that the damned, being very many, are compressed in Gehenna as though in a furnace, just as wood and fuel are packed into a furnace. Secondly, that the same are wrapped up in fire and tossed up and down, just as twigs and sparks in a furnace and oven. Whence Isaiah 33:14: "Who among you," he says, "shall be able to dwell with devouring fire? Who shall dwell of you with everlasting burnings?"
There Shall Be Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth. — Signified here, says Remigius, is the twofold pain of hell, namely of excessive heat and of excessive cold. See what was said on chapter XIII, verse 42. How unequal and sorrowful this exchange is! For the impious will exchange the kingdom of heaven for the fire of hell.
Verse 43: Then Shall the Just Shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of Their Father
"Then," because now, says Remigius, the just shine as an example to others, but then they will shine as the sun unto the praise of God. He alludes to Daniel 12:3: "And those who are learned," in Hebrew משכילים maskilim, that is, wise and prudent men, who, namely, have lived prudently and wisely, "shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and those who instruct many unto justice as stars for all eternity." See what was said there.
Hence some heretics of old thought that in the resurrection our body would be transformed into a sphere, so that it might be like the body of the sun. This heresy is ascribed to Origen, and the Emperor Justinian condemned it in his Constitution, which Baronius recites in volume VII, under the year of Christ 538, pages 289 and 293. For the round shape is not the shape of a human body, nor of the glorious body of Christ, to which Paul teaches we are to be conformed in the resurrection, Philippians 3:21.
He Who Has Ears to Hear (the Arabic: "hearing ears"), Let Him Hear. — This means, says Rabanus: "Let him who has understanding, understand, because all these things are to be understood mystically."
Verse 44: The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like to a Treasure Hidden in a Field
For he who knows that a treasure lies hidden somewhere, and buys the place before he digs it up, becomes master of the treasure: because he takes it out of a place that is now his own, having been bought by him; nor was he bound to inform the previous owner, but could use his knowledge for his own advantage, buying the field for the amount it is worth according to the common estimation, to which a hidden, concealed and unknown treasure adds nothing, as our Lessius, drawing from Saint Thomas, Navarre and Soto, teaches, book II On Justice, chapter 5, doubt 45, at the end.
Which When a Man Has Found. — In Greek it is a past tense, an aorist εὑρών, which some translate "having found," and indeed our own translator in verse 49: "but having found one of great price," etc.; for there too it is εὑρών; the word "hid" is a rhetorical flourish belonging to the elegance of the parable, and therefore not necessarily to be applied to the thing signified.
Note: In the preceding four parables — namely, of the sower, of the seed, of the mustard seed, and of the leaven — Christ declared the nature, power, and efficacy of the Gospel, that is, of Evangelical preaching and teaching; now, by the two that follow, namely, of the treasure and of the pearl, He declares its price, which is so great that it is rightly to be compared with the loss of all things. So Saint Chrysostom, Hilary, Jansenius, Maldonatus and others. In a similar way, Wisdom, in Solomon, Proverbs 8:11, says of herself: "Wisdom is better than all the most precious things, and nothing that is desired can be compared to her." And in verse 19: "My fruit is better than gold and the precious stone, and my offspring than choice silver."
In the literal sense: by this "treasure" Saint Jerome understands Christ Himself and the Holy Scripture, which Saint Augustine also understands here in his book of Questions on the Gospels, on Matthew, Question 13: "When a man," he says, "has reached only a partial understanding of Him, he perceives that great mysteries lie hidden there, and he goes and sells all that he has and buys Him; that is, by contempt of temporal things he gains leisure for himself, so that he may become rich in the knowledge of God." But, as I said, properly speaking this treasure is the Gospel, its doctrine and faith.
Tropologically: Saint Gregory, homily 41 on the Gospels, by "treasure" understands heavenly desire: "The treasure that has been found is hidden," he says, "to keep it safe, because it is not enough to guard the pursuit of heavenly desire against the malignant spirits, unless it be hidden from human praises. For in this present life we are as it were on a road, by which we journey toward our homeland: and the malignant spirits lie in wait upon our journey like so many robbers. Therefore whoever publicly carries his treasure in the road desires to be plundered."
