Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Christ goes on to admonish the faithful and to stimulate them to constant vigilance and to zeal for good works, that they may always be ready for His uncertain coming and the day of judgment, as is clear from verse 13 and from the preceding chapter, verse 42. Therefore, first, He brings in the parable of the ten virgins, five foolish and five prudent, of whom the former, lacking oil, were shut out from the marriage of the bridegroom, while the latter were admitted because they had oil in their lamps. Second, in verse 14, He brings in the parable of the talents, which the master, distributing to his servants for trade and gain, afterwards returning demanded back from them, and rewarded those who had traded with them, but punished the slothful and idle with torments. Finally, in verse 31, He opens the matter itself, and sets before our eyes the whole picture of the last judgment and the sentence to be passed both on the impious and on the pious.
These were the last of Christ's admonitions, and therefore pregnant and efficacious: for two days later He was taken and slain, as is clear from chapter XXVI, verse 2. Christ therefore spoke these things on the third day of the week, that is, on Tuesday; on the following Thursday He instituted the Eucharist, and on Friday He was crucified. See the Chronotaxis.
Vulgate Text: Matthew 25:1-46
1. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. 2. And five of them were foolish, and five wise; 3. but the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them; 4. but the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. 5. And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept. 6. And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold the bridegroom comes, go forth to meet him. 7. Then all those virgins rose up and trimmed their lamps. 8. And the foolish said to the wise: Give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out. 9. The wise answered, saying: Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 10. Now while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. 11. Last of all come also the other virgins, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us. 12. But He answering said: Amen I say to you, I know you not. 13. Watch therefore, because you know neither the day nor the hour. 14. For even as a man going into a far country, called his servants, and delivered to them his goods. 15. And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to every one according to his proper ability, and immediately he took his journey. 16. And he that had received the five talents, went his way and traded with the same, and gained other five. 17. And in like manner he that had received the two, gained other two. 18. But he that had received the one, going his way, dug into the earth, and hid his lord's money. 19. But after a long time the lord of those servants came, and reckoned with them. 20. And he that had received the five talents coming, brought other five talents, saying: Lord, you delivered to me five talents, behold I have gained other five over and above. 21. His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant; because you have been faithful over a few things, I will place you over many things; enter into the joy of your lord. 22. And he also that had received the two talents came and said: Lord, you delivered to me two talents, behold I have gained other two. 23. His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant; because you have been faithful over a few things, I will place you over many things; enter into the joy of your lord. 24. But he also who had received the one talent came and said: Lord, I know that you are a hard man, you reap where you have not sown, and gather where you have not strewed. 25. And being afraid, I went off and hid your talent in the earth: behold, here you have what is yours. 26. But his lord answering said to him: Wicked and slothful servant, you knew that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed. 27. You ought therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with interest. 28. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that has ten talents. 29. For to every one who has shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that has not, even that which he seems to have shall be taken away. 30. And the unprofitable servant cast out into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 31. And when the Son of man shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the seat of His majesty; 32. and all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats: 33. and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. 34. Then shall the king say to them that shall be on His right hand: Come, you blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35. for I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; 36. naked, and you covered Me; sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me. 37. Then shall the just answer Him, saying: Lord, when did we see you hungry and fed you? thirsty and gave you drink? 38. and when did we see you a stranger and took you in? or naked and covered you? 39. or when did we see you sick or in prison, and came to you? 40. And the king answering shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me. 41. Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. 42. For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink; 43. I was a stranger, and you took Me not in; naked, and you covered Me not; sick and in prison, and you visited Me not. 44. Then they also shall answer Him, saying: Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you? 45. Then He shall answer them, saying: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me. 46. And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting.
Verse 1: Then Shall the Kingdom of Heaven Be Like to Ten Virgins
The words "and the bride" are not found in the Greek, nor in St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, or Euthymius; yet they should be read along with the Roman (Latin) copies, the Syriac, Origen, Hilary, and St. Augustine, Epistle 120.
"Then." — That is to say, when I shall unexpectedly return to judgment, that I may judge all according to their deserts, rewarding or punishing them.
"The kingdom of heaven." — That is, the Church Militant, which is then to be the Church Triumphant; as if to say: So shall it then happen with the faithful of the Church, just as if ten virgins should prepare themselves for a wedding-feast, etc. For although the reprobate, being already damned in Gehenna, are no longer members of the Church, yet because in this life they were her members, they are here introduced as such to be judged, yet in such a way that by the Judge's sentence they are excluded from the Church and consigned to Tartarus. Of the unbelievers no mention is made here: "For he that does not believe is already judged," John 3:18.
Note: formerly, as also now, to the bridegroom there were added for honor's sake young men as companions, distinguished and adorned; and to the bride, virgin companions, often ten in number. Moreover, they used to celebrate the wedding by night: wherefore the bridegroom in the evening went to the bride's house, where being honorably and sumptuously received by the bride's parents, he then brought the bride into his own house, or, if that were too narrow, into a large house for the wedding-banquet, and there celebrated and consummated the wedding; while the young men and maidens on both sides came forth to meet him as he came, for honor's sake, carrying bridal torches, especially of white-thorn, and those five in number, on the testimony of Plutarch in the Problems. See Alexander ab Alexandro, Book II of the Geniales Dies, chapter 5, and Tiraquellus there; and Salmeron here, in his seventh volume, chapter 38. The Jews, however, do not seem in ancient times to have had the use of wax for lights, or of wax torches, but of oil. Hence in Scripture mention is often made of lamps and lanterns, but not of candles; indeed, in the lampstand of the temple there were lamps with oil, not candles of wax or tallow.
Now in order to apply and explain the parable in detail: the bridegroom is Christ, the bride is the Church, whose betrothal is being carried on in this life, but in the coming glory of the resurrection the wedding will be eternal. The virgins are all the faithful, or Christians, who are sincere and whole in faith, according to that saying of Paul: "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ," 2 Cor. 11:2, where I have said more on this subject.
Moreover, St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory take "virgins" to mean only and all those who are truly and properly virgins; but this is narrower than the aim and mind of Christ, who by "virgins" means all the faithful, as I have said. Yet the Church rightly in the Divine Office adapts these words to virgins (in the strict sense), because they are grammatically named here, and to the letter are signified above the rest. So Jansenius, Maldonatus and others. Hence the Blessed Anatolia, betrothed to Aurelianus, saw an angel crying out to her: "O virginity, you are not overcome by death. O virginity, you are not found in the works of darkness, but always in the light, etc. Virginity is a royal purple, and whoever puts it on is made more eminent than the rest. Virginity is a precious gem. Virginity is an immense treasure of the King. Against this treasure thieves set their snares. Watch therefore and keep it carefully; and the more you know yourself to have, the more earnestly guard it, lest you lose it." By which words she, being kindled, underwent a generous contest for her virginity. So Ado in the Martyrology, on the 29th day of December.
They are numbered ten, because the number ten is the symbol of a multitude and of universality, and is familiar to Holy Scripture because of the Decalogue of the divine law, as is plain from Gen. 31:7, Lev. 26:26, Num. 22:14. So Origen, St. Jerome and others.
The arithmetical and symbolical reason is clear from Plato, Book V of the Laws, where he teaches that it was customary for five male friends and five female friends to be invited to a wedding-banquet, because five is a number composed of the first even number (namely two) and the first odd number (namely three) — for two and three make five — and therefore it aptly signifies the conjoining of male and female, which takes place in the wedding of the bridegroom and bride.
Who, taking (in Greek λαβοῦσαι, that is, "when they had taken") their lamps — bridal lamps, "lighted," says Origen, "but for so great a journey to meet the coming bridegroom they did not take oil, so as to keep them always burning." "For they who complain that their lamps are going out thereby show that they have been burning in part," says St. Jerome.
Moreover, in Scripture lappidim (לפידים), that is, "lamps," are called faces (torches) and taedae (pine-torches). For these are carried at weddings by night before the bridegroom and the bride, because they withstand the wind and weather, whereas lamps — that is, ordinary oil-lanterns — are at once extinguished by them. Here, however, they were lamps properly so called, because mention is made of oil. Hence Virgil, Eclogue IV: "Mopsus, cut fresh torches: a bride is being led for you." The same, Aeneid IV: "If I had not been weary of the bridal bed and torch." Martial, Book XII: "Torches shone before; flame-colored veils covered their faces." Catullus, in the Epithalamion of Manlius and Julia, where he says: "Strike the ground with your feet, with your hand shake the thorn-torch. Lift up, boys, the torches!" Pliny, Book XVI, chapter 18, says thus: "Among the same rites the thorn is also a companion, most auspicious for the torches of weddings, because from it the shepherds, who seized the Sabine women, made their torches, as Massurius is my authority: but now the hornbeam and the hazel are most familiar for torches." See more, if you please, in Alexander ab Alexandro, Tiraquellus, Ciacconus, and copiously and learnedly in Brisson's book On the Rite of Weddings.
Verse 2: And Five of Them Were Foolish, and Five Wise
"Foolish," because they acted imprudently and stupidly: for while they were going out to meet the bridegroom with their lamps lighted, they neglected the oil necessary to feed the flame of the lamps; whence their lamps went out, and they, thrown into confusion and without light, met the bridegroom in the dark; but the wise took oil, and therefore kept their lamps always burning, and with them went out to meet the bridegroom: they therefore acted prudently. Hence there follows:
Verse 3: But the Five Foolish Did Not Take Oil With Them
First, St. Jerome and Hilary take "virgins" to mean all men; by "the foolish" they understand Jews and heretics; by "the wise," Christians.
Secondly, on the opposite side, St. Chrysostom and others already cited take "virgins" to mean only virgins in the strict sense, of whom the wise are those who, along with their virginity, have the oil of charity by exercising works of mercy; while the foolish are those who lack this oil.
Thirdly, Lyranus (Nicholas of Lyra): "The wise virgins," he says, "are contemplatives and religious, who have the oil of charity and of right intention, by which they strive to please God alone; whereas the foolish are those who lack this oil, and chase after the empty praise and glory of men."
Fourthly and most genuinely, "virgins" are any of the faithful; "the wise" are those who have faith together with works of mercy, of charity and of the other virtues; "the foolish" are those who have only faith without good works. So Origen, St. Hilary and the Author of the Imperfect Work. Hence their lamps "are going out" — nay, as the Syriac renders it, "are extinguished" — according to the saying of James, chapter 2: "Faith without works is dead." The lamp, therefore, is the believing mind, or faith itself, as St. Jerome, Hilary, and Origen would have it; the oil is good works, without which faith is dead and as it were extinguished, but with which it is living and burning; the light or heat of the lanterns is charity, for this is fed by the zeal of good works just as the flame of lamps is fed by oil; and the vessel is the conscience, or the faithful soul. And for this reason we place a burning candle in the hands of the dying, signifying or desiring that they may have faith with works, so that, as it were brides with burning lamps, they may fitly and worthily meet Christ the Lord as their Bridegroom.
