Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, Christ reproves the washings and other frivolous traditions of the Pharisees, which they were setting above the law of God, and against them He establishes this axiom: "Not what enters the mouth, but what proceeds from the heart and mouth — this defiles a man." Second, at verse 22, when the Canaanite woman pleads with Him, He heals her daughter on account of the mother's faith and perseverance in supplication. Third, at verse 30, He heals many dumb, blind, and lame men; and at verse 32, He feeds four thousand men with seven loaves.
Vulgate Text: Matthew 15:1-39
1. Then there came to Him from Jerusalem Scribes and Pharisees, saying: 2. Why do Thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. 3. But He answering said to them: Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition? For God said: 4. Honor thy father and mother. And: He that shall curse father or mother, let him die the death. 5. But you say: Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, Whatever gift is from me, shall profit thee; 6. and he shall not honor his father or his mother: and you have made void the commandment of God for your tradition. 7. Hypocrites, well hath Isaiah prophesied of you, saying: 8. This people honoreth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. 9. And in vain do they worship Me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men. 10. And having called together the multitudes unto Him, He said to them: Hear ye, and understand. 11. Not that which entereth into the mouth defileth a man; but what cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. 12. Then came His disciples and said to Him: Dost Thou know that the Pharisees, when they heard this word, were scandalized? 13. But He answering said: Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. 14. Let them alone: they are blind, and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit. 15. And Peter answering said to Him: Expound to us this parable. 16. But He said: Are you also yet without understanding? 17. Do you not understand that whatsoever entereth into the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the privy? 18. But the things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and those things defile a man. 19. For from the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. 20. These are the things that defile a man. But to eat with unwashed hands doth not defile a man. 21. And Jesus went from thence and retired into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. 22. And behold a Canaanite woman, coming out of those parts, cried out, saying to Him: Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David: my daughter is grievously troubled by a demon. 23. But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and besought Him, saying: Send her away, for she crieth after us. 24. And He answering said: I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel. 25. But she came and adored Him, saying: Lord, help me. 26. And He answering said: It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs. 27. But she said: Yea, Lord; for the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters. 28. Then Jesus answering, said to her: O woman, great is thy faith: be it done to thee as thou wilt. And her daughter was cured from that hour. 29. And when Jesus had passed away from thence, He came nigh the sea of Galilee; and going up into a mountain, He sat there. 30. And there came to Him great multitudes, having with them the dumb, the blind, the lame, the maimed, and many others; and they cast them down at His feet, and He healed them: 31. so that the multitudes marveled, seeing the dumb speak, the lame walk, the blind see; and they glorified the God of Israel. 32. And Jesus called together His disciples and said: I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with Me now three days, and have nothing to eat; and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. 33. And the disciples say to Him: Whence then should we have so many loaves in the desert as to fill so great a multitude? 34. And Jesus said to them: How many loaves have you? But they said: Seven, and a few little fishes. 35. And He commanded the multitude to sit down upon the ground. 36. And taking the seven loaves and the fishes, and giving thanks, He broke, and gave to His disciples, and the disciples gave to the people. 37. And they did all eat, and had their fill. And that which was left of the fragments they took up, seven baskets full. 38. And they that did eat were four thousand men, besides children and women. 39. And having dismissed the multitude, He went up into the boat, and came into the coasts of Magedan.
Verse 1: Then There Came to Him From Jerusalem Scribes and Pharisees
1. Then There Came to Him From Jerusalem Scribes and Pharisees, Saying. — For the Scribes, dwelling at Jerusalem as in the very womb of faith and religion, were arrogating to themselves the right of censuring new teachers and new doctrine such as was Christ's. Therefore they frequently sent spies who should investigate who and what kind of teacher Christ was, and what He was teaching, so that they might seize Him and make Him subject to themselves. For the Scribes were vending the knowledge of the Law, and the Pharisees sanctity and the rigid observance of the extreme letter of the Law: both therefore envied Christ now growing illustrious in doctrine and in miracles, and strove to put Him down and make Him subject to themselves. See what was said at chapter 3, verse 7.
Verse 2: Why Do Thy Disciples Transgress the Tradition of the Elders?
2. Why Do Thy Disciples Transgress the Tradition of the Elders? For They Wash Not Their Hands When They Eat Bread (bread signifies, by a Hebrew synecdoche, all food). — Note first that Moses in the Old Law, by God's command, decreed that the Jews should abstain from contact with the carcass (the dead body) of birds of prey and of unclean creatures; likewise from a leper, a menstruating woman, and many similar things; and if anyone should touch these even by chance, he would be reckoned unclean and irregular, so that it was not lawful for him to enter the Temple until he should have first purged and expiated this legal uncleanness and irregularity by the washing prescribed by the Law — that by these bodily washings He might foreshadow spiritual purifications, and might rouse the coarse Jews to perform the spiritual washings of the soul through contrition and penitence. See what was said at Leviticus 11:31. The Jews therefore, and especially the Pharisees, who wished to be accounted more religious than the rest, placed their whole holiness in such washings — washing themselves frequently before food, indeed at the very table, as Scripture intimates here and elsewhere; and for this reason at the wedding of Cana of Galilee there were set six water-jars for this purification, John 2:6 (so the Emperor Heliogabalus, according to Lampridius, washed his hands at each course), that if by chance, unknowingly or unthinkingly, they had by any accidental contact contracted this corporal uncleanness and irregularity, they might wash it away. For the same reason they likewise frequently washed the cups and dishes from which they drank and ate, and even the dining couches as well, as is clear from Mark 7:4 — anxious and worried, forsooth, that if these vessels were unclean they might contaminate and pollute the foods themselves, and consequently those who ate from them (as is clear here at verse 11). This custom, however, was held as a custom, not truly as a law (for the Law prescribes no such thing), but by the religious — indeed, superstitious — Pharisees it was introduced as though a law and accepted by use. Whence:
Note secondly that this custom of the Pharisees and Jews was excessively scrupulous, and of little — or rather of no — piety or utility: for it engaged them wholly in external washing; it therefore called them away from inward concern and from purging the soul of its sins. Nor did God require such anxious external lustration from them; rather He seems to have forbidden it at Deuteronomy 4:2. Christ therefore, about to put an end to the Old Law and especially to these vain, frivolous, and harmful traditions, and wishing that all care should be directed to the cleansing of the soul, refused to observe these things, and did not prescribe washings to His disciples — though He does not expressly answer this to the Pharisees, in order to avoid their envy, accusation, and calumny. In vain therefore do heretics cite this passage against Catholics, against the Apostolic and Ecclesiastical traditions. For these traditions are most useful, being spiritual and ordained by the Apostles and their successors for the more perfect keeping of the law of God; whereas those others were Pharisaic — that is, frivolous, erroneous, and contrary to God's law — indeed, the Scribes set them above God's law, and observed them in place of it, as is clear from verse 11.
So Jerome, Chrysostom, and others. This is clearly apparent from the Talmudic writings, which in the book titled A Hundred Benedictions teach that the hands must first be washed and wiped; otherwise, they say, the bread which is eaten is judged unclean; and next water is to be poured three times over the hands — in the first pouring, more copious, with the fingers held upward to be washed; in the subsequent ones, the hands washed together; and finally, in the washing of the hands, the left, as a handmaid, must serve the right. These and many more things, full of trifles, do these peddlers of trifles relate. For this reason the Pharisees, according to St. Justin, Against Trypho, were called Baptists. See St. Epiphanius, Book I, heresy 17, where he teaches that there was a certain class of Scribes and Pharisees who were baptized every day of the year, and for that reason were called Hemerobaptists, because they thought a man could not live unless he were plunged into water daily, and so be washed and sanctified from every fault. Similar folk still exist among the Jews, among the Rabbis. But this is the life rather of ducks and fishes than of men.
Verse 3: Why Do You Also Transgress the Commandment of God for Your Tradition?