Verse 45: The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like to a Merchant Seeking Goodly Pearls
Again: The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like to a Merchant Seeking Goodly (Syriac: the best) Pearls. — The Arabic: "seeking a goodly gem"; as if to say: with as great zeal as a merchant seeks pearls and buys one of them, the most precious, with such zeal ought the faithful to procure for themselves the doctrine and the Evangelical life, which is the way and the price of the kingdom of heaven: for otherwise, properly speaking, the kingdom of heaven or the Gospel is compared to the pearl itself, and not to the merchant. We heard a similar phrase in verse 14.
Verse 46: Having Found One Pearl of Great Price, He Went and Sold All
And Having Found One Pearl of Great Price (Syriac: "of the most precious price"), He Went and Sold All That He Had, and Bought It. — For as this pearl surpasses every price, so does the Gospel. See Pliny, On the Price of Pearls, book IX, chapter 35, where among other things he says: "Pearls have a greater affinity with heaven than with the sea." And he adds that Cleopatra, the friend of Antony, dissolved one pearl in vinegar and drank it in Antony's presence, which was worth more than a hundred thousand gold pieces. See what was said on Apocalypse 21:21, where I enumerated the thirteen qualities of pearls, all of which the Gospel, together with its doctrine, power, and grace, far surpasses — a grace which shines especially in apostolic and religious men.
Symbolically: the precious pearl is Christ, likewise the Blessed Virgin, likewise the religious state, likewise charity: "For charity is the precious pearl, without which whatever you possess profits you nothing; which if you possess alone, suffices for you," says Saint Augustine, tractate 5 on John: for charity is Christ's necklace; likewise the precious pearl is the contemplative life, of which Christ says to Magdalene: "Mary has chosen the better part," Luke 10.
The pearl is also the soul of each man; likewise eternal happiness, as our Salmeron aptly shows, volume VII, treatise 11; for all these are the more illustrious parts of the kingdom of heaven, that is, of Evangelical doctrine. Such also is humility; namely, as our Thomas "the self-taught" (ὁ αὐτοδίδακτος) teaches in the Imitation of Christ, book I, chapter 2: "If you wish to know and learn anything profitably, love to be unknown and reckoned for nothing. This is the highest and most useful wisdom: the true knowledge and contempt of oneself." This is the most precious Evangelical pearl, but its price is generally unrecognized by the proud sons of Adam.
Such likewise is the cross of Christ, and to suffer for Christ, the price of which Saint Ignatius well knew, saying: "My love is crucified;" and Saint Paul: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world," Galatians 6:14. And Habakkuk 3: "Horns," he says, "are in His hands, there His strength is hidden."
Furthermore, the first and most precious pearl, from which all virtues and all the saints are brought forth as pearls and have their beauty and value, is Christ Himself. For His divinity in His humanity is as it were a pearl hidden in a shell, which, conceived from virginal matter and the dew of the Holy Spirit, came forth most white, through the innocence of His life; most luminous, through wisdom; most round, through the possession of every perfection; having the weight of conscience, the smoothness of gentleness, the worth of blessedness: "For all the dowry of pearls consists in whiteness, size, roundness, smoothness, and weight," says Pliny, book IX, chapter 35. So Saint Jerome, Theophylact, and Saint Augustine, in his book of Questions on the Gospels from Matthew, Question 13, whom hear: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God: for the word of the Lord is luminous through the whiteness of truth, and solid through the firmness of eternity, and everywhere like itself through the beauty of the divinity: which God is to be understood as penetrating the shell of the flesh." Therefore let us wear this pearl of Christ, says our Salmeron — little in humility, precious in worth, easy to carry — on the head of our mind, for ornament; on the forehead, by the confession of faith; on the ears, by obedience to the law, rendering it to God in Himself and in superiors; on the neck and breast, by love and taste; on the arm, by the exercise of good works; on the rings placed on the finger, by the gift of discernment of spirits; on the girdle, by chastity; on the garments, by modesty and the holy reckoning of eternal life, that we ourselves may become a precious pearl, by which to draw others to honor and virtue, and to seize upon the imitation of the most holy life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Finally, Christ is not only the most precious pearl, but the gem of gems: for He Himself is the carbuncle, because He is the light and flame of the world; He is the emerald, because by the greenness of His grace He delights the sight of angels; He is strong and unconquered, as adamant; He produces joy, as the sardius; He heals the leprosy of sin, as the chrysoprasus; He Himself aids the bringing forth of good works, as a spiritual jasper; He sharpens the mind, as the beryl; He is of heavenly color and life, as the sapphire; He resists sleep and drunkenness, as the amethyst; and every weakness of mind, as the hyacinth; He Himself endured the files of the passions, as the topaz; He is the sardonyx by whiteness and brightness; He is the chrysolite by golden charity. Whence by these twelve gems the foundations of the heavenly Jerusalem are laid, each of which signifies one of the Apostles of Christ, Apocalypse 21:19 and 20. See what was said there.