Symbolically and physically (naturally), a certain Philosopher at Genoa lately wrote a book on this parable of Christ, in which he explains it thus: "Beatitude," he says, "consists in this, that the bridegroom be united to the bride — that is, the agent intellect to the potential intellect — after the intellectual grasp of all material things, with the admission of the five wise virgins (that is, the five internal senses having 'lamps,' that is, the sensory organs in the brain, and the oil, that is, the objects of sensible things), and with the exclusion of the five foolish ones (that is, the five external senses not illuminated, because of the absence of the objects of perception)."
But these are philosophical subtleties, far removed from the mind of Christ, and flowed from the dreams of the Gnostics, as Tertullian testifies, book On the Soul, chapter 28, where he says: "For hence they (the Gnostics, from the Ideas of Plato) seize upon the distinction between bodily senses and intellectual powers, which they even twist to fit the parable of the ten virgins, so that the five foolish should represent the bodily senses — foolish, forsooth, because easily deceived — while the wise represent the mark of the intellectual powers — wise, forsooth, because they attain that hidden and supernal truth, established in the Pleroma, the sacraments of the heretical ideas; for these are their αἰῶνες and their genealogies."
Verse 5: And While the Bridegroom Tarried, They All Slumbered and Slept
In Greek χρονίζοντος, that is, "being delayed." The tarrying of Christ the Bridegroom is the time of repentance and of good works which He grants to each one in this life, on account of which He delays death and the day of judgment; "to slumber" is to die, "to sleep" is to be dead; as if to say: While Christ delays the day of judgment, the faithful little by little begin to die, and at length all are dead. So St. Hilary: "The tarrying of the bridegroom," he says, "is the time of repentance, the slumber of those who wait, the rest of those who believe; and in the time of repentance is the temporary death of all."
Verse 6: At Midnight There Was a Cry Made: Behold, the Bridegroom Comes
The Arabic: "the night was halved, and a voice cried out," given forth by the companions who went before the bridegroom, while he, bringing the bride forth from her father's house, drew near to his own house.
This cry signifies the trumpet of the Archangel who rouses the dead from their tombs, of which the preceding chapter (24), verse 31 speaks. So Origen, St. Chrysostom, Jerome and others.
Alluding to this, St. Laurence Justinian, the first Patriarch of the Venetians, when about to die, said: "Hitherto, my sons, things have been done in jest; now they are done in earnest. The Bridegroom is at hand; we must go to meet Him." And with eyes raised to heaven: "I come," said he, "to You, good Jesus, etc. This day I have always had before my eyes: You know it, Lord." And presently, with cheerful mind and countenance, he gave up his pure spirit to God, to go to meet Christ in heaven. So has it in his kinsman Bernardus Justinianus, an eyewitness, in the Life of him, chapter 10 and following, which is extant in Surius, volume 1.
Moreover, from the fact that this cry is said to have been made "at midnight," St. Chrysostom, St. Jerome and Euthymius probably hold that the second coming of Christ to judgment will be at midnight, so that He may surprise men unawares and asleep; and for this reason in the preceding chapter He warned us to watch continually; and St. Jerome asserts that this is an apostolic tradition, and that on this account of old at Easter it was not allowed to dismiss the people from the Church before midnight, because, just as Christ once at the time of midnight came into Egypt for the slaying of the firstborn and the deliverance of the Hebrews (Exodus 11:4 and Wisdom 18:14), so likewise it was believed that at the same time He would come to the general judgment.
But this matter is uncertain; whence others hold, with equal or greater probability, that Christ will come to judgment in the morning; for He Himself is the Father of light, and will carry out the judgment openly in the light while the whole world looks on, that there may be no place in darkness for deception, illusion, flight, or hiding. So Francis Suárez, Part III, volume II, disputation 50, section 10. Therefore what He says, "at midnight," by catachresis (transferred meaning) signifies the same as "unexpectedly, unawares, when men are not thinking of it and are as it were asleep, Christ the Judge will come." So Origen, St. Jerome and Chrysostom. Again, by night or toward dawn the trumpet of the Archangel will sound, and the resurrection will take place, and immediately Christ will descend in the very morning to judgment.
Verse 7: Then All Those Virgins Arose and Trimmed Their Lamps
As if to say: At the cry and the trumpet of the Archangel, all the faithful will rise up and be anxious with what mind and conscience they are approaching Christ the Judge — namely, as the Author of the Imperfect Work says: "They will look at and scrutinize their faith, they will consider their own works, they will question their consciences"; because, as St. Augustine says in Sermon 23 On the Words of the Lord: "What else is it that they began to trim their lamps, but to prepare to give God an account of their works?" And St. Hilary, chapter 27 on Matthew: "The taking up of the lamps," says he, "is the return of the souls into their bodies, and their light, the conscience of good work shining forth, is as it were contained in the vessels of the bodies."
By this vision-symbol of the lanterns, St. Montanus and his zealous companions, martyrs, disciples of St. Cyprian, received from God a sign of martyrdom — as their acts have it in Surius on the 24th of February: for a certain one of them, whose name was Renus, "saw in his sleep the several ones being led forth, before whom, as they went forward, single lanterns were carried; but he whose lantern had not gone before him, neither did he himself follow. And when we had gone forward with our lanterns, he awoke; and, as he related to us, we rejoiced, being confident that we were walking with Christ, who is a lamp to our feet and the Word of God; and straightway we were snatched up to the procurator, etc." So in the place cited word for word.
Verse 8: Give Us of Your Oil, for Our Lamps Are Going Out
The Arabic renders "foolish" as "the unwise." This and what follows pertain to the imagery of the parable; for as to the thing signified by it, the reprobate on the day of judgment will not ask for the oil of good works from the elect, since they know that they will not then give it to them, nor are able to give it; for each shall then be judged by the works which he has done in this life before death. This imagery is therefore introduced so that by it the late repentance of the reprobate may be marked and blamed, who, after death, seeing the terrible judgment of God and damnation impending upon them, will then lament too late that in this life they have been negligent in the pursuit of virtues, and will then wish that they had been diligent — but in vain, because they will be able to procure for themselves neither their own works nor the help of the elect. For then there will be neither time for working, nor will any help, succor, or prayer of the Saints be able to profit them; nay, as the Author of the Imperfect Work says, in so dreadful a judgment there will be no one who trusts sufficiently in himself, or who seems to have a sufficiency of good works.
For our lamps are going out. — They were in fact already extinguished, because they themselves were dead in the state of mortal sin, and therefore to be assigned by Christ not to heaven but to Tartarus. Yet they say "are going out," because in this life their minds seemed outwardly to burn before men by the common profession of the true faith, by communion in the sacraments, and by an appearance of upright life; but then, that is, at death and at the judgment, with all those things vanishing, they will see their lamps going out, and all appearance and hope of virtue and salvation perishing. So St. Augustine in Sermon 23 On the Words of the Lord: "Before those virgins slept," he says, "it is not said that their lamps were being extinguished: why, then, were they burning? Because the praises of men were not lacking; but before the bridegroom, that is, before Christ the Judge, they will be extinguished, because Christ will illuminate the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of hearts, and then the praise shall be to every one from God (1 Cor. 4:5), not from men; but for the lazy and the reprobate there will be utmost confusion." Whence St. Augustine adds: "Those whose deeds were propped up by the praise of others, with that withdrawn, they fail" — that is, "they go out."
The word "are going out" signifies that charity, which is the flame of the lamps — that is, of minds — is nourished by good works as by oil; whence, when these are withdrawn, it is extinguished, both because many works of the virtues are commanded by God, such as all that are contained in the Decalogue: and if anyone does not fulfill what has been commanded by God, but violates it, he loses the grace and charity of God; and also because charity without the exercise of good works fades and languishes, and becomes torpid, sluggish and feeble — whence, when some temptation knocks, a man easily falls into mortal sin, by which charity is destroyed. Do you therefore wish to make God's grace secure for yourself — nay, to increase God's friendship and charity? Apply yourself assiduously to the good works of the virtues; for by these charity is continually nourished, strengthened, grows and increases.
Verse 9: Go Ye Rather to Them That Sell, and Buy for Yourselves
The Arabic: "there is not with us that which may suffice." This is, as I have said, a piece of imagery pertaining to the elegance of the parable, meaning that the elect on the day of judgment will not be moved by the misery of the reprobate, nor will they help them in any way, nay, they will not be able to help them, but rather will tacitly reproach them, for that they have neglected the time of the present life, given them by God for doing well. Whence St. Augustine in Sermon 23 On the Words of the Lord: "This is the answer not of men giving counsel," he says, "but of those deriding them; for they were not wise of themselves, but that wisdom was in them of which it is written in Prov. 1:24: 'Because I called, and you refused, etc.; I also will laugh at your destruction and mock you, when that which you feared shall come upon you.'" And St. Jerome here: "They cannot," he says, "on the day of judgment relieve the virtues of some, or the vices of others." The Interlinear Gloss adds: "They say this not from avarice but from fear, because on that day one's own testimony will scarcely suffice for himself, much less for himself and his neighbor." Again, as if to say: "Now let us see what help they give you, who had been accustomed to sell you the praises of men." So says the Interlinear, from St. Gregory, Homily 12 on the Gospels, who adds: "For the sellers of oil are flatterers. For those who, having received some favor, offer the brilliance of glory by their empty praises, as it were sell oil. Of which oil surely the Psalmist says: 'But let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head.'"
Verse 10: The Bridegroom Came, and the Door Was Shut
The Syriac: "into the house of the chorus"; for at weddings there are choirs of those singing and dancing. This also is a piece of imagery, signifying that in this life is the time for doing good, repenting, and earning merit; but that this time is closed at death (for then, "in the twinkling of an eye, all things are closed") and will be shut on the day of judgment: "For after the judgment there is no place for prayers or for merits," says St. Augustine. And St. Jerome: "The time of buying," he says, "had passed; nor will there be any place for repentance when the day of judgment has come." And Origen: "Those who," he says, "when they ought to have learned profitable things, neglected them, at the end of life, while they wish to learn, are overtaken — the purchase is acceptance; the price is perseverance, the love of learning, and diligence." Moreover, because among men the joy of marriage is the highest, therefore to it is compared the heavenly happiness of the elect. Hence St. Hilary says: "Marriage is the assumption of immortality," where, says the Interlinear, the soul is joined to the Word of God as to a Bridegroom.