3. But Jesus Answering Said to Them: Why Do You Also Transgress the Commandment of God for Your Tradition? — The Arabic: "Because of your statutes." In place of "because of," some render "by means of," but the sense comes out the same, as if He said: Your traditions spurn and violate God's law; therefore they are erroneous, impious, contrary to God, and not to be kept. In vain, therefore, do you accuse My disciples of not keeping them.
Note the word your, as if He said: Your traditions are not instituted by God, nor by the holy and ancient Patriarchs and Prophets, but were lately invented by those gross Scribes and Pharisees, your predecessors, which you are eager to uphold — not out of love and reverence for them, but because you have succeeded to their seat, and claim for yourselves the power and authority to enact similar new traditions. But divine and Patriarchal traditions do exist, and therefore must be observed in every respect: that the books of Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and the other Prophets are canonical; that God is one in essence, yet three in persons; that sins must be expiated by a true and full contrition out of the love of God; that little ones contract original sin, and must therefore have their sins expiated by a Sacrament instituted by God; and so forth — all of which you Scribes, busy with your "baptisms," either do not know, or count for little.
Verse 4: Honor Father and Mother
4. For God Said (in Greek ἐνετείλατο, that is, commanded. Exodus 20:12): Honor Father and Mother. — "Honor" — that is, reverence, obey, and sustain father and mother, if they are in need. For "honor" here, and elsewhere in Scripture, embraces not only reverence, but also aid, alms, and maintenance, as is clear from the sequel and from Mark 7:12. "Honor" therefore contains three things, and it commands three things to be rendered to parents by children: reverence, obedience, and beneficence. See what is said on Deuteronomy 5:16 and 1 Timothy 5:3.
And He Who Shall Curse Father or Mother (the Arabic: "He who says an evil word against his father or his mother"), Let Him Die the Death, — that is, let him die altogether, let him be punished by a certain and full death without any hope of pardon. He cites Leviticus 20:9. The sense is, as if He said: If he who merely curses his father or mother with words is by the law guilty of death, how much more guilty of death is he who does evil to them and snatches away the maintenance owed to them by the law of nature — and not only snatches it himself, but teaches others from his seat, as if a doctor, to snatch it away — as you are doing, O Scribes, teaching corban, of which more in the following verse. So St. Chrysostom.
Verse 5: Whosoever Shall Say to Father or Mother: The Gift, Whatever It Be
5. But You Say: Whosoever Shall Say to Father or Mother: The Gift, Whatever It Be, That Proceeds From Me Shall Profit Thee. — Supply: "he does well, and he fulfils the law of God concerning the honoring of parents." This is an aposiopesis. "The gift, whatever it be, that is from me" — that is, whatever gift I shall have offered or vowed to God, this shall profit, both me and also "thee," O father or O mother, in soul and body. For God, drawn by this gift, will in turn liberally bestow His gifts upon me and upon thee, and will provide for our food. For by this manifold pretense and show of religion or of vow, the Scribes taught that sustenance — even necessary sustenance — must be denied to parents, if either that sustenance or its price were offered to God; and they did this for this end, that they might attend to their own profit and gain. For most of the Scribes and Pharisees were priests, who, as God's ministers, received the offerings made to God, and with these fed themselves and their own. In this matter they manifestly erred, because the bond and right of piety, by which sons are obligated to support poor parents, is a law of nature, to which accordingly every vow, every offering, and all bonds introduced by divine or human law must yield and be placed second. Thus, if anyone had vowed his goods to God, and his father had fallen into want, his goods would have to be given to his father, not to the temple; indeed a son cannot enter religion in the grave necessity of his parents; and so, even having entered it, he is bound to leave it in their utmost want, in order to succor them, as St. Thomas, Sylvester, Navarrus, Toletus, and other doctors of cases teach in their explanation of the fourth commandment.
For this reason St. Augustine, according to Possidonius in his Life, chapter 14, refused legacies offered to his Church by certain persons, because he considered it just and fair that they should rather be possessed by the sons, parents, or kin of the deceased, to whom the dying had been unwilling to leave them; and some legacies which had been offered by parents, but were afterwards sought again by their sons, he likewise gave back. And he added: "Bequests ought rather to be offered than exacted." Thus far Possidonius.
Note that this "gift" in Hebrew is called קרבן corban, as Mark gives it (chapter 7, verse 11), of which there is frequent mention in Leviticus, chapters 1, 2, 3, and following, where lambs, goats, and calves offered to God as a holocaust, or as a peace-offering, or for sin, are called corban — that is, an offering. Hence the treasury, into which the offerings were brought by the people, is by metonymy called corban or corbona (Matthew 27:6). The greedy and impious Scribes therefore taught the people to offer their goods to God and the Temple, and to say "corban" to parents suffering want — which was only saying what among the Flemings is said to poor people begging for alms, Godt helpe u; among the French, Dieu vous aide; and among the Italians, Dio t'aiuti — that is, "May God help you, for I am unable or unwilling to help you or to give you alms." To say "corban" therefore was to refuse the petition, to deny support. Moreover, by saying "corban," they shut the mouth of parents asking for food, casting into them a scruple of conscience and a fear of religion, lest they snatch from God His corban and His holocaust; as if they said, "This thing is sacred, being vowed or dedicated to God; see therefore that thou, O father, do not profane it by demanding it for thine own uses, and commit sacrilege." Stricken at hearing this and as though struck by lightning, the parents fell silent, preferring to die of hunger rather than to be sacrilegious against God. See to what impiety the Scribes drove pious parents.
Verse 6: And He Shall Not Honor His Father or His Mother
6. And He Shall Not Honor His Father or His Mother. — As if He said: And so on this reasoning the son will lawfully be able not to honor — that is, not to support — his needy father or mother, provided only that he set God above them, and honor Him with that gift which was to have been given to his parents. It is clearer that these words are still those of the Scribes, rather than of Christ. So Maldonatus, although Jansenius thinks, not improbably, that they are Christ's. Whence Mark has it thus: "And you no longer suffer him to do anything for his father or his mother."
And You Have Made Void (in Greek ἠκυρώσατε — that is, you have disauthorized, antiquated, abrogated) the Commandment of God ("Honor thy father and mother") for Your Tradition, — by which you teach sons to say corban to their needy parents. Note the word your: for there are three kinds of traditions. The first are divine, which God has sanctioned by His own precept, even though it has nowhere been written down in Scripture — such is the teaching that infants are to be baptized; for this is nowhere written, but is known through the tradition of the Church. The second kind are ecclesiastical, which the Church — that is, the Pontiffs and Prelates of the Church — has established by their command, such as the ceremonies of the Sacraments and of the sacrifice of the Eucharist; likewise fasts, feasts, and similar enactments: for these are not so much human as divine, because the Church is governed by the Holy Spirit. The third kind are civil, or of certain individual men, and these are twofold — either good, or bad and contrary to the law — of which latter sort were these Scribes' traditions, and of these alone Christ is speaking here. For this reason He says "your," namely, that which you teach sons to say, "corban," to their parents, denying them the honor and sustenance owed by the Decalogue.
Verse 7: You Hypocrites, Well Did Isaiah Prophesy of You
7. You Hypocrites, Well Did Isaiah Prophesy of You, Saying: — He calls the Scribes hypocrites, because outwardly they displayed sanctity and seemed more religious than the rest, while inwardly they were irreligious, avaricious, and impious; for they cloaked their avarice with corban, that is, with an offering and worship of God.
Verse 8: This People Honoreth Me With Their Lips
8. This People Honoreth Me With Their Lips, But Their Heart Is Far From Me. — The Arabic: "This people is near to Me with its mouth and honors Me with its lips, but its heart is distant from Me."
Verse 9: And in Vain They Worship Me
9. And in Vain They Worship Me, Teaching Doctrines and Commandments of Men. — The Arabic: "And they worship Me in vain, and they teach the doctrine of the commandments of men." He cites Isaiah 29:13, where I explained these words.