Verse 47: The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like to a Net Cast Into the Sea
Again: The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like to a Net (Arabic: a net) Cast Into the Sea, and Gathering Together From Every Kind of Fishes. — The two preceding parables, namely of the treasure and of the precious pearl, showed the value and dignity of the Gospel; this one shows its capacity and breadth — namely, that it embraces every people and race of the world, both evil and good. Christ proposes it to this end, that the Apostles and Saints should not wonder if they see some live wickedly among the faithful, just as in a vast kingdom no one wonders to find murderers, thieves, and adulterers; and again, that no one should flatter himself that he is a Christian, faithful and son of the Church, when in her there are many wicked ones, but should strive to be upright and holy in her. The "kingdom of heaven" is the Gospel, that is, the preaching and doctrine of the Gospel; likewise the Church, for the Church contains it: for in the Church the true Gospel of God is preached, and through it God reigns in her and leads her to the heavenly kingdom.
The Net. — Sagena is a Greek word signifying a kind of net, commonly called verriculum, or everriculum, from sweeping (verrenda) the water or sea, in order to catch fishes. Properly, however, the sagena is the bag of the net, into which the caught fishes come. Hence caryon, says the Etymologist, is called γάγγαμον, that is, that hollow in the middle of the belly or navel, so called because there the sinews are interwoven after the manner of a net: in like manner, in the Gospel and the Church, as in a maternal bosom, fishes — that is, all the faithful — are received, cherished, nourished, and preserved.
And Gathering Together From Every Kind of Fishes. — For thus the Gospel is preached to all peoples, and from them the Church is composed. The fishes therefore are the faithful, the fishermen are the Apostles, the net is the Gospel and the Church. Furthermore, fishes aptly represent men, on account of the twenty analogies which I enumerated on Habakkuk 1:14, at the words: "And you shall make men as the fishes."
Verse 48: They Chose Out the Good Into Vessels, but Cast the Bad Away
Which, When It Was Filled, They Drew Out, and Sitting by the Shore, They Chose Out (in Greek συνέλεξαν, that is, "gathered") the Good Into Vessels, but Cast the Bad Away, — that is, cast them into the sea or upon the shore. The Arabic: "They gathered the selected ones into their vessels, and cast the bad out." The "vessels" signify the diverse mansions in the Father's house, as Christ says in John 14, or the various cells of heaven, which elsewhere are called eternal tabernacles. "Bad," in Greek σαπρά, that is, "rotten, withered, foul," meaning rotten, stinking, dead fishes. From this passage Saint Augustine rightly proves against the Donatists that in the Church there are not only the good (and the predestined, as Calvin will have it), but also the evil and the reprobate.
Verse 49: So Shall It Be at the End of the World
So Shall It Be at the End of the World (Arabic: "at the end of this time," that is, on the day of judgment): The Angels Shall Go Out and Separate the Wicked From Among the Just, — that is, "from the just": this is a Hebraism.
Verse 50: They Shall Cast Them Into the Furnace of Fire
And They Shall Cast Them Into the Furnace (Arabic: "the oven") of Fire: There Shall Be Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth. — See what was said on verse 42.
Verse 51: Have You Understood All These Things?
That is, "all these parables and discourses of Mine?" The Syriac and Greek prefix: "Jesus says to them." But our translator did not read this in his exemplar; and it is understood from what has been said, for these are a continuation of Jesus' words here.
