Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, Christ sets forth the parable of the workmen hired to cultivate a vineyard, of whom the last called are made the first in wages and reward. Second, in verse 16, He foretells His Passion. Third, in verse 20, when James and John seek the first seats in Christ's kingdom, He sets before them the cup of the Passion, and teaches that he who wishes to be greater must be the lesser. Fourth, in verse 30, He gives sight to two blind men.
Vulgate Text: Matthew 20:1-34
1. The kingdom of heaven is like to a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire workers into his vineyard. 2. And having agreed with the workers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the marketplace idle; 4. and he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just. 5. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. 6. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he said to them: Why do you stand here all the day idle? 7. They said to him: Because no one has hired us. He said to them: Go you also into my vineyard. 8. And when evening had come, the lord of the vineyard said to his steward: Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last even to the first. 9. When therefore those had come who had come about the eleventh hour, they received every man a denarius. 10. But when the first also had come, they thought that they would receive more; yet they also received every man a denarius. 11. And on receiving it, they murmured against the householder, 12. saying: These last have worked but one hour, and You have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the heats. 13. But he answering one of them, said: Friend, I do you no wrong: did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14. Take what is yours, and go your way; I will also give to this last, even as to you. 15. Or is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is your eye evil because I am good? 16. So shall the last be first, and the first last: for many are called, but few are chosen. 17. And Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart, and said to them: 18. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered to the chief priests and to the Scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, 19. and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified, and the third day He shall rise again. 20. Then came to Him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, worshiping and asking something of Him. 21. Who said to her: What will you? She said to Him: Say that these my two sons may sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left, in Your kingdom. 22. And Jesus answering, said: You do not know what you ask. Can you drink the cup that I shall drink? They said to Him: We can. 23. He said to them: My cup indeed you shall drink; but to sit on My right hand, or on My left, is not Mine to give to you, but to them for whom it has been prepared by My Father. 24. And the ten hearing it, were moved with indignation against the two brothers. 25. But Jesus called them to Him, and said: You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who are the greater, exercise power upon them. 26. It shall not be so among you: but whoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister; 27. and he who will be first among you, shall be your servant. 28. Even as the Son of Man has not come to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give His life a redemption for many. 29. And as they were going out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. 30. And behold, two blind men sitting by the wayside heard that Jesus was passing by; and they cried out, saying: Lord, have mercy on us, O Son of David. 31. And the multitude rebuked them, that they should hold their peace. But they cried out the more, saying: Lord, have mercy on us, O Son of David. 32. And Jesus stood still and called them, and said: What will you that I do to you? 33. They said to Him: Lord, that our eyes may be opened. 34. And Jesus having compassion on them, touched their eyes. And immediately they saw, and followed Him.
Verse 1: The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like to a Householder, Who Went Out Early in the Morning to Hire Workers Into His Vineyard
"It is like," that is, things are handled similarly in the kingdom of heaven as if a master should hire workers into his vineyard; for otherwise, precisely and properly speaking, the kingdom of heaven is not like to the householder himself, but to his house and family. See Canon 28. To explain this whole parable briefly, genuinely, and clearly:
It should be noted that its purpose is for Christ through it to prove the final proposition of the preceding chapter: "Many that are first shall be last, and the last first." For Christ immediately sets this proposition before the parable, as it were a pre-parable or the title of the parable; and He again appends the same after it, as it were a post-parable, at verse 16. Whence some Latin codices read: "For it is like." Christ's purpose here, then, is to show that, by God's grace and without any injustice or wrong to anyone, those who here seemed to hold the first places will on the last day hold the last, and those who here hold the last will there hold the first; that is, that the Apostles and the lowly faithful followers of Christ should be preferred in the kingdom of heaven to the Scribes and Pharisees, and that the Gentiles believing in Christ should be set before the Jews, who at the first time of Abraham, Jacob, and Moses were called by the Lord to hold the first places in the kingdom of God — that is, in the Church both militant on earth and triumphant in heaven; or that the sons of the New Testament, and especially the Apostles, who will sit on twelve thrones on the day of judgment, are to be preferred to the sons of the Old Testament, who most laboriously served under the shadows of the legal sacrifices, ceremonies, and figures; because these latter, trusting in the Law and its works, falsely arrogated this kingdom of God to themselves out of them, and therefore rejected Christ and the faith of Christ, whence they deservedly fell from this kingdom; but those — the Apostles and the Gentiles — receiving Christ and His faith and grace, which they received long after the Jews did, most humbly submitted themselves to Him and eagerly and fervently cooperated with Him, and therefore were set before the Jews, and in preference to them were chosen unto grace, as well as to glory.
That this is the purpose is clear. First, from the pre-parable, from the parable itself, and from its conclusion, or post-parable, in verse 16: "For many are called, but few are chosen." Secondly, the same thing is clear from Luke, who, in chapter XIII, verses 29 and 30, explains that the first shall be last and the last first in this way: that the Gentiles shall enter heaven, but the Jews shall be excluded from it, because the Gentiles received Christ while the Jews rejected Him. Thirdly, because otherwise the murmuring of the first laborers in verse 11 cannot be explained; for in heaven, among the Blessed, there is no murmuring — such is found in hell among the damned — nor is the Lord's harsh rebuke at home there, verse 15: "Is your eye evil" — that is, envious and stingy — "because I am good" — that is, beneficent and liberal? So judge Jansenius, Barradius, Hesselius and Franciscus Lucas here, and Ludovicus Molina and Gabriel Vasquez, Part I, Question XII, article 6. Therefore whatever in this parable pertains to the aim just stated must be noted and explained; but those things that do not pertain to it must be omitted in the explanation of the parable, for they are added merely as ornaments of the parable itself, according to Canon 29.
By the vineyard, therefore, is signified the Church; by the marketplace, the world; by those called first, at the first, third, and sixth hour, are signified the Jews already called in their forefathers Abraham, Jacob, and Moses to the faith and worship of God, that they might — by working well in the Church of God — increase and defend that faith; but by those called last, at the eleventh hour, are signified the Gentiles, called at last through Christ and the Apostles to Christ and to the Church; by the evening is signified the day of the last judgment, on which to each shall be assigned and adjudicated his reward — either already given to him in this life (as it has been to the Jews), or still to be given, as it shall be given to the Gentiles in heaven; by the denarius is signified a full day's wage, or the wage of labor, for which one has labored in the vineyard for the whole day. For the denarius, as Pliny, Budaeus, and others testify, was the weight of an Attic drachma, that is, a Spanish real or an Italian giulio: hence in that age the denarius was the standard price of a day's labor. It was called a denarius because it weighed ten Roman baiocchi.
A Denarius Is Given to All. — Moreover, the denarius is given in the same kind — or in a confused sense — to all, both those called first and those called last; that is, there is given to each and every one a full day's wage, generically equal and the same, but specifically and in particulars very unequal and different. For the denarius was a common coin that contained under itself many species and forms of coinage. One denarius was bronze, another silver, another gold. Again, one was single, another double, another triple, another quadruple — just as the Spanish reales are today. That unequal wages were given here to the laborers is clear from the fact that the last, who came at the eleventh hour, were preferred to the rest, who came at the first, third, and sixth hours; because, although these worked longer, yet the former labored with greater grace and diligence and with more fervor. Therefore, just as they surpassed the first in fervor rather than in labor, so also in reward they surpassed them.
You may say: Then a lesser wage is given to greater labor. I answer: This is true, but not to greater merit; for a greater wage is always owed and given to greater merit. But greater merit is produced not by greater labor, but by grace, and by cooperation with grace. Now the Apostles had greater grace than the Scribes, and Christians than the Jews, and they cooperated more with grace than these did; therefore a greater denarius, that is, a greater reward, was promised them. For to the Jews, laboring through so many ages of the world, long, hard and troublesome, in the worship of God and the Church, the denarius promised by God was a temporal wage, namely the abundance of temporal things — corn, oil and wine; but to the Gentile Christians, laboring in the last and single age of the world, the denarius promised by Christ was a spiritual wage far more noble and surpassing all labor — namely, eternal life. Therefore the Jews received a denarius, that is, a drachma of bronze or silver; but Christians received one of gold. For otherwise, if the denarius signified exactly the same wage, it would contradict the pre-parable and post-parable, in which it is asserted that "the last shall be first, and the first last." For this signifies that Christians and Apostles are to be preferred to the Jews in the heavenly reward — nay, that they themselves shall judge and condemn the Jews. For Christ is referring back to what He said in the preceding chapter, verse 28: "You shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Hence the Jews, who were the first and the richest in this life, shall on the day of judgment appear last and most remote from heaven; but the Gentile Christians, abject and poor in this life, shall on the day of judgment be first in the kingdom of heaven. And so the Jews shall murmur against the Gentile Christians, because they will see preferred to themselves in faith, grace, and glory those whom they once despised as vile idolaters — just as in this life the Scribes murmured constantly against Christ and the Apostles, because in the Gospel — that is, in preaching, faith, grace, and the promise of the heavenly kingdom — they preferred the Gentiles, once infamous for idols and crimes, to the Jews, the people formerly chosen by God.
So, to put it in a word, the whole parable signifies nothing other than that the Gentiles who believe in Christ are to be preferred to the Jews who obstinately cling to Moses and the Law and therefore despise Christ — preferred, I say, both in grace and in the Church militant, and in glory and in the Church triumphant. And therefore the Jews shall murmur against Christ and Christians because, although in calling, labor, synagogue, and the dignity of a faithful people they were older and more privileged, they nevertheless find themselves now postponed to these Gentiles and to the rest. This is what Paul teaches constantly, especially throughout the Epistle to the Romans, as does Christ Himself: "The publicans and harlots," He says, "shall go before you into the kingdom of God," Matthew XXI, 31. And: "When you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out." And: "They shall come from the East and from the West and from the North and from the South (from the four quarters of the world and of the Gentiles) and shall recline in the kingdom of God." And He at once adds the saying to which this whole parable refers: "And behold, there are those who are last (namely, the Gentiles), who shall be first (in heaven); and there are first (namely, the Jews in this life) who on the day of judgment shall be last." The remaining details which are added in this parable are ornaments added for the elegance of the parable, according to Canon 29.
According to this sense, the first are those to be saved, and the last those to be damned. But in another sense, which I will now add, those who will be "first made last" are those who were called first but come last to the reward; while those who will be "last made first" are those who, called last, become first in the reward. Hence this parable is commonly treated and explained in another way by the Fathers and Scholastic Doctors — as if Christ meant that both the first, that is, those called first, and the last, that is, those called last to faith and grace — namely, both the Jews and the Christians who serve God — shall receive the same eternal life (for they are called, or rather understood from what precedes and follows, to be both last and first in eternal life itself, that is, in heaven); nor will anyone be harmed because he was called at the end of the world or of his own age, or came late to cultivate the vineyard of the Church or of his own soul; nay, he will be preferred in heavenly glory to those who were called long before or came earlier, if he cooperates with the greater grace given him by God with greater labor, zeal, and fervor. So explain St. Jerome, Chrysostom, St. Augustine, St. Thomas, Maldonatus, Gregory of Valencia (Part I, Q. XII, art. 6); Bellarmine, Book III On Justification, chapter XVI; Suarez at length, Part I, Book II On the Negative Attributes of God, chapter XX. And this application is very probable, and it greatly favors the first reading in that it better explains how the same denarius is given to all the workers. For the Fathers commonly take the denarius to mean eternal life. So does St. Jerome, Chrysostom, Anselm here, and St. Augustine, sermon 59 On the Words of the Lord; Tertullian, On Monogamy, chapter XIII; Nazianzen, oration 40; Gregory, homily 16 on Ezekiel; Valencia, Bellarmine, and Suarez already cited.