Verse 10: And Having Called the Multitudes Together, He Said: Hear and Understand
10. And Having Called the Multitudes Together to Him, He Said to Them: Hear Ye, and Understand. — "I will teach you concerning the true cleanness or uncleanness of the soul, that you may unlearn what the Scribes taught you — namely, that the soul is made unclean by unclean hands or food."
Verse 11: Not What Enters Into the Mouth Defiles a Man
11. Not What Enters Into the Mouth Defiles (in Greek κοινοῖ, that is, makes common, makes shared — which is to say, defiles; for unclean and defiled foods were common to all, including the unclean, whereas clean foods belonged only to the clean, since they alone could eat them. Hence "common" is the same as "unclean," as is clear from Acts 10:15.) A Man; But What Proceeds Out of the Mouth, This Defiles a Man. — As if He said: The Scribes, O ye peoples, teach you that it is not lawful to eat with unwashed hands, because unwashed and unclean hands make food unclean, and unclean food in turn makes the soul unclean — that is, hateful and displeasing to God. But they are in error, because it is not what enters the mouth from without, but what goes out from the mouth inwardly, and consequently from the heart — if it is unclean — that defiles a man, as Christ explains at verse 19. For sin must be so voluntary that, unless it is voluntary, it is not sin, says St. Augustine; and likewise virtue, unless it is voluntary, is not virtue.
This error of the Scribes arose from the fact that, in Leviticus 11, pork and the other foods there forbidden — and therefore unclean — are called execrable and abominable, and are said to pollute the soul. Hence at verse 42 it is enacted: "Defile not your souls" by eating unclean things. And at verse 40, "Be ye holy" — that is, clean — in eating, "as I am holy," that is, clean. And soon after: "Do not pollute your souls with any creeping thing" by eating, all of which the Scribes took crudely, as if the foods themselves breathed their uncleanness upon the soul, because the soul touches them in the stomach while digesting them — just as unclean animals, under the Old Law, used to make the man who touched them unclean and irregular in a legal sense. But they were in error, both because that uncleanness was legal and bodily, and did not stain the soul with sin; and also because food is not capable of sin, but only the will. Since, therefore, food has no sin in itself, how shall it breathe that sin upon the soul and the will?
So Pythagoras and Plutarch, in his treatise On the Eating of Flesh, and in Book VIII of the Table Talk, chapter 10, teach that one must abstain from flesh and beans, because these contaminate the soul. The Turks say the same thing about wine, which Mohammed in the Koran forbade them. Busbecq, the ambassador of the Emperor to the emperor of the Turks, relates that he saw a Turk who, when wine was offered to him — for which he had an eager appetite — uttered a great outcry. Asked why, he said: "I am crying out to my soul, that it may retire from my stomach into my feet, lest it be polluted by the wine that I am about to drink, which is forbidden by our law."
So at the time of Christ and the Apostles, the first heresiarchs, sprung from the Jews and Judaizing — such as Simon Magus, Saturninus, Ebion, and afterwards Manichæus, Marcion, and the Encratites — taught that wine and flesh were not created by God but by the devil, and were therefore evil by nature and to be avoided, and that by eating and using them the soul was stained and contaminated; especially since some of them said that along with the flesh of the animal the soul itself is eaten, and that it is rational, and therefore either pious or impious. Hear St. Epiphanius, Heresy 64: "Manichæus says that the one who eats flesh eats a soul, and is himself guilty, so that such a thing happens to him too: if he eats a bull, that he become a bull; if he eats a pig, that he become a pig; and so of the rest. For this reason these men abstain from living creatures." Against these men the Apostle says that impostors will come who shall teach "to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving," etc., "because every creature of God is good, and nothing to be rejected that is received with thanksgiving," 1 Timothy 4:4. See what is said there. Wherefore the heretics misuse this passage when they argue against the fasts imposed by the Church: for the Church does not forbid meats on a fast day because meats are evil in themselves, but in order to restrain gluttony and luxury, and to exercise penance together with obedience. If, then, anyone eats flesh on a fast day, he sins — not because the flesh does so, but because the disobedience and intemperance of the eater defile his soul. For in like manner the Jews of old, when they ate pork or any other food forbidden by the Law, sinned and polluted their soul, not through the flesh, but through disobedience, according to the passage cited shortly above: "Defile not your souls," Leviticus 11.
Verse 12: Dost Thou Know That the Pharisees Were Scandalized?
12. Then His Disciples, Coming to Him, Said to Him: Dost Thou Know That the Pharisees, When They Heard This Word, Were Scandalized? — "Then" — namely, when, after dismissing the multitudes, Christ had come with His own into the house, as is clear from Mark 7:17. "Scandalized," that is, offended, because the Pharisees placed their whole sanctity in the outward washings of the hands, etc.; therefore on hearing these washings despised and refuted by Christ, they were indignant that He was stripping from them the name of "sanctity" which they had so greedily sought for themselves. They did not, however, dare to open their mouths and contradict Christ, because they had been convicted by Him with too solid an argument — both here and a little earlier on corban — nor did they sufficiently understand Christ's saying, since He was speaking to them parabolically, that is, obscurely, according to His custom, saying: "Not what enters the mouth, but what proceeds from the mouth, this defiles a man."
Verse 13: Every Plant Which My Heavenly Father Has Not Planted Shall Be Rooted Up
13. But He, Answering, Said: Every Plant Which My Heavenly Father Has Not Planted Shall Be Rooted Up. — "Plant" — that is, a plant, a seed, a shrub, a tree — by which St. Hilary, Chrysostom, and Theophylact understand doctrine, as if He said: The doctrine of the Pharisees concerning unclean foods that defile the soul will be refuted by Me and rooted up. Better, others take "plant" to mean men: for these are plants planted by God in paradise, but corrupted by the serpent; they are replanted by Him together with Christ — who is the Tree of Life — they are grafted in through faith and grace, and then they bring forth the fruits of good works, meritorious of eternal life. But otherwise they remain sterile trees, corrupted and spoiled, and therefore to be rooted up and cast into eternal fire — just as John the Baptist threatened these same Pharisees, Matthew 3:10. For they were always opposed to Christ — and consequently to God the Father — as sworn enemies. Jansenius takes these "plants not planted by God" to be the reprobate. But it is not likely that Christ, since they are unknown and uncertain to us, wished to point them out in this saying, or to throw the cause of the Pharisees' malice back upon God's reprobation, and so as it were to excuse it. Rather, He understands perverse men — namely, the Scribes and Pharisees, who made themselves evil plants by their own will, and are therefore to be cut down and cast into the fire of Gehenna, if they are not converted. So Jerome, Origen (Homily 1 on Jeremiah), Maldonatus, and others.
Verse 14: Let Them Alone, They Are Blind, and Leaders of the Blind
14. Let Them Alone, They Are Blind, and (the Greek, Syriac, Arabic, and some Latin copies omit the and, so that the saying is tighter and more forceful) Leaders of the Blind; and if the Blind Lead the Blind, Both Fall Into the Pit. — As if He said: Let the Scribes be scandalized; do not care that they are offended by My teaching and correction, because they themselves are blind. For they do not see the light of truth, of the Law, and of the faith which I have displayed; but in their own blindness and error, whereby they place sanctity in washings and in other outward things, they are obstinate and incorrigible, and they are "leaders of the blind" — namely, of the peoples and multitudes, whom they teach this error and drag along with them into the pit of Gehenna. For that reason, among the multitudes, which can still be enlightened and corrected, I am openly pointing out and refuting this error of theirs, that they may beware of it. Christ here teaches that the scandal of the Pharisees is to be despised — namely, when someone is scandalized and offended through his own malice and perverse obstinacy. For as St. Gregory says, Homily 7 on Ezekiel: "If scandal is taken from the truth, it is more useful to allow the scandal to arise than to let the truth be abandoned."
Verse 15: But Peter Answering Said: Expound to Us This Parable
15. But Peter Answering (as it were the standard-bearer of the Apostles) Said to Him: Expound to Us This Parable, — that is, this somewhat obscure saying (see what was said on chapter 13, verse 35, and Proverbs 1:1) in which Thou didst say: "Not what enters the mouth, but what proceeds from the mouth, this defiles a man." For what is it that goes out from the mouth that defiles a man? And if it is cast forth outside, how does it defile the interior things of the soul?