They Say to Him: Yes. — For Christ had already explained to them the parables of the seed and of the cockle, which were more difficult than the rest.
Verse 52: Every Scribe Instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven
"Therefore," as if to say: Because you, O Apostles, have understood through these parables of Mine that the Gospel, which leads to the kingdom of heaven, is so great a treasure; therefore you must bring forth everything from this treasure, that you may share Him with others, indeed with the whole world. So Saint Augustine, Question XVI on Matthew. Again: because you have understood My manner of teaching heavenly things — things new and unheard of to men — through parables drawn from old things and things in common use; you, in the same way, teach and preach the same things, so that from the old things which they understand, they may grasp and understand the new things which you preach.
"Scribe," that is, a doctor or preacher; "instructed," in Greek μαθητευθείς, that is, "instructed, learned, taught;" "in the kingdom," that is, "unto the kingdom of heaven," as the Syriac has it, namely "to be preached." The Arabic: "A scribe who teaches for the kingdom of heaven;" as if to say: An evangelical teacher well instructed for proclaiming the Gospel, leading the faithful to the kingdom of heaven — such as you are, or will be, O Apostles, fully instructed by Me and the Holy Spirit. For He contrasts His own scribes — that is, teachers and preachers, namely the Apostles — with the scribes of the Jews: for the latter preached the Law of Moses and earthly goods based on it; but the Apostles announced the Gospel and the kingdom of heaven promised therein.
He Brings Forth Out of His Treasure New Things and Old. — This is a proverb signifying all foods, all substance, all household furniture necessary or useful for nourishing a family; for some old things are better, and some new. Hence the proverb: "New Hymettus (honey), old Falernian," that is, "wine"; for the best honey is the freshest, but the best wine is the oldest, says Macrobius, Saturnalia book VII. Hence also that saying of Pindar, Olympic Odes, hymn 9: "Praise old wine, but the flowers of new hymns." The sense is, as if to say: Just as the head of a household equips his family with new and old things, that is, with every necessary and useful item; so the evangelical teacher must, at the appropriate time and according to the capacity of his hearers, bring forth varied discourse and knowledge of every kind, and above all take care to teach the new and unheard-of mysteries of the Gospel through old examples, parables, and similitudes which the hearers grasp and know. For thus, through old and new, they will come to know new and unknown things. Furthermore, the ancients — such as Saint Chrysostom, Augustine, Jerome, Hilary, and Bede — accommodate "new and old" to the Old and New Testaments. For it is best preached when the New Testament is confirmed and illustrated from the Old, and is shown to be conformed in all things typically to it. For the Old was a type of the New, and the New is the fulfillment of the Old.
Abulensis objects that when Christ said these things, the New Testament had not yet been written. I reply: It had already been spoken and taught by Christ, and was shortly to be written by Matthew, John, Luke, and Mark, and Christ knew this; whence He commands the Apostles that they themselves should preach the things said and heard from Him, and that posterity should preach the same things written by the Evangelists.
Verse 53: And When Jesus Had Finished These Parables, He Passed From There
Namely, from His house, which He had at Capernaum, as I said on verse 16, He passed to other cities and towns, in order to spread the Gospel more widely.
Verse 54: And Coming Into His Own Country, He Taught Them in Their Synagogues
And Coming Into His Own Country, He Taught Them (the citizens of His own country) in Their Synagogues. — He calls His "country" not Bethlehem, where He was born — for this was far from Capernaum — but the neighboring Nazareth, in which Christ was conceived and brought up, as Luke explains in 4:16. So Saint Chrysostom, Jerome, Theophylact, and Euthymius.
In Their Synagogues, — in the assembly or gathering which used to take place every Sabbath in the synagogue, as among us takes place in a church or temple. For in Nazareth, being a small town, there seems to have been only one synagogue. Luke narrates this more fully in 4:16.
So That They Were Astonished (the Arabic: "the Nazarenes, fellow-citizens of Christ, were amazed") and Said: Whence Has This Man This Wisdom, and Miracles? — that is, "miracles." The Arabic: "Whence has He this wisdom and power of performing so great miracles?"
Verse 55: Is Not This the Carpenter's Son?