Hear what St. Adelinus the bishop relates concerning St. Opportuna, abbess, in her Life, as recorded in Surius, under April 22: "When St. Opportuna was gravely ill, Saints Cecilia and Lucy came to her. She spoke sweetly to them: 'Hail, sisters Cecilia and Lucy, what does the Queen of all, the Virgin Mary, command her handmaid?' They replied: 'She awaits your coming in heaven, that you may be joined to her Son. Therefore, adorned with the crown of glory and with your lamp lit, you must go forth to meet the Bridegroom and the Bride.' Then cheerfully, when she saw the Blessed Virgin approaching, as though embracing her, she delivered her spirit into her hands, to be made blessed in eternal glory."
Verse 11: Lord, Lord, Open to Us
"Driven by the grief of rejection, they repeat the title of dominion," says St. Gregory. But, says St. Jerome, "what does it profit to call upon with the voice him whom you deny by your works?" It signifies, therefore, that the reprobate will then be in the highest anxiety and dismay, turning themselves in every direction — now with supreme prayers imploring the mercy of the Judge, now lamenting the negligence of their past life, now despairing of the hope of salvation. So says the Author of the Imperfect Work: "That anxiety," he says, "will profit them nothing when they begin to act well after the time for acting well is closed. A confession repeated of necessity will profit nothing for him who never once confessed by his own will." Read the pathetic voices and lamentations of the reprobate which Wisdom graphically depicts, Wisdom 5:1 and following.
Verse 12: Amen I Say to You, I Know You Not
That is, I do not recognize you as Mine; I reject, condemn, and damn you; because on your day you refused to acknowledge Me as your God and Lord, so neither do I acknowledge you on this My day as My faithful, My servants, and My sons. You served the devil, not God, in pleasure; now serve him in hell. So St. Jerome: "The Lord," he says, "knows those who are His; and whoever does not know, shall not be known." And the Interlinear: "Therefore," He says, "I abandon you, because I do not recognize you by the merit of your life." And St. Chrysostom: "When He shall say: I know you not, nothing remains but hell and intolerable torment: indeed that word is even graver than hell itself"; because whomever God does not know, heaven does not know, the Angels do not know, the Blessed do not know — but the devil knows him, death knows him, hell knows him, for his perpetual torment. Add this: Christ will show so indignant and terrible a countenance in the day of judgment to the reprobate, that they will say to the mountains: Fall upon us and hide us from the face of Him who sits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?" Apoc. 6:16. See what is said there. The voice of Christ the Judge therefore will be like thunder and lightning, thundering out eternal malediction upon the wicked and thrusting them down into the pit.
Verse 13: Watch Ye Therefore, Because You Know Not the Day nor the Hour
The Arabic and Syriac read: Because you do not know that day, nor that hour, namely that final one and "the last moment upon which hangs your eternity, whether most blessed or most miserable." This is the epiparable or appended moral, showing the aim, end, and fruit of the parable, namely that it is brought in and directed to this end — to stir all the faithful to vigilance and to zeal for good works, by which they may prepare themselves for the day of death and of judgment, imminent but uncertain; as St. Jerome says: "Because you do not know the day of judgment, prepare the light of good works." "For He who promised pardon to the penitent did not promise the morrow to the sinner," says St. Gregory, Homily 12 on the Gospels. "You do not know the day nor the hour," says St. Augustine, Sermon 22 On the Words of the Lord, "not only of that last time in which the Bridegroom will come, but each one is also ignorant of the day and hour of his own falling asleep. Whoever, however, is prepared up to the point of sleep — that is, up to death, which is owed by all — will be found prepared even when that voice sounds at midnight, at which we are all to awaken." See what is said on chapter 24:42.
R. Achabia wisely says in Pirke Avoth, chapter III: "Consider three things," he says, "that you may not sin: first, whence you come; second, whither you go; third, to whom you shall render an account of your life. Whence have you come? From fetid matter. Whither are you going? To a place of ashes and of worms. To whom will you render your account? To the King of kings, holy and blessed." More wisely still, St. Augustine, Homily 13, among his 50: "God has promised you," he says, "that on the day you shall be converted He will forget your past evils, but He has never promised you the life of tomorrow." And soon after: "God has wholesomely made the day of death uncertain: let each one wholesomely think upon his own last day. It is a mercy of God that man does not know when he will die. The last day is hidden, that every day may be kept." Mark well this last maxim of St. Augustine.
Verse 14: A Man Going Into a Far Country Called His Servants
Namely his wealth and resources, that they might guard them and increase them by trading; supply from the preceding: So shall be the coming of the Son of Man to judgment. The word "for" (enim) indicates the aim of the parable, namely that Christ wished by it to confirm what He had said in the preceding verse: "Watch ye therefore, because you do not know the day nor the hour."
The aim, then, of this parable is to show how strict an accounting of His gifts Christ will demand in the day of judgment from the idle, and how great a reward He will give to the industrious who have zealously used His gifts for the glory of God. This parable is similar to the one which Luke recounts in chapter 19:11, but differs in some points; for it was spoken by Christ at a different time, for a different end, and in a different manner. For the one in Luke was spoken before Palm Sunday, but this one after it, namely on the Tuesday which preceded the Friday on which Christ was crucified. Hence St. Chrysostom, Euthymius, Jansenius, and others hold that these parables of Luke and Matthew are different, or rather that it is one parable repeated in a different way: for in place of "talents" Luke has "minas," and adds some details at verses 14 and 27, as will presently appear.
Further, this man is Christ. For Christ went into a far country when He ascended into heaven, as though to be long absent from the earth and the Church. So Origen, St. Jerome, and Bede. Others interpret Christ's going into a far country as when He transferred the preaching of the Gospel from the Jews through the Apostles to the Gentiles, and among them established the kingdom of His Church. Nor is this badly said, especially in Luke chapter 19, where this parable is brought in on account of Zacchaeus the publican, a quasi-Gentile, into whose house Christ entered and brought salvation, the Jews being left behind. But then the entire parable of the servants and talents would have to be restricted to the Jews alone; for the talents are said to have been distributed by this master to his servants before he went into a far country (to the Gentiles). Therefore the earlier explanation, being broader, is also the more genuine; for the servants here are understood as all the faithful, whether sprung from Jews or from Gentiles. The "goods" are the talents, of which the following verse speaks, either because this master, like merchants and money-changers, held all his wealth in money, namely in talents of gold and silver; or because "talents" may mean revenues and estates, which were reckoned sometimes at one, sometimes at two, sometimes at five talents; just as with the Latins pecunia (money) is used for whatever is valued or purchased with money. Hence the Greeks also call them χρήματα (chrēmata), that is wealth, moneys, as if χρήσιμα (chrēsima), that is useful things. But the former is more apt; for at verse 27, these talents are called "money."
Verse 15: To Every One According to His Own Ability
Arabic: according to the capacity of his strength; Syriac: according to his faculty. In place of "talents," Luke has mnas, that is, minas: for mna in Hebrew, maneh (מָנֶה), is "that which is counted" or "defined," namely a price, or weight of gold or silver; for the root מנה (manah) means "he numbered." Hence "mane, thecel, phares" in Daniel 5:25. The Attic and Roman mina contained a hundred drachmas, but the Hebrew 240 drachmas, or 30 ounces, that is, two and a half pounds. A drachma of gold is a French crown; a drachma of silver is a Roman julius or a Spanish real. Therefore a Hebrew mina of gold contained 240 French crowns; a mina of silver, 240 juliuses or reals. The Attic talent contained six thousand drachmas, that is, 60 minas. But the Hebrew talent was twice as great: for it contained twelve thousand drachmas, that is, 60 Hebrew minas, or 120 Attic minas, or 23 Roman pounds. A pound of gold contains 12 ounces of gold, that is, drachmas, or 96 French crowns. The talent of gold therefore among the Hebrews contained twelve thousand French crowns; the talent of silver twelve thousand juliuses or reals. Consequently five talents of gold contained sixty thousand French crowns, and of silver sixty thousand juliuses, which make six thousand Roman aurei. For the Roman aureus contains ten juliuses: two talents of gold, among the Hebrews, contained 24,000 French crowns, and of silver 24,000 juliuses, that is, two thousand Roman aurei. See what I have treated concerning measures at the end of the Pentateuch.
By "talents," understand any of God's gifts, without which we can do nothing. Gifts, I say: First, gifts of grace — both of sanctifying grace, such as faith, hope, charity, virginity and the other virtues; and of graces freely given (gratiae gratis datae), such as the power of working miracles, apostleship, episcopate, priesthood, the gift of tongues, discernment of spirits, prophecy, etc. Second, gifts of nature, such as keen talent, sharp judgment, firm health, strength, prudence, diligence, knowledge, eloquence. Third, outward gifts and goods, such as riches, honors, rank — e.g. magistracy, principality, kingdom, etc. So St. Chrysostom. For God distributes all these — five to one, two to another, one to a third — that is, unequally and disparately, according to His pleasure, with this end, that each should use them for the glory of God and for his own and others' salvation: for thus they will be increased, both in themselves (for every habit grows through the exercise of acts), and in merit and reward. For to them will be added heavenly crowns and aureoles — e.g. of virginity, of doctorate, of martyrdom. Further, there is no man who has not received some one, indeed several of these gifts of God, but one more and another fewer. For as St. Gregory says in Homily 9 on the Gospels: "There is no one who may truly say: I received no talent at all, there is nothing of which I shall be compelled to render an account. For by the name of talent even this very thing shall be reckoned to any pauper — that he received even the very least." For to many, a greater gift of God and more useful for salvation is poverty than wealth, sickness than health, a humble station than an exalted one.
Let the example be in St. Paul, St. Timothy, and St. Onesimus. For St. Paul received as it were five talents — that is, gifts — from God, namely the gift of tongues, the power of working miracles, the apostolate, zeal for souls, and efficacy in preaching; but Timothy received as it were two, namely knowledge of the Scriptures and the bishopric of Ephesus; but Onesimus only one, namely devoted service to St. Paul while imprisoned at Rome, through which he merited many other things, namely the bishopric of Colossae, and the conversion of many, and martyrdom, as I said in the Epistle to Philemon.