You may ask: How in this denarius can the first and the last be equal, since the first are greater in the happiness and glory of eternal life than the last? I answer that the same denarius signifies the same generic and objective beatitude — namely, the same divine essence, which is the object of the beatitude and glory of the Blessed; for this is one and the same, and beatifies all the Blessed by showing itself; yet the vision and enjoyment of it is unequal according to the unequal merits. For those who served God with greater grace and labor, as did those called last, shall see God more clearly and perfectly, and therefore shall enjoy more fully His love and the other gifts, and shall be more blessed than those who served God with less grace and labor. So St. Gregory, Book IV of the Moralia, chapter XXXI (or, according to another edition, XLIII); St. Augustine, On Holy Virginity, chapter XXVI; St. Jerome here; St. Thomas, Part I, Question XII, article 6; Valencia, and others. "To all," says St. Augustine, "is given eternal life, but their mansions are many, for one is honored more brightly than another." Bellarmine, in the passage already cited, agrees with this; for, he says, that denarius signifies "equality of eternity, not of glory and excellence." Beautifully does St. Augustine say, in Book VII on Luke, expounding chapter fifteen: "You deem it worthy," he says, "to pay an equal wage of life, not of glory. And so the same denarius is given to all, because all the Saints shall reign without end, although not all shall reign with the same eminence. Just as it is common to all the stars to shine perpetually in heaven, even though some shine more brightly than others." And the Glossa Interlinearis interprets the same denarius as the same blessed eternity, which is given the same to all the Blessed: for all shall be blessed forever, and they are certain of this.
Again, what Christ said in chapter XIX, verses 21 and following — on the occasion and in view of which He wove this parable — favors this view: for there, to the rich young man who said he had kept the commandments of God, He adds the counsel of evangelical poverty, saying: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven"; and when the young man sadly refused, Peter intervened, saying: "Behold, we have left all, etc.: what then shall we have?" To whom Christ said: "You shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" — as if to say, You, O Apostles, shall be preferred to that young man and to others like him, who keep only the commandments of God, because you besides keep the evangelical counsels and have followed Me in preaching the Gospel. Therefore, although they seem to be first in this age, yet in heaven they shall be last; but you, who in this age seem to be last, shall in heaven be first. For many of the Jews before Christ, in every age, feared God and kept His commandments, and were therefore saved.
Now, to apply each detail according to this sense: by the day understand the course and time of the world; by the various hours, understand the various ages of the world, so that the first hour is the first age of the world, from Adam to Noah; the second, from Noah to Abraham; the third, from Abraham to Moses; the sixth, from Moses to Christ; and the eleventh hour, from Christ to the end of the world. So St. Hilary, St. Gregory, and Theophylact. Or the day is the span of each man's life, whose first hour is infancy; the third, puberty; the sixth, the prime of manhood; the ninth, old age; the eleventh, decrepit age. So St. Jerome, St. Basil in the Shorter Rule, question 224, and St. Fulgentius, epistle 7. Moreover, not only the whole life of each individual, but this whole present age, which runs through so many thousands of years to its end, is called only one day: "Great indeed with respect to us, but brief with respect to the life of God," says Origen, referring to God's eternity. By the murmuring, with Theophylact, Salmeron, Suarez, Vasquez, and others, understand the admiration of the Saints — namely, when those who shall be lesser in glory, and yet labored more here, as was the case with the Jews, shall marvel that others who labored less here, but excelled in greater grace and spirit, are set above them in glory. Thus Christ here applies the spur of diligence, both to him who comes early, lest by his sluggishness he be placed behind others, and to him who comes late, that he may make up for his tardiness by his fervor, and may equal or surpass the first, by striving after perfection and after the evangelical counsels, as Christ urged in the preceding chapter, verse 21. Finally, the meaning will be full and adequate if you join this sense with the first and blend them both into one; for, as I said at the end of the preceding chapter, "the last" here can be taken in both ways — namely, as meaning the last both outside of heaven, and so the damned, and also within heaven itself, and so the saved. To the former the first sense applies, and in them it plainly explains their murmuring; to the latter the second sense applies, and in them it plainly explains the denarius — namely, how the same denarius, that is, the same eternal life, is given to all, both the last and the first. Therefore the second sense supplies what the first lacks, and conversely the first supplies what the second lacks: join therefore both, and you will have all adequately.
Tropologically: The Vineyard Is Each Person's Soul, to Be Cultivated. — So morally, learn from this that we have been called to be workers in the vineyard, that is, in the soul and in God's Church. St. Bernard used to ask himself daily: "Bernard, tell me, why are you here?" You have been called not to leisure, but to labor — to cultivate the vineyard, that is, your soul with virtues, and the Church with holy examples. And St. Peter, 2nd Epistle 1:10: "Rather be diligent, that by good works you may make your calling and election sure." Moreover, the cultivators of this vineyard are not esteemed by the length and antiquity of their labor, but by their diligence, fervor, and spirit. For these are preferred to those who came first. Wherefore St. Jerome, epistle 13 to Paulinus, says: "Do not measure faith by time, nor think me better because I began earlier to serve in Christ's army; Paul the Apostle, changed from persecutor, though last in order is first in merits — because, though the last, he labored more than all: a sudden fire overcomes long-standing lukewarmness." The same, epistle 34 to Julian: "Happy," he says, "and worthy of every blessing, is he whom old age finds serving Christ, whom the last day finds warring for the Savior, who shall not be ashamed when he speaks with his enemies in the gate." Truly, the Book of Wisdom IV says: "Being made perfect in a short space, he fulfilled long times." So St. Francis Xavier, in eleven years — how much did he do in India! Every one, therefore, is a worker in his own vineyard (that is, his own soul) and in his neighbor's vineyard. Hence the Bride says in Canticles I: "They have set me to keep the vineyards; my own vineyard I have not kept." The essence of the soul is a vineyard, planted in the earth of this body, whose ordered faculties are the vines, whose wine are the works of charity; the vines are to be tied to the stake of the cross, at whose foot we make a trench when we know that death is at hand, and acknowledge the pit of burial. This vineyard must be guarded against the wild boar out of the wood, Psalm LXXIX — that is, against the vice of obscene pleasure, which destroys all good — and against the solitary beast, that is, the vice of pride, which makes a man solitary; against the fox of crafty flattery, the wolf of voracity, and the dog of slander. The Lord must be asked to send to this His vineyard the rain of His doctrine and the warmth of His charity, and manure — that is, the remembrance of the death of His Son and of the Holy Martyrs. The soul revives like a vineyard through flowers and leaves, that is, through holy desires and edifying speech; it produces tears of compunction, sends forth the odor of virtue, according to Canticles II: "The flowering vines give forth their fragrance"; it yields ripe grapes of good works. So Salmeron. Again, whatever the vinedresser does in the vineyard, let the faithful do the same in the soul. He prunes, hoes, banks, plants, digs around, strips leaves, and so on. Let the faithful do the same mystically in his own soul. Moreover, "Just as a hired laborer," says St. Chrysostom, "spends the whole day on his master's work, but one hour on his own food, so we ought to spend all the time of our life on the glory of God, but only a small part on our earthly uses. And just as a hireling, on a day on which he has not done his work, is ashamed to enter the house and ask for bread, how are you not ashamed to enter the church and stand in the sight of God when you have done nothing good in the sight of God?" Now let us briefly go through each verse in turn.
Verse 2: And Having Agreed With the Workers for a Denarius a Day, He Sent Them Into His Vineyard
The Denarius, What It Is. — The silver denarius was the Roman giulio, or Spanish real, which at Rome is worth ten baiocchi, and in Belgium five stuivers.
Jovinian once objected, and more recently Calvin, that all the just are equal in reward — that is, in the denarius of eternal life — therefore also equal in merit, and therefore all good works are equal. But I have already answered that all in eternal life are equal generically and abstractly, because all are blessed and certain of their beatitude and its eternity — namely, that they will live eternal life in every happiness; but within this itself there will be degrees of intensity and remission, so that some will see God more, others less, and therefore some will be more and others less blessed and glorious. Wherefore those are called, and really will be, the first in heaven, and these the last.
Verse 3: And Going Out About the Third Hour, He Saw Others Standing in the Marketplace Idle
The Romans, says Rhodiginus, Book XII, chapter IX — and from them the Jews, who were at that time subject to the Romans through Pompey — divided both the night and the day into twelve hours, by four parts which at night in camp they called "watches" (because at their beginning the sentries were changed). The first hour, or watch, began at sunrise; the third, three hours from sunrise; the sixth, six hours after, namely at midday; the ninth, three hours after midday; the twelfth, in the evening and at sunset. Moreover, in winter these hours were shorter by day and longer by night, because in winter the days are shorter and the nights longer; and conversely in summer these hours were longer by day and shorter by night, because then the days are longer and the nights shorter.
Verse 4: And He Said to Them: Go You Also Into My Vineyard, and I Will Give You What Shall Be Just. And They Went Their Way
To these He promises not a denarius, but "whatever is just," as if to say: The denarius was the wage for a full day's labor, and was given to those who labored from the first hour, that is, from sunrise to sunset. But these, called at the third hour, came three hours later to labor in the vineyard; and so they deserved not the whole denarius, but only three quarters of a denarius — namely seven-and-a-half baiocchi, or three Belgian stuivers with three quadrants — yet the master was more generous, and in the evening paid them the full denarius.
Note that the word "just" (Greek τὸ "justum") signifies the merit of good works, which, as it were by justice, earns a wage which God, by distributive justice, promises, repays, and distributes to each work.
Verse 5: Again He Went Out About the Sixth and the Ninth Hour, and Did in Like Manner
This notes the solicitude of the master seeking workers to cultivate the vineyard, which signifies the solicitude of God, who wills that all and each of men be workers in the vineyard of their own soul and of the Church, that both may shine with every kind of fruit.
Verse 6: But About the Eleventh Hour He Went Out and Found Others Standing, and He Said to Them: Why Do You Stand Here All the Day Idle?
The Greek and the Syriac add, "idle." Note the word "all," because the eleventh hour is the last hour of the day; for the day ends at the twelfth hour, as I said in verse 3. Therefore those called at this hour labored in the vineyard for only one hour. Moreover, those called at the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours signify the Jews and the earlier peoples; while those called at the eleventh hour signify the Christians, as I have said. Hence Origen says that at the first hour Adam was called, and at the eleventh, Paul.
Verse 7: They Said to Him: Because No One Has Hired Us. He Said to Them: Go You Also Into My Vineyard
St. Chrysostom says that this is a flimsy excuse of the lazy: because, he says, God calls everyone from childhood to virtue — that is, to His own and His Church's service. Hence, in verse 1, "he went out early in the morning." So also says St. Gregory, and the Glossa Interlinearis. Moreover, Chrysostom says, the hiring is the promise of eternal life; but the Gentiles knew neither God nor God's promises; so they say they had not been hired — that is, not called by preachers — although by the law and the light of nature they had been called.