Is Not This the Carpenter's (the Arabic adds: "the woodworker's") Son? — Mark 6:3: "Is not this the carpenter?" "And it is no wonder," says Saint Augustine, book II On the Agreement of the Evangelists, chapter 42, "since both things could be said. For they believed Him to be a carpenter for the same reason as the son of a carpenter." Add that they had also seen Him building alongside Joseph. Therefore, it seems that Christ practiced the carpenter's trade along with His father Joseph until His thirtieth year, when He began to teach and preach. Saint Hilary and Ambrose think that Christ was a blacksmith; Hugh, a mason or a goldsmith. The common opinion is that Christ was a carpenter (worker in wood), as Saint Chrysostom is fitting. Saint Thomas and Saint Justin, in his Dialogue against Trypho, say: "He was making plows and yokes for oxen." Hence Christ in His preaching often draws similitudes from these things, as in chapter XI: "Take My yoke upon you," and "No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God," Luke 9:62. Hence also that Christian, when asked by a pagan scoffer, "What is the carpenter's son doing?" — meaning Christ — shrewdly answered, "He is making a coffin for Julian (the Apostate);" for shortly afterward Julian was killed. Thus Sozomen, book VI, chapter II. Some, however, deny that Christ practiced the carpenter's trade, holding that He lived as a religious in withdrawal, and spent His time in prayer and fasting until the age of 30. So Paul of Burgos, Simon of Cassia, and our Barradius: concerning which see more at Luke 2:51, on the words, "And He was subject to them."
Mystically, Saint Augustine, in his sermon On the Nativity: "The Father of Christ," he says, "is God the Carpenter, who fashioned the works of the whole world, arranged Noah's ark, ordered the tabernacle of Moses, and instituted the Ark of the Covenant. He may be called a carpenter who smooths out a stiff mind and cuts away proud thoughts." Saint Hilary: "A carpenter's son," he says, "He also was here, subduing iron by the mastering power of fire, decocting by judgment the strength of the age, and shaping the mass into every work of human use — namely, forming the very bodies of ours for the diverse services of the members and for all the works of eternal life." Furthermore, "Christ was the son of a carpenter," says Chrysologus, sermon 48, "but of that Carpenter who made the fabric of the world not with a hammer but by a command; who joined together the limbs of the elements not by ingenuity but by His bidding; who melted down the mass of the world by authority, not by coal; who kindled the sun not with earthly fire, but with supreme warmth; who formed the moon, the darkness, the night, and the seasons; who distinguished the stars with varied light; who made all things out of nothing, and made them, O man, for you, so that you might prize the Workman according to the estimation of His work."
Is Not His Mother Called Mary; and His Brethren, James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas? — "Brethren," that is, cousins and kinsmen, as I said at chapter 12:46. But why did Christ choose the poor Mary as His mother, and not Livia the wife of Augustus, or Mariamne the wife of Herod? Theodoret answers in volume VI of the Council of Ephesus, in Appendix V, chapter II On the Nativity of Christ: "If He had been the son of a daughter of a scepter-wielder, they would have ascribed the benefit to power; if He had been made the son of a lawgiver, they would have ascribed the benefit to His precepts. But what did He do? He chose all things poor and humble, all things middling, and for the most part obscure, so that divinity alone might be known to have transformed the whole earth."
James. — This is James the Less, surnamed the son of Alphaeus, Apostle and first Bishop of Jerusalem, author of the Canonical Epistle, concerning whom I have said more in the prologue to that same Epistle. This one is therefore another and distinct from James the Greater, son of Zebedee and brother of John, whose body is venerated at Compostela, while that of the Less is venerated at Rome, in the church of the Holy Apostles.
And Joseph. — The Greek has Ἰωσῆ (Iōsē), that is, Joses, and so does the Syriac: whence Saint Jerome, in his book Against Helvidius, calls him Joset. He was one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ, whom they paired with Saint Matthias for the Apostleship, when the lot fell upon Matthias. He was afterwards made Bishop of Eleutheropolis, and being enrolled among the Saints, is venerated on July 22, concerning whom more may be found at Acts 1:23.