You will ask: how does God distribute these talents, or His gifts, "according to each one's own ability?" In Greek δύναμιν (dynamin), that is, power, strength, and forces. I reply: First, this is partly a figure, belonging only to the elegance of the parable. For so among men prudent masters are accustomed to divide their goods and entrust them to their servants — entrusting more to him who is endowed with greater prudence and industry, less to him who has less. For it is certain — against the Pelagians — that the first grace is not given according to natural strengths and merits; nay, there is no disposition to grace in nature at all.
Second, this partly pertains to the matter at hand, because graces freely given, and states such as magistracy, the episcopate, the apostolate, the priesthood, etc., God often apportions to the strengths of nature, nor does He choose anyone for any state or rank unless he is equal to bearing it and by nature suited, or unless He Himself makes him suited. That the same thing must be done by men, when they choose someone as Pastor, Bishop, or Prelate, St. Thomas teaches, II-II, q. 63, art. 2, and elsewhere. Indeed, whenever God decrees to bestow any permanent gift upon someone, He first gives him a proportionate natural or supernatural capacity or disposition, or merit, by which he may become fit for this gift, or may suitably prepare himself for it. Thus He gave Moses zeal for his people, that by it he might dispose himself for the leadership of that nation and for the liberation from Egypt. Thus He gave Paul zeal for the Mosaic Law, that then, being purged and chastened, he might use it for the propagation of the Christian Law, as St. Augustine teaches, Book XXII Against Faustus, chapter 70. Thus He put into Magdalene and St. Peter a vast contrition for sins, that through it He might dispose them to great sanctity. Thus those whom God chooses and destines for virginity, religious life, martyrdom, the Indian mission, etc., He first inspires with a vehement desire for that, by which they may fit and prepare themselves for it.
Finally, St. Thomas, I, Q. 62, art. 6, teaches that God distributed the gifts of grace and glory to the angels according to their gifts of nature: and therefore those who are more sublime by nature are more sublime also in grace and glory. And he adds that God sometimes does the same in men. For he says: "This happens also in men, because according to the intensity of the conversion to God, a greater grace and glory is given." Yet often God does the contrary, giving greater gifts of grace to the ignorant, the uneducated, the lowly and the abject than to the learned, the talented, the honored, the wealthy — as He gave to St. Francis, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Simeon the Stylite, and many similar ones. In the same way God sometimes distributes the graces freely given (gratiae gratis datae) because of His hidden counsels and judgments. For many are in positions of leadership, says Franciscus Lucas, who are by no means worthy or suited: many are unsuited for the priesthood, etc. In no case, however, are nature and her endowments merit or disposition for grace.
Therefore from this saying of Christ it does not follow that God's gifts are conferred on individuals according to the measure of their own merit — which Calvin here falsely imputes to Catholics as a calumny: for it is one thing to be naturally capable of God's gifts, another to merit God's gifts; one thing to be able to have charity, another to have charity, as Prosper teaches in Book II On the Calling of the Gentiles, chapter 11, where he interprets "according to his own ability" as "according to his own natural possibility" — so that it is one thing to be apt and fit for receiving God's gifts, and another to merit them.
And immediately he took his journey. — That is, Christ went from the Jews to the Gentiles, or rather into heaven, as I said. Luke adds, at 19:13, that Christ, before He departed, having divided minas or talents among His servants, said: "Trade while I come," namely: Increase these My talents strenuously by laboring throughout your whole life, and bring the profit of them to Me when I return for judgment; and soon after he adds: "But his citizens hated him, and they sent an embassy after him, saying: We will not have this man to reign over us." The citizens of Christ are the Jews, who refused to acknowledge Him — that is, Christ — as their king and Messiah, when before Pilate they cried out: "We have no king but Caesar," and therefore demanded Christ for the cross. Again, after Christ's death and resurrection, they persecuted His Apostles and the Christians who preached and propagated the kingdom of Christ — with blows and with writings against them which they scattered throughout the whole world. Whence, concerning their just chastisement, Luke adds at verse 27 that Christ said: "But as for those enemies of mine, who would not have me reign over them, bring them hither, and slay them before me." Christ did this when He laid waste Judea and slew the Jews by the Emperor Titus, and He will do so still more in the day of judgment, when He shall punish them in hell with eternal death.
Verse 16: He Who Had Received the Five Talents Traded With the Same
To "gain talents" is to increase the gifts of grace by their use and exercise; but most of all it is, through good works and assistance of our neighbors, to increase and accumulate the grace of God in oneself and in others. This parable implies that each must cooperate with the grace of God equally and with all his strength — so that, for example, he who has five degrees of charity should elicit an act of it intense as five; for thus he will gain another five degrees, and will receive from God a habit of charity intense as ten; and if he again cooperates with this equally, and elicits an act of charity as ten, he will gain another ten degrees of charity, and will receive a habit of charity intense as twenty; and if once more he collaborates equally and elicits an act of charity as twenty, he will merit and receive a habit of charity intense as forty — and so on consequently, by continually doubling, he will marvelously multiply the profit of his talents, namely the degrees of charity. Let it be, then, that by his preaching with charity he convert to Christ few or none; he will yet have the same merit and reward of his preaching and charity, just as though he had converted many; for the conversion of others is often not in our power, but merit always is.
Note from Luke chapter 19, verses 16 and 18: the same mna — that is, the same degree of grace — in one person works and gains ten minas, but in another only five, because, namely, the former cooperated with the grace with a greater fervor, zeal, and effort of will than the latter.
Further, from this verse and the following, theologians gather that God, on account of the merit of our actions, at once increases and intensifies their supernatural habits, even though the actions do not surpass the habit from which they flow: for he who had received the five talents, by trading gained another five.
Morally: St. Gregory, Homily 9 on the Gospels: "The reading of the Gospel," he says, "warns us carefully to consider that we who seem to have received more than others in this world may not on that account be judged more severely by the Author of the world. For as gifts are increased, the accounts of the gifts also grow. Each person, then, ought to be so much the more humble — and the more ready to serve — out of his office, in proportion as he sees himself more bound in rendering an account."
Verse 17: He Who Had Received the Two Gained Other Two
That is: this one also, by diligently and equally cooperating with the talent, that is, with his grace, doubled it.
Verse 18: He Hid His Lord's Money
The Arabic: "he buried his lord's silver." To dig in the talent is, through negligence and sloth, not to use, not to put to work, the grace bestowed on us by God. Note here that this digging-in of the talent is attributed to him who received only one — not because others who received more do not often do the same, but that it may be understood from this that, if he who misused only one talent is so severely received and chastened by his Lord, the Lord's censure and chastisement upon those who misuse more and greater talents will be far sharper.
Wherefore Paul: "We exhort you," he says, "that you receive not the grace of God in vain," 2 Corinthians 6:1. And: "His grace in me hath not been void, but I have labored more abundantly than all they," 1 Corinthians 15:10. And: "Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel," ibid., chapter 9:16.
Let this be noted by those who do not use for their own and others' salvation the talent, learning, prudence, and other endowments given them by God — whether through sloth, or fear of sinning, or any similar cause; for from these Christ in the day of judgment will demand a strict account. Add also that those who received few talents often, through inertia, leave them idle and as it were bury them: for those who received more are spurred on by them to use them — and so either they use them rightly for merit, or abuse them for vanity, and are thus punished not for the use of the talents, but for their vain abuse. So we commonly see those endowed with great talent — if they do not use it for honorable things — abuse it for dishonorable things.
Verse 19: After a Long Time the Lord Came and Reckoned With Them
This reckoning and accounting Christ enters upon with each one privately in death and in the particular judgment of each soul, but He will do so publicly in the day of the universal judgment.
Verse 20: Behold, I Have Gained Other Five Over and Above
Hear St. Gregory, Homily 47 on the Gospels, pathetically depicting this: "At that great examination, the multitude of all the elect and of the reprobate will be led forth, and each one will be shown what he has wrought. There Peter will appear, with Judea converted, whom he drew after him. There Paul, leading (if I may so speak) a converted world. There Andrew will lead Achaia behind him; John, Asia; Thomas, India — converted, into the sight of their Judge. There all the rams of the Lord's flock will appear with the gains of souls, who by their holy preaching draw to God a flock subject after them. Since then so many shepherds, with their flocks, shall have come before the eyes of the eternal Shepherd, what shall we wretches say, who return to our Lord empty after our business, who had the name of shepherds and have not the sheep we were bound to show forth from our nourishment? Here we were called shepherds, and there we do not lead a flock."
Verse 21: Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant; Enter Into the Joy of Thy Lord
Luke 19:19 has: "And be thou also over five cities." This is a parable drawn from a king, who is accustomed to reward faithful servants with the governorship of many cities. By catachresis it signifies that the Saints, who have strenuously used the grace given them by God, shall be partakers of the glory, kingdom, and joy of God — but in greater or lesser measure according to the labor and merits of each.
Our Salmeron is of the opinion that there is hinted and tacitly promised here that the Saints, over certain places in which they labored in life, are set by God in heaven, that there they may do more good — e.g. heal diseases and work other miracles — because they merited this by their labor. Thus St. James works miracles at Compostela and in Spain, St. Denis at Paris and in Gaul, St. Ambrose at Milan and in Italy, St. Boniface in Frisia and Germany.
Verse 22: Lord, Thou Didst Deliver to Me Two Talents; Behold I Have Gained Other Two
See what has been said on verses 20 and 21.
Verse 23: Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant; Enter Into the Joy of Thy Lord
The Arabic translates: "and these are the five talents which I have gained," as though the servant had shown and offered them to his master. This is clear from what has been said on verses 20 and 21. For the same thing is said, except that there the talents are five, here two; because, as St. Jerome says, "the Lord does not so much consider the size of the gain as the will of the effort." And it may happen that he who received two, by strenuously and continuously trading with them, may merit and receive more than he who received five, if he uses them lukewarmly and seldom.
Thus St. Nicholas of Tolentino, who had led a holy life in constant prayer and austerity, and fasted on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday in honor of the Blessed Virgin, content with bread and water alone, and chastised his body with an iron chain, for six months before his death every day at vespers heard an angelic melody, by which he was invited to the nuptials of the heavenly Lamb. At last, near death, being filled with a wondrous joy and being asked the cause, he said: "My Lord Jesus Christ, leaning upon His Mother and upon our Father Augustine, says to me: Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord." And soon, with hands joined upward and eyes lifted to the cross: "Into Thy hands, O Lord," he said, "I commend my spirit." And so, with a joyful and cheerful countenance, he gave up his soul to God in the year of our Lord 1306, as his Life records in Surius, under September 10.