He Said to Them: Go You Also Into My Vineyard. — By the strict measure of time and labor, only the twelfth part of a denarius was owed to these, as laboring only one, namely the twelfth, hour of the day in the vineyard; but God, being generous, repaid them the whole, indeed the most excellent, denarius of eternal life.
Verse 8: And When Evening Had Come, the Lord of the Vineyard Said to His Steward: Call the Workers and Pay Them Their Wages, Beginning From the Last Even to the First
The word "evening" signifies the end of the world and the day of judgment, on which Christ the Judge will render to each his reward according to merit — and this He does by Himself, so that the word "steward" is an ornament of the parable. For Christ has no need of a steward.
Symbolically, however, Origen takes "steward" to mean the holy Angels — such as St. Michael, through whom, some suppose, Christ carries out the particular judgment of souls at each one's death, or else reveals it to the soul, as I said on Daniel XII, 1. Remigius takes "steward" to mean Christ, who as man is the Steward of God the Father, and in His name will judge the living and the dead. But St. Irenaeus, in Book IV Against Heresies, chapter XC, near the end, takes "steward" to mean the Holy Spirit, because He dispenses both graces and gifts, and likewise glory and rewards. So also the Gloss.
Wages. — Because wages correspond strictly not to labor, but to merit; and merit is produced by grace, and by free will aroused by grace, which cooperates with grace through grace. But those who came at the eleventh hour — namely, the Gentiles called to Christ through the Apostles — had more grace and charity, and cooperated more with grace; and so they surpassed the Jews, who were called earlier and labored longer in God's vineyard, in the reward, and they obtain the first place in heaven. Learn here the easy practice of increasing merit and glory: if one frequently performs acts of charity — ardent and intense ones — indeed, if he does all his external works out of the charity and love of God. For so he will merit more than peasants and soldiers who undergo great toils, and more than Religious who undergo difficult penances, if out of a greater charity than theirs he performs his own works, though in themselves less difficult.
Beginning From the Last — those who labored less in time, but with greater fervor and spirit. See what was said on verse 1. To which add: St. Chrysostom: "Excessive mercy," he says, "does not regard order." The author of the book On the Spirit and the Letter, in St. Augustine, chapter XXIV: "Those who were less postponed," he says, "are found, as it were, as the first." St. Gregory: "Very often those are rewarded first who were called in the last age, for they pass from the body into the kingdom before those who were called in childhood." The Gloss: "He began from the last, when He brought the thief into paradise before Peter."
Verse 9: When Therefore Those Had Come Who Had Come About the Eleventh Hour, They Received Every Man a Denarius
In Greek ἀνὰ δηνάριον, that is, "at a denarius each," meaning a denarius apiece, as the Syriac, Arabic, Vatablus, and others translate: for ἀνά signifies an equal proportion, or an equal distribution of the reward. Moreover, the denarius here, generically, was one and the same, but specifically diverse and unequal, as I said on verse 1; and this seems to be signified by the phrase ἀνὰ δηνάριον — that is, "according to the denarius," namely that which was due and fitting to each one. It is as if to say: Those coming at the eleventh hour — that is, the Apostles and Christians, called in the later age of the world — received a better and more precious denarius, fitting and owed to their labor and merit. For because they themselves labored in the Church of God with greater grace, fervor, and spirit, therefore they received a better denarius, that is, a greater glory, and were preferred to the other Jews who were called earlier and who labored more.
You will say: Those called earlier murmured because they received the same denarius as those called later, whence they say: "You have made them equal to us"; therefore clearly the same denarius was given to these and to those. For if there had been a different and greater denarius, they would have said: "You have made them superior to us," and would have murmured far more.
I reply: In the evening, in the darkness, the workers' wages are usually distributed after the day's labors — namely, a denarius. And so at that time the later ones could not distinguish well enough what sort of denarius was being given to those called first; they only heard, in a general way, the steward saying to each one: Take your denarius. Or, if they saw it, they did not distinguish well enough in the darkness that they themselves were receiving a denarius, that is, a drachma of copper, while the earlier ones were receiving the same in gold. For copper, especially brass (orichalcum), is similar to gold in redness and brightness, as may be seen at Rome in the bronze medallions, which are so brilliant that they appear to be of gold. Hence they supposed that the same denarius, of the same sort, was being given to them as was given to themselves, and they took this hard, namely because those who had labored for a shorter time — indeed only for one hour — were being made equal in wages to those who had labored the whole day.
All of which things parabolically signify the envy of the Jews toward the Gentiles. For they took it most bitterly that the Gentiles were made equal to them in the worship of God, in the Church, in Christianity, and in the grace and glory of their Messiah, that is, Christ. For they thought that all these things were owed, properly and entirely, to themselves alone, and to the rest of the Gentiles only by a kind of gratuitous dispensation, since the Messiah seemed to have been promised by God through the Prophets to themselves alone, and consequently all His gifts and graces. Hence that dispute and quarrel of the Jews against St. Peter when he preached the Gospel to the Gentile Cornelius, Acts X; and the more burning and continual contention against St. Paul, insofar as he was the Doctor of the Gentiles, as is evident from the Acts of the Apostles, and throughout from the Epistles of St. Paul.
If therefore you ask why Christ did not expressly say that those coming at the eleventh hour received a greater denarius — that is, a greater glory — than those coming at the first, sixth, or ninth hour; that is, why the Apostles and Christians received a greater glory than the Scribes and the Jews: I reply: because Christ here was not doing this, but only intended to tear out from the Jews that opinion and arrogance of primacy in the kingdom of God already spoken of. Hence against that opinion He teaches that the last shall be first, and the first last — that is, that the Apostles shall be first in heaven, while the Scribes and the Jews shall be last. For He wills to confirm His promise made to the Apostles, namely: "You shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." For thus the Apostles shall be first in heaven, as being future judges of the rest; but the Jews shall be last, as being judged by them. By this, however, He sufficiently shows implicitly that the Apostles in eternal life will obtain more felicity and glory than the Scribes and the Pharisees. For those who are foremost and judges in heaven are likewise greater in felicity and glory. Thus Suarez and Maldonatus.
Morally, St. Chrysostom: "Those are called at the eleventh hour, he says, who are called in old age. This parable has therefore been composed to make those who are converted in extreme old age more eager, lest they should think that they will obtain something less." So Chrysostom. For the aim of this parable is, that through it Christ may show that in the heavenly reward no account is taken of the antiquity of the time nor of the duration of the labor, but only of greater grace and fervor; and therefore those who have labored for a short time but with fervor are preferred to those who have labored long but lukewarmly.
Verses 11-12: And on Receiving It, They Murmured Against the Master of the House, Saying: These Last Have Worked But One Hour, and You Have Made Them Equal to Us, Who Have Borne the Burden of the Day and the Heat
What this murmuring was, I explained at verse 1. To which add: "By the murmuring," says St. Chrysostom, "is signified the greatness of the reward and glory, which is so great in the Apostles that the others of the Jews who are chosen and blessed would envy them and murmur, if envy and murmuring could fall upon the Blessed." Differently St. Gregory: "Because the fathers," he says, "before Christ were not led into the kingdom, this very fact was to have murmured." Finally, St. Chrysostom thinks that this murmuring is merely a feature of the parable, and therefore not to be applied to the thing signified by it. Moreover, the Gloss: "Not all," it says, "murmured, but certain ones; namely, the wicked, who did not bring to an end the good which they had begun, and therefore, being deprived of the reward, murmur." And St. Jerome: "The Jews," he says, "envy the Gentiles, and are tormented at the grace of the Gospel."
We Have Borne the Burden of the Day and the Heat. — That is, for a long time we sweated under the burden of the Law, and we endured the prolonged temptations of the flesh. Besides this, most of the Scribes and Pharisees used to fast twice in the week, gave tithes of all things to God, taught the people, governed, corrected, and went about sea and land to make a single proselyte. They had therefore a weight of labor, but one that was often useless.
Verses 13-15: But He, Answering One of Them, Said: Friend, I Do You No Injury; Did You Not Agree With Me for a Denarius? Take What Is Yours and Go: But I Will Give to This Last Even as to You. Or Is It Not Lawful for Me to Do What I Will? Is Your Eye Evil Because I Am Good?
Besides what was said at verse 1, add: The Greek and the Syriac have it more forcefully: "Is it not lawful for me to do in my own things what I will?" — "In my own," namely things, that is, "of what is mine," as St. Augustine interprets it, Sermon 50 On the Words of the Lord. The Arabic: "of my goods." An "evil eye" is a livid and envious eye. The meaning is, as if to say: When I showed favor to those who came at the eleventh hour by giving them a denarius, I did you no injury: "Take therefore what is yours, and go." The master could have replied to the murmurer: Those who came at the eleventh hour labored with greater grace and fervor, and accomplished more in one hour than you in the whole day; therefore they are more deserving, and have earned a better denarius than the first. But it was not fitting for the master to contend with his servant as an equal, and as it were on strict justice; but rather to beat down his murmuring by the plea of his supreme lordship, generosity, and grace.
You will object: St. Prosper seems here to take away all merit, and to assign the whole reward to the grace of God. For thus he says, book II On the Calling of the Gentiles, chapter V, or according to another edition, chapter XVII: "Therefore in the parables, concerning those who labor in the vineyard, we read that the same reward and the same wage is given to all the workmen, whether they have labored much or little; so that those who have sweated under much labor, and have received no more than the last, may understand that they have received the reward of a gift of grace, not of works." Bellarmine replies, book V On Justification, chapter VI: "St. Prosper considers eternal life as it is one and the same, or as it is equal in all the Blessed. For no one lives longer or shorter than another, but all live forever. But he says that this eternal life is a gift of grace, not a reward of works, in that sense in which Augustine said: 'God crowns His own gifts, not your merits' — namely, that in eternal life there is not a wage of works which come from us by ourselves, but which come to us from the grace of God." And that this might be understood, God willed to bestow eternal life on those who had labored much, and on those who had labored little, lest those who labor much should be exalted on account of their own strength. Hence the Interlinear Gloss explains it thus, as if to say: It is of grace and mercy that the Gentile people is made co-equal and co-corporate with you, O Jews.
Take What Is Yours (Your Denarius), and Go. — As if to say: Take, O Pharisee and Jew, your wealth, your delights, and your honors, which I gave you in this life, and which you sought in preference to eternal life; be therefore content with them, and go. Besides what was said at verse 1, Remigius explains it thus: "Take what is yours, and go" — that is, receive your reward, and go into glory.
But I Will Give to This Last (that is, to the Gentile people) Also, According to Merit, as I Do to You. — Origen, however, says thus: "Perhaps He says to Adam: Friend, I do you no injury; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours, and go. Yours is salvation, which is the denarius; but I will give to this last one also as to you." One can not unreasonably think that this "last one" is the Apostle Paul, who labored only one hour, and likewise all who came before him. Others explain it thus: "Take" the damnation owed to you for your murmuring, and go into hell, even if they obtain something.
