Cornelius a Lapide

Luke X

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

First, Christ, besides the twelve Apostles, chooses seventy-two disciples, to whom He gives commands and prescribes the manner of evangelizing; and when they return and recount the wonders they have performed, at verse 17, Christ rejoices in spirit. Secondly, at verse 25, to a Lawyer asking the way to eternal life, He gives the law of loving God and neighbor, and through the parable of the Samaritan teaches who is one's neighbor. Thirdly, at verse 38, He prefers Mary's lot to Martha's.

Vulgate Text: Luke 10:1-42

1. After these things the Lord appointed also other seventy-two; and He sent them two and two before His face into every city and place whither He Himself was to come. 2. And He said to them: The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth laborers into His harvest. 3. Go: behold I send you as lambs among wolves. 4. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes; and salute no man by the way. 5. Into whatsoever house you enter, first say: Peace be to this house. 6. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. 7. And in the same house, remain, eating and drinking such things as they have: for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Do not pass from house to house. 8. And into what city soever you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you; 9. and heal the sick that are therein, and say to them: The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. 10. But into whatsoever city you enter, and they receive you not, going forth into the streets thereof, say: 11. Even the very dust of your city that cleaves to us, we wipe off against you; yet know this, that the kingdom of God is at hand. 12. I say to you, it shall be more tolerable at that day for Sodom, than for that city. 13. Woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Bethsaida: for if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the mighty works that have been wrought in you, they would have done penance long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14. But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you. 15. And thou, Capharnaum, which art exalted unto heaven, thou shalt be thrust down to hell. 16. He that hears you, hears Me; and he that despises you, despises Me. And he that despises Me, despises Him that sent Me. 17. And the seventy-two returned with joy, saying: Lord, the devils also are subject to us in Thy name. 18. And He said to them: I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven. 19. Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall hurt you. 20. But yet rejoice not in this, that spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven. 21. In that same hour, He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said: I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in Thy sight. 22. All things are delivered to Me by My Father. And no one knows who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and to whom the Son will reveal Him. 23. And turning to His disciples, He said: Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see. 24. For I say to you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them; and to hear the things that you hear, and have not heard them. 25. And behold a certain Lawyer stood up, tempting Him, and saying: Master, what must I do to possess eternal life? 26. But He said to him: What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27. He answering, said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. 28. And He said to him: Thou hast answered rightly: this do, and thou shalt live. 29. But he, willing to justify himself, said to Jesus: And who is my neighbor? 30. And Jesus taking it up, said: A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, who also stripped him; and having wounded him went away, leaving him half dead. 31. And it chanced that a certain priest went down the same way, and seeing him, passed by. 32. In like manner also a Levite, when he was near the place and saw him, passed by. 33. But a certain Samaritan, being on his journey, came near him; and seeing him, was moved with compassion. 34. And going up to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine; and setting him upon his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35. And the next day he took out two denarii, and gave to the innkeeper, and said: Take care of him; and whatsoever thou shalt spend over and above, I, at my return, will repay thee. 36. Which of these three, in thy opinion, was neighbor to him that fell among the robbers? 37. But he said: He that showed mercy to him. And Jesus said to him: Go, and do thou in like manner. 38. Now it came to pass as they went, that He entered into a certain town: and a certain woman named Martha, received Him into her house: 39. and she had a sister called Mary, who sitting also at the Lord's feet, heard His word. 40. But Martha was busy about much serving; who stood and said: Lord, hast Thou no care that my sister has left me alone to serve? speak to her therefore, that she help me. 41. And the Lord answering, said to her: Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and art troubled about many things: 42. but one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Verse 1: After These Things the Lord Appointed Also Other Seventy-Two

AFTER THESE THINGS THE LORD APPOINTED ALSO OTHER SEVENTY-TWO. — Thus it is to be read with the Roman editions; for there were precisely so many: although others read and reckon them as 70, as the Greek manuscripts here have it, and St. Ambrose and St. Jerome in his book On the Forty Stations, and Dorotheus in his Synopsis of the Holy Fathers enumerates these 70 by name — but, as it seems, on Greek credibility: for that his names are uncertain is clear from the fact that others give them other names. Volaterranus, book XIX of the Urban Commentaries, enumerates by name more than 72, but his names are mostly collected from the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul; indeed he reckons among them certain who were converted after the ascension of Christ, such as the eunuch of Queen Candace, who was converted by Philip, Acts VIII, and Philemon, who was converted by Paul. Wicelius, in his Hagiology, enumerates 70 from a book titled The Cultivation of the Lord's Vineyard: where among others he names the same Philemon and Luke, who clearly was not in the company of Christ from the beginning of his Gospel. Finally Eusebius, book I of his History, ch. xiv, testifies that he has nowhere found the names of the 72 disciples in writing; some names, however, can be gathered from the Acts of the Apostles, such as Matthias and Barsabas, Acts I; Stephen and the other six deacons, Acts VI; Ananias and Barnabas, Acts IX; Mnason, Acts XXI, 16.

Note first: As Moses at the beginning of his leadership chose twelve as princes and fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel; then, as the people and the leadership grew, he chose six from each tribe, that is 72 in all, as senators of the people: so too Christ willed to give to each tribe of Israel, as it were, its own Apostle, and six presbyters: for such were these 72 disciples, whose office was to preach that the kingdom of God and of Christ was near, and to confirm it by miracles, visiting all the towns of Judea — for which the twelve Apostles were not sufficient. Note second: That this number was mystically foreshadowed in the 72 Interpreters, who translated Sacred Scripture from Hebrew into Greek at the request of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, two hundred years before Christ; likewise in the 72 councilors of Moses, Num. XI, 24, and the supreme Council of the Sanhedrin, which consisted of 72 heads; and in the 72 palm trees planted beside the 12 springs in Elim, Exodus XV, 27. Again, the 72 disciples correspond to the 72 nations of the whole world, Bede says, as though Christ had assigned to each nation its own disciple as a curator: for the 72 nations and languages, into which men were divided at the dispersion of Babel, are counted by St. Augustine, St. Jerome, Prosper and others, as I said on Genesis ch. XI, verse 32.

Note third: Hence the distinction of priests in rank and office is clear. For these 72 disciples were not equal to the Apostles; indeed, from among these 72 was Matthias, as Clement of Alexandria testifies in Eusebius, book I of the History, ch. xiv, and thence he was chosen to the Apostolate, Acts I. Hence bishops succeeded the 12 Apostles, while priests succeeded the 72 disciples, as Anacletus the Pontiff teaches in epistle 2; St. Jerome in his letter to Marcella; Bede on Luke xv; and indeed St. Peter in Clement, epistle 1 to James, the brother of the Lord. However, in the beginning of the Church, says Bede, both were called Presbyters and Bishops alike, by the one the maturity of wisdom, by the other pastoral diligence, is signified.