Verse 16: Are You Also Yet Without Understanding?
16. But He Said: Are You Also Yet Without Understanding? — In Greek ἀσύνετοι — that is, devoid of understanding, senseless, uncomprehending — as if He said: In chapters 5 and 6 I taught you at length in what things the purity or impurity of the mind consists, and in particular that angry, slanderous, contumelious, and perjured words, which proceed from the mouth, contaminate a man; how then have you forgotten this, and do not understand?
Verse 17: Everything Which Enters the Mouth Goes Into the Belly
17. Do You Not Understand That Everything Which Enters the Mouth Goes Into the Belly (stomach), and Is Cast Out Into the Privy? — From this saying of Christ, Porphyry and Julian the Apostate slandered Christ as being ignorant of natural science — so St. Jerome testifies — on the grounds that not every food that enters the mouth is cast into the privy, but its better part is turned into the substance of the eater, and nourishes and increases him. To these St. Jerome replies, saying: "These men, while they wish to reproach another's want of skill, show their own. For although the thin moisture and liquid food is poured into the body, yet when it has been concocted in the veins and limbs and digested through the hidden passages of the body, which the Greeks call πόροι (pores), it slips down to the lower parts and goes into the privy."
But this must be accepted cautiously and with a grain of salt — namely, that some part vanishes through the pores, or is cast into the privy. For not all of every food, but only the more impure and feculent portion of it, is cast into the privy. For the first digestion and conversion of food into chyle takes place in the stomach, where the coarser parts, unfit for the body's nourishment, are discharged through the feces into the privy. The second digestion takes place in the liver, where the chyle is turned into blood; and the separation and discharge of the useless parts takes place through urine. The third digestion takes place in the individual members, which assimilate to themselves the blood received from the liver through the veins and convert it into flesh; and there the discharge of the useless parts takes place through the pores, by which the parts of the blood unfit for flesh are expelled through sweats, vapors, and exhalations. Whence Mark, chapter 7, verse 19, adds: "It goes out into the privy, cleansing all meats." The sense, then, of Christ's words is, as if He said: So far is unwashed or unclean food from defiling the soul — as the Scribes teach — that whatever is unclean and impure in the food, the man casts out through the feces and sends forth into the privy; what therefore remains is pure, and is turned into pure chyle, blood, and flesh. It cannot, therefore, defile either the body or, through the body, the soul.
Further, the physicians teach, and experience itself confirms, that at a settled age — for example, in grown men — it is a sign of health when one discharges through feces, urine, and sweat approximately as much as he has taken in through food: because then the body is in a stable condition, such that it neither increases nor grows; but as the previous parts of the flesh are dissolved and drain away by natural heat, other better and new parts succeed from the nourishment and food. Therefore this food is not here wholly discharged — at least not at once; for once turned into flesh, it will in its own time be consumed, drain away, and be discharged, just as the previous parts of the flesh. St. Chrysostom and Salmeron add that Christ is alluding and arguing ad hominem, that is, toward the error of the Jews, who thought that unclean food exhaled from itself a foul odor to the heart, in which alone the Jews believed the soul to reside, and thus that through the heart it polluted the soul itself; therefore that a man was not clean unless the digestion and expulsion of food had been fully carried out; for all food, just as it has been ingested, is in turn expelled. As if Christ said: All food, according to you, O Jews, is finally discharged into the privy; therefore, according to you, it cannot defile the soul, inasmuch as the soul repels it and casts it away from itself.
From this saying of Christ arose the error of the Master of the Sentences, who in Book II, distinction last, at the end, teaches that individual men draw from Adam a tiny particle of flesh, and through it contract from him original sin, "in whom all have sinned," Romans 5; and that this particle is multiplied in itself and increased by itself (as being the sole substantial element in each man), but not from food, since food is only the nourishment of this particle, not its aliment or increase, but is wholly expelled into the privy, as Christ here says; and therefore that this particle alone shall rise again on the day of judgment. From this he further concludes that Christ, although born from Adam, did not contract original sin from him, because the particle which He drew from him was pure and free from all defect and sin. He endeavors to prove all these things from these words of Christ.
But St. Thomas refutes these things at length in Part I, the last Question, article 1, and the Scholastics in the same place. For even if Adam had had a body the size of a mountain, it still would not have sufficed to contain as many particles as would have had to be distributed one by one to all the many thousand millions of men who are continually being born from him. Again, those particles would have to be incorruptible, yet all flesh quickly corrupts. Wherefore most men draw no matter at all from Adam, yet they contract original sin from him; because they were in him causally according to seminal reason, since they are propagated from him by continual generation as sons.
Finally, Œcolampadius impiously and ineptly twists these words of Christ against the real presence of the flesh of Christ in the Eucharist, saying: "If the flesh of Christ is our food, then, as food, it is discharged into the privy — which God forbid." But Fisher of Rochester replies, in his book Against Him, chapter 29: "Since the body of Christ in the Eucharist exists in an indivisible and impassible mode, it is not divided within itself by us who eat it, nor altered, nor digested, as ordinary flesh is digested, and consequently it has no waste to be excreted; for every digestion and change takes place in the species of bread and wine, not in the body of Christ."
Tropologically: learn here how contemptible are the elegances and delicacies of the mouth and taste, seeing that they go straight into the foul belly, which corrupts them and turns them into filth and refuse so abominable that no one can endure to see, touch, or smell them, but casts them into the privy. Therefore let it not concern you, says St. Jerome, out of how costly foods you make dung: for the more precious and delicate the foods are, the more foul and abominable they are after digestion and excretion. Blessed Peter Damian recounts a notable example in Book VII, in a letter to Countess Blanca, about the wife of a Doge of Venice who, nourished in the greatest luxuries, while yet alive began to rot, so that no one could endure her intolerable stench. Whence he concludes: "Let the flesh itself therefore teach what flesh is; and what it shows when dead, let it testify also when alive."
Verse 18: The Things Which Proceed Out of the Mouth Come Forth From the Heart
18. But the Things Which Proceed Out of the Mouth Come Forth From the Heart, and These Defile a Man. — "From the heart," that is, from the reason and the will, of which the heart is the symbol — indeed, the seat and workshop. For the heart supplies the vital and animal spirits necessary to the intellect for understanding and to the will for loving; indeed, Galen teaches that the common sense, which most immediately serves the intellect, is in the heart — though Aristotle more truly holds that it is in the brain; but the heart serves the brain and supplies its spirits.
Verse 19: From the Heart Come Forth Evil Thoughts, Murders, Adulteries
19. For From the Heart Come Forth Evil Thoughts, Murders, Adulteries, Fornications, Thefts, False Testimonies, Blasphemies. — For just as waters gush forth from a spring, so from the heart — that is, from the will, when steeped in the corrupt affection of lust or of anger — arise evil thoughts of lust or vengeance, which bubble up from the heart into the mouth when we utter them, and break out from the mouth into deed when we actually commit them.
Verse 20: These Are the Things That Defile a Man
20. These Are the Things That Defile a Man; But to Eat With Unwashed Hands Does Not Defile a Man. — This is the conclusion, and as it were the ἐπιμύθιον, that is, the after-tale or post-parable, which unfolds the aim and end of the parable — namely, to show that unwashed hands and unwashed or unclean foods do not contaminate a man, but only an impure and depraved will. From this it is clear that the Scribes thought that unwashed or unclean food of itself defiled the soul of the one eating it, as I said on verses 2 and 3. For otherwise Christ here does not blame the washing of hands before meals in itself, since from of old it has been adopted by the usage of all the Gentiles, both for cleanliness and for health, and also to remind the guests of inward purity. Hence Virgil, Æneid I:
Dant manibus famuli lymphas, Cereremque canistris
Expediunt, tonsisque ferunt mantilia villis.