Moreover, "many," that is all, "are called" to eternal life. Yet He says "many," because all are many, and because He contrasts them with the few who will be the chosen ones. "Live then with the few," says Cassian, "that you may deserve to be chosen and found among the few in heaven." That saying is well-known: "One must speak as the many, but think (indeed live) as the few." Finally, some explain it thus: "many," that is all, "are called" to grace and to the observance of the commandments, but "few chosen" to outstanding grace and to the observance of the Evangelical counsels.
To this the Scholastics add who posit two orders of the predestined and the elect: one, the common order of those who were elected to glory from the foreknowledge of their merits; the other, of those who were elected to glory before their merits were foreseen, whom therefore they call "specially predestined," and whom they think to be referred to here, when He says: "Few are chosen." For such are few — namely, the Blessed Virgin, the Apostles, and a few others; but the former are far more, and therefore it is said of them that "many are called." Thus Gabriel Biel, in Book I, distinction 41, Question 1, article 2; Ockham, ibidem, article 1; Catharinus, book I On Predestination, last chapter, and book III, chapters I and II, and some others. Catharinus is sharply attacked by D. Soto on chapter IX of Romans; by Antonius Cordubensis, book XI, Question LVI; and by Camerarius in Dial. Cathol., chapter X; but they press Catharinus more sharply than is fair, as Gabriel Vasquez shows in Part I, disputation XC, chapter III. Yet Catharinus errs: first, because he censures St. Augustine; secondly, because he calls "predestined" only those who, before merits, were chosen out by the mere grace of God, and confines to them the saying of Paul in Romans VIII: "Whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son"; thirdly, because he lays upon these same specially elect the necessity of persevering in grace, such that they cannot freely fall from it. For St. Paul, who was one of them if any man ever was, says of himself: "I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway," 1 Corinthians IX; therefore he himself could fall from grace and be rejected.
Finally, the Arabic translates: "How many are called, and few chosen!" — words which are as if Christ were exclaiming, marveling, and pitying the multitude of the called and the fewness of the chosen, and consequently the multitude of the reprobate and those who are to be damned.
Verse 16: Thus Shall the Last Be First, and the First Last: for Many Are Called, but Few Are Chosen
According to the first sense of the parable, which I assigned at verse 1, "the last who will be first in heaven" are the elect; but "the first who will be last in heaven" are merely those called, who did not follow their calling, or forsook it, and are therefore damned. These are many if they are compared with the elect and those to be saved, who are few — Matthew VII, 14. For few cooperate with the grace and calling of God, and persevere in it to the end. But according to the second sense, which I gave at verse 1, the latter maxim — "For many are called, but few chosen" — is different from the first: "Thus shall the last be first, and the first last"; and it is difficult to connect them with one another. Maldonatus connects them thus: "From the special statement," he says, "in which He said that the first would be last and the last first, He now more generally concludes that not all who are called will receive the reward, because most of those called do not wish to come." Just as in the previous chapter, verse 23, on the occasion of the one young man who, being attached to his riches, would not follow the counsel of poverty, He drew a general conclusion concerning all rich men, and not now about the observance of the counsels, but of the precepts, He concluded that it is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. More tightly and vigorously, Suarez holds that the argument is not from the equivalent, but from the stronger: as if to say, Do not wonder that the first will be last and the last first, since many are called but few chosen, and therefore all the rest must be damned — which is more wonderful and terrible. For if many are called who are not saved, what wonder is it that many are called who are not first in the reward?
Here end the acts of the third year of Christ's preaching. For a little after this parable of the workers, Christ raised Lazarus from the dead — which raising took place in March, after which, in the same month and year (which was the 34th and last of Christ's life), Christ was crucified and died. Therefore all the subsequent things which Matthew narrates, up to the end of the Gospel, happened in this same March, a little before the Passion of Christ, or a little after it, as did Christ's Resurrection and Ascension into heaven. Thus Jansenius, Franciscus Lucas, and others. See the Chronotaxis.
Verse 17: And Jesus Going Up to Jerusalem, Took the Twelve Disciples Apart, and Said to Them
This was Christ's last going up, that is, His last journey to Jerusalem, which Matthew narrates here, and Luke, chapter XVIII, 31; Mark, chapter X, 32; and John, XI, 54 ff. From John it is clear that Christ, after Lazarus had been raised, fled the envy and hatred of the Pharisees, and withdrew to the city of Ephrem, from which, when the Passover was already at hand — in which He was slain by the Jews — He went up to Jerusalem according to the Law. This ascent of Christ was therefore shortly before His death; indeed, He went up in order to undertake, by the decree of the Father, the cross and death appointed and prepared for Him in Jerusalem, for the redemption of the world, and as it were voluntarily to go out to meet it. See the Chronotaxis.
The Twelve Disciples. — Therefore also Judas, says Origen; and perhaps from this Judas took the occasion to betray Christ, from the fact that Christ was foretelling that He had to die in Jerusalem. For he was certain that Christ was speaking the truth, and consequently he hoped that his betrayal of Him would succeed according to his heart's desire, and, blinded by avarice, he thought that he would have nothing to fear from Him after Christ's death.
Verse 18: Behold We Go Up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man Shall Be Delivered to the Chief Priests, and They Shall Condemn Him to Death
We Go Up. — That is, we set out and truly go up; because Jerusalem, and especially its citadel and temple, was on Mount Zion. Again, "we go up" to undergo the cross at Jerusalem, according to the saying: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself," John XII, 32. Again, He says "Behold, we go up," because this is a word of constancy, as if to say — St. Chrysostom remarks: "See that I go willingly to death. When therefore you see Me hanging on the cross, do not think that I am a mere man; for although it belongs to a man to be able to die, yet to will to die does not belong to a man." Finally, "we go up," as though about to triumph on the Capitol of Jerusalem and Calvary; for on the cross Christ triumphed over death, sin, the devil, and hell, as the Apostle teaches, Colossians II, 15.
The Son of Man Shall Be Delivered to the Chief Priests. — "For Judas," says Rabanus, "delivered the Lord to the Jews, and they themselves delivered Him to the Gentiles — that is, to Pilate and to the power of the Romans. And the reason the Lord did not wish to prosper in the world, but to suffer grave things, was to show us, who fell through delight, with what bitterness we must return. Hence it follows: 'to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified.'"
And They Shall Condemn Him to Death. — "The whole salvation of men," says Chrysostom, "is placed in the death of Christ; nor is there anything for which we ought to give thanks to God more than for His death. For that reason He announced the mystery of His death in secret to the twelve Apostles, because a more precious treasure is always enclosed in better vessels." And again: "For when tribulation comes upon us while we are expecting it, it is found lighter than it would have been if it had come suddenly."
Verse 19: And They Shall Deliver Him to the Gentiles to Be Mocked, and Scourged, and Crucified; and the Third Day He Shall Rise Again
Christ had already several times before foretold to the Apostles His cross and death, lest they be troubled by it and think that He was not the Messiah, the Redeemer of the world. But now, with death at hand, He foretold it again, in order to confirm the Apostles in faith in Him and in His Passion and Resurrection. Thus St. Jerome, Chrysostom, and others.
To Be Mocked, and Scourged, and Crucified. — For these three were the principal parts of Christ's Passion: He suffered the most ignominious mockings, the most atrocious scourgings, and the most bitter cross.
And the Third Day He Shall Rise Again. — This is the honey of the Resurrection, with which the gall of the Passion is seasoned. Hence St. Augustine, book XVIII On the City of God, whom St. Thomas cites in the Catena: "By His Passion," he says, "Christ showed what we must bear for the truth; by His Resurrection, what we must hope for in the Trinity. Hence He says: 'And on the third day He shall rise again.'" And St. Chrysostom: "It is said indeed also to many, that when with sadness they may see, they may expect the Resurrection." Hence He adds: "And the third day He shall rise again." St. Augustine gives the reason in the place already cited, saying: "For one death — namely, that of the Savior in His body — served for the salvation of our two deaths — that is, of the soul and of the body — and His one resurrection bestowed two resurrections upon us." These sayings from Chrysostom and Augustine are cited by St. Thomas in the Catena.
Morally: Christ often recalls His Passion to His own, so that He may commend to them His love — which in His Passion He showed them in its highest form — that they may love Him in return, and render love for love, blood for blood, death for death. For the cross of Christ is the furnace and blaze of love. Wherefore St. Bernard, in his Sermon On the Fourfold Debt: "First," he says, "to Christ Jesus you owe your whole life, because He laid down His life for yours, and endured bitter torments that you might not endure everlasting ones." He then adds much along these same lines, and thus at the end concludes all: "When therefore I shall have given to Him whatever I am, whatever I can, is not this as a star to the sun, a drop to the river, a stone to the mountain, a grain to the heap?" The same St. Bernard, in his treatise On Loving God: "If I owe my whole self for the self that was made, what shall I add now for the self that has been remade, and remade in this way? For it is not so easy to be remade as to be made; for He who at one word once made me, surely in remaking me both spoke many things, and did marvels, and bore hard things — and not only hard, but also undeserved. In the first work He gave me to myself; in the second, He gave Himself. And when He gave Himself, He restored me to myself. Given therefore and restored, I owe myself for myself, and I owe it twice. What shall I render to God for Himself? For even if I could render myself a thousand times, what am I to God?"
Let us therefore not refuse, for Christ's sake, to bear reproaches, calumnies, torments, crosses, and fires; but rather let us love them and seek them out, that we may repay mockings for mockings, scourges for scourges, cross for cross — nay, rather, render them back. For our life is His, and all that we are; for He bought and redeemed us, not with gold, but with the divine price of His blood.
Elegantly and piously, but truly, St. Leo in Sermon 8 On the Passion: "Your Cross, O Christ," he says, "is the fountain of all blessings, is the cause of all graces; through which to those who believe there is given strength out of weakness, glory out of shame, life out of death."
Verse 20: Then Came to Him the Mother of the Sons of Zebedee With Her Sons, Worshiping and Asking Something of Him
"Then," that is, when they had heard from Christ that death was near at hand for Him, and after death the Resurrection, after which they were expecting the glorious kingdom of Christ: therefore they forestall the others and ask that they themselves, above the rest of the Apostles, obtain the first places in it. Thus St. Jerome, Bede, Euthymius.
The Mother of the Sons of Zebedee. — By name Salome. For thus Mark, chapter XV, 40, names the woman whom Matthew, chapter XXVII, 56, calls "the mother of the sons of Zebedee." For this wife of Zebedee bore of him James and John, whom Christ took to Himself and made Apostles. "Worshiping," that is, bowing herself in reverence before Him.
And Asking. — You will say: Mark, chapter X, 35, says that not the mother, but the sons themselves asked this of Christ. I answer: The mother's petition proceeded from the petition of the sons. For since they were ashamed to ask the first places from Christ themselves, they prompted the mother to ask it. Wherefore the sons spoke through the mouth of their mother, and perhaps added their own petition to hers. Thus St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, St. Gregory, homily 27 On the Gospels, and St. Augustine, book II On the Agreement of the Evangelists, chapter LXIV. Differently Maldonatus, who thinks that the mother of her own instinct and by her own motion asked this of Christ; yet is said by Mark that the sons themselves requested it, because the mother asked not for herself but for her sons. St. Hilary and St. Ambrose favor this, of whom more shortly.