And Simon. — Many, following Abdias, Sophronius, Isidore, and Bede, think this is Simon the Canaanite, the Apostle, as though he were a brother of James the Less and of Jude; but this Simon was born at Cana of Galilee, whereas these brethren — that is, kinsmen of Christ — were born at Nazareth, just as Christ Himself was: whence the citizens of Nazareth here marvel whence such learning should be in Jesus their fellow-townsman, since they knew His brethren and kinsmen as simple folk and unlearned, as is clear from Mark 6:1 and following. It therefore seems truer that this Simon is Saint Simeon, who succeeded Saint James in the episcopate of Jerusalem. For he was the son of Cleophas and his wife Mary, as Hegesippus testifies in Eusebius, book III of the History, chapter 11; whom accordingly Saint Chrysostom, Theophylact, Bede, and following them Christopher à Castro, book On the Mother of God, chapter I, teach to have been a brother of James the Less — although Hegesippus and Epiphanius, heresy 66, hold him to have been not a brother, but a cousin or kinsman of James. This is that Simeon who, in the 10th year of Trajan, that is in the year of Christ 109, when he was 120 years old, being crucified, astonished everyone by his constancy and fortitude. Whence it follows that he was born eleven years before Christ and was older than Christ. From what has been said, it is clear that Abdias (book VI of the History of the Apostles), Sophronius (in Saint Jerome, On Ecclesiastical Writers), Isidore (On the Life and Death of the Saints), and Bede (on chapter I of Acts) are in error, who hold that Simon the Canaanite is the same as Simeon the Bishop of Jerusalem, who was crucified. Hence Bede himself in that place retracts the opinion.
And Judas. — This is the brother of James the Less, and the author of the Canonical Epistle, concerning whom more may be found in the prologue to it.
You will ask whether these four were brothers properly so called, born of the same father and mother. First, it is established that James and Joseph were brothers, as may be noted from Matthew 27:56. Concerning the other two, namely Simon and Judas, some think that they were brothers of James and Joseph, but only uterine brothers: for their mother was Mary, who, having first been married to Alphaeus, bore by him James and Joseph — and therefore James is called (son) of Alphaeus; then, after Alphaeus had died, she married Cleophas and bore by him Simon and Judas. So Saint Thomas on chapter I to the Galatians, lecture 5.
Secondly, Baronius in the preface to the Annals, chapter 46 and following, posits three Marys as sisters — that is, cousins — of the Blessed Virgin: the first, Mary of Alphaeus, namely the mother of James and Jude the Apostles, and Joseph; the second, Mary of Cleophas, who bore by her husband Cleophas Saint Simeon, who succeeded Saint James in the episcopate of Jerusalem and was crucified at the age of 120, as I have already said; the third, Mary Salome, wife of Zebedee, of whom were born John and James the Apostles.
Thirdly, that Mary of Alphaeus is truly one and the same with Mary of Cleophas is plain, if one compares John 19:25 with Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40. For John says: "But there stood by the Cross of Jesus His Mother, and His Mother's sister Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene;" and Matthew says: "Among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee;" and Mark says: "Among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joseph, and Salome." You see here clearly that she who is called by John "Mary of Cleophas" is called by Matthew and Mark "Mary the mother of James and Joseph;" of that James, I say, who is called not son of Zebedee, but of Alphaeus, as at Acts 1 and Matthew 10. The same, therefore, is Mary of Cleophas and Mary of Alphaeus; for Cleophas was also called Alphaeus by another name, after the Hebrew custom — unless you prefer, with some, that one of these two was her husband, and the other her father. The same woman is called Mary the mother of James, namely of James the Less. So Saint Chrysostom, Jerome, Theodoret, and Bede, whom Christopher à Castro cites and follows, in his book On the Mother of God, chapter I.