Symbolically, St. Augustine in the Questions on the Gospels: In twenty-four hours, he says, the whole world is traversed and illuminated by the revolving sun: so is the world illuminated by Christ, who is the Sun of Justice, through the Gospel of the Holy Trinity, the preaching of which was committed by Him to the 72 disciples; for three times 24 make 72.

AND HE SENT THEM TWO BY TWO BEFORE HIS FACE (before Himself) INTO EVERY CITY AND PLACE, WHITHER HE HIMSELF WAS TO COME, — in Judea, as He had earlier done in Galilee through the 12 Apostles: for because Jesus as Messiah wished to preach in every town of Judea, that He might be made known to all the Jews and invite them to His faith and salvation — and He could not do this alone by Himself, especially because only six months of life remained to Him, so that He could not linger long in any individual town — He therefore chose 72 disciples, who should go before Him by evangelizing His coming and healing the sick; and should prepare the minds of men to receive Him as Messiah, so that from Him Himself, soon following, they might receive full faith, penance, remission of sins, and the grace of God. He kept the Twelve Apostles with Himself, partly that they might be witnesses of His life; partly that, when many flocked to Christ, they might assist Him in teaching, healing, and helping them; partly that from Christ they might learn the manner of preaching, of traveling around the whole world, and of converting it to Christ.

TWO BY TWO. — Why? I answer, first, that one might be a help to the other, a solace, a spur, an encouragement, say Origen, Theophylact, and St. Gregory; and so that if one were tired, sick or hindered, the other might take his place, according to that passage of Ecclesiastes IV: "Two are better than one; for they have the benefit of their companionship. If one falls, the other will lift him up: woe to him that is alone." Whence St. Pachomius, in the Rule received from an angel, ch. XXX and XXXIV, thus enjoins: "With the permission of the Superior, he shall take a companion in his going forth, whose faithfulness has been proved, and so he shall be sent to visit a brother or a kinsman." And afterwards: "Let no one be sent out alone on any business, unless another be joined to him." St. Augustine: "When you go forth, walk together; when you have come where you are going, stand together." So St. Augustine in the Rule, ch. X and XX. The same is enjoined by St. Benedict, St. Francis, St. Dominic, St. Bernard and the other founders of Orders. Hear Smaragdus in ch. LXVII of the Rule of St. Benedict: "But that a brother should not be directed alone on the way, the sentence of the Fathers teaches us, which says: Let brothers go forth in pairs or in threes to seek necessities, and such as are trusted, not those who pursue verbosity or gluttony." Hear also St. Gregory, book X, epistle 22 On Constantine the Monk: "I have learned that he presumed to proceed alone to a monastery situated in the province of Picenum without any of his brothers: from which action of his we understand that he who walks without a witness does not live rightly." The Carmelites of St. Elijah, part 1 of the Constitutions, ch. XIII, § 11, thus enjoin: "Let no one be permitted to travel without a companion, unless from a very just cause; for the Lord sent the Apostles in pairs. Therefore let them go forth in pairs, not individually."

Secondly, that each might have the other as a perpetual witness and guardian of his life. Experience shows that Religious and evangelical preachers who walk in pairs have never, or very rarely, fallen into any danger against chastity: whereas those who walk alone have not infrequently succumbed to the temptation of luxury, or sustained its slander. Hence St. Thomas used to say: "A monk walking alone is a solitary demon." St. Augustine, in the Rule, ch. XII, thus lays down: "When therefore you are together in church, and wherever women are, guard one another's chastity in turn. For God, who dwells in you, will also in this way guard you through yourselves." Blessed Theodotus Studita in his testament, § 45, thus decrees: "Do not converse alone with a nun or a secular woman, unless necessity compels it, and then only with two persons standing by on either side." St. Jerome prescribes thus to Nepotian, who was not a monk but a cleric, in epistle 2: "If by reason of the clerical office a widow or virgin is visited, never enter her house alone." And further on: "Do not sit alone with a woman alone, in secret and without witness or observer." St. Basil, in the Rule which Rufinus translated, ch. LXXXIII, and which is found in Canon Law, ch. In omnibus, dist. 81: "But certainly, he says, no principle of religion permits a man alone to approach a woman alone." Again St. Jerome, Against Vigilantius: "What, he says, is a monk doing in the cells of women? What mean these private and solitary conversations, and eyes fleeing from witnesses?" Concerning St. Augustine, Possidonius writes thus in his Life, ch. XXVI: "And if perchance He was asked by certain women to be seen or greeted, He never went in to them without clerical witnesses, nor ever spoke alone with them alone, not even if some matter of secrecy was involved."

In our age St. Charles Borromeo followed St. Augustine in this, for he never spoke with a woman, even a kinswoman, unless some of the more senior members of the household were present, as his Life has it, book VII, ch. VI. Seneca too, epistle 23: "Solitude, he says, persuades us to all evils." He adds the remedy, saying: "It is undoubtedly useful to set a guardian over oneself, and to have someone whom you regard, whom you consider to share in your thoughts." He adds that this saying comes from Epicurus: "Do everything as though someone were watching," — by which saying he gave us a guardian and tutor. The same, epistle 11: "A great part of sins, he says, is removed, if a witness stands by those about to sin." Indeed the Emperor Justinian, in the Novella On Monks, wishes monks to go accompanied, "and to be mutual witnesses to each other's honesty." Pope Lucius, epistle 1 to the Bishops of the Church, thus enjoins: "Because of such men (slanderers) we exhort you, as also in this holy Church we have established, that you always have priests and deacons as witnesses with you; and although one's own conscience may suffice, yet because of the malevolent, according to the Apostle, you must also have a good testimony from those who are outside: since we also have it established in this holy See that two Priests, or three Deacons, should not leave the Bishop in any place, for the sake of ecclesiastical testimony."

Finally, hear Thomas of Cantimpre, a man of great wisdom, experience, and religious devotion, Book II of The Bees, chapter 11, § 1: "How true this saying is: Woe to the one who is alone, I know well, who for thirty years and more held the office of Bishop in various provinces and dioceses, who in this matter, in which Religious either travel alone on the roads, or remain alone in courts, frequently heard of dreadful evils, dreadful scandals, and dreadful dangers, which they would never have endured had they had a companion with them, nor would they have committed them."