Something — in general and indefinite terms, namely saying, as Mark has it: "Master, we wish that whatsoever we shall ask, You would do it for us." For they feared that if they expressed their ambition for the primacy, Christ would at once refuse and reject it. They therefore want first to bind Christ by a universal petition of granting whatever they ask, so that afterwards, when they express it in particular, Christ might not be able to deny it. This is the manner of women when they try, by this art, to obtain the feminine desires which they ardently covet. Thus Bathsheba, 1 Kings 2:20, about to ask of her son Solomon that Abishag be given as wife to Adonijah, prefaced her request saying: "I beg one small petition of you, do not put my face to shame." Solomon agreed; but as soon as she expressed it, he refused, saying: "Ask also the kingdom for him." For Adonijah was slyly asking that Abishag, who had been David's wife, be given to him as wife, so that through her, as a kind of queen, he might seize the kingdom and make himself king, excluding Solomon.
Verse 21: Who Said to Her: What Do You Wish?
Prudently Christ refused the general petition, and wills that she express it in particular, lest she ask something unfitting or unworthy of herself — which He foreknew she would do — in order to teach us to do the same. Memorable is what Nicephorus writes of St. Pulcheria, and after him Baronius, at the end of the year of Christ 446: namely, that she — in order to chastise by a feigned jest the dangerous carelessness of her brother the Emperor Theodosius, by which he was everywhere signing petitions without even reading them — presented Theodosius with a petition in which she asserted that Eudoxia, Theodosius' wife, had been purchased by herself, provided that he himself approved the purchase. Theodosius signed the petition without reading it, as was his custom. Soon after, Pulcheria summoned Eudoxia to herself and kept her a long time. When Theodosius recalled his wife, Pulcheria replied that she had been purchased by her, and that he himself had approved the purchase; and at the same time she submitted to him the petition that had been signed by him on this matter. On reading it, Theodosius blushed, and condemned his own excessive readiness to sign.
She Said to Him: Say (that is, order, appoint, arrange, decree) That These My Two Sons May Sit, the One at Your Right Hand, and the Other at Your Left, in Your Kingdom. — St. Chrysostom shrewdly gives the occasion of this request thus: "They wished," he says, "as I conjecture, since they had heard that the disciples were about to sit upon twelve thrones, to obtain the primacy of this assembly; and although they knew that they were preferred above the others except Peter, yet fearing that Peter would be set above them, they dared to say: Say that the one may sit at the right, the other at the left." They urged it saying: "Say," so that as the foremost of Your kingdom they might occupy both Your sides, both Your ears — indeed, the whole of You — and no one might approach You or ask anything of You except through them: as some today (and in every age) occupy the ears and minds of kings and princes, so that nothing can be obtained from them except through these. Such men are kings of kings — indeed, tutors of them. Well-known is that saying of Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne, who, when the kingdom of France was offered to him, replied: "He did not wish to be a king, but wished to command kings."
Learn here how audacious, blind, and insatiable ambition is, and the ambitious petition; to which these two Apostles were incited by the fact that they themselves had seen that they were placed by Christ above the other Apostles — in the Transfiguration, which was as it were the beginning of the kingdom of Christ, Matthew XVII, 1, and likewise in the raising of the daughter of Jairus, Luke VIII, 51.
But the mother is to be excused, because by the right of kinship she petitions her kinsman Christ on behalf of her sons, whom she loved as herself, indeed more than herself. Thus St. Jerome: "The mother asks," he says, "with the error of a woman and out of her affection of piety, not knowing what she was asking." And more fully St. Ambrose, book V On the Faith, chapter II: "Christ considered," he says, "the love of the mother, who was consoling her aged old age with the reward of her sons, and, though wearied with maternal desires, was bearing the absence of her most dear pledges. Consider also the woman — that is, the weaker sex — whom the Lord had not yet strengthened by His own Passion. Consider, I say, the heiress of Eve, that first woman, slipping in the succession of that immoderate desire transfused into all — whom the Lord had not yet redeemed with His own blood; not yet, since Christ with His own blood had not yet washed away the ingrained craving of unlawful honor inborn in the affections of all. By an inherited error therefore the woman was at fault."
By a similar reasoning St. Chrysostom excuses her sons: "Let no one," he says, "be troubled if we say that the Apostles were so imperfect: for the mystery of the cross was not yet consummated, nor had the grace of the Spirit yet been poured into their hearts. Wherefore, if you wish to learn of their zeal for virtue, consider what kind of men they were after the grace of the Spirit had been given, and you will see that all disturbance of soul was overcome in them. For it is for this reason that their imperfection is now revealed, that you may clearly perceive what kind of men they were suddenly made to be through grace."
Verse 22: But Jesus Answering, Said: You Know Not What You Ask
The Greek is αἰτεῖτε, that is, you ask. Behold, Christ here replies not to the mother, but to the sons, because He knew that the sons were speaking in and through the mother. "You know not what you ask," namely, you know not — first, what kind My kingdom is, that is, spiritual and heavenly, not carnal and earthly, in which there may be the pomp of a royal throne, of counselors, princes, servants, etc., as you suppose; secondly, because you seek the triumph before the victory: "For the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away," Matthew XI — so the Author of the Imperfect Work; thirdly, because you suppose that this kingdom is given by right of blood to those who seek it, whereas it is given only to those who deserve it and who strive for it. By the same example of Christ let Bishops and princes reply to their friends, servants, children, and importunate women, when they ask of them prebends, dignities, and offices to which they are less fit: "You know not what you ask." My prebends and offices are not mine, that I might give them from caprice to relatives or servants because I so wish: I am the dispenser of them, not the lord. God will demand of me a strict account of my dispensation, whether I have conferred them upon worthy men. For it is a grave injury to Christ, to the Church, to the commonwealth, and to the worthy; and the cause of many evils, if offices and benefices are given because of blood-relationship or friendship to the unworthy, or to the less worthy.
Agrippina, the mother of Nero — says Cornelius Tacitus — ambitious for empire for her son Nero, consulted the Chaldeans or astrologers on this matter. They replied: "Nero will rule, but he will kill his mother." Then she said: "Let him kill, provided he rules." How mad an ambition! The mother was right about it, for she was killed by Nero. Thus ambitious, unworthy men, in seeking benefices for themselves, are seeking poisons, because those benefices are to them the cause of damnation and hell.
And what, pray, is kinship but an external relation — that the flesh of one's son or grandson has been cut out of yours? What does it matter to me that my tunic has been cut out of the same cloth as yours?
At Rome, as Livy attests, a temple had been set up to Honor, but behind the temple of Virtue, so that no entrance to that temple of Honor lay open except through the temple of Virtue: to teach that the way to honors lies open to no one except through the virtues, which alone the ancient Romans regarded. Because of this they had obtained so great, rich, and magnificent an empire, until, by a back door — when alongside it had been built a profane shrine of ambition and bribery — many escaped through it to honors; and so by their seditions they destroyed the commonwealth and themselves together.
You Know Not What You Ask. — The Arabic: "what do you wish, what do you ask?" — as if to say: You do not know what you wish and ask literally, because you suppose the kingdom to be an earthly and pompous one, such as was that of David and Solomon, of whom I am the son and heir; whereas that kingdom is spiritual and heavenly. Thus St. Chrysostom: "He says this," he says, "showing that they were asking for nothing spiritual." And Theophylact: "This is not," he says, "what you believe — that I am to reign temporally in Jerusalem; but all those things which pertain to the kingdom are above the understanding." So also Abulensis, Question LXXI.
Secondly, others say: Because, they say, they were asking for what had already been given and promised to them — namely, to sit by Christ, and with Him to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. Thus St. Hilary: "They know not," he says, "what they ask, because nothing needed to be doubted concerning the glory of the Apostles; for the earlier discourse had declared that they would judge." But among these twelve thrones, they seem to have sought the first and those nearest to Christ, which had not yet been specifically promised to them by Christ.
Thirdly, because they asked for that which exceeded their gifts and merits: "For to sit at the right hand is so great a thing that it exceeds the higher virtues," says Bede from Chrysostom and Theophylact; "they know not," he says, "what they ask, who seek from the Lord a seat of glory which they did not yet deserve." For the first places in heaven are owed to those who are of greater — indeed, of the greatest — merit.
Fourthly, because they asked this at an inopportune time — namely, with the Passion of Christ imminent, when mourning was proper. Thus Chrysostom: "You," he says, "are speaking of honor, but I am speaking of agonies and sweatings; for this is not the time of rewards, but of slaughter, of battles, and of dangers."
Fifthly, because they ask for that which was contrary to their vocation and profession. For they had been called by Christ to follow His poverty, humility, and cross, not to seek after honors.
Sixthly, because they ought first to have sought the labors of the cross, by which they might deserve honors. Hence Christ, showing them this, adds: "Are you able to drink the chalice that I am about to drink?"
Seventhly, because they ask to sit at the left, equally as at the right. But the left is taken in a bad sense. For at the left of Christ the damned will stand in the judgment. As if Chrysostom were saying: "I called you to the right side, and you by your own counsel run from the right to the left"; but this is mystical and symbolic. Of these, the more genuine senses are the first, the third, and the sixth: for they did not know that this kingdom is spiritual, not carnal; nor that it is given to flesh and blood, but to virtue; nor that it is obtained by prayers, but by merits.
Are You Able to Drink the Chalice That I Am About to Drink? — As if to say: Through Passion and the cross I must make My way to the kingdom; therefore you also, who seek it, must tread the same path. Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 11 from the minor sermons: "He Himself (Christ)," he says, "as a devoted and praiseworthy physician, first drank the potion which He was preparing for His own — that is, He endured the Passion and death — and thus received the health of immortality and impassibility, teaching His own to drink confidently the potion which begets health and life."
By a catachresis Christ calls His Passion a chalice. St. Chrysostom, Euthymius, and Theophylact give this as the reason: that Christ underwent the Passion so willingly and eagerly, as though being thirsty He had drained a cup of wine. But because Christ says "you are able to drink," and not "you desire to drink," it is better to take this more generally. For which take note that "chalice" everywhere in Scripture, just as among profane authors, signifies each man's lot, whether good or bad, which is decreed and sent to him by God, and as it were offered to him. This metaphor is drawn from the ancient rite of banqueters, by which the symposiarch, or master of the feast, tempered the wine at his own discretion and prudence, and appointed to each his own portion which he must drain — as is shown in Ecclesiasticus XXXII, verse 1. Perhaps also, says Maldonatus, it alludes to the cup of poison which used to be given to some condemned to death — as was given to Socrates by the Athenians, because he said that one God was to be worshiped, with the many gods excluded.
Excellently St. Cyprian, in book IV, epistle 6 to the people of Tibur, taking the chalice as martyrdom: "A heavier and more savage fight now presses," he says (because St. Cyprian had learned by revelation from God that the persecution of the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus was imminent, in which he himself obtained the crown of martyrdom), "for which the soldiers of Christ ought to prepare themselves with keen strength, considering for this reason that they daily drink the chalice (because at that time they used to communicate daily, and that under both species of bread and wine) of the blood of Christ, that they themselves also may be able to pour out their blood for Christ's sake." Wherefore St. Chrysostom shrewdly notes: "See," he says, "how by the very manner of the question He both exhorts and entices. For He did not say: Can you pour out your blood? but: In what way can you drink the chalice? Then, alluring, He says: Which I am about to drink — that by the communication of labors with Him they might be made more ready."