"The servants pour water on their hands, and bring out the bread in baskets, and bear towels with their soft-cropped nap."
Hence to recline at table with unwashed hands is considered filthy, ungentlemanly, and boorish, and creates nausea at a banquet. For this reason in ancient times not only priests, but all the faithful washed their hands before prayer. Whence that phrase: "Lifting up pure hands," 1 Timothy 2:8. For in ancient times the faithful received the Eucharist not with the mouth but with the hand, and brought it to the mouth themselves. See what is said there.
Morally: learn here how the heart must be formed, adorned, and guarded by every man, seeing that it is the workshop of all evil and all good, of every vice and every virtue. Wherefore that old man in Moschus, Spiritual Meadow chapter 110, used to give his disciples this singular admonition: "Be thou the overseer of thine own heart," so that nothing may enter or depart from it except with thine own awareness and the approval of thy reason. And Solomon says: "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it life proceeds," Proverbs 4:23. See what is said there.
Verse 21: And Jesus Withdrew Into the Parts of Tyre and Sidon
21. And Jesus, Going Out From Thence, Withdrew Into the Parts of Tyre and Sidon — in order to avoid the wrath and hatred of the Scribes, and that He might begin to impart to the Gentiles, such as the Tyrians were, His doctrine and miracles, which the Jews and the Scribes scorned; and thus, the Jews having been rejected as unbelieving and faithless, He might transfer His preaching and His Church to the Gentiles — in very deed teaching the Apostles to do the same, as indeed they did, Acts 13:46. Yet He willed this to remain hidden, as Mark says — partly for the sake of quiet, as Euthymius says; partly that He might flee honor and glory; and partly lest He should stir up the Jews more grievously against Himself, and give them occasion to cavil that He was not the Messias promised to the Jews, inasmuch as He had left them and turned aside to the Gentiles. "Into the parts;" the Syriac, "into the borders"; for Phoenicia, whose capital was Tyre, was adjacent to Judaea. Tyre lay toward the south, Sidon toward the north. Whence from both sides many from Tyre and Sidon, roused by the fame of Christ's teaching and miracles, flocked to Him in crowds.
Verse 22: A Woman of Canaan Cried Out: Have Mercy on Me, Son of David
22. And Behold, a Woman of Canaan, Coming Out of Those Coasts, Cried Out, Saying to Him: Have Mercy on Me, O Lord, Thou Son of David: My Daughter Is Grievously Troubled by a Demon. — "Canaanite," not from Cana of Galilee, but sprung from the Canaanites, descendants of Canaan son of Ham son of Noah. For the Canaanites were one of the seven nations who once inhabited Palestine along the sea, as is plain from Numbers 13:30, and were driven out by the Hebrews under Joshua — but not from the whole land; for they remained in Phoenicia, that is, in Tyre and Sidon, which the Hebrews could never conquer. Hence Sidon, the firstborn son of Canaan son of Ham, was so called the founder of the city of Sidon, Genesis 10:15. Canaanites therefore are the same as Phoenicians. For thus the Septuagint, at Joshua 5:1, renders "kings of Canaan" as "kings of Phoenicia." Hence Mark, at 7:26, calls this Canaanite woman a "Syrophoenician" — that is, a Syrian from Punic Syria, meaning from Phoenicia, as the Arabic has it. Or, as certain Greek copies have it, a Syrian Phoenician, namely because she was from that part of Phoenicia which borders Syria; or rather because Syria included Phoenicia and all the neighboring regions which lie between the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates. For there were also other Phoenicians outside Syria, such as the Libyphoenicians and the Poeni (or Africans), who used the Punic tongue, which is akin to the Hebrew, as St. Jerome and St. Augustine attest — and there is no doubt that they derived the name as well from the Phoenicians from whom they sprang. Again, Mark calls this Canaanite woman Ἑλληνίς, that is, Greek; the Arabic, a Syrian Greek. For although she was a Phoenician and a Syrian, she is nevertheless called a Greek, because in the New Testament — especially in Paul, as is plain in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:28 — all Gentiles are called Greeks, because the Greeks once ruled over Phoenicia and Syria; and therefore their Greek language extended very widely, even as far as Syria. So St. Augustine, Epistle 200. For Alexander the Great, after a difficult and long siege of seven months, captured Tyre which is set in the sea, and therefore crucified two thousand of the Tyrians, as Q. Curtius testifies in Book IV.
She Cried Out (a loud voice is the index of great affection and desire): Have Mercy on Me, — that is, on my daughter, for I love her as myself; wherefore her torment is my torment, nay, I would rather be tormented myself than see her tortured. Therefore the mercy of deliverance from the demon which Thou shalt confer upon her, Thou shalt confer upon me. For parents love their children more than they are loved by them; the cause of which Aristotle gives in his Economics: that love descends, and that parents wish their children to survive them, so that after death they may as it were live on in them and be as it were immortal, attaining in their children and grandchildren that kind of eternity which they cannot have in themselves. This is the maternal affection of piety, which deserved and obtained from Christ the healing of her daughter.
Son of David, — that is, O Messias! whose proper work is to have mercy on the wretched, and to cast demons out of them and restore men to Himself and to God, as the Prophets foretold and as the Jews with one voice proclaim. The Canaanite woman recognized Christ to be the Messias, partly from common report, partly by the inspiration of God.
My Daughter Is Grievously Troubled by a Demon. — The Arabic: "She had an evil demon." In Greek δαιμονίζεται, that is, she is demoniac, driven by a demon. For the demon twists, tears, and tortures the members of those whom he possesses, with great pain to the possessed and horror to those who look on; and he afflicts the soul with dreadful phantasms and spectres, and with fears, sorrows, and anguish. For the demon has an immense hatred toward God, and consequently toward man, who is the image of God, and therefore wounds and tortures him as much as he can. The Canaanite woman does not add: Come and set her free; but she only sets her daughter's ill before Christ, committing the rest to His prudence and charity, confident that He will bring help to her daughter in a fitting manner. In which she shows both great resignation of spirit and great trust in Christ.
Verse 23: Who Answered Her Not a Word
23. Who Answered Her Not a Word, — that He might test and increase her faith, hope, humility, and constancy, and, as Chrysostom says, make them known to others and set them forth to be imitated.
And His Disciples, Coming to Him, Besought Him, Saying: Send Her Away (by granting her what she asks, namely, her daughter's deliverance from the demon), for She Crieth After Us. — The Arabic: "in our footsteps"; for she presses upon us and ceaselessly follows us, crying out — commending and adjuring Thee for her daughter's welfare. Deliver her therefore from the pain and toil of crying out, and deliver us from the annoyance of hearing her, lest she deafen our ears. "But from a heart that desires and burns forth, unspeakable groans are sent up, by which, as by sweet music, Christ is charmed," says St. Augustine, Epistle 121, chapter 15.
You will say: Mark, chapter 7:25, says that she went into the house and there fell at Christ's feet. St. Augustine replies, in Book II of On the Harmony of the Evangelists, chapter 49, that the Canaanite woman first entreated Christ in the house, as Mark says, and then, when Christ was going out of the house, followed Him and pressed the same request upon Him. Yet it seems truer that she first besought Christ on the road, as is said here, and afterward in the house, as Mark indicates. So Jansenius, Salmeron, and others.
Verse 24: I Was Not Sent but to the Sheep That Are Lost of the House of Israel
24. But He Answering Said: I Was Not Sent but to the Sheep That Are Lost (the Arabic, "wandering") of the House of Israel. — The Syriac: "who have strayed from the house of Israel" — that is, that I, as shepherd, may show My bodily presence, and consequently the grace of My Gospel and miracles, only to the Israelites, to whom, as to sheep needing pasture, the Messias was promised by God. Hence Christ is called by Paul, in Romans 15:8, the minister of the circumcision, that is, the teacher of the circumcised, or of the Jews. So St. Hilary and St. Augustine, Tractate 31 on John.