Third, so that they might gain greater authority and credibility for their preaching, according to the saying: "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word stand," Deut. 17. Wherefore Christ and the Apostles constantly confirmed this by their own example: for Christ sends two of His disciples to loose the donkey and to prepare the Passover, Peter and John. After the Resurrection, Cleophas goes with a companion to Emmaus; likewise Peter and John are often found together: they run together to the tomb, they go up to the temple at the ninth hour of prayer, they are sent by the Apostles to Samaria. The Holy Spirit commands that Saul and Barnabas be set apart for the work to which He had called them. Likewise Judas and Silas are sent to Antioch, and Paul with Silas travels through Syria. Two witnesses will come at the time of the Antichrist, as Blessed John foretold, whom the common opinion of the Doctors and the tradition of the Church understand to be Enoch and Elijah.

Tropologically: St. Gregory, homily 17 on the Gospel: "The Lord, he says, sends His disciples to preach in pairs, because there are two precepts of charity, namely love of God and of neighbor, and charity cannot be had between fewer than two." And shortly after: "So that He may tacitly suggest to us that whoever does not have charity toward another ought by no means to undertake the office of preaching."

Symbolically, Origen says: It is an ancient practice for two to serve the word of God. He led Israel out of Egypt by the hand of Moses and Aaron; Joshua and Caleb are in harmony; a brother aided by a brother is like a fortified city. And the Gloss says: Thus pairs of animals were brought by Noah into the ark, previously unclean in carnal generation, but cleansed by the sacrament of the Church, through spiritual grace in the preaching of the disciples.

INTO EVERY PLACE WHERE HE HIMSELF WAS ABOUT TO COME. — By which, as St. Gregory says, homily 17, it is mystically signified "that the Lord follows His preachers: because preaching goes before, and then the Lord comes to the dwelling of our mind, when the words of preaching go before, and through these truth is received in the mind. Hence to these same preachers Isaiah says: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. Hence the Psalmist says to them: Make a way for Him who ascends above the sunset." And shortly after: "Let us therefore make a way for Him who ascends above the sunset, when we preach His glory to your minds, so that He Himself, coming afterward, may illuminate them by the presence of His love."

Verse 2: The Harvest Indeed Is Great, but the Laborers Are Few

2. THE HARVEST INDEED IS GREAT, BUT THE LABORERS ARE FEW. — We heard this at Matt. chapter 9, verse 37, where I explained it.

Verse 3: Behold I Send You as Lambs Among Wolves

3. GO: BEHOLD I SEND YOU AS LAMBS AMONG WOLVES. — So that as unarmed, innocent, gentle, simple lambs, by your purity and holiness you may turn wolves into lambs, that is, so that you may make rapacious and greedy men temperate, harmless, and meek, and this not by your own power, but by the efficacy of My grace. Therefore there is no reason for you to fear, for with Me protecting you they will not be able to harm you. For, as St. Ambrose says, "the care of the good Shepherd ensures that wolves dare not attack the lambs."

Verse 4: Carry Neither Purse Nor Scrip, and Salute No Man by the Way

4. DO NOT CARRY A PURSE (Greek balantion, that is, a money bag or pouch, for storing money, as if to say: Do not carry money, as Matthew has it, chapter 9), NOR A KNAPSACK, — for carrying bread and food in it, because this belongs not to the sheep but to the shepherd. "By this prohibition, says Euthymius, He commands them to place their hope for bodily necessities in Him who sends them forth." For, as St. Gregory says in the Catena, "so great should a preacher's trust in God be, that although he does not provide for the expenses of the present life, he should know most certainly that they will not be lacking to him; lest while his mind is occupied with temporal things, he provide less for eternal ones." I explained the rest at Matt. 10. For Christ here gives the same precepts to the 72 disciples that He gave there to the 12 Apostles; for He sent both groups to preach the Gospel under the same rule.

AND GREET NO ONE ON THE WAY. — This is a hyperbole, as if to say: Do not turn aside for private greetings, and familiar and lengthy conversations; but cut off all vain chatting and distraction and delay, so that with your whole mind collected, you may be diligent and swift in the work for which I send you, and devote yourselves entirely to the preaching of the Gospel. So St. Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory, and others. For otherwise, as Euthymius says, Christ does not want His disciples to be uncivil and rustic, so as not even to return a greeting in word to someone who greets them. Therefore He forbids a lengthy greeting, "one that impedes the ministry, which through delay often brings offense," says St. Ambrose. He alludes to the fact that Elisha, sending Gehazi to raise the dead boy, commanded him saying: "If you meet a man, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer him;" which He says to him for this purpose, says Ambrose, "lest by the conversation of any person he met, he might be turned back from his mission."

Verse 7: For the Laborer Is Worthy of His Hire

7. FOR THE LABORER IS WORTHY OF HIS WAGES. — Understand wages not as equal payment of price, but as food and sustenance. Because the preaching of the heavenly kingdom surpasses and transcends all earthly price. For, as St. Augustine says, on Psalm 100: "What do they receive? They give spiritual things, they receive carnal things; they give gold, they receive hay." Hence it is clear that the Apostles may live from the Gospel, and that hearers are bound by natural and divine law to support them. Christ here gives the reason why He forbade the disciples a knapsack and purse, namely because God will provide for them through their hearers with food and provisions. "He who prohibited carrying a knapsack and purse, says Gregory, homily 17, grants sustenance and food from preaching. For it is fitting that we receive earthly stipends from those to whom we offer the rewards of the heavenly homeland." And afterward: "Whence he sufficiently shows, says St. Augustine, Book II On the Harmony of the Gospels, chapter 30, why He did not want them to possess and carry these things, not because they are unnecessary for the sustenance of this life; but because He was sending them in such a way as to demonstrate that these things were owed to them by those very people to whom they would announce the Gospel as believers."

Verse 16: He That Hears You, Hears Me

16. HE WHO HEARS YOU, HEARS ME, AND HE WHO REJECTS YOU, REJECTS ME. — For you are My Apostles and ambassadors; and whoever hears or rejects an ambassador, hears or rejects the king or prince who commissioned and sent him. For an ambassador speaks in the person of the king who sends him, and represents him, just as a viceroy represents the king. Therefore subjects should see Christ in their Superiors, and so receive their words and commands as if they came from the very mouth of Christ. Hear St. Bernard, treatise On Precept and Dispensation: "Whether God, or a man who is God's vicar, delivers any command whatever, it must certainly be obeyed with equal care, and deference must be shown with equal reverence: provided, however, that the man does not command things contrary to God." And immediately citing the Rule of his Order containing the same doctrine: "Whatever, he says, a man commands in God's stead, which is not certainly displeasing to God, must be received in every way just as if God were commanding it." And shortly after: "Him, therefore, whom we regard as God, we ought to hear as God in those things which are clearly not against God."

I explained the rest at Matt. 10 and 11.