Why St. John Is Painted With a Chalice. — Hence St. John is usually painted with a chalice; and because he himself drained a cup of poison without harm — as St. Isidore attests, On the Fathers of the New Testament, chapter LXXIV, and St. Augustine in the Soliloquies, chapter XXII: "For the tasting of Your sweetness," he says, "John fearlessly drank the cup of poison." The same is attested by Aldhelm, Bishop of the West Saxons, in his book On the Praises of Virgins, chapter XI. Hence also on the feast of St. John there was customarily a blessing of wine against poison, as Albertus Castellanus attests in the Roman Sacerdotal.
Note: The Greek here, and in Mark, chapter X, 38, adds: "Or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" The Arabic here: "and with the dyeing with which I am dyed, shall you be dyed?" — this dyeing was of blood, with which Christ was robed in purple. Here Christ, who previously called His Passion a chalice, by another metaphor calls it a Baptism, because in it He was wholly immersed and submerged, that is, He died. For this, properly, is to be baptized. Origen, Chrysostom, and Theophylact add that Christ called His Passion a Baptism, most of all because by it He has washed, purified, and sanctified us, as happens in Baptism.
They Say to Him: We Can. — It seems that John and James understood the meaning of the cup — namely, that by it the Passion is signified — and yet, just as they ambitiously sought the primacy, so they rashly answered that they could drink this cup, when in fact they could not yet do so, but afterwards were able to through the grace of Christ received from the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. So say St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, Jansenius, and others; although Maldonatus says: "'We can,' that is, 'we will, and we are ready to face death for Thee,' which is quite appropriate and probable." Thus "to be able" is sometimes taken for "to will," especially when the matter is arduous and requires a great effort and strength of will. Hence that saying in chapter XIX, 12: "He who is able (that is, who wills) to receive it, let him receive it" — the counsel of celibacy.
Verse 23: He Said to Them: My Cup Indeed You Shall Drink; but to Sit on My Right Hand, or on My Left, Is Not Mine to Give to You, but to Them for Whom It Has Been Prepared by My Father
The Greek adds: "And with the baptism wherewith I am baptized, you shall be baptized"; and the Arabic: "and with my dye shall you be dyed." This is a prophecy of Christ concerning the passion and martyrdom of James and John. For St. James, preaching Christ more fervently than the other Apostles, was the first to fall as a martyr for Him, slain by the sword under Herod, Acts XII. John likewise drank this cup when, at Rome before the Latin Gate, he was plunged by Domitian into a cauldron of boiling oil and came out more vigorous, and by a new miracle of virtue became a martyr in life, not dying but living, and from there went on as an athlete of Christ to receive his crown, says St. Jerome. And Tertullian, in his book On Prescriptions, chapter XXXVI: "You have," he says, "Rome, from which authority too is ready at hand for us. Happy is the Church to which the Apostles poured out all their teaching together with their blood; where Peter is made equal to the Lord's Passion, where Paul is crowned with an end like John's, where the Apostle John, after being plunged into burning oil and suffering nothing, is banished to an island."
Again, that St. John actually drank a cup of poison (whence he is usually depicted with such a cup), offered to him by the impious, but without harm, is taught not only by Prochorus his disciple in the Life of John (whose trustworthiness is rightly suspected of fabrication by Baronius and learned men), but also by St. Isidore in the book On the Fathers of the New Testament. In short, the whole life of John was a continual passion and continual martyrdom. For he lived the longest of all the Apostles, until the year of the Lord 101, and died in the year 68 after the death of Christ; and this long delay and absence from his beloved Christ, for whom he continually sighed, was a drawn-out martyrdom for him, equally as for the Blessed Virgin, to whom he had been given as a son by Christ on the cross.
Furthermore, St. John underwent a singular martyrdom when, standing with the Blessed Virgin on Mount Calvary beside the crucified Christ, he saw his own life — that is, Christ, whom he loved more than his own life — endure the most bitter pains of the cross for three continuous hours, and there be roasted as it were over a slow fire of torment. For these nails and pains pierced his very soul to the marrow and tormented him more than if his body had been cut with a sword; indeed he would have been overcome by these sufferings had not Christ, as it were by a miracle, preserved him alive.
But to Sit on My Right Hand, or on My Left, Is Not Mine to Give to You. — The Arians thought that here it is said that this gift does not belong to Christ but to the Father's power, and therefore that Christ is not consubstantial (ὁμοούσιος) with the Father; but they are in error. For Christ here places an antithesis, not between Himself and the Father, but between James and John ambitiously seeking the primacy in Christ's kingdom, and those to whom this primacy is rightly due. For the force of the argument lies in the word "to you" (τῷ "vobis"), which, although the Greeks, the Syriac, and the Arabic do not read it, the Roman and Latin texts do — as if to say: Not to you for asking, but to those who strive and deserve, is this kingdom due. Hence Remigius: "'It is not mine,' he says, 'to give to you' — that is, to the proud, such as you are, but to the humble." And Bede: "'It is not mine to give you' — that is, the proud: for this is what they still were; but it has been prepared for others. And be you others, that is, the humble, and it has been prepared for you." Again, it is not mine to give to you in the way you ask — namely, that it be given to you as My kinsmen, as I am man — since God has prepared it for others, namely for those who deserve it; as if to say: To give heaven is not of human but of divine power. So St. Augustine, Book I On the Trinity, chapter 1, and Abulensis, Question LXXX. For it is given not to the person but to the life, says St. Jerome; not by favor, but by merit.
Note: Christ does not expressly grant what these two ask, lest by as it were excluding the other Apostles He provoke them; nor does He refuse, lest He grieve these two. So St. Jerome: "He did not say," he says, "'You shall not sit,' lest He confound the two; nor again did He say, 'You shall sit,' lest He provoke the others"; but by showing the prize to all, He roused all to strive for it. It is similar, says Theophylact on Mark chapter X, as if a just king presiding over a contest he himself had established, when his kinsmen and friends approached and said, "Give us the prize and crown," would rightly and deservedly answer: "It is not mine to give you the prize, but to those for whom it is prepared and decreed — namely, those who strive and win in the contest." Hear St. Ambrose, Book V On the Faith, chapter II: "He did not say," he declares, "'It is not mine to give,' but 'It is not mine to give you': not asserting that power is lacking to Him, but that merit is lacking to the creatures. Take it another way: It is not mine to give you — that is, it is not mine, who came to teach humility; it is not mine, who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; it is not mine, who preserve justice, not favor. Finally, referring it to the Father, He added: For whom it is prepared — to show that even the Father does not usually give in response to petitions, but to merits, because God is no respecter of persons."
Furthermore, that it also belongs to Christ to give this kingdom is clearly shown from Luke XXII, 29: "And I appoint unto you," He says, "as My Father has appointed unto Me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and may sit upon thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Yet Christ here says that it is rather of the Father's doing — first because Christ, as man, always subjects Himself to the Father and refers everything to Him, acknowledging all as received from Him; secondly, in order that He may under an honorable pretext turn away from Himself these who ambitiously seek the primacy, and send them to the Father, so that they may humble themselves before Him and be ashamed to ask it; and finally, because just as wisdom and the works of wisdom are appropriated to the Son, and the works of goodness to the Holy Spirit, so the works of power and providence — of which predestination to the kingdom of heaven is a part — are appropriated to the Father.
But to Them for Whom It Is Prepared by My Father. — Arabic: "but to those for whom My heavenly Father has prepared it." So has the Latin translator of the Arabic printed at Rome — but wrongly; it should be rendered: "But to those for whom My heavenly Father has splendidly prepared it." Narrow here is Euthymius' exposition, who in explaining the word "to whom" says: "That is, to the Lords Peter and Paul." More narrow still is St. Hilary's: "'To whom,' he says, 'that is, to Moses and Elias'" — for he thinks there is an allusion to the Transfiguration, in which Moses and Elias saw the glory of the reigning Christ and shared in it. Most narrow of all is St. Chrysostom's, who explains "to whom" as "to none." For no one, he says, can rise to the right hand of Christ, inasmuch as He alone sits at the right hand of God the Father. But these are too narrow: for Christ is speaking generally of all those chosen for the heavenly kingdom and its summit. "To whom," therefore — namely, to those who strive most greatly and are victorious — for to these is this summit of the kingdom prepared by God and decreed from eternity. Therefore by "right and left" He means not location or position at the right and left, but pre-eminence in the kingdom, which John and James, on account of their kinship and familiarity with Christ, were seeking — as if to say: Do you wish to hold the first places in My heavenly kingdom? Then hold the first places here with Me in humility, charity, patience, and zeal for preaching the Gospel. For to greater and heroic virtues is due greater glory and primacy in heaven: for those who are first in merit shall be first in rewards.
In like manner Abbot Athanasius, caught up into heaven, heard the choirs praising God, and when he wished to enter among them, he heard: "No one enters here who is negligent; depart, strive, and despise the vanities of the world." So John Moschus relates in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter CXXX, and St. Fursey, according to Bede, Book III of English History, chapter XIX, caught up into heaven, heard angels and the Blessed singing together: "They shall go from strength to strength; the God of gods shall appear in Sion." Let us then advance from strength to strength, and ascend from glory to glory; from the angels to the Cherubim and Seraphim, from the lowest to the first and highest throne of the kingdom.
Verse 24: And the Ten Hearing It, Were Moved With Indignation Against the Two Brothers
Arabic: they murmured against the two brothers. You will ask: from what source and how did the other Apostles hear of the two brothers' petition? First, some think they themselves were present and heard their mother ask the first places for her sons from Christ. Secondly, Abulensis holds that someone who was present when the mother made her request reported her petition to the Apostles. But it is quite likely that the mother asked it of Christ secretly, lest she bring shame upon her sons and provoke envy in the rest. Third and most likely, then, is Franciscus Lucas: the mother, he says, was speaking to Christ privately with her sons; but Jesus replied in such a way that the others might hear what He said and understand from His answer what those two were asking. For knowing that they were all afflicted with one and the same disease of ambition, He wished to heal all of them at once, and to have one answer serve all together. Add to this that, since they labored with the same desire, they had caught the scent of the two men's desire. For whatever anyone himself desires and seeks, he supposes that others also desire and seek: for each measures the rest by himself and by his own affection. And there is a certain hidden sympathy in these matters whereby, as the saying goes, thief recognizes thief, wolf recognizes wolf, and the ambitious the ambitious, by their bearing, their face, and their gestures.
They Were Indignant — not so much at the fault and ambition of James and John, as because on account of it they feared being set below them; for they themselves were also seeking the first places in Christ's kingdom. Thus dogs otherwise friendly are indignant, quarrel, and snarl when they strive to gnaw at the same bone, according to the saying: "While a dog gnaws a bone, he hates the companion he loves."