Again, you see here that she who is called by Mark "Salome" is called by Matthew "the mother of the sons of Zebedee:" this woman, therefore, was called Salome. So Saint Gregory, Theophylact, Euthymius, and Saint Epiphanius, heresy 59 and 78. It seems, therefore, that this same Mary of Cleophas or Alphaeus bore these four, namely James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas: for Matthew and Mark call her the mother of James and Joseph, in the place already cited; and Judas was the brother of James, as he himself says at the beginning of his Epistle; Simon also, or Simeon, who succeeded James his brother in the episcopate of Jerusalem, was his brother, for he was the son of Cleophas and his wife Mary, as Hegesippus expressly says in Eusebius, book III of the History, chapter 11. Furthermore, that this Mary was not the daughter but the wife of Cleophas, Hegesippus himself, Saint Chrysostom, Eusebius, Theodoret, Euthymius, and following them Christopher à Castro in the place cited, and Suarez, part III, question 28, article 1, disputation 5, section 4, expressly assert. Cleophas, moreover, was the brother of Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin, as the same Hegesippus says. This is that Cleophas to whom, with his companion, Christ revealed Himself at Emmaus in the breaking of bread, and who, in that same house, being killed by the Jews for his confession of Christ, fell as a martyr on September 23, as the Roman Martyrology records.
You will say: Why then do Matthew and Mark call this "Mary" the mother of James and Joseph, and not of Simon and Judas? I answer: they do so for the sake of brevity, and because the first two, namely James and Joseph, were then held the foremost and more distinguished compared with the other two. So Saint Jerome, Theophylact, Saint Gregory, Saint Epiphanius (heresies 59 and 78), and Gregory of Nyssa, oration 2 On the Resurrection. Furthermore, this Mary, the mother of so many saintly sons and daughters, died holily in Judaea on April 9, and was thence translated to Veroli in Latium, and there is venerated with great honor, as the Roman Martyrology records on May 23, where Baronius also remarks in his Notes.
Verse 56: And His Sisters, Are They Not All With Us?
At Nazareth. The sisters of James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas are, according to Hippolytus (as cited by Nicephorus, book II, chapter III), called Esther and Tamar; but by Saint Epiphanius (heresy 78) and Theophylact they are called Mary and Salome — which Salome was the wife of Zebedee and the mother of Saint John and James the Greater, the Apostles, who accordingly were nephews, through their mother, of James the Less, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, as I shall show visually in the table of Christ's genealogy, which I shall append to chapter III of Luke. See Christopher à Castro, On the Mother of God, chapter I, where he teaches that Salome was older than her brothers James and Judas: for she bore John and James, who were chosen by Christ as Apostles together with James and Judas, their maternal uncles; for John seems to have been only three years younger than Christ, and to have been born in the third year of Christ. Hence also only James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, the sons of Cleophas, are called brethren, that is, cousins of Christ; while John and James, the sons of Zebedee, are not called brethren of Christ, because they were not His cousins or kinsmen properly and in the first degree — rather, only their mother Salome was cousin of Christ. Again, from this the same Christopher à Castro concludes that James the Less, who was brother of Salome, was older than James the Greater, the son of Salome and Zebedee, by at least nine or ten years; for James the Less was maternal uncle of James the Greater. Therefore he is called the Less not with respect to age, but with respect to his calling by Christ. That Christ had many other kinsmen or relatives is not to be doubted, but these are named above the rest because they were closer by blood, and because they at length believed in Him and became His Apostles.
Whence Therefore Has This Man All These Things? And They Were Scandalized in Him. — That is, they were offended and indignant that Christ, being a carpenter, should make Himself a teacher and a prophet — just as men would now be offended and indignant if they saw someone leap from the carpenter's workshop and hammer into the teaching chair and act as a doctor, for they would charge him with the height of arrogance or folly. But the Nazarenes did not know that Christ was the Son of God, who out of His immense charity did not disdain to be born among carpenters and to act as a carpenter among them, so that He might redeem us and by His example teach us humility. Wherefore this charity and humility of Christ, which ought to have been matter of admiration and veneration, was to them a scandal, because they did not grasp it, nor did they believe that God willed so greatly to humble and empty Himself.
Verse 57: A Prophet Is Not Without Honor, Except in His Own Country
But Jesus Said to Them: A Prophet (teacher, preacher) Is Not Without Honor, Except in His Own Country, and in His Own House. — "Without honor," in Greek, ἄτιμος (atimos), that is, dishonored or unhonorable, as Hilary renders it. The Syriac: vile or despised; the Arabic: held in contempt; Vatablus: despised; others: devoid of honor. "And in his house," that is, in his own family and kinship; because "not even His brethren," that is, His kinsmen and relatives, "believed in Him," John 7:5. This is a proverb commonly used and generally true, but not always so; for John the Baptist, as well as Isaiah, Elijah, Elisha, Daniel, Hosea, etc., were held in great honor among their own fellow Jews.