Verse 17: The Seventy-Two Returned with Joy

17. AND THE SEVENTY-TWO RETURNED WITH JOY (great joy, as the Syriac adds) SAYING: LORD, EVEN THE DEMONS ARE SUBJECT TO US IN YOUR NAME. — As if they were saying: Not only diseases, as You promised in verse 9, but we also cast out demons by the power and invocation of Your name, saying: In the name of Jesus Christ, go out, O demon, from this man. "See, says Theophylactus, that they do not boast, for they say: In Your name, by Your grace, not by our power;" yet it seems that some vain praise and ostentation crept into them, in that Christ accomplished such things through them, not through others; but this fault was venial, a mere dust of vanity, which Christ soon wiped away.

Verse 18: I Saw Satan Like Lightning Falling from Heaven

18. AND HE SAID TO THEM: I SAW SATAN FALLING LIKE LIGHTNING FROM HEAVEN. — "Like lightning," that is, first, just as lightning is expelled with great force, collision, and thunder through cold clouds opposing each other: so the demons were first suddenly and unexpectedly cast down from heaven; for the demons did not expect this fall. Second, violently, because they were cast down from heaven by the greatest force against their will by St. Michael and his followers, Apoc. 12:1 ff. Third, swiftly, because most rapidly and as if in a moment. Fourth, openly, because all the angels were watching. Hence Euthymius: "He used, he says, the example of lightning, showing the vehemence and swiftness of that fall."

Many think that Christ here speaks literally of the fall of Satan, that is of Lucifer, by which he was deprived and stripped of heaven, that is of the air, or of his glory and power which he held in the world before Christ, through Christ; as if to say: You are not telling Me anything new, for when I recently sent you, O disciples, to preach the Gospel, I saw the demon deprived by Me of his power falling as if from heaven, and about to fall even more through you, as though Christ asserts this to magnify the power He gave to His disciples, as if to say: See what a great and fearsome enemy, namely Lucifer with all his demons, is subject to you through Me. So from Nazianzen, Oration 4 On Theology; St. Basil, homily That God Is Not the Author of Evils, and Cyril, Theophylactus, Euthymius, Titus, Maldonatus, Toletus, Jansenius, Francis Lucas, and others. Hear Theophylactus: "Some understand it thus: From heaven, that is, from his glory and from the honor which he had. For before Christ he was worshipped as God, but now he has fallen from heaven, that is from his glory, so that he is no longer worshipped as God, nor regarded as if he dwelt in heaven." Euthymius: "Before the incarnation of the Savior, he says, he was exalted on high, and played the tyrant, and was powerful; but when God dwelt on earth in the flesh, he fell, not from heaven (for he had already fallen from there long ago, nor did he ascend there again), but from the said eminence, tyranny, and power." So also Vatablus. When I sent you, he says, to preach, I saw that the forces of Satan were about to collapse. Satan therefore fell at that time from supreme power into extreme weakness, says St. Cyril; for before Christ's coming he was worshipped by all, after Him he is trampled by the faithful. Hence there follows: "Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents." But this fall of Satan from heaven is mystical and symbolic rather than literal.

Therefore, literally, Christ here speaks of the first fall of Lucifer, when, with his followers, because of the pride by which he rebelled against God, he was cast down from heaven into the abyss of hell, and this by Christ, because Lucifer proudly coveted the dignity, namely the divinity of Christ and equality with God; indeed, as some hold, he aspired to the hypostatic union of Christ, saying it would be more fitting that Christ should assume and unite to the Word his own nature, namely the angelic and the noblest among the angels, rather than the human, as fleshly and wretched. Therefore, envying the deity of Jesus, he was cast down and overthrown by Him as by an antagonist: whence for "falling," the Greek is πεσόντα, that is "fallen," in the past tense; the Arabic, "who fell." The sense therefore is, as if He said: Do not marvel, O disciples, that you cast out demons in My name: for I long ago cast Lucifer, who proudly coveted My deity, with his followers from heaven into Gehenna: at the same time, take care that you yourselves, being puffed up with pride because I have made demons subject to you, do not fall into the abyss, as Lucifer fell. So St. Jerome, Book II against Jovinian; St. Ambrose, book On the Flight from the World, ch. VII; St. Cyprian, tract On the Fasting of Christ; St. Gregory, Book XXIII of the Morals, ch. VII; St. Chrysostom, hom. 10 On Penitence; Bede, Theophylact, Euthymius, Bernard, and others.

Christ alludes to that passage of Isaiah xiv, 12: "How hast thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning?" — that while you were Lucifer (light-bearer), you have become Hesperus and the night-bringer. See what is said there.

Lucifer is aptly compared to lightning. First, because by the flash of lightning is vividly represented the most excellent and, so to speak, fiery nature, majesty, and primacy of Lucifer. Second, his supreme power to harm: for such is the nature of lightning, that it pierces, prostrates, shatters, and reduces to ashes even the hardest and strongest things: wherefore it terrifies and harms supremely. Lucifer does the same. Third, its brevity, because it passes away like lightning; for it only harms in this age and in this life, which with respect to eternity is as an instant and a moment. Hence tropologically, lightning is a symbol of pride and vain worldly glory; for this flashes like a lightning flame and immediately vanishes, according to the saying: "Thus passes the glory of the world." Lightning, as Nonius Marcellus says, is fire that flashes or the flashing itself that flies past; the thunderbolt (fulmen) is the very weapon that is hurled; "fulguritum" is that which has been struck and smitten by the bolt. Again, this is cast down from heaven and hurled to the earth, indeed to Tartarus: because everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled and tormented in the perpetual fire of Gehenna. Moreover, just as lightning, most splendid in the sky, ends on the earth as a stone which it hurls like a weapon, so pride converts Lucifer, a most radiant angel, into a most foul demon: in like manner, pride makes demons out of angelic men, and humility makes angels out of human demons, according to Isaiah xiv, 11: "Thy pride is brought down to hell, thy carcass is fallen: under thee shall the moth be strewed, and thy covering shall be worms." Fourth, its appearance, show, and ostentation, because even when cast down he still transforms himself into an angel of light, says Bede.

The sense will be complete if you join the first meaning with the second, as if to say: I, Christ, as God, saw Satan falling before Me from heaven into the abyss, because I hurled him down as a rival: in like manner I, Christ now incarnate, as man, saw Satan cast down before Me from the temples, in which he was worshipped by the Gentiles as a god in heaven, because through Me and through you, O disciples, I teach and shall teach all nations to crush the idols in which he was worshipped, and to adore the true God. Wherefore, just as of old I cast Satan down from heaven, so now I have cast him down from the temple, as lightning falls headlong: for thus the latter meaning is laid under the former as the literal foundation of the allegory, and it is fittingly built upon and superimposed.