And this saying: "Potter envies potter, and smith envies smith." A vivid example of this is found in Pompey and Julius Caesar, who by their ambition for Roman rule destroyed the republic and themselves, concerning whom Lucan, Book I of the Pharsalia: "Now Caesar can no longer endure anyone before him, nor Pompey an equal." No doubt ambition gives birth to envy, and envy to anger and indignation against him who seeks the same honor, lest he snatch it away. Here is fulfilled that saying of Job, chapter V, 2: "Envy slays the little one"; where St. Gregory, Book V of the Morals, last chapter: "When the corruption of envy overcomes and corrupts the heart," he says, "even the outward things show how gravely madness spurs on the soul: for the color is afflicted with pallor, the eyes are cast down, the mind is inflamed and the limbs grow cold. There arises rage in the thought and gnashing of teeth, and so on. And although through every vice that is committed the poison of the ancient enemy is instilled, yet in this wickedness the serpent shakes all its inwards and spews forth the plague of the malice it is to impress." Furthermore, St. Basil, in his homily On Envy, proposes an effective remedy for envy: "What then is to be done, that we may not at the outset suffer this plague of the soul, envy, or may be freed from it? First, that we consider nothing among human things great or above nature — not riches, not glory." And further on: "But in general, one who has subjected human affairs to reason and has turned himself to true beauty and praiseworthiness will be far from thinking anyone happy or to be envied in human affairs; and whoever is so disposed as never to admire anything human, over such a one envy can in no way prevail."
Verse 25: But Jesus Called Them to Him, and Said: You Know That the Princes of the Gentiles Lord It Over Them, and Those Who Are the Greater Exercise Power Upon Them
"Over them" — that is, "of them" (earum), or "over them" (eis), namely the Gentiles. This is an antiptosis. The translator here, as elsewhere, had in view the Greek ἔθνος, that is "nation," which is of neuter gender.
Note: Christ here neither blames nor forbids the civil or ecclesiastical authority and power which Princes and Bishops hold — as the Anabaptists would have it. For such authority is necessary in every commonwealth for political government, and therefore is sanctioned by natural, divine, and human law. He only censures ambition, and the tyranny that follows from it, which they were accustomed to exercise over their subjects.
The Princes of the Gentiles. — Whence in Greek it is κατακυριεύουσιν αὐτῶν, that is, "they lord it over them," or "against them"; the Syriac: "they are lords over them"; the Arabic: "they dominate them," that is, they domineer imperiously over their subjects, as masters over their slaves, trampling and crushing them. For a tyrant does not consider the good of his subjects in ruling, but only his own advantage and honor, and so he abuses his subjects as if they were slaves; but true princes look to the welfare of their subjects rather than to their own — whence they are ministers of the commonwealth rather than its lords, as Aristotle teaches in the Politics. Hence Antigonus, king of the Macedonians, seeing his son ruling his subjects too insolently: "Do you not know, son," he said, "that our kingdom is a splendid servitude?" So Plutarch in his Life.
And They That Are the Greater Exercise Power Upon Them — namely, upon those nations: in Greek, καὶ οἱ μεγάλοι κατεξουσιάζουσιν αὐτῶν, that is, "and the great men use an imperious power over them," or "and the great men, with their authority, freely exercise it against them"; and they command them ambitiously.
Verses 26-27: It Shall Not Be So Among You: But Whosoever Will Be the Greater Among You, Let Him Be Your Minister; and He That Will Be First Among You Shall Be Your Servant
Arabic: "let him be your minister and servant." The Syriac, Egyptian, Persian, and Ethiopic agree with the Vulgate.
This is not a punishment for the one ambitious for primacy — as though He were ordering him to be cast down and sent off to servitude, and to become the minister and servant of all — but it is a rule whereby He commands that he who, as it were the greater, is set over others in the Apostolate, Episcopate, or Prelature, should conduct himself modestly and humble himself, so that he may not lord it over his subjects imperiously but serve them with humility, and look to their salvation and welfare, carrying himself in such a way that he may seem to be their minister and servant rather than their lord. Again, in these words Christ teaches not so much by what path and means one is to arrive at the primacy of the Church, as how the first or primate of the Church ought to conduct himself in it — namely, as the least of all — and consequently by this humility He dissuades the Apostles from the ambition for primacy which is opposed to it. That this is the sense is clear from the fact that in this verse there is an antithesis with what precedes. For He opposes His own modest, benevolent, and salutary rule to the imperious and tyrannical rule of the Gentiles. See St. Gregory, Part II of the Pastoral, chapter VI, where he beautifully teaches how a prelate ought to combine authority with modesty, and to be imperious against the obstinate, but kind toward the obedient: "Let the ruler," he says, "be a companion to those who do well through humility, and stand upright against the vices of offenders through the zeal of justice."
At the same time, by these words Christ shows by what path we ought to strive toward heaven and its summit — that we may sit at Christ's right and left (which is what John and James, and the other Apostles, were seeking) — namely, the path of humility; for those who here are least and most humble, these will be the greatest and most exalted in heaven, as Christ taught in chapter XVIII, 4.
From this command of Christ, the Supreme Pontiff bears this title: "Servant of the servants of Christ." This is what Christ's vicar, St. Peter, taught the pastors of the Church by word and deed, saying in his First Epistle, chapter V, 2: "Feed the flock of God which is among you, etc., not as lording it over the clergy, but being made from the heart a pattern to the flock," where I have said more on this matter. This is the commonwealth of the Church, this is the Christian government here instituted by Christ, and set over against the tyranny of the Gentiles.
Likewise, from this institution of Christ, St. Francis, says St. Bonaventure in chapter VI of his Life, wished the superiors of his Order to be called Ministers and Friars Minor, both that he might use the words of the Gospel, which he had promised to observe, and that his disciples might learn from the very name that they had come to the schools of the humble Christ in order to learn humility: for Christ, the master of humility, to form His disciples in perfect humility, said: "Whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever will be first among you shall be your servant."
Verse 28: Even as the Son of Man Is Not Come to Be Ministered Unto, but to Minister, and to Give His Life a Redemption for Many
In Greek, λύτρον, that is, a ransom or price of redemption. As if to say: Take Me Myself as the model of modest rule for the Church, I who am the prince and founder of the Ecclesiastical hierarchy. For I command nothing that I have not first done Myself. Indeed, coming into the world, I have conducted Myself, and I still do, in such a way that I do not wish to be ministered unto, but wish to minister to all, as if I were the least and the servant of all; nay more, I have determined to pour out not only My goods and labors, but My very life and blood for them, that I may redeem and free them from death, sin, hell, and the devil. Let Popes, Bishops, Pastors, and the rest imitate this.
A rare example of this was given, and the humility of Christ, as it were outdated, was recalled in our age by St. Francis Xavier. When he had been made Apostolic Legate for the Indies by the Supreme Pontiff, he nevertheless wished to have no servant, even though the procurator of the king of Portugal offered him several and pressed him to accept them; but he himself ministered to everyone, both in bodily services and in spiritual ones, and those of the lowest and most abject kind: he himself would hear the confessions of the sick, console the sorrowful, wipe away the filth of their bodies, wash their rags, administer medicines, teach the catechism to the untaught and to children — nay more, he even cared for his companions' horses and provided their fodder. And when someone said that these things were unworthy of an Apostolic Legate, he replied: "Nothing is more worthy than Christian humility and charity, which becomes all things to all, that it may gain all, as Christ Himself continually sanctioned by word and example throughout His whole life." Thus by this art he did not lose authority but increased it, since all revered him as a holy man, and as it were a new man, indeed an Angel fallen from heaven. Read his Life.
Finally, Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, had not even a single servant on earth, but made Himself the servant of all; for He did not come to be ministered unto, but to minister. And you, O Christian, amass herds of servants? Excellently says St. Chrysostom, Homily 40 on the First Epistle to the Corinthians: "Hear Paul," he says: "'These hands,' he says, 'have ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me,' Acts XX, 34. That teacher of the world, a man plainly worthy of heaven, was not afraid to serve countless mortals. But you, unless you drag after you many troops of servants, think it shameful — not seeing that this is what utterly disgraces you. God gave us hands here, and feet here, so that we might not need servants. Examine the troops of servants — what is their use?"
A Redemption for Many. — Not as though Christ died only for the predestined, as the heretics anciently called Predestinatians, and more recently Calvin, have held. For that Christ suffered and died for absolutely all men, St. Paul clearly teaches in 2 Corinthians V, 14, and St. John, 1 Epistle, chapter II, verse 2. But "for many" means "for all," says Euthymius, because all these were not few but many. Thus the word "many" is taken for "men" in this chapter, verse 16, and in chapter XXVI, verse 28, and in Romans V, 19, and elsewhere. Or certainly "for many," because, although Christ died for all and sought, obtained, and gave for all the means sufficient for salvation, yet the fruit of His death and perfect salvation reaches only to the just and to those who persevere in justice unto death. So St. Jerome, Jansenius, Maldonatus, and others.
This example of Christ's humility and charity moved St. Paulinus, bishop of Nola, to give his own life as a redemption for many; for in order to redeem a widow's son from captivity, he handed himself over to the Vandals as a slave in the young man's place. Whence it came about that he redeemed all his fellow citizens of Nola from the same servitude. For this reason, as a heroic and truly Christian work of so great a bishop, St. Gregory, St. Augustine, and others here and there celebrate it with wondrous praises.
Verse 29: And as They Were Going Out From Jericho, a Great Multitude Followed Him
Christ was going from the city of Ephrem, by way of Jericho which lay between, to Jerusalem, toward the cross and death.
How Far Jericho Is From Jerusalem. — Jericho is 150 stadia distant from Jerusalem, and 60 stadia from the Jordan, where Ephrem was, says Josephus, Book V of the Jewish War, chapter IV. Now, eight stadia make one Italian mile, which consists of a thousand paces: for a stadium contains 125 paces, which, multiplied by eight, make a thousand. Three Italian miles make a league, or an hour's journey; so 150 stadia make about seven leagues, and sixty stadia make two and a half leagues. The way from the Jordan to Jericho is level and easy, but from Jericho up to Jerusalem is mountainous, rising and falling, and therefore difficult.
The Etymology of Jericho. — In Hebrew, "Jericho" is named either from ירח (yareach), that is, "moon," because it had the shape of the moon; or from ריח (reach), that is, "scent," because balsam, whose fragrance is most sweet, grew only there.
Symbolically Rabanus says: "Jericho, which means 'moon,' signifies the defect of our changeableness and mortality; and therefore these blind men were found there: for the moon is dark and blind, just as this mortality of ours blinds men with its shadows and desires." Again St. Gregory, Homily 12 on the Gospel: "Jericho," he says, "means 'moon.' But the moon in sacred speech is put for the weakness of the flesh, because as it wanes from month to month it signifies the defect of our mortality. While, therefore, our Maker is drawing near to Jericho, a blind man comes back to the light; for while the Divinity takes upon itself the defect of our flesh, the human race receives again the light it had lost. For from the very place where God endures human sufferings, man is lifted up to divine things."
Mystically Origen: "By Jericho," he says, "is understood the world, into which Christ descended; but those who are in Jericho do not know how to depart from the wisdom of the world unless they see not only Jesus going out of Jericho, but also His disciples. Seeing these, therefore, great multitudes followed Him, despising the world and all worldly things, that under Christ as their leader they might ascend to the heavenly Jerusalem."