Verse 25: But She Came and Adored Him, Saying: Lord, Help Me
25. But She Came and Adored (as a suppliant, on bended knees before Christ) Him, Saying: Lord, Help Me. — The Canaanite woman, having suffered a rebuff from Christ, did not desist nor cast away hope, but pressed on the more strongly and conceived the greater hope, and cried out more forcefully, nay, followed Christ steadfastly even to the house, as Mark says in chapter 7:24-25; and by this her constancy, humility, and perseverance, she deserved to be heard. For God, when He is called upon, often does not answer at first, in order that the one praying may continue and increase his prayers and vows, and that the benefit which is asked may come the more welcome, the more it has been desired and the longer it has been sought. Persevere therefore in prayer and thou shalt obtain; for God denies nothing to those who persevere, as is clear in this Canaanite woman. For she was "persistent in prayers, wise in replies, faithful in her words," says St. Ambrose, Book V on Luke, near the end.
In like manner Christ often pricks, humbles, and mortifies holy souls while they desire something, in order that they may ask it more humbly and more ardently, and so obtain it. St. Chrysostom wisely says, in Homily 30 on Genesis: "Whether we obtain what we ask, or do not obtain it, let us always persevere in prayer. And let us give thanks not only if we obtain, but even if we have suffered a refusal. For when God denies us anything, it is no less than if He had granted it. For we ourselves do not know what is profitable for us, as He knows."
Verse 26: It Is Not Good to Take the Children's Bread and Cast It to the Dogs
26. And He Answering Said: It Is Not Good (in Greek καλόν, that is, honorable, becoming, fitting) to Take the Children's Bread and Cast It (in Greek βαλεῖν, that is, to throw; the Syriac, "to throw before") to the Dogs. — Christ here speaks after the manner of the Jews, who used to call the Gentiles (such as the Canaanite woman was) "dogs," as the vilest of idolaters. This is the second rebuff given to the Canaanite by Christ, and sharper than the former; for He stings her by calling her a dog, to whom a crust of bread is commonly thrown. By "bread" He means not bodily but spiritual bread, namely the grace of the Gospel and of His miracles; for this had been promised by God to the Jews alone, as to the faithful and to sons. Hence Mark 7:27 adds that Christ said: "Suffer the children first to be filled," as if to say: Suffer that I first heal all the Jews who ask help of Me.
Verse 27: Yea, Lord: For the Whelps Also Eat of the Crumbs
27. But She Said: Yea, Lord: For the Whelps Also Eat of the Crumbs That Fall From the Table of Their Masters. — The word "yea" is one of affirmation. For in Greek it is ναί, that is, "certainly, indeed," as if she were saying: It is altogether so; Thou speakest most truly, my Christ. For I acknowledge that I am a worthless dog, and that it is not fitting that the bread of the children — that is, the grace of the miracles of the Messias promised to the Jews — should be given to me, a Gentile, as to a dog. Yet dogs and whelps (for in Greek there is one and the same word, κυνάρια) commonly eat of the crumbs of bread which fall from the table of their masters and of their children's children; therefore feed me as Thy whelp, for I cannot leave the table of my Lord, whose whelp I am. And if Thou drive me away with foot or staff, I will withdraw, but by another door I will enter again as a whelp; I will not yield to blows. There will be no word or stroke so harsh as to drive me from Thee or pull me away: I will not let Thee go until Thou give me what I ask. Give, therefore, O most kindly Lord, only a crumb — that is, the smallest grace of my daughter's healing — which, like a single crumb, may fall from Thee by chance among us Tyrians and Gentiles, and be gathered up by me. Let there be given, I say, to me a Gentile a crumb of grace and mercy from Thee; but let the whole loaf of promise and of righteousness be kept for the Jews, the children. For the Canaanite binds Christ prudently, modestly, and with force by His own saying, and by her lowly faith and reasoning she conquers by prayer and argument Him who willingly allows Himself to be conquered, as St. Chrysostom says; nay, she ensnares Christ, takes Him, and captures Him by His own words. As if she said: "If I am a dog, I am not an alien," says Chrysostom; "Thou callest me a dog; feed me therefore as a dog; I cannot leave the table of my Lord." And St. Jerome: "Wonderful," he says, "are the faith, patience, and humility of this woman that are here proclaimed — her faith, whereby she believed that her daughter could be healed; her patience, whereby, so often despised, she persevered in her prayers; her humility, that she compares herself not to dogs but to whelps. 'I know,' she says, 'that I do not deserve the children's bread, and cannot take whole portions of food, nor sit at table with the Father; but I am content with the leavings of the puppies, that through the humility of the crumbs I may come to the greatness of the whole loaf.'" Again St. Chrysostom, in Homily 17 drawn from various places on Matthew: "I do not refuse the reproach," he says; "only let me receive the food even of a dog. Thou, do what is owed to a dog: because Thou callest me a dog, give me the crumbs. O Lord, Thou art become the advocate of my petition: by denying, Thou dost promise." And Victor of Antioch, on Mark chapter 7: "I count it," he says, "a great favor to be ranked even among the dogs. For so great are the riches of the Lord's table, that it is abundantly enough for me, if I may but enjoy the crumbs of Thy righteous ones."
Morally: consider here the pattern of perfect prayer, and imitate it. For this Canaanite teaches us to pray: first, with great humility, when she acknowledges herself a dog; second, with faith, when she calls Christ the Son of David, that is, the Messias, God, and Saviour promised to the Jews; third, with modesty, in that she sets before Christ the right of dogs and her own misery, yet does not dare to draw the conclusion — namely, that Christ should heal her daughter — but leaves it to Christ to do; fourth, with prudence, whereby she grasps Christ Himself by His own words, and gently turns back against Himself the argument He made against her, and turns it into an argument for her obtaining; fifth, with reverence, religion, and devotion, whereby she entreated Him on bent knees; sixth, with resignation, in that she did not say: Heal my daughter, but "Help me" in whatever manner shall seem best to Thee; seventh, with confidence, whereby, though a Gentile, she seriously hoped that she would be heard by Christ; eighth, with ardor, with which she cried out to Christ; ninth, with charity, whereby she interceded for her daughter, as if solicitous for her very self, saying: "Have mercy on me"; tenth, with constancy and perseverance, whereby, though twice rebuffed by Christ, she stood fast and pressed on more vehemently in prayer. Truly Chrysologus says, in Sermon 100: "Rightly," he says, "is she who confessed herself a dog turned into a human being. Rightly is she adopted as a daughter, raised up and honored to the table, who by laudable humility cast herself beneath the table." Imitating this Canaanite, St. Laurence Justinian, the first Patriarch of Venice, as he was dying prayed to God thus: "I would not dare aspire to the seats of the blessed spirits, who gaze upon the appearance of the Holy Trinity; yet some portion of Thy creature asks for the crumbs of Thy most sweet table. It will be too much for me — alas, how much too much! — if beneath the sandals of Thy lowliest elect Thou dost not deny some little place to this Thy tiny servant." Thus has his Life in Surius, under January 8, chapter 11.
Verse 28: O Woman, Great Is Thy Faith: Be It Done to Thee as Thou Wilt
28. Then Jesus Answering, Said to Her: O Woman, Great Is Thy Faith: Be It Done to Thee as Thou Wilt. — Mark 7: "For this saying, go thy way; the demon is gone out (by My casting him out) of thy daughter." Christ could not hide Himself or contain Himself, but conquered by the reasoning and the prayer of the Canaanite, as if marvelling He exclaims: "O woman, great is thy faith." "Therefore," says St. Chrysostom, "He had repulsed her, so that the sequence of events might fit this utterance, that He might adorn the woman with a shining crown." "Great" — that is, rare and extraordinary — is thy faith, both in itself, whereby, though a Gentile, thou believest Me to be the Messias and Saviour of the world; and in its effects, namely in the virtues of humility, reverence, charity, constancy, and the rest already recounted, which a great faith brings forth and produces of itself. Wherefore she deserved to obtain what she was asking, and to hear: "Be it done unto thee as thou wilt," that is, as thou askest. These words, Chrysostom says, are like those of Genesis 1: "Let there be a firmament, and it was so." Whence it follows: "And her daughter was healed from that hour." See here the efficacy of fervent prayer, by which Jacob wrestling with the Angel overcame him, and obtained from him the blessing which he was demanding, and therefore for his labor was called Israel, that is, one who rules with God, Genesis 32:28. Prayer therefore makes us Israels, that is, ones ruling with God.