Morally, St. Bernard in his sermon On wood, hay, and straw: "There is never, brethren, security, neither in heaven, nor in paradise, much less in the world. For in heaven the angel fell in the very presence of the Divinity; Adam in paradise from the place of delight; Judas in the world from the school of the Saviour. I have said this so that no one may flatter himself about any place because it is said: 'This place is holy.' For it is not the place that sanctifies men, but men that sanctify the place."

Mystically, St. Jerome on those words of Psalm cxxxIII: Who made heaven and earth: "Many, he says, from earth become heaven, and many from heaven become earth. Unhappy Judas was heaven and became earth; Paul the Apostle, at the time when he persecuted the Church, was earth; he confessed, and he became heaven. Neither should he who is heaven feel secure, nor should he who is earth despair of life."

Verse 19: Behold, I Have Given You Power to Tread Upon Serpents

19. Behold, I HAVE GIVEN (Greek δίδωμι, in the present, that is "I give") YOU POWER (Greek ἐξουσίαν, that is authority, command, right, and dominion) TO TREAD UPON SERPENTS AND SCORPIONS, AND OVER ALL THE POWER OF THE ENEMY; AND NOTHING SHALL HURT YOU. — Take "serpents and scorpions" here literally as they sound; for Adam would have trodden on these, indeed would have ruled over them, as their king and lord in paradise. Therefore Christ here makes His disciples superior not only to the demons but to all beasts, according to Mark xvi, 17: "They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." There is an example in St. Paul, who when seized by a viper shook it off unharmed, Acts xxviii, 3.

AND OVER ALL THE POWER (Greek δύναμιν, that is strength, force, might, army) OF THE ENEMY — of whatever kind, whether of a wild animal, such as wolf, lion, tiger; or of poison and poisonous things; or even of the devil, who presides over all wild beasts and harmful things and abuses them in order to injure and destroy man. Therefore "every power of the enemy" is every power that is hostile to man. Mystically, however, and more fittingly, by all these things He signifies the demons; for this whole discourse is about them: whence St. Athanasius (on Psalm xxviii) and Theophylact, Euthymius, Bede, Titus, Toletus, Francis Lucas here think that demons are here literally signified by serpents and scorpions, and that they are called "the power of the enemy," that is Lucifer's army. Wherefore Euthymius takes "serpents and scorpions" as "intelligible ones," that is, as Bede says, "every kind of unclean spirits." And he adds: "I judge that the difference between the serpents, which harm with the tooth, and the scorpions, which harm with the tail, is that the serpents signify those who rage openly, while scorpions signify those who secretly lie in ambush." In like manner, in Genesis ch. III, the serpent who deceived Eve is understood both as a true serpent and as the devil speaking through the serpent, as I said there.

Verse 20: Rejoice That Your Names Are Written in Heaven

20. NEVERTHELESS, IN THIS DO NOT REJOICE, THAT spirits (demons) ARE SUBJECT TO YOU: BUT REJOICE THAT YOUR NAMES ARE WRITTEN IN HEAVEN. — He does not forbid all joy, as if they should in no way rejoice that the demons are subject to them (for this is lawful and honorable, and therefore pleasing and glorious to God), but that they should not rejoice as much in their dominion over demons as they ought to rejoice in their predestination, grace, and glory, both because dominion over demons is a "grace freely given" (gratia gratis data) to the Church, and therefore is sometimes given even to the reprobate, as it was given to Judas, Matt. vii, 22; whereas predestination includes sanctifying grace and leads the predestined to beatitude; and also because, as Euthymius says, that joy is wont to beget swelling and pride, but this begets thanksgiving and solicitude for every good work: therefore we should rejoice in the latter far more than in the former. Thirdly, to cast out demons and to work miracles, as Bede says, is not of your merit but of divine power; but no one's name is written in heaven except his who merits or will merit it. Fourthly, the power of casting out demons is given to you by God not for your own benefit but for others'; but to be written in heaven is most useful to you, because it will make you blessed forever. So Theophylact.

ARE WRITTEN IN HEAVEN. — Which is elsewhere said, "are written in the book of life." "Book of life" signifies God's distinct foreknowledge, memory, and predestination, in which, as in God's book, are written all and each of those destined and chosen for eternal life. They "are written," as Titus says, not by pen and ink, but by the memory of the Most High God, and by the grace and glory of the same God. And Euthymius: "You are enrolled as citizens in the eternal city," he says, "not with ink, but in memory; and not as men write, but as God writes; and this not to remedy forgetfulness," says Bede, "but for the firmness and certitude of predestination."

Furthermore, just as this foreknowledge and predestination of God is twofold, so also the book of life is twofold: the first, perfect and complete, in which all those chosen for glory have been inscribed absolutely and determinately from eternity by God, those who will actually attain eternal life: this is infallible and immutable. The latter, in which all the just and the holy are described, not absolutely but conditionally and according to present justice, namely if they persevere therein until death: this is not certain and infallible; for many of these fall away from justice, die badly, are reprobated and damned. Thus the Apostle, Philippians IV, salutes Clement and his faithful, "whose names are in the book of life." For he means nothing else than what he said of all the Ephesian faithful, Ephes. I, namely that they have been chosen and predestined by God through Christ; absolutely by faith and grace, but conditionally to glory, if namely they persevere in Christ's faith and grace. And Ephes. II: "You," he says, "are citizens with the saints, and of the household of God," namely through grace, and such future ones through glory, if you depart in grace: so also the Church prays in the secret Collect of the Mass, in the time of Lent, "that the book of blessed predestination may retain the names of all the faithful inscribed in it." These therefore can fall away from their predestination, and so are not absolutely but conditionally predestined, namely if they persevere in faith and sanctity to the end of life. Thus also it seems to be taken in this passage, as Jansenius, Francis Lucas, and others say, although Maldonatus doubts it and Toletus denies it. For that Christ did not will here to make all seventy disciples certain of their absolute and effective election to glory is clear from verse 18, where He throws threats and the fear of damnation upon them, saying: "I saw Satan falling as lightning from heaven." As if to say: Therefore take heed lest you also in like manner fall away from heaven, that is from the grace and glory prepared for you in heaven. Thus all the Apostles were chosen by Christ, namely for the Apostolate, and yet one of them, Judas, was reprobated and damned, according to that saying of Christ: "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" John vi, 70. In like manner, among the seventy disciples of Christ were the first seven Deacons, one of whom was named Nicolas, "who is reported to have been the author of all uncleanness and of the heresy of the Nicolaitans," says St. Jerome, epist. 48, ch. III. Therefore what Christ promises to the twelve Apostles and their followers, Matt. ch. xix, v. 18, saying: "You who have followed Me, etc., shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel," understand not absolutely, but on this condition, if you persevere in following Me until death.