Verse 30: And Behold, Two Blind Men Sitting by the Wayside Heard That Jesus Was Passing By, and They Cried Out, Saying: Lord, Have Mercy on Us, Son of David
This is the same story as the one Mark tells in chapter X, 46; for both events occurred as Christ was leaving Jericho. You will say: Mark names only one blind man, and calls him Bartimaeus, that is, the son of Timaeus. St. Augustine answers, Book II On the Harmony of the Gospels, chapter LXV, that there were two blind men here, but one of them was the most famous in that city; and this is sufficiently clear from the fact that Mark recorded both his name and his father's name: "For Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus," says St. Augustine, "having fallen from some great prosperity, was in a most well-known and famous misery, for he sat not only blind but also a beggar. Hence it is that Mark wished to mention him alone, whose giving of sight won as clear a fame for this miracle as was the notoriety of his calamity." I shall speak of the name Bartimaeus on Mark chapter X, verse 46.
Furthermore, St. Augustine, Jansenius, and others hold that this blind man given sight by Christ is distinct from the one spoken of by Luke in chapter XVIII, 35, because the one in Luke is said to have been healed as Christ entered Jericho, whereas this one in Matthew and Mark was healed as He was leaving. But since all the other details which Luke tells of this blind man agree with what Matthew and Mark have here, it must be said that there was one and the same blind man, who first, as Christ entered the city, asked to be given sight by Him, but when he was not heard because of the crowd and Christ pretended not to hear him — in order to sharpen his faith and hope — on the next day he stationed himself at the gate of the city, and there, as Christ was leaving, again asked for sight and obtained it. So St. Ambrose on chapter XVIII of Luke near the end, Dionysius the Carthusian, Maldonatus, Franciscus Lucas, and others.
Allegorically: Origen, and following him St. Ambrose on Luke chapter XVIII, near the end: "By the two blind men," he says, "we can understand Judah and Israel, who were blind before the coming of Christ because they did not see the true Word which was in the Law and the Prophets; yet sitting beside the way of the Law and the Prophets, and understanding only according to the flesh, they cried out only to Him who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh."
But Rabanus, with St. Augustine in Treatise 10 On the Words of the Lord according to Matthew, understands by the two blind men the Jews and the Gentiles; for both were ignorant of the way of salvation. St. Chrysostom understands only the Gentiles, because they are descended partly from Ham and partly from Japheth, just as the Jews from Shem: for these were the three sons of Noah.
Tropologically: by the two blind men understand a twofold blindness, that of the affections and that of the intellect; for a blind affection draws the intellect along with it and blinds it, so that it judges that what is forbidden by charity ought to be done out of desire.
Symbolically: St. Gregory, Homily 2 on the Gospel: "The human race," he says, "is blind; for, having been driven out in its first parent from the joys of paradise, knowing nothing of the brightness of the supernal light, it endures the darkness of its own condemnation. Yet it is illumined by the presence of its Redeemer, so that it may now by desire behold the joys of the inner light, and set the steps of good work upon the path of life."
The same Gregory, Part I of the Pastoral, chapter XI: "He is blind," he says, "who knows not the light of heavenly contemplation, who, weighed down by the darkness of the present life, while he in no wise looks upon the coming light with love, knows not where to direct the steps of his work."
Sitting by the Wayside, They Heard That Jesus Was Passing By, and Cried Out, Saying: Lord, Have Mercy on Us, Son of David. — That is: O Messiah, whom the Prophets foretold would be born of David — for it is the office of the Messiah to have pity on the wretched, and in particular to give sight to the blind, as Isaiah foretold of Him in chapter XXXV, 5: "Then," he says, "shall the eyes of the blind be opened." We believe that Thou art the Messiah; show us, then, the office of the Messiah and give us light, so that from this all others may recognize Thee as the Messiah, and believe in and worship Thee.
Verse 31: And the Multitude Rebuked Them, That They Should Hold Their Peace. But They Cried Out the More, Saying: Lord, Have Mercy on Us, Son of David
"It rebuked them" — devoutly and lovingly — lest base men disturb Christ, who was perhaps then teaching, and lest they delay His journey and that of so great a crowd. So Euthymius.
Mystically: St. Gregory, Homily 2 on the Gospel, takes the crowd as the throngs of carnal desires and tumults of vices, which, before Jesus comes to our heart, scatter our thoughts with their temptations and disturb the voices of the heart in prayer. These crowds must be overcome by the intense cry of prayer, as St. Gregory adds.
But They Cried Out All the More, Saying: Lord (Syriac, Moran, that is "our Lord"), Have Mercy on Us, Son of David. — "They cried out the more," first because the crowd's forbidding did not quiet but rather inflamed their desire to receive their sight from Christ, and therefore by their constancy and earnestness they obtained it from Christ; and secondly, because a louder cry was needed, to overcome the noise and voices of the crowd that was trying to silence them, so that they might be heard by Christ. Whence St. Thomas in the Catena: "It was necessary," he says, "that they should cry out so much until they overcame the noise of the crowd resisting them — that is, that by such perseverance they might bend their souls in prayer and keep knocking, until, by the strongest application, they might overcome either the habit of carnal desires — which, like a crowd, clamors against the one striving to see the light of eternal truth — or even the crowd of carnal men itself that was hindering spiritual pursuits."
Morally: St. Augustine, Sermon 18 On the Words of the Lord: "Bad and lukewarm Christians," he says, "forbid good Christians who wish to keep God's commandments; yet these cry out and do not give up. For when any Christian begins to live well and to despise the world, in his very newness he endures cold Christians who rebuke him; but if he perseveres, now those who before forbade will obey." Therefore he who wishes to serve God must overcome human shame, the taunts and mockeries of the crowd. For this mask of shame deters many from piety: "If I do this, what will people say of me? I shall be the talk of the common folk." "The first virtue of a Christian is to despise and be despised," says St. Jerome. Think that the voices and laughter of men are but the chattering of jackdaws, and so you will crush this empty idol of the world's judgments, which strikes down most people — nay, you will blow it away like smoke, as a children's bugbear (μορμολύκειον) and a fantastic scarecrow of the timid. Finally St. Hilary: "Faith," he says, "when forbidden, is the more inflamed, and therefore in dangers it is secure, and in security it is in danger."
Verse 32: And Jesus Stood Still and Called Them, and Said: What Will You That I Do to You?
"And He stood." The literal reason is given by St. Jerome: "Jesus stood," he says, "because the blind did not know where to go: there were many pits in Jericho, many cliffs and steep drops falling into the depths, so the Lord stands still, that they may be able to come to Him."
A symbolic reason is given by St. Gregory, Homily 2 on the Gospel: "To pass by," he says, "belongs to His humanity; to stand still, to His divinity. So the Lord in passing heard the blind man's cry, but in standing still He gave him light; because through His humanity He had compassion on us and was moved by the voices of our blindness, but He poured into us the light of grace through the power of His divinity."
Mystically Origen: "Jesus," he says, "does not pass by, but stands still, so that while He stands the benefit may not flow away, but rather, as from a standing fountain, mercy may flow down to them."
Anagogically St. Augustine, Book I of Questions on the Gospels, chapter VIII: "Jesus stood: for the faith of the temporal Incarnation prepares us to understand the eternal things: temporal things pass away, eternal things stand." He stood therefore as the Eternal One and Giver of blessed eternity and eternal light, in which all things stand and abide forever.
And He Called Them. — "He bids them be called," says St. Jerome, "lest the crowd prevent it, and He asks what they want, so that their weakness may be manifest from their answer, and His power known from the remedy." Mark adds: "And they call the blind man, saying to him: 'Be of good cheer (of good and confident spirit), arise, He calls you.' Casting off his garment, he leaped up and came to Him." On which words, tropologically St. Jerome in the same place (or whoever the author is; for he does not seem to be St. Jerome): "'Leaping up,'" he says, "'means being stripped of the old man, like the young deer leaping upon the hills,' Canticles II. 'Leaping upon the mountains,' putting off sloth, considering the Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles in others, he extends himself to the things above."
What Will You That I Do Unto You? — "He is not ignorant, but He who knew their intention wishes to hear their confession," says the Interlinear Gloss, so as to stir up in them a vehement desire for healing and a petition, and thus to make them capable of and worthy of so great a benefit and miracle.
Note here the liberality and free offering of Christ, by which He offers Himself to us of His own accord to grant what we desire and ardently ask for.
Verse 33: They Said to Him: Lord, That Our Eyes May Be Opened
Arabic: "that Thou mayest open our eyes": for in the blind they are closed. Mark: "Lord, that I may see." For nothing is so naturally desirable to man as to see; so much so that seeing is life, while not seeing — that is, being blind — seems to be death and continual sorrow, as Tobit testifies, chapter V, verse 12. Hear St. Ambrose, On Noah and the Ark, chapter VII: "How deformed," he says, "are the eyes of the blind. And what wonder if a man's face without eyes is deformed, when heaven itself without the sun has not its beauty? Sad are the days we spend without the sun, and nights without the moon do not please. For these are, so to speak, the eyes of the world. Take away the light of the stars, and there is a certain deformity of blindness in heaven itself."
Wherefore St. Augustine, writing on these words, Sermon 48 On the Words of the Lord according to Matthew: "The whole of life, then," he says, "is to heal the eye of the heart, whereby God is seen. To this end the sacred mysteries are celebrated; to this the Word of God is preached; to this the moral exhortations of the Church — that is, those pertaining to the correction of manners, to the amending of carnal concupiscences, to renouncing this world not with the voice only but with a changed life; to this end, whatever the divine and holy Scriptures do, that the inward part may be cleansed from that which hinders us from the vision of God."
Mystically St. Jerome, in the place already cited: "'One thing,' he says, 'have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek: that I may behold the delight of the Lord, and thence, seeing, may visit His temple,' Psalm XXVI."
Let a man therefore, blind with sin or concupiscence, say: Grant, O Lord, that I may see the foulness of sin, the vileness of concupiscence, the thinness of pleasure, the fierceness of hellfire, the beauty of virtue, the happiness of paradise, and the eternity of glory, so that I may leave off all lust, and may look up to virtue and pursue it.
Verse 34: And Jesus, Having Compassion on Them, Touched Their Eyes. And Immediately They Saw, and Followed Him
"Jesus, considering their ready will," says St. Jerome in the place already cited, "rewards them by fulfilling their desire. Hence He says elsewhere: 'Whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive,' John XV."
Six Times Blind Men Are Healed. — These blind men healed by Christ are the fifth in order. For the first blind men enlightened by Christ were those two of whom Matthew treated in IX, 27. The second was a demoniac and mute, of whom Matthew treated in XII, 22. The third was the blind man cured by Christ at Bethsaida, who said: "I see men as trees walking," Mark VIII, 24. The fourth was that man blind from birth whom Christ cured, John IX. The fifth were these two of whom Matthew speaks here. The sixth were those who a little later were healed by Christ in the temple, Matthew XXI, 14.
And They Followed Him. — "These blind men," says St. Chrysostom, "just as before the gift they were persevering, so after the gift they were not ungrateful." For being healed, they offered Christ a fine gift, namely the following of Him. For this is what God requires of you, "that you walk carefully with your God," Micah VI, 8. Tropologically: how we ought to follow Christ through the mortification of desires and the cross is taught by St. Gregory, Homily 2 on the Gospel, near the end. Luke XVIII, 43 adds: "And immediately he saw, and followed Him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God."