Verse 24: Lord, I Know That Thou Art a Hard Man
This is a figure pertaining to the ornamentation of the parable. For so lazy servants, says Franciscus Lucas, excuse their sloth by the severity of the master — as if to say: You are unwilling to lose, but only to profit; and if no profit comes, you take from your poor servants their goods by every means, whether right or wrong. "He who ought simply to have confessed his laziness," says St. Jerome, "and begged the Father of the family for pardon, on the contrary slanders him — and after considering the avarice of a grasping master, declares that by prudent counsel he abstained from all business."
He notes that the reprobate, in the day of judgment, when they see the Saints so greatly rewarded by Christ, but themselves damned to hell — and that for eternity — out of despair, hatred, and rage will rise up against Christ the Judge, and will impudently reproach Him with excessive severity, and thence will impiously and blasphemously cast the blame for their own damnation upon Him. For so the reprobate in hell, driven into fury by the bitterness and eternity of the torments, constantly blaspheme God, Christ, and all the Saints, as being those by whom they are tormented — either effectively or objectively.
Verse 25: Being Afraid, I Went and Hid Thy Talent in the Earth
See the remarks on the preceding verse.
Verse 26: Wicked and Slothful Servant, Thou Knewest That I Reap Where I Sow Not
The Lord beats down the charge of the lazy servant who had accused Him of avarice.
Verse 27: Thou Oughtest to Have Committed My Money to the Bankers
This likewise is a figure, signifying only that by every means and effort — at least by the easier way which is almost free from danger — the grace of God must be increased by every person. Note here that "money-changers" (nummularii) is the name given to those who make profit from exchange or lending, such as bankers and usurers. This profit in exchange is lawful; in lending it is unlawful and the sin of usury. And this is a certain, ready, and most easy way of gaining. Hence the Lord here speaks not so much from the justice of the matter in itself as by way of parable, partly from the custom and usage of the Gentiles: for among many peoples usury was reckoned lawful, and especially among the Jews, who think it was permitted them by God in the case of Gentiles, Deut. 23:19; and partly from the logic of the words of the slothful servant, who charged his master with the harsh avarice of extorting profit by fair means or foul, both on his own account and through others. Yet this point can be fitted to the matter signified by the parable in this way: that God demands from us the profits of His grace and gifts, as if usury — but required by the most equitable right — and will render in heaven far greater interest in glory. Whence comes that saying: "If you wish to earn interest, lend to God." For, as is said in Proverbs 19:17: "He that hath mercy on the poor lendeth to the Lord, and He will repay him his due." See what is said there.
Verse 28: Take Ye Away the Talent From Him, and Give It to Him Who Hath Ten
For by My gift the first had five talents, then out of them he gained another five: so altogether he now has ten. This too is a figure. The Lord beats down the charge of the lazy servant who had accused Him of avarice, as if to say: Behold, that you may see, O slothful servant, that I seek these profits not for Myself out of avarice, but liberally for the servants themselves — recalling to Myself the very talent given to you, I do not store it in My coffer, but dispense it to him who, having well used his five, has gained another five. For this servant merits this talent of yours — or rather Mine — as a bonus of his labor and profit.
This too is partly a figure of the parable, and partly to be applied to the thing signified by the parable. For in the day of judgment God truly will take away His graces from the reprobate, who either did not use them or abused them to evil. He often does the same in this life — indeed He always takes away sanctifying grace from one who sins mortally, for example when through sloth he neglects to fulfill some precept of God which obliges under mortal sin. But it is a figure that He adds: "And give it to him who has ten talents." By which He tacitly hints, first, that the Saints who diligently use God's grace are worthy of more, and even of that which the unworthy and idle have — and that this often happens in this life, that grace is transferred from them to these others, according to that word of Apocalypse 3:11: "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." See what is said there. Secondly, He hints that the Saints in heaven shall rejoice both at their own talents and at those of the reprobate, inasmuch as they have used their own better than the reprobate did, and shall rejoice to receive the crowns of the reprobate.
Thirdly, that God in heaven will confer upon the Blessed all the gifts, all the endowments and graces — even those which the reprobate had in this life — because beatitude is the state perfected by the aggregation of all goods, as Boethius says. Understand those things to be the same, not numerically, but in kind — that is, similar to those which the reprobate had. Whence Christ adds and concludes:
Verse 29: To Every One That Hath Shall Be Given, and He Shall Abound
Arabic: "For to him who has, it shall be given, and shall be added; and from him who has not, shall be taken away what is with him." Syriac: "Even that which he has shall be taken from him."
To every one who has — namely, the profit of talents and of grace, gotten and increased by his strenuous cooperation — more talents and more grace and glory shall be given. Then, St. Chrysostom here, and St. Augustine, Book II On the Gospel Questions, Question 46: "'To every one who has,' that is, to every one who uses his talent well." For he truly has a talent who rightly uses it: for the idle man, who does not use it, seems not to have it — since with him it is as inert and as idle as if he did not have it.
But "from him who has not" (namely the profit of talents and of grace gotten by himself; or "who has not," that is, who does not use his own talent, as I already said), "even that which he seems to have" (that is, his own talent which indeed he has, as was said in chapter 13:12 — but because it was idle for him, he was thought rather not to have it than to have it), shall be taken away from him — according to the sense I stated a little before.
With a similar expression the Comic Poet says: "To the miser, what he has is as lacking as what he has not," because he does not use it, but stores and buries it in his strongbox — so the box has it, not he. For the miser does not so much have and possess gold as he is had and possessed by gold; for he is the slave and chattel of gold.
Hence the theologians have drawn that axiom of theirs: "Facienti quod in se est, Deus non deest" — "To him who does what is in him, God is not lacking," nor does He deny grace — to which, if one strenuously cooperates, He will always add more and more, up to the gift of perseverance and of glory. As to how this is to be understood, see Suarez, Vasquez, Valentia, Bellarmine, and others, in their treatises On Grace.
Christ repeated this same maxim at chapter 13:12, but with a different end and aim, as I showed there.
Verse 30: Cast the Unprofitable Servant Into the Exterior Darkness
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth — the punishment of those banished from Christ and the joy of heaven.
Verse 31: When the Son of Man Shall Come in His Majesty
The Syriac: "upon the throne of His glory," as Judge of all, sitting in a splendid and glorious cloud. See what is said on chapter 24, verse 30. Here Christ graphically depicts the idea and form of the last judgment, so that all may imprint it upon their mind, and by the constant remembrance of it continually rouse and stimulate themselves to purity of life and zeal for good works. Further, Christ will sit in the air near Jerusalem, above the valley of Josaphat, which adjoins the Mount of Olives, where He began to suffer in the garden, and whence He gloriously ascended into heaven, as Joel teaches, 3:2. See what is said there.
The majesty of Christ the Judge will shine forth: First, in the prior clangor of the horrible-sounding trumpet of the Archangel, which will be so loud that it shall be heard through the whole world. Secondly, in the preceding lightnings, thunders, hail, tempests, and earthquakes, according to Psalm 96:3: "A fire shall go before Him and shall burn up His enemies round about. His lightnings have shone forth to the world: the earth saw, and was moved." Thirdly, in that Christ will appear in a glorified body more radiant than the sun, according to Isaiah chapter 24: "The moon shall blush, and the sun shall be confounded, when the Lord of hosts shall reign" — in a mystical sense, for another is the literal sense of that place, as I showed there. Fourthly, in that He will come with the clouds, and will sit as Judge in a glorious cloud. Fifthly, in that He will descend from heaven surrounded by countless legions of all the angels. Sixthly, in that before Him, to be judged, shall stand all Emperors, Popes, Kings, Prelates, Princes, Philosophers, Orators, and absolutely all men and nations. Seventhly, in that He will judge them not as the subjects of another — as the governors of kings do — but as His own servants: for all men and angels are the servants of Christ, not only inasmuch as He is God by the right of creation, but also inasmuch as He is man, by the right of hypostatic union with the Word, and by the right of merit: for this Christ merited by His humble obedience even unto the death of the cross, according to that word of the Apostle, Philippians 2: "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father." But men are the servants of Christ by a proper right of redemption; for Christ redeemed them from death and from hell, and bought them with the precious price of His blood.
And all the angels with Him. — Therefore in the day of judgment not even one angel will remain in heaven, but absolutely all of them will descend with Him, and as attendants will accompany Him — as if He were their God, Lord, and Savior — for honor's sake, so that they may surround and minister to Christ, inasmuch as He is man and Judge. Wherefore one of them will carry the cross before Christ, as a sign of triumph and of kingship, as is clear from chapter 24:30.
Moreover, it is probable that the angels will then assume bodies formed from condensed air, and will gloriously appear in them, resplendent: otherwise this glory and power of Christ surrounded by the angels could not be seen by the wicked and the reprobate — for whose sake especially it will be displayed — nor would that army of angels augment His outward majesty (which Christ here wishes to describe). So Suarez, volume II, disputation 57. Since, then, the multitude of the angels is innumerable, at that time they shall fill the lowest regions of the air on every side for many thousands of miles, even up to the very heavens, and shall present the appearance of an army on the march. This will be the majesty and glory of Christ, to the joy of the elect and the terror of the reprobate.
It is also very credible that the demons will also appear in assumed bodies, but foul, horrid and terrifying ones — either because otherwise they could not be seen by the wicked, or because it pertains to the glory of Christ (insofar as He is man and Judge) and to the confusion of the wicked that they should be seen. So our Leonard Lessius, Book XIII On the Divine Perfections, chapter XXII. By this means it will come to pass, says the Author of the Opus Imperfectum, "that even the wicked may confess Him against their will, and that they who despised Him in His humility may acknowledge Him in His power."
Verse 32: He Shall Separate Them as the Shepherd Separates the Sheep From the Goats
This He will do through the angels, as His ministers, according to that passage in chapter 13:49: "Then the angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just."
All nations. — That is, all men sprung from the first Adam, down to the last, of whatever family or nation they may be, however wild and barbarous, including even little ones and infants — although the case and sentence of infants is not properly dealt with here, but only that of adults, who by their own good or evil works have merited heaven or hell. Wherefore at that time there will be very many millions of men, whom the valley of Josaphat will not contain; and therefore God will then level the Mount of Olives and other heights, so that there may be room to hold such myriads of men. For all the reprobate will stand upon the earth, but the Saints — especially the more illustrious, such as the Apostles, and Religious and Apostolic men — will be lifted up into the air, and indeed will sit with Christ the Judge, Matthew 19:28.