Verse 21: In That Hour He Rejoiced in the Holy Spirit

21. IN THAT VERY HOUR HE REJOICED IN THE HOLY SPIRIT, — that is, through the Holy Spirit, with whom Christ was full, namely through grace, gladness, and the jubilation infused into His humanity and mind by the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had made His promises effective, and through His disciples, though so rude and weak, had wrought so great wonders, casting out demons and healing all diseases, by which He Himself was promoting the faith of Christ and the glory of God.

AND HAVE REVEALED THEM TO LITTLE ONES. — Namely to My disciples, lowly and unlearned. "Them," namely so that they may recognize that You are the true God, and that I am sent by You, and consequently may acknowledge the way to justice and salvation, which is to believe in Me and obey My commands, and so be predestined, and that through them many others whom they deliver from demons and diseases may be enlightened and saved by the knowledge of the true God.

Verse 22: All Things Are Delivered to Me by My Father

22. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father. — So that, just as they were created by My Father, so now, being ruined by their own fault, they may be recreated and redeemed by Me; namely that I may lift up, sanctify, and bless men fallen into sin, and with man renew and restore the other creatures corrupted by man's fault. So St. Athanasius, Sermon 4 against the Arians: "After man had sinned and fallen," he says, "and all things were disturbed by his fall, death had prevailed from Adam to Christ, the earth was given over to a curse, hell was opened, paradise closed, heaven hostile, and at last, after man was corrupted and destroyed, the devil rushed upon us; then He gave him man, so that the Word Himself might become flesh, and might restore the assumed flesh in all things. For they were delivered to Him as to a physician, that he might heal the bite of the serpent; and as to life, to raise the dead; and as to light, to illumine the darkness; and as to reason, to restore the rational power." Then in particular He explains the same thing, adding: "After, therefore, all things had been delivered to Him, and He was made man, all things were corrected and perfected: the earth obtained a blessing instead of a curse, paradise was unlocked, hell contracted in fear, the tombs were opened for the dead who rose again; the gates were opened, that He might enter from Eden."

Therefore Christ is not here speaking of the divine essence and attributes delivered to Him by the Father and communicated through the divine generation, as St. Chrysostom (hom. 39 on Matt. v), Hilary (Book VI On the Trinity), and St. Ambrose (Book III On the Holy Spirit, ch. XII) explained; but about the full power over all things which was delivered to Him, as man, by the Father for the salvation of men.

Verse 25: A Certain Lawyer Stood Up, Tempting Him

25. AND BEHOLD, A CERTAIN LAWYER STOOD UP, TEMPTING HIM AND SAYING: MASTER, WHAT MUST I DO TO POSSESS ETERNAL LIFE? — as if to say: What must I do, that I may obtain and possess eternal life? This lawyer is different from the one who asked the same question of the Lord, Matt. xxii, 36, as is clear from the circumstances of each.

Tempting Him. — Hence it is clear that he asked this not with a sincere desire to learn, but with a feigned and deceitful mind, in order to test Christ, namely whether Christ would answer anything about Himself and His doctrine contrary to the law, and would prefer that doctrine to the law, so that he might have occasion to calumniate or accuse Him. For Christ was held by them to be a transgressor and a despiser of the law. So Toletus.

The rest that follows up to verse 29, I have expounded at Matthew xxii, 36 and following.

Verse 29: And Who Is My Neighbor?

29. BUT HE, DESIRING TO JUSTIFY HIMSELF, SAID TO JESUS: AND WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? — "To justify," that is, to show himself just above others; as if to say: Show me anyone who is a neighbor in justice, that is, who is as just as I am, and you will scarcely find one. So Titus, Euthymius, and Isidore of Pelusium, book IV, epist. 173, who hold that the lawyer said this out of pride and Pharisaic arrogance. "He thought," says Isidore, "that a neighbor must be just to the just, lofty to the lofty, as if to say: Show me anyone who is so great that he can be compared to me."

But Christ's reply signifies the contrary, as is plain to the one considering it. Wherefore it seems that this lawyer, who at first had come with a tempting disposition, on hearing the saying of Christ — who had praised his answer about the first commandment, which is to love God and neighbor — changed his mind, and turned his aversion into love and reverence for Christ, and sincerely and seriously asked who was his neighbor, that he might love him and fulfill the law. Therefore, "wishing to justify himself," that is, wishing to show himself a lover of justice, and, as it were, solicitous with a fearful conscience to understand the law of the Lord, and to be as one continually studying and meditating on it, so that he might fulfill it in deed. So Toletus, Jansenius, and others.

AND WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? — For there was a great question, indeed an error, among the Scribes on this matter; for from Lev. xix, 18: "You shall love rea (a friend)," the Scribes inferred the contrary: Therefore you shall pursue with hatred your enemy, namely the Gentile, who is not a Jew: whence Christ corrected this error of theirs, Matt. v, 43. Therefore the Scribes held a friend or neighbor to be only a Jew, inasmuch as he was a worshipper of the true God and of the same race and religion as themselves; indeed, among the Jews, those who transgressed the law and lived impiously they held were not neighbors and not to be loved, but only the faithful and the just. Rightly then does this lawyer ask Christ who is the neighbor, as if to say: I love as neighbors all the upright Jews; are there still others whom I should love as neighbors? Christ answers that there are, namely that our neighbors are absolutely all men: for these are our neighbors through the communion of the same human life, the same grace, the same redemption through Christ, the same Church and Sacraments, the same vocation to faith and grace, the same destination and course toward happiness and eternal life. Therefore every man is in Hebrew rea, that is, friend, companion; in Greek plesios, that is, neighbor, from plao, that is, I approach, I draw near, which in the future tense has alias, whence plesios: in Latin it is more forcefully called proximus (neighbor), because he approaches proxime, that is, with nothing in between, and touches us through the same life, grace, Church, glory, etc. For proximus in Cicero and in Latin usage means the very nearest, whence Isidore, Book IX of Etymologies, chapter 6: "Proximus, he says, is said because of the proximity of blood." And Cicero, Book II On the Laws: "That, he says, must be regarded as nearest to God (that is, most akin) which is best." Now every man is most near to us through the same creation by God, and the same redemption by Christ, and the call to the same grace and glory: therefore every man is our neighbor. See the comments at Leviticus 19:18.

Tropologically: the word "neighbor" demands a heartfelt affection and love; for a neighbor must be loved by his neighbor as a brother by a brother, or a son by a father: for in these relationships there is no intermediary, but one is neighbor to the other, yet in such a way that the order of charity is preserved, by which a father must be loved more than a brother, and a brother more than a nephew, etc.; for among neighbors one is closer to us than another, and therefore more to be loved.

Verse 30: A Certain Man Went Down from Jerusalem to Jericho

30. And Jesus, taking up the word, said. — Euthymius says, "taking up the discourse," that is, answering, and fully and precisely explaining and resolving the question of who is a neighbor. So Virgil says: "Ascanius takes up the word," that is, he takes his turn in responding.