Now, the first reason why a prophet — that is, a teacher — is often not honored among his own people, but despised, is the one Saint Jerome gives: "It is, he says, almost natural for fellow-citizens always to envy their fellow-citizens: for they do not consider the present deeds of the man, but they remember the frailty of his childhood, as though they themselves had not reached mature age through the same steps of life." Again, fellow-citizens do not bear a fellow-citizen being preferred to themselves — especially a younger one before an elder, a poor man before a rich man, a commoner before a senator: "Because they reckon the glory of a fellow-townsman to be their own confusion," says Theophylact on John. Hear Saint Ambrose on Luke chapter IV: "No slight envy is here disclosed, which, forgetful of civic charity, twists the causes of love into bitter hatred. At the same time, by this example and by an oracle alike, it is declared that you look in vain for the help of heavenly mercy, if you envy the fruits of another's virtue. For the Lord is a despiser of the envious, and from those who persecute the divine gifts in others He turns away the miracles of His power."
The second cause is that too much familiarity breeds contempt, as Saint Chrysostom says in homily 34. And Saint Cyril: "Because we are accustomed," he says, "to make little of what is commonplace and everyday, even if it be great," etc. Theophylact likewise: "We are wont," he says, "to despise what is very familiar, always paying more attention to foreign and unusual things," etc., according to that saying of Alexis in Athenaeus, book III: "We love what is foreign; we despise what is near." For we marvel at foreign and exotic things and scorn what is domestic and familiar, though we often have better things at home. Thus we disdain our own physicians, however learned, and we look up to foreign and barbarian ones; we buy dearly flowers and herbs imported from India, though better ones — indeed the very same ones — often grow in our own woods: for "novelty is pleasing."
The third reason is that by daily association with men, the vices of conduct or the weaknesses of each one's nature are easily detected, which diminish reverence and produce contempt. It is otherwise in our intercourse with God: the greater it is, the greater reverence toward God it begets — because "the more a man advances in the knowledge of God, the more he admires the excellence of His perfection, and the more he reveres Him," as Saint Thomas says here. So the Nazarenes, seeing Christ eat, drink, sleep, and work as a carpenter like others, despised Him, especially because they saw His kinsmen to be poor and despised, and especially Saint Joseph, whom they supposed to be His real father; for they could neither think nor believe that He was born of a virgin and had God alone as His Father. Therefore let the teacher and preacher flee the familiarity of men, lest he be despised; for, as Saint Cyril says, "preaching cannot bear fruit where the preacher is held in contempt." At Rome, one of our Society — a wise man — gave this counsel to a certain Transalpine preacher returning to his own people: "Keep yourself at home, live withdrawn, converse with God, not with men, so that you may be heard as an oracle of God." And we see that those who do this are, because of the reputation of holiness, revered, loved, and listened to by all.
Verse 58: And He Did Not There Work Many Miracles Because of Their Unbelief
And He Did Not There Work Many Miracles (wonders) Because of Their Unbelief. — The Arabic: on account of the scantiness of their faith. For this made them unworthy of miracles, since Christ was wont to work them only to win or to increase faith in Himself. Saint Jerome gives another reason: "That, by working many miracles, He might not condemn His fellow-citizens as unbelievers;" "and so increase their punishment," says Saint Chrysostom. For he who sees many miracles and still does not believe sins more gravely than he who sees few, and is therefore more gravely damned and punished in hell. For this reason Christ "did few signs among the Jews," says Saint Jerome; but He works greater signs daily among the Gentiles through the Apostles — not so much in the healing of bodies as in the salvation of souls.
Jansenius and his followers, after this chapter, place the sending forth of the Apostles made by Christ, which Matthew narrated in chapter X; then the beheading of John the Baptist, which Matthew narrates in chapter XIV immediately following; and the return of the Apostles to Christ, and Christ's withdrawal into the desert — following Luke and Mark, who suggest this order, though Maldonatus and others think otherwise. See the Chronotaxis.