Moreover, that little ones will also appear on the day of judgment — although Durandus denies it in II, disputation XXXIII, Question III — is very probable. First, because Christ will be the judge of absolutely all men: therefore also of little ones. Secondly, because little ones as well as adults will rise again, and that "unto a perfect man," as the Apostle says, Ephesians 4:13; that is, in manly age and stature: they will therefore see and know all men rising with them to stand before the tribunal of Christ, to be judged by Him. Thirdly, because many among infants have been made saints and martyrs by baptism or by martyrdom, as were the Holy Innocents slain by Herod. These therefore will hear Christ together with the adults: "Come, ye blessed of My Father." Fourthly, because infants dead in original sin through so many thousands of years, in every nation, will be very many, so much so that Lessius, On the Divine Perfections, chapter XXII, number 143, reckons their number at a thousand millions. These, however, cannot be hidden, but, rising again upon the earth, will appear, and will see all rise together with them and be judged by Christ. Wherefore these too, being separated from the others, will receive their sentence from Christ — namely, one intermediate between the adult elect and the reprobate: for they will neither be condemned to the fire of Gehenna, as the adult reprobate are, nor will they be adjudged to heaven to see God, as the adult elect are.
He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. — He compares the elect to sheep, on account of their innocence, humility, simplicity, modesty, obedience, and patience; and the reprobate to goats, because this animal stinks, is rough, unclean, butting, lascivious, walks over precipices, and is quarrelsome — such are the wicked. Whence also in the ancient Law goats were wont to be offered as victims for sin.
A type of this separation preceded in the separation of blessings upon those who keep the Law, and of curses upon those who violate the Law, made by Moses upon Mount Gerizim, Deuteronomy chapter 27.
Verse 33: He Shall Set the Sheep on His Right Hand, but the Goats on the Left
For the right hand is a symbol of happiness, glory, kingdom, victory and triumph; but the left of unhappiness, disgrace, servitude, calamity and misery. St. Thomas adds: "On the right hand," he says, that is, in the more honorable and nobler place — namely, the elect will stand in the air, and from there presently ascend into heaven with Christ, according to that passage: "We shall be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air," 1 Thessalonians 4:16. But the reprobate will be "on the left," that is, in the lower and baser place, in the depth of the earth, so that from there, as the earth gapes open, they may be swallowed up into hell.
Verse 34: Come, Ye Blessed of My Father, Possess the Kingdom Prepared for You
"Come" from darkness to light, from servitude to the liberty of the sons of God, from labor to perennial rest, from war to peace, from death to life, from the fellowship of the wicked to the fellowship of the Angels, from strife to triumph, from the ground and sea of temptations to the Sun of glory and the perpetual heaven of eternal joys.
St. Hippolytus the martyr passionately amplifies this word, in his tract On the Consummation of the Age, at the end, descending to each order of the Saints: "Come, O Prophets, driven out for My name's sake; come, O Patriarchs, who before My coming obeyed Me and longed for My kingdom; come, O Apostles, sharers in My afflictions while I dwelt among men for the Gospel's sake; come, O Martyrs, who having confessed Me before tyrants endured many torments and sufferings; come, O Pontiffs, who offered Me sacrifice purely day and night, and daily immolated My precious Body and Blood; come, O Saints, who in mountains, in caves and dens of the earth exercised yourselves, who through continence, peace and virginity served My name; come, O young maidens, who desired My bridal chamber, and loved no other bridegroom besides Me — you who through martyrdom and the exercise of piety were joined to Me, your immortal and incorruptible Bridegroom; come, ye who loved the poor and strangers; come, ye who kept My charity, as I am charity; come, ye companions of peace, for I Myself am peace itself."
Moreover, Christ first judges and rewards the elect before He punishes the reprobate: "both because the elect are more worthy than the reprobate; and because it is proper to Christ to reward, and foreign to Him to punish; and so that the reprobate may grieve more bitterly when they see what they have lost," says St. Bernard, Sermon 8 on Psalm 90.
The King. — Christ the Judge having written on His thigh: "King of kings, and Lord of lords," Revelation 19:16.
Blessed of My Father. — Namely, those whom My Father — to whom omnipotence, dominion and predestination are appropriated — "hath blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places," through the merit of My blood, Ephesians 1:3, that is, those whom from eternity He loved and predestined, in time justified, and now will glorify; to whom He gave grace, good works, and perseverance in them to the end of life, and therefore now through Me bestows the reward of heavenly glory according to their merits. Come therefore, O blessed ones, thrice and four times blessed, whom God loved and predestined before the world, called out of the world, cleansed and sanctified in the world, and now will magnify after the world, as St. Augustine says in his Soliloquies.
Note: the final judgment of Christ will not be performed in an instant, or in a moment of time, as the general resurrection of all will be performed, 1 Corinthians 15:52, but will last some considerable time. For first, there will take place the examination of individuals and the opening of consciences, in which Christ, by an inward illumination, will make plain and reveal to each man both his own deeds and those of all others, and will dictate to each man his own sentence according to his merits, and will cause all to see that it is most equitable and most just in every case, with no place given for exception or evasion — as I have shown on Revelation 20:12, and as the Abulensis fully teaches here, Questions CCCXXXIV and following. "For it will come to pass," says St. Augustine, Book XX On the City of God, chapter XIV, "by divine power, that each man's works, whether good or evil, shall be called back into his memory, and discerned with marvelous swiftness by the mind's gaze, so that knowledge may either accuse or excuse conscience." For these things will happen in time, but in a very brief span. Then He will pronounce upon all the Saints in general, with an audible voice — as it seems — the sentence of eternal felicity, saying: "Come, ye blessed of My Father," etc.; and straightway upon the reprobate He will thunder the lightning of eternal damnation, saying: "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," etc.
Wherefore, upon hearing this voice of Christ, St. Apronianus was converted, and indeed became a martyr. For we read of him thus in the Roman Martyrology, on the 2nd of February: "At Rome on the Salarian Way, the passion of St. Apronianus the Commentariensis, who while still a Gentile, as he was leading St. Sisinius out of prison to present him to the prefect Laodicius, heard a voice from heaven saying: Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world; believing, he was baptized, and afterward in the confession of the Lord received the end of his life by capital sentence." Upon hearing the same voice, St. Mechtilde, dying, was called to heaven, as her Life relates.
Verse 35: I Was Hungry, and You Gave Me to Eat
The Syriac: "that I might eat." "I was a stranger, and you took Me in" — into your house, or into another house of hospitality.
Note: Christ here sets down one kind of good works — by which the Saints merited the eternal glory decreed to them by Christ at the judgment — for the whole class: for He brings forward only the works of mercy, first because these are as it were natural, and are everywhere at hand, and chiefly pertain to the common good, since there are very many wretched people everywhere; secondly because plebeian and ordinary men attach great importance to them, seeing that they are less suited to prayers, fasts and other loftier exercises; thirdly because no one can easily excuse himself from them; and lastly in order that they may for us be commended as most useful for obtaining the mercy of God — so says St. Augustine, Sermon 39 among the New Sermons, St. Chrysostom and others. Hear St. Basil, Homily 4 On Almsgiving: "That bread which you keep by you," he says, "belongs to the hungry; that garment which you are storing up in your chest, to the naked; those shoes which are rotting in your house, to the barefoot; that silver which you have buried in the ground, to the needy. Thus you wrong as many people as you might be helping with your goods, while you may." The same is affirmed by St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, St. Ambrose and St. Bernard, whose words I have cited on Ecclesiasticus chapter 4:1. "Blessed is the man," says David, "who sheweth mercy and lendeth; he shall order his discourses with judgment," Psalm 111, verse 5 — or, as St. Chrysostom reads, "his reasons," as if to say: He will render the best account of his life; he will powerfully plead his cause before the supreme Judge: "For it is not possible," says St. Chrysostom, "that a soul rich in mercy should ever be overwhelmed by grievous disturbances of mind." And St. Chrysologus, Sermon 40: "In vain," he says, "do sins accuse one whom the poor man excuses. He whom the hunger of the poor has accused cannot be excused. He will see an evil day, who has entered the day of judgment without the advocacy of poverty. He who lends to the poor has made his debtor his own judge." Again St. Chrysostom, Homily 5 On Penitence: "Christ here says nothing of other works of virtue, not because they are unworthy of being remembered, but because they are second to mercy." Finally St. Augustine, Sermon 25 On the Words of the Lord: "The poor man," he says, "is the way to heaven; begin to bestow, if you would not go astray."
Moreover, there is no doubt that many will be saved or damned on account of other virtues and sins of greater moment: for many are scarcely able to perform works of mercy — such as the poor, children, and Religious — who nevertheless accomplish greater things, such as chastity, obedience, Evangelical poverty, contemplation, the conversion of souls, etc., for which they will obtain greater rewards from Christ, according to that text, chapter 5, verse 1: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," etc. Wherefore Christ does not seem about to utter these words with an audible voice, as He will utter the very sentence of salvation or damnation, but by spiritual impulse He will reveal and dictate them to each one. So Franciscus Lucas and our Lessius, in the place cited, number 142.
Hence it is clear that the elect are chosen by Christ and adjudged to heaven on account of their good works: therefore good works merit heaven and heavenly glory. Therefore glory is here given to the Saints by Christ as a kind of inheritance, in the manner of sons; and at the same time as a kind of reward, as to those who have merited and are worthy. For God does not give the kingdom to sons whether they are worthy of it or unworthy, as often happens among men, but only to the worthy and meritorious.
Moreover, there are six chief corporal works of mercy which Christ here enumerates; namely, to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to receive strangers with hospitality, to clothe the naked, to visit the sick, to comfort and ransom captives — to which add a seventh, namely, to bury the dead, commended in the book of Tobit. There are the same number of spiritual works, which Christ here implies under the corporal ones; and these excel the corporal works as much as the spirit excels the body: they are, to correct sinners, to teach the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful rightly, to pray to God for the salvation of one's neighbor, to console the sorrowful, to bear injuries patiently, to forgive offenses — concerning which see Father Peter Canisius in his Catechism. St. Gregory excelled in the works of mercy, and therefore merited now to receive an Angel, now Christ Himself in the form of a poor man and pilgrim, with hospitality and at his table, as John the Deacon relates in his Life, Book II, chapters 22 and 23.
Verse 36: Naked, and You Covered Me; Sick, and You Visited Me
This is what Christ said in chapter 9:13: "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." For mercy covers and as it were redeems the faults and miseries of the merciful man. Hear St. Augustine, Sermon 33 On Divers Subjects: "It is written: As water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving extinguishes sin," etc. "Therefore He will impute to those whom He is about to crown nothing but almsgiving, as if saying: It is hard, if I should examine you and weigh you, and most diligently scrutinize your deeds, not to find something for which I might condemn you; but go into the kingdom: for I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat. You do not, therefore, go into the kingdom because you did not sin, but because you redeemed your sins by almsgiving." See the twenty fruits of almsgiving, which I have recounted on Deuteronomy 26:12.