A CERTAIN MAN WAS GOING DOWN FROM JERUSALEM (and therefore an Israelite, says Augustine, sermon 37 On the Words of the Lord, and a Jerusalemite, says Bede) TO JERICHO, AND FELL AMONG ROBBERS. — It is a parable taken from something that frequently happened at that time, and therefore a true story and real event. For, as St. Jerome notes, on chapter 20 of Matthew, and in the Epitaph of Paula, epistle 77, between Jerusalem and Jericho there was a dangerous place infested with robberies, and therefore called in Hebrew Adummim, or rather Addammim, that is, red and bloody, "because much blood was shed there by the frequent raids of robbers." Hear also Adrichomius, plainly describing this place from St. Jerome, Salignac, Brochard, and others in his Description of the Tribe of Benjamin, p. 14, n. 6: "Adummim, he says, a place notorious for murders and robberies, infamous even in later times, which retained both the reality and the name, terrible in appearance and very dangerous, which no one would rashly cross without an escort. At this place that man, who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, was cared for by the Samaritan, when he had fallen among robbers and been wounded by them, which still happens to many today. It is distant from Jericho toward the West by four leagues. Formerly a small village, now a fort, as Bede from Brochard says, as Jerome says, ruins in the territory of the tribe of Judah: in Greek it is called anabasis pyrrhon, that is, the ascent of the red ones, because of the blood which is shed there by robbers; in Hebrew Maale-Adummim, it is the border of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, where a military fort was also situated for the protection of travelers. Here there appears to be a deep cave, above which a building was formerly erected." Finally, this place was situated on a mountain or hill, from which robbers could spy travelers approaching from afar, so as to attack them by surprise; hence in Joshua 15:7, this place is called "the ascent of Adummim."

WHO ALSO STRIPPED HIM (of money, clothing, and all the things he had), AND HAVING INFLICTED WOUNDS DEPARTED LEAVING HIM HALF-DEAD (Greek hemithanei, that is, half-dead) RELICTO — on the road: he would certainly have died there from his wounds, unless someone had come to his aid and tended him. For robbers are accustomed to wound or kill those they have robbed, lest those who have been robbed immediately call upon passers-by and neighbors, who might pursue the robbers and wrest back the spoils from them, or even kill them. The Syriac clearly says: And robbers rushed upon him, and stripped him, and wounded him, and left him, when the breath of life barely remained in him, and they departed.

Verse 31: A Certain Priest Went Down the Same Way

31. It happened (by chance, if you consider men; but by a certain design, if you consider the providence of God, for whom nothing is fortuitous, but all things foreseen and provided for) THAT A CERTAIN PRIEST WAS GOING DOWN THE SAME ROAD; AND SEEING HIM, PASSED BY. — In Greek, antiparelthe, that is, he passed by on the opposite side, as if to say: The priest, struck with horror at the wounds of that injured and dying man, not only did not approach him, but also went backward, and turned his journey in the opposite direction, says Titus and Theophylactus. Christ here notes the misguided religion and inhumanity of the priests of that age, who, caring only for external ceremonies, sacrifices, and offerings, by which they themselves were enriched, neglected, and indeed trampled upon, interior piety and mercy and charity. For hence the priest, seeing his neighbor, a Jew by nation, overcome with wounds, half-dead and breathing his last, abandoned him in this extreme necessity, and did not even deign to approach or speak to him.

Verse 32: Likewise Also a Levite Passed By

32. LIKEWISE ALSO A LEVITE, WHEN HE WAS NEAR THAT PLACE, AND SAW HIM, PASSED BY. — A Levite among the Jews was formerly what a Deacon is among Christians, who assists the priest in sacred functions. This one therefore was of the same stamp and inhumanity as the priest had been: for as the priest, so the Levite; as the Prelate, so the Deacon; as the prince, so the servant; as the master, so the disciple. Hence he passed by in the same manner. The Greek word is the same as in verse 31, antiparelthe, that is, he went off in the opposite direction.

Verse 33: But a Certain Samaritan Was Moved with Compassion

33. BUT A CERTAIN SAMARITAN, MAKING A JOURNEY, CAME NEAR HIM; AND SEEING HIM, WAS MOVED WITH COMPASSION. — "A Samaritan," who of course was most alien from the Jews in race and nation, and in religion, and therefore more hated than a Gentile; inasmuch as he was a schismatic and heretic of the Jews, whom therefore the Jews regarded not as a neighbor, but as a sworn enemy, and everywhere hated: this man, I say, moved by compassion for the wounded Jew, abandoned by Jews and neglected by the priest and the Levite, came to his aid as a neighbor, tended his wounds, and restored his life. Christ puts forward the example of the Samaritan to show that not only friends, but also enemies (for such was the Samaritan to the Jews) are our neighbors. Again, He prefers this Samaritan in charity and beneficence to the Jews, inasmuch as he showed himself so generous toward a Jew who was half-dead, neglected by Jews, and hateful to Samaritans.

Verse 34: He Bound Up His Wounds, Pouring in Oil and Wine

34. And drawing near (dismounting from the horse or donkey on which he was riding), HE BOUND UP HIS WOUNDS, POURING IN OIL AND WINE, — which he was carrying with him on the road as provisions; namely wine for drink, oil for seasoning with bread, that is, for food. It is a hysteron proteron: for he first washed the wounds with wine; for wine first cleanses the pus; second, it eats away the phlegmatic and bilious humors flowing to the wound; third, it binds the wounds, lest they continue to emit pus and blood; fourth, it warms and strengthens the muscles, so that they may throw off the wound. Then he anointed the wound with oil: first, to temper the sharpness and biting quality of the wine with the richness and smoothness of oil; second, to soothe the pains; third, to warm and strengthen the parts near the wound: for otherwise oil harms fresh wounds and causes them to putrefy, as Galen teaches, Book III on Method; and Hippocrates, Book On Ulcers. See Valesius, Sacred Philosophy chapter 87.

Hence tropologically St. Gregory, Book XX of the Morals, chapter 8: In wine, he says, there is the sting of severity, in oil the softness of piety: therefore gentleness must be mixed with sharpness, so that the wounds of the soul may be healed, and vices expelled from sinners. St. Chrysostom, however, says: Wine is the blood of the Passion, oil is the anointing of chrism; or, as the Interlinear Gloss says, the chrism is the Holy Spirit.

AND PLACING HIM ON HIS OWN BEAST — on which he himself was accustomed to ride, whether horse or donkey. The Syriac says, upon his donkey. He therefore dismounted from the horse or donkey on which he was sitting, and gave it up to the wounded man, and indeed placed him upon it.