Tropologically: the daughter vexed by the demon is the soul tempted by the devil and polluted by sin, says Rabanus, which therefore must at once distrust its own strength and trust in Christ, and call upon Him with humility and compunction, acknowledging itself a dog — that is, a vile sinner — yet in such a way as not to despair of pardon, but rather to hope the more in Christ's mercy the greater her misery is. For it befits the great Physician to cure great diseases, and the great God to work great things, and the great Christ to sanctify and save great sinners.
Allegorically: this Gentile daughter is the Church of the Gentiles, which, shut out from salvation by the justice of God, burst into it through the window of mercy, having broken down the gates of the kingdom of heaven. Here a great reversal took place: for the Jews, who were formerly the children, because of their unbelief toward Christ have become dogs, according to that saying: "Many dogs have compassed me," Psalm 21; and therefore as dogs they have eaten the bones, that is, the letter of Sacred Scripture; but the Gentiles, who were dogs, have been made children, and eat at Christ's table the bread of the Eucharist and the hidden sense of Sacred Scripture, as it were the marrow and the fatness of wheat. So St. Jerome.
And Her Daughter Was Healed From That Hour. — Mark chapter 7: "And when she had gone home, she found the girl (freed from the demon, but wearied by his torment) lying on the bed," as if now resting, secure and glad. So Theophylact: The sinful soul, set free from sin by the absolution of Christ, rests on the bed of a tranquil, serene, and cheerful conscience. Jansenius gathers many moral lessons from this story at the end of chapter 6 of his Concord of the Gospels; so also Salmerón in Book VI, chapter 29, at the end; Barradius in Book X, chapter 14; and Vincentius Regius in his Elucidation of the Gospels, Part III, Book V, chapter 2, Moral Digressions 1 and 2.
Verse 29: And Going Up Into a Mountain, He Sat There
29. And When Jesus Had Passed Away From Thence, He Came Nigh the Sea of Galilee; and Going Up Into a Mountain, He Sat There, — both for the sake of retirement and quiet, and so that, conspicuous to all on the mountain, He might wait for the multitude that would flow together to Him either to be taught or to be healed: to all, therefore, Christ shows Himself and offers Himself ready to do good. The Gloss says mystically: "The sea," he says, "near which He comes, signifies the turbulent billows of this age, which is 'of Galilee,' because men are passing over from vices to virtues." And St. Jerome: "He goes up the mountain," he says, "that, as a bird does, He may rouse His tender offspring to fly." And Rabanus: "Namely, that He might raise up His hearers to the higher and heavenly things to be meditated on, and He was sitting there, in order to show that rest is to be sought not in earthly things but in heavenly."
Verse 30: And There Came to Him Great Multitudes
30. And There Came to Him Great Multitudes, Having With Them the Dumb, the Blind, the Lame, the Maimed, and Many Others, and They Cast Them Down at His Feet, and He Healed Them. — "Maimed," in Greek κυλλούς, that is, those lacking the use of some limb. St. John, chapter 5:3, calls them ξηρούς, that is, withered — such as was that man who had the withered hand, Matthew 12:13. Hence the Arabic here has "withered" for "maimed." "And many others," those afflicted with other diseases and bodily defects; "and He healed them" all. Behold, here He fulfils what He said at verse 26: He fills the Jews, as the children, with the bread of miracles; whereas to the Gentiles, as to the dogs (like the Canaanite woman), He has given only a crumb of healing.
Mystically the Gloss: "The dumb," he says, "are those who do not praise God; the blind, who do not understand the way of life; the deaf, who do not obey; the lame, who are not walking rightly through the by-ways of good works; the maimed are those who are weak in good works." Excellently Blessed Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 50: "Christ," he says, "came to take upon Himself our infirmities and to confer His virtues upon us; to seek out human things and to bestow divine; to receive injuries and to repay dignities; to bear weariness and to deliver healings — for the physician who does not bear infirmities knows not how to cure, and he who has not been made weak with the weak cannot bestow healing on the weak."
Verse 31: So That the Multitudes Marveled, and They Glorified the God of Israel
31. So That the Multitudes Marveled, Seeing the Dumb Speak, the Lame Walk, the Blind See, and They Glorified the God of Israel. — Because He had shown them the Messias, the Worker of so many benefits and miracles, promised to Israel, that is, to Jacob and to Abraham and to their descendants the Israelites. The Greek and Syriac add κυλλοὺς ὑγιεῖς — that is, the maimed or crippled made whole, that is, restored to the use of their limbs.
Verse 32: I Have Compassion on the Multitude, Because They Have Now Been With Me Three Days
32. And Jesus, Having Called His Disciples Together, Said: I Have Compassion on the Multitude, Because They Have Now Been With Me Three Days, and Have Nothing to Eat; and I Will Not Send Them Away Fasting, Lest They Faint on the Way. — Christ had healed the sick; now He provides food both for those He had healed and for the sound who were suffering hunger. "For He wishes," says St. Jerome, "to feed those whom He had cured, and, now that their weaknesses are taken away, to offer food to those restored to health." So perfect are the works of the mercy of Christ, that they teach us to do the like. "I have compassion," in Greek σπλαγχνίζομαι, in Hebrew מרחם אני merachem ani, or נכמרו רחמי nichmeru rachamai, that is, I am moved in my inmost bowels and I have pity on this multitude that hungers for My sake; for it follows Me fasting for a full three days. See here the ardent zeal of the people for Christ, who so attend to His teaching that they forget food and even themselves; and see on the other hand the tireless labor and ardor of Christ for them, that for three whole days, without rest, refreshment, or sleep, He preaches and heals whatever sick there are in the multitude. Moreover, Christ first cares for souls, then for bodies. Let the prelate and pastor do the like. For it belongs to Christ's providence to fulfil that which He Himself established: "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you," Matthew 6:33.
So St. Charles Borromeo, forgetful of himself, spent himself entirely in the service of his people. Hence at the time of the Forty Hours' devotion, he would persevere in the church for a full forty hours preaching, praying, celebrating, and the like, without sleep or food, as his Life records; for indeed the mind intent upon God and divine works does not feel hunger, because it is fed by faith and charity, according to that saying of Christ when instructing the Samaritan woman: "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, that I may perfect His work," John chapter 4:34.
Because They Have Now Been With Me Three Days, and Have Nothing to Eat. — "Though, indeed," says St. Chrysostom, "when they came, they had food, nevertheless by this time it had been consumed; and for this reason He did not do this on the first day or the second, but on the third, when now all was consumed, so that they, first placed in need, might with greater desire receive what was happening." But in so great a multitude it is likely that many had brought no food with them, and therefore remained fasting for three days, drawn as they were by the charity and sweetness of Christ. "They will faint on the way, for some of them have come from afar," says Mark 8:3.
Mystically Remigius: "Sinners," he says, "converted through penance, perish in the course of this failing world if they are sent away without the food of sacred doctrine." But the Gloss: "First," he says, "the Lord takes away weaknesses, and afterward feeds them — because first sins must be removed, and afterward the soul must be nourished with the words of God."
Verse 33: Whence Then Should We Have So Many Loaves in the Wilderness?
33. And the Disciples Say to Him: Whence Then Should We Have So Many Loaves in the Wilderness, as to Fill So Great a Multitude? — The Arabic: "Whence shall we find bread in the wilderness to satisfy this crowd?" "So many," that is, so numerous; for multitude, or number, is a kind of quantity just as magnitude is. For there are two species of quantity: for quantity is divided into continuous, which is magnitude, and into discrete, which is multitude, or number. The disciples, measuring the matter by human reason, thought it impossible to find so many loaves in the wilderness; but Christ in time of need, when human aids fail, suffices by divine power — and meanwhile the disciples' assessment of the impossibility set off this miracle of Christ all the more brightly.