Verse 37: Lord, When Did We See Thee Hungry, and Fed Thee?
"Then shall the just answer Him, saying" — not so much with the mouth as with the heart, marveling at Christ's munificence toward them. The Syriac: "our Lord."
Verse 38: When Did We See Thee a Stranger, and Took Thee In?
See the remark on the preceding verse.
Verse 39: When Did We See Thee Sick, or in Prison, and Came to Thee?
By the word "when" is signified the profound humility, wonder and exaltation of the Saints, in that they hear their own slight and meager works so highly esteemed by Christ, that Christ reckons as done to Himself what they did to the poor for Christ's sake. Hence Euthymius thinks that this is a device of the parable, introduced so that from this interrogation of theirs the response of Christ may be made known; which is true, if you take this as referring to a vocal interrogation of the Saints, but not if to a mental one.
Verse 40: As Long as You Did It to One of These My Least Brethren, You Did It to Me
The word "these" properly denotes the Apostles, and men like them — Religious and Apostolic — who will sit with Christ the Judge (and in this world were held to be "the least" and most abject, and out of humility regarded themselves as the "least" of all), because having embraced voluntary poverty of spirit, they consigned themselves wholly to Christ and to the faith of Christ, to preaching, and to the cross. Nevertheless, consequently all poor Christians are also indicated, who having been regenerated in baptism by grace have been made sons of God, and therefore brothers of Christ. Here note: the unfaithful and the reprobate — although they were once brothers of Christ — Christ here does not judge worthy even of the name; yet He does not forbid almsgiving to them. St. Cyprian speaks admirably in his tract On Almsgiving: "What greater thing," he says, "could Christ proclaim to us? How could He more forcefully call forth the exercise of our justice and mercy than by saying that what is bestowed on the needy and the poor is bestowed on Himself? So that he who is not moved by the thought of his brother in the Church may at least be moved by the contemplation of Christ; and he who does not think of his fellow-servant in labor and want may at least think of the Lord, placed in that very man whom he despises."
For this reason St. Louis, king of France, on Feast days and Vigils with his own hand offered food to two hundred poor men, and washed their feet on Saturdays. Every day he had three poor old men at his table, and would often eat what they had left. And when some objected that this was unbecoming the royal majesty, he would reply: "I reverence Christ in the poor, who said: What you have done to one of the least of Mine, you have done to Me." And he would add: "The poor obtain heaven for themselves through patience, but the rich through almsgiving and the reverence by which they love and venerate the poor as members of Christ." So his Life in Surius has it, on August 25. O wise and holy king! May kings and princes imitate him.
From this saying St. Francis used to exhort his own to ask for alms freely: "Go, dearest sons," he said, "for alms, because in this last hour the Friars Minor have been lent to the world, so that the elect may fulfill through them that by which they may be commended by the supreme Judge, hearing that most sweet word: As long as you have done it to one of these My least brethren, you have done it to Me." Wherefore on the principal Feasts he himself used to beg, saying that in the holy poor that verse of the Psalms was fulfilled: "Man hath eaten the bread of angels," Psalm 77:25. For he said that that was truly angelic bread which, asked for the love of God, and given for His charity at the prompting of the blessed angels, holy poverty gathers from door to door. So St. Bonaventure and others in his Life.
Verse 41: Depart From Me, You Cursed, Into Everlasting Fire
Note the antithesis: For Christ says to the elect: Come to Me and to My glory; but to the reprobate: Depart from Me to the demon and to hell, because in life you clung to the demon, not to Me. The word "depart" therefore signifies the punishment of loss (poena damni), which is the privation of heavenly glory forever; and the word "into the fire" signifies the punishment of sense (poena sensus), namely burning: for the fire of Gehenna continually scorches not only the bodies but also the souls of the wicked, and yet never wholly burns up and consumes them. Moreover, this punishment is most grievous. For to be banished from God, from Christ, from heaven, from the Saints and from every good, with no hope of returning, is an immense torment — so much so that St. Chrysostom, Paraenesis 1 to Theodore the Lapsed, holds that the privation of the vision of God tortures the damned more than the fire of Gehenna, although others think otherwise. Whence Isaiah, chapter 26:10: "The wicked," he says, "shall not see the glory of the Lord." "Cursed" — upon whom God will curse as His enemies, that is, will do evil, in that He will hurl upon them every kind of torment and evil.
Into the fire. — Therefore in hell there is a real fire, and one far fiercer and of a different matter and condition from our own, as St. Ambrose teaches on Luke 14, St. Jerome on Isaiah 65 and 66, and Damascene, Book IV, last chapter. Moreover, this fire is fed with sulphur, which God will preserve numerically the same forever, so that it may continually burn and consume the wicked, as I have said on Isaiah 30 and 33. Of this fire Moses, threatening the Jews, says in Deuteronomy 32:22: "A fire is kindled in My wrath, and shall burn even to the lowest parts of hell." See the remarks there. Hear St. Chrysostom here, Homily 44: "They will be thrust into a river and sea of fire — an impassable sea, most bitter in its magnitude, in which fiery waves rise up like mountains; fiery, I say, not with this fire of ours, but with a fire certainly far more horrible, whose flame makes the vast abyss, so that on every side it seems as if a fire like some huge wild beast were rushing to and fro." And a little later: "For if we cannot grasp by reason the bitterest pains which this fire and this flame here inflicts, what shall we say of that one? Especially since here a man, once placed in the fire, expires in a moment of time, but there he is burned and suffers pain, and yet is in no wise consumed by being burned."
Everlasting. — Origen therefore errs who held that the pains of hell would cease, and that the wicked would be freed from them after the Platonic year — that is, after some thousands of years. For here the eternity of the pains of Gehenna is signified. So Bede, Theophylact and others everywhere. Immense will be this punishment, which will drive the damned to despair, to fury, to rage, to blaspheming God, their parents, their companions, and all creatures; because as long as there shall be a heaven, as long as there shall be a hell, as long as there shall be a world, as long as there shall be a God, the reprobate shall burn in Gehenna "and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever," Revelation 20:10. Think of this conflagration when lust, ambition or any other temptation solicits you, and say to yourself: "I will not buy repentance for so great a price" — I am unwilling to buy eternal fire with a brief pleasure.
St. Hippolytus the martyr passionately amplifies these words of Christ in his tract On the Consummation of the Age, toward the end, where he brings in Christ reproaching the wicked — who had abused His benefits — thus: "I formed you, and you clung to another. I created the earth, the sea and all things for your sake, and you abused them in contempt of Me. Depart from Me, workers of iniquity, I know you not; you have become the workmen of another master — that is, of the devil. Possess with him darkness, and the fire that is not extinguished, and the worm that does not sleep, and the gnashing of teeth." And after some intervening passages: "I formed your ears, that you might hear the Scriptures, and you made them ready for the songs of demons, for harps and absurdities. I created your eyes, that you might perceive the light of My precepts and carry them out; but you opened them to debauchery, unchastity and all the rest of uncleanness. I fashioned your mouth for glorifying and praising God, and for uttering spiritual psalms and songs, and for the continual meditation of the sacred reading; but you fitted it to revilings, perjuries and blasphemies, while sitting and detracting from your neighbors. I made your hands, that you might stretch them out in prayers and supplications; but you spread them forth to plundering, to slaughters and to mutual killings," etc.
After this sentence has been pronounced, Christ will immediately drive them away from Himself through the demons into hell, and indeed all the elements together with the heavens will rise up against them. For, as the Wise Man says, chapter 5:18: "He will arm the creature for the revenge of His enemies, etc., and the whole world shall fight with Him against the unwise. Right-aimed thunderbolts of lightnings shall go forth, etc.; the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the rivers shall run together in a terrible manner. A mighty wind shall stand up against them, and as a whirlwind shall divide them." See the remarks there.
Which was prepared for the devil (the first prince and head of the others, namely Lucifer) and for his angels (Arabic: armies) — who consented with him as he proudly rebelled against God. Hence it is clear that the fire of hell was primarily and of itself prepared by God for the demons, but afterward consequently also for men, who imitate the deed and disobedience of the demon. Moreover, this fire was prepared by God from eternity, after the foreseen sin of Lucifer and the demons: for then God decreed to establish it for their chastisement and punishment; and in time it was prepared — that is, created — by God on the first day of the world, as soon as Lucifer sinned with his followers, before the creation of man, which took place on the sixth day, as I have said on Genesis 1:4.
Moreover, by what means the corporeal fire of Gehenna burns and torments the demons, who are incorporeal spirits — as being an instrument of God, adapted and elevated by Him for this purpose — the Scholastics dispute: for they assign various modes. See the Scholastics, Part III, Question LXIV; likewise in the Second Book of Sentences, distinction 6, and in the Fourth, distinction 50; and by name Francisco Suarez, Book VIII On the Angels, chapter XII, number 2 and following, where he teaches from Basil that the fire of Gehenna does not give light but torments, not by mere imagination and false apprehension, nor by mere intentional action, but by a real and physical efficiency, by which it impresses on the demons a spiritual painful quality, of what sort we cannot here conceive; for it cannot impress sensible heat upon them, since spirits are not capable of it.
For "devil" the Syriac renders "accuser": for this is what the Greek διάβολος (diabolos) means, and such is Lucifer with his followers, who accuses even holy men, and brings charges and calumnies before God against all their deeds, however just: whence he himself is the devil, that is, the accuser, by way of antonomasia. Hence in the Acts of St. Montanus and his fellow martyrs, in Surius, February 24, the accuser and criminator of the martyrs is called the devil; because he played his part in the tribunal of the unbelieving judges, prosecuting those who worshipped Christ. Truly St. Cyprian, Book IV, Epistle 2 to Antonianus: "That certain dishonorable and malicious things," he says, "are bandied about concerning him (St. Cornelius the Pontiff), I would not have you wonder, since you know that it is always the work of the devil to lacerate the servants of God with lies, and to defame a glorious name with false opinions, so that those who shine forth by the light of their own conscience may be soiled by the rumors of others."