Verse 34: How Many Loaves Have Ye? Seven, and a Few Little Fishes
34. And Jesus Saith to Them: How Many Loaves Have Ye? And They Said: Seven, and a Few Little Fishes. — The Syriac: "A little of small fishes." These loaves seem to have been the Apostles' own, as if He were saying: "How many loaves have ye" gathered for feeding our company? For because Christ often withdrew into the wilderness, the Apostles were in the habit of carrying some provisions with them, but only a little and scanty. See chapter 16:7.
Seven. — In the earlier multiplication of loaves, chapter 14:17, there were only five loaves, but here there are seven; and yet it was as easy for Christ to multiply these as those. For He willed that the number both of the loaves and of the men should be varied, lest one and the same miracle might seem to occur in both places, but rather two distinct miracles.
Mystically: St. Bernard, in his sermon On the Seven Loaves, takes them for the seven gifts of God: "The first loaf," he says, "is the word of God, in which is the life of man, as He Himself bears witness. The second loaf is obedience: 'My meat,' He says, 'is to do the will of Him that sent Me.' The third loaf is holy meditation, of which it is written: 'Meditation shall preserve thee'; and which in another place seems to be called the bread of life and of understanding. The fourth loaf is the tears of those who pray. The fifth is the labor of penance. The sixth loaf is the joyful concord of society — a loaf, I say, made from diverse grains, and leavened indeed with the wisdom of God. Finally, the seventh loaf is the Eucharist: 'For the bread,' He says, 'which I shall give is My flesh, for the life of the world.'"
In the following sermon he interprets the same seven loaves of the mercies of God. "The first mercy of God," he says, "is that He preserved me from many sins into which I should otherwise have fallen; the second, that He overlooked me when I was sinning, and overlooked my sins; the third, that He roused me to penance; the fourth, that He received the penitent into grace; the fifth, that He gave me the grace of continence, lest I fall back into my former sins; the sixth, that He gave me the gift of living well; the seventh, that to one unworthy He gave, from so many benefits, the boldness to hope for the things of heaven." The same author, in Sermon 3, in a similar manner mystically assigns seven fragments of mercy.
Verse 35: And He Commanded the Multitude to Sit Down Upon the Ground
35. And He Commanded the Multitude to Sit Down Upon the Ground, — seating themselves in the manner and posture in which those about to dine customarily sit, but without a table or table vessels, as was done in the state of the law of nature in the time of Adam. For Christ refreshes His own to sufficiency and to necessity, not to pleasure and luxury.
Verse 36: And Taking the Seven Loaves and the Fishes, and Giving Thanks
36. And Taking the Seven Loaves and the Fishes, and Giving Thanks, He Brake, and Gave to His Disciples, and the Disciples to the People. — "Giving thanks," in Greek εὐχαριστήσας, that is, when He had given thanks, calling upon the help of God the Father for a new grace of multiplication of loaves. The Syriac: "He praised God." For he who is thankful and gives thanks for a benefit received deserves to receive a new one. By synecdoche therefore, under the act of thanksgiving — as being one, and the first, species and part of prayer — understand also all the rest, and especially the petition for fresh co-operation, to work this new miracle. Christ, as God, could have multiplied the loaves of Himself and by His own will; but as man, He prays to God after His wont that He may supply the power for this miracle. Wherefore it plainly appears that Christ after the thanksgiving blessed the loaves by signing them with the cross, and by blessing multiplied them little by little and continuously during the breaking and the distributing, as He did at chapter 14, verse 19: "Looking up to heaven," it says, "He blessed, and brake, and gave." Hence the Arabic here translates "giving thanks" as "He blessed," namely the bread and the fishes.
Verse 37: And They All Ate and Were Filled; Seven Baskets Full of Fragments
37. And They All Ate and Were Filled; and They Took Up Seven Baskets Full of What Remained of the Fragments. — That is, as many baskets as there had been loaves; and accordingly there remained as much bread as had been offered to Christ at the beginning — indeed, even more. For each basket (which is a load fit for a man, or for the hand of one carrying it) contained more than one loaf. Indeed, Franciscus Lucas is of the opinion that a sporta, in Greek σπυρίς, was twice the size of a cophinus, and was a load to be carried by two men. The Arabic, however, translates "seven sportas" as "seven cophini." Christ willed that the fragments and crumbs should be gathered up, both in memory of the miracle, and that nothing of God's gifts should be lost, and that He might teach us to be frugal and to use God's creatures and foods frugally. From this command of Christ, in certain religious orders it has been established that after the meal each man should gather his crumbs onto his plate.
Hear what is recounted in the Life of St. Odo, Abbot of Cluny, chapter 14 (it is in Surius under November 28): "The crumbs that fell from the cutting of the bread each man carefully gathered, and before the end of the reading he received them with a blessing. When the reading was ended, no one dared to take either the crumbs or any food. These crumbs they reckoned more sacred than other foods because of the miracle." And this miracle was as follows: As a monk lay dying who, when in good health, had not been accustomed to eat the crumbs but had suffered them to fall from the table, the demon showed him a little sack full of crumbs, often terrifying the man and forcing him to arm himself with the sign of the cross and to cry out. From that day those crumbs were gathered with great zeal.
In the same Life, chapter 17, another miracle is told: namely, that the crumbs in the hand of a religious who was carefully preserving them were turned into pearls, which were afterwards woven as an ornament into a certain Church. St. Francis saw in a vision that he was gathering up crumbs of bread, and was bidden from heaven to make one host of them all, and to distribute it among the brethren; he saw that those who rejected it were marked with leprosy, and soon received from God this explanation of the vision: "The crumbs are the words of the Gospel; the host is the Rule; leprosy is iniquity." So St. Bonaventure in his Life of St. Francis, chapter 3, at the end. See also our own Julius Nigronius, in his treatise On the Care of the Least Things.
Verse 38: And They That Did Eat Were Four Thousand Men
38. And They That Did Eat Were Four Thousand Men, Besides (apart from) Children and Women. — See what was said on chapter 14:21. The moral lessons which I set forth there on the preceding verses are also to be applied to this place and miracle.
Verse 39: And Having Dismissed the Multitude, He Came Into the Coasts of Magedan
39. And Having Dismissed the Multitude, He Went Up Into a Boat, and Came Into the Coasts of Magedan. — In Greek Magdala; the Arabic, Magedal. For often the letters M and N liquefy into L, as I showed at Canticles 6:12, in the word "Shunammite" and "Shulammite." Magedan is a town beyond the Sea of Galilee, situated near Gerasa; it is now called the region of "Magdena," says St. Jerome in On the Places of the Hebrews. Mark 8:10, instead of Magedan, has Dalmanutha — either because one and the same place was known by two names, as St. Augustine holds (whence certain codices in Mark have Magedan in place of Dalmanutha), or rather because these were two places or two towns, but neighboring ones, and Christ came into the borders of both, because He put in at the shore which was near to both towns. Brocardus, in his Itinerary, is mistaken in holding that Magedan is Medan, that is, the waters of Dan — namely, that spring from which the Jordan takes its rise, which Josephus calls Phiala; for Medan and the source of the Jordan are very far removed from the Sea of Galilee, to which Magedan was adjacent. Some are likewise mistaken in holding that Magedan is Mageddo, where Josiah, king of Judah, was slain; for Magedan lies beyond Mageddo on this side of the Sea of Galilee, and is far distant from it: it adjoins the brook Cison, and is near to Caesarea and the Mediterranean Sea. See the Geographical Tables of Adrichomius. This verse looks forward to the following chapter. Hence many begin chapter 16 from it. For it was at Magedan that there occurred the request of the Scribes for a sign from heaven, which follows.