Verse 42: I Was Hungry, and You Gave Me Not to Eat
The word "for" gives the cause why they are condemned to the fire prepared for the devil — namely, as Euthymius says, that they "have imitated the merciless and inhuman devil." For, as Theophylact says, "demons are devoid of compassion, and are hostilely and inimically disposed toward us." These are condemned for the omitted works of mercy: first, because everyone is bound to these when he sees his neighbor placed in extreme or grave necessity, which often happens; and secondly, because they neglected to expiate their other sins by alms, according to that word of Daniel, chapter 4:24, to Nebuchadnezzar: "Redeem thy sins with alms, and thy iniquities with works of mercy to the poor." Whence St. Augustine asserts that some cannot be saved without almsgiving. See the remarks there. Now, "if so great a punishment is inflicted on one who is convicted of not having given," says St. Gregory, "how great a punishment must he suffer who is convicted of having taken away what belongs to another!" — he who has violated his neighbor's wife, who has taken away another's good name or life, who has blasphemed God and the Saints, etc.
Moreover, each word has emphasis and upbraids the reprobate for a particular ingratitude. "I was hungry" — I who am God, your Lord and Redeemer — "and you gave Me not" that which I had given to you; "to eat," not partridges and capons, which you yourselves ate, but common bread, etc. "Each of these," says St. Chrysostom, "is sufficient for their condemnation: namely, the ease of the request and the power to give, for it is bread that is asked for; the misery of the asker, because he is a poor man and beggar; the greatness of the reward to be sought, for the kingdom is promised; the terror of punishments, for Gehenna is threatened; the dignity of the receiver, for it is God who receives at the hands of the poor; the accumulation of honor, because He deigned to descend so low; the justice of giving, for it is the highest justice to concede to Him of His own. But from all these considerations they were drawn away by the lust of possessing." I have said the rest on verse 35.
Verse 43: I Was a Stranger, and You Took Me Not In
See the remarks on the preceding verse.
Verse 44: Lord, When Did We See Thee Hungry, and Did Not Minister to Thee?
The wicked will say this in thought, not in speech; for Christ will not permit them to gainsay His sentence, because their own conscience will condemn them. "Saying" arrogantly, indignantly and despairingly, as though accusing Christ the Judge of falsehood and iniquity. Whence the Author of the Opus Imperfectum: "They stand in judgment," he says, "and do not cease from sinning."
Verse 45: As Long as You Did It Not to One of These Least, Neither Did You Do It to Me
The Syriac: "little ones." See the remarks on verse 40. Learn here how highly the lowly and the poor are to be esteemed — especially the Saints, Religious, and Apostolic men — whom Christ here calls His own as if they were His own special possession.
Wherefore St. Francis sharply chastised one of his own who was detracting a certain beggar, saying that perhaps inwardly by his will he was rich and proud of mind, and ordered him to go naked and on bent knees to beg pardon of him. He added the reason: "Not so much against the poor man, my son," he said, "as against Christ you have sinned. For in the poor man, as in a mirror, Christ is set before us. As often, therefore, as the poor or sick are encountered, piously consider and humbly venerate the poverty and infirmities which Christ for our sake deigned to take upon Himself." So Wadding, in his Annals of the Friars Minor, under the year of Christ 1215, number 18. See the same, year 1216, number 2, toward the end.
Moreover, St. Eligius, Bishop of Noyon, wished always to have this dreadful day of the last judgment before his own eyes. He flourished in the year of the Lord 680 down to 665, in which year he ended his life, as Sigebert testifies in his Chronicle, in the time of Clothar, king of the Franks, and of Martin I, Roman Pontiff.
Whence he used to assert that Christ on that day would thus address the wicked: "I formed you, O man, from the slime of the earth with My own hands, and placed you undeserving in the delights of paradise; but you, despising Me and My commands, chose rather to follow the deceiver. Whence also you have been justly condemned. Yet nevertheless, having pity on you, I took flesh, I dwelt upon earth among sinners, I bore insults and stripes for your sake; to snatch you from punishments, I endured buffetings and spittings; to restore to you the delights of paradise, I drank vinegar mingled with gall. For your sake I was crowned with thorns, crucified, pierced with a lance. For your sake, dead and laid in the sepulchre, I descended to the lower regions, that I might bring you back to paradise. What more ought I to have done, and did not do?"
Whence Christ adds a terrible sentence upon them: "What then you have of your own accord chosen, now receive. You have despised the light, therefore let darkness be yours. You have loved death, depart into perdition. You have followed the devil, go with him into everlasting fire. What sorrow then, dearly beloved, do we think there will be, what mourning, what sadness, what anguish, when this sentence shall have been uttered against the wicked?" So Audoenus, Bishop of Rouen, in his Life, Book II, chapter 16. It is extant in Surius, December 1.
Verse 46: These Shall Go Into Everlasting Punishment, but the Just Into Life Everlasting
Greek ἀπελεύσονται (apeleusontai), that is, they shall depart — namely from Christ, from God, from the Saints, from heaven — into hell. Syriac: "torment."
"Punishment" — of fire and burning. Whence St. Augustine, Tractate 21 on John, reads "into the burning" — as if to say: They shall be scorched in Gehenna, but not burned up, nor consumed so as to be annihilated, which the damned will desire. They will go therefore into the fire of Gehenna, as into their own house and perennial habitation, that they may burn there continually. So conversely Christ said to the faithful servant, verse 21: "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
Everlasting. — Because they have most grievously offended the eternal God. For mortal sin, since it is an injury to the infinite God, has in itself an infinite malice: it therefore merits an infinite punishment. But because an infinite punishment cannot be given intensively, nor be endured by man, for this reason an extensively infinite punishment will be given to the reprobate — that is, one that will extend through all ages of ages. Lactantius gives the mode in Book VII, chapter 21: "The same divine fire," he says, "by one and the same force and power shall burn the wicked and burn them again, and as much as it consumes from their bodies, so much shall it restore, and shall supply itself with everlasting fuel — which the Poets transferred to the vulture of Tityus — so that without any diminution of the revived bodies it shall only scorch, and afflict with the sensation of pain."
This is the opinion of Lactantius. More easily and more truly, others hold that the bodies of the damned, God preserving them, remain incorruptible in the fire, so that no parts are consumed which would have to be restored; but rather all of them together, perpetually burning in the fire, persevere forever — just as asbestos-stone, and cloth woven from it, burns in the fire but loses none of its substance. The bitterness of this punishment is graphically depicted by the Author of the book On the Spirit and the Soul, among the works of St. Augustine, volume III, chapter 56: "Wherefore," he says, "to the wretched, death is without death, an end without end, failure without failing: for death shall always live, and the end shall always be beginning, and the failure shall not know how to fail; death shall slay, and not extinguish; pain shall torment, and shall not drive away fear; flame shall burn, and shall not disperse the darkness. For there shall be in the fire darkness, in the darkness fear, in the burning pain. So the reprobate, delivered to the fires of hell, shall feel pain in their torments; and in the anguish of pain shall be struck with terror, and shall always endure, and always fear, because without end they shall live forever tormented, without hope of pardon and mercy — which is misery upon misery. For if after so many thousands of years as all who ever were and shall be have had hairs, they could hope that their pains would end, they would bear them much more lightly; but because they have no hope, nor shall have any, they shall fail through despair and yet shall not suffice for the torments."
Abulensis discusses these matters at length here, and he adds, in Questions 778 and 779 (for he has heaped up precisely that many questions on this chapter), that souls which after death are to go to heaven, or to Purgatory, or to the Limbo of the Fathers, are conducted thither by angels; whereas those which are to go to hell or to the Limbo of Children are conducted thither by demons.
Hear St. Cyprian, in his sermon On the Ascension of the Lord, near the end: "Incorruptible flames," he says, "will lick the naked body: the rich man clad in purple shall burn, etc. In their own fat his lusts shall fry and seethe; and among frying-pans and flames their wretched bodies shall be tossed about." And in his book On the Praises of Martyrdom, chapter 5: "Paradise," he says, "flowers with God's witnesses; while the deniers, encompassed by Gehenna, are scorched by eternal fire." And more fully, in chapter 12, the same author sets forth: "That raging place, whose name is Gehenna, with the loud lamentation and groaning of those who weep, and with flames belching forth through a horrible night of dense darkness, breathes out forever the fierce burnings of a smoking furnace: a packed ball of fires is shut in, and is loosed forth in various outlets of punishment. Then it rolls upon itself many sorts of raging, and whatever burning has been sent forth the same flame torments anew."
Prosper, Book II On the Contemplative Life, chapter 12, where he treats of the damned: "They will have," he says, "no faculty of seeing, but only of suffering; and their unceasing groaning, eternal torture, and supreme pain torment the soul without making an end of it; they punish the damned bodies without consuming them. Therefore the inextinguishable fire does not extinguish those who are appointed to it, in order that, the life of feeling remaining, the punishment may also remain."
From what has been said, one may meditate and picture how bitter, mournful and dreadful that eternal separation of the damned from the saved will be: when these shall ascend into heaven to perennial happiness, while those shall descend into Gehenna to perennial burning, never again to look upon the Saints, though they be their friends, their brethren, or their parents, for all eternity: for "a great chaos is fixed" between the two, as Abraham said to the rich glutton burning in hell (Luke 16:26). You then who are wise, ascend daily into heaven and descend into the lower regions, that this may be a goad to you for fleeing from vices and pursuing virtues. Truly St. Chrysostom, in Homily 2 on the second Epistle to the Thessalonians, says: "None of those who keep Gehenna before their eyes will fall into Gehenna; no one of those who despise Gehenna will escape its judgment." And since the greater part of men think little of Gehenna and as it were despise it, hence they are damned. For as St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusians, sang — nay, lamented:
Sic vivunt homines tanquam mors nulla sequatur,
Et velut infernus fabula vana foret. ("Thus men live as though no death were to follow, and as if hell were but an idle tale.")
St. Ephrem frequently sets the horror of the judgment and of Gehenna before his readers and depicts it vividly, especially in his tracts On Compunction, On Penance, On the Judgment, etc. Let the doctor and the preacher do the same. Hence the same St. Ephrem, in the tract On Patience, says: "Let us be like anvils: and if we be struck, yet let us not yield," saying with St. Drithelm in the Venerable Bede's History of the English: "I have seen harsher things, I have beheld worse things in Gehenna." Thus shall we, by the fear of the judgment and of Gehenna, bravely bear and overcome every temptation, persecution, infirmity, tribulation, and confusion. Graphically too does Joel describe the horror of the day of judgment, in 2:31, and Zephaniah, 1:15, where I have said more on the subject.
Into life everlasting. — Under the name of eternal life, understand every health, every strength, every honor, every glory, every fullness, every delight, every joy, the abundance of all good things. For these are what those taste who live in the true life; whereas those who live in hunger, thirst, sickness, dishonor, and pain do not so much live as die continually.