Allegorically, St. Augustine, in the Questions on the Gospels: The beast of burden, he says, is the flesh of Christ. To be placed on the beast is to believe in the Incarnation itself. St. Ambrose: He places him on the beast, he says, because He bears our sins. Theophylactus: He made us His members, he says, and sharers in His body.

HE BROUGHT HIM (himself walking on foot, and seizing the bridle, and guiding the horse and rider with it) TO AN INN. — In Greek, eis pandocheion, that is, to a lodging place or inn, so called because it receives everyone indiscriminately; an inn is therefore called a stabulum from standing, because weary travelers from the road stand, that is, rest there. So St. Cyprian uses "stabulum" for an inn, Book III, epistle 43; hence the Syriac and Arabic translate stabulum as hospitium (inn).

And he took care of him, — providing for him food, fire, a bed, a doctor, medicines, and all other things necessary or helpful for his care.

Verse 35: He Took Out Two Denarii

35. AND THE NEXT DAY HE TOOK OUT TWO DENARII. — A simple denarius was a silver drachma, namely one julius, or a Spanish real. But this denarius was not simple but double, just as today a half-Philip thaler: for he gave as much as he thought would suffice for feeding and treating the wounded man until his return; for two julii would not have been enough for this.

Tropologically, St. Augustine, in the Questions on the Gospels: The two denarii, he says, are the two precepts of charity, which the Apostles received for their preaching of the Gospel; or the promise of the present life and of eternal life.

AND HE GAVE IT TO THE INNKEEPER (that is, to the host who was in charge of the inn and lodging) AND SAID: TAKE CARE OF HIM, AND WHATEVER MORE YOU SPEND (further expend), I, WHEN I RETURN, WILL REPAY YOU. — See here and learn from the Samaritan the fullness of love, by which he omitted nothing that was required for the care of the wounded man; but he abundantly rendered all the duties of charity that were required here.

Allegorically: the man is Adam who fell into sin, and therefore was wounded in the soul and nearly killed; for Adam descended from Jerusalem, that is, from the vision of peace, namely from paradise and the state of innocence, where he enjoyed the highest peace with God, with himself, with Eve, and with all animals, to Jericho, that is, to the state of change and sin: for Jericho, that is, the moon, which changes and wanes daily, is the symbol of this. The robbers are the demons, who deceived Adam and Eve through the serpent and led them into sin, and thus stripped them of God's grace and virtues, and inflicted the wounds of concupiscence upon all the powers and appetites of the soul. The priest and the Levite are the old law, which neglected to heal the fall of Adam, because it could not. The Samaritan, that is, the guardian, is Christ, who faithfully cares for and guards all men, so that they may be healed and saved; the horse is His humanity, upon which the divinity itself sits, and as it were rides. The inn, that is, the lodging, is the Church, which receives all the faithful. The wine is the blood of Christ, by which our wounds are washed and the corruption of sins is cleansed. The oil is the mercy, clemency, and gentleness of Christ. The innkeeper or host, who presides over the inn, that is, the Church, is St. Peter, or the Pope. So St. Ambrose and Origen here, homily 34; St. Jerome, on chapter 1 of Matthew; St. Augustine, sermon 37 On the Words of the Lord, and others throughout. Hear Origen: "A certain one of the priests, wishing to interpret the parable, said that the man who went down is Adam; Jerusalem, paradise; Jericho, the world; the robbers, the hostile powers; the priest, the law; the Levite, the Prophets; the Samaritan, Christ; the wounds, disobedience; the beast, the body of the Lord; the inn, that is, the lodging place which receives all who wish to enter, the Church. Furthermore, the two denarii are the Father and the Son are to be understood; and the innkeeper is the head of the Church, to whom the stewardship was entrusted. And as for the fact that the Samaritan promises he will return, this foreshadowed the second coming of the Savior. These things are said reasonably and beautifully," etc.

Hence again from this parable the Fathers and Theologians teach that Adam through sin was stripped of freely given goods and gifts, such as grace and virtues: but that he was wounded in his natural endowments, that is, in his nature not as pure and mere: for this nature is the same after sin as it was before; but in the nature as elevated by grace, healed and whole through original justice implanted in it by God: for this original justice subjected all appetites and passions, and the movements of concupiscence, to the will and reason, so that they could will or desire nothing except what right reason judged, and right will loved and sought: but now, deprived of this original justice through sin, we experience in ourselves, without reason's knowledge and against the will's consent, these evil movements arising; this is the wound of nature.

Verse 36: Which of These Three Was Neighbor to Him?

36. WHICH OF THESE THREE, DO YOU THINK, WAS A NEIGHBOR TO HIM WHO FELL AMONG THE ROBBERS? — It seems that Christ, in keeping with the lawyer's question, "Who is my neighbor?" ought to have said: Who in this parable was the neighbor to these three, namely to the Priest, the Levite, and especially the Samaritan? Certainly it was the man who fell among the robbers, who, having been stripped, wounded, and left half-dead by them, needed the help of all his neighbors: for otherwise from this question of Christ one could infer: Therefore the neighbor is he who does good to one in need, namely the Samaritan, but not the needy person himself, namely the stripped and wounded man; and consequently the Priest and the Levite were not neighbors, because they did not help the one in need. From which one could likewise infer that those who hate and persecute us are not our neighbors.

But I say that the meaning is: "Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?" As if to say: Which of these three seems to you, in this case, to have acted as the neighbor of the one captured, stripped, and wounded by the robbers? For thus the Lawyer himself understood this question of Christ, when in the following verse he responds: "He who showed mercy." Therefore from this Christ asks: Which of these three seems to you to have truly fulfilled the office of neighbor toward the wounded man, so wretched, so that he regarded him, although so afflicted and descended from a nation hostile to himself, namely the Jews, as his own neighbor? For neighbor is a correlative term, for a neighbor is a neighbor's neighbor, just as one who shows mercy is the merciful one of a miserable person: therefore Christ rightly designates one from the other, that is, from the relative He designates its correlative, which the Lawyer was seeking. But Christ preferred to invert His response in this way, so as to set before the Lawyer and all of us a real and perfect example of love of neighbor, which he might imitate not by speculating on the law, but by actually doing what the Samaritan did: whence He concludes, verse 37, saying: "Go, and do likewise." Above all, Christ wished to teach the Lawyer that not only a Jew, not only a friend, as the Scribes maintained, but absolutely all people, especially the wretched, even our enemies, are to be regarded as neighbors, and to be loved with every kind of service. In a similar way, for a similar reason, Christ inverts the question of the greater love of the two debtors, namely of Magdalene and Simon: "Which of them loves him more?" Luke chapter 7, verse 47, as I showed there. So St. Augustine, whom I shall cite shortly, Bede, Theophylactus, Euthymius, Titus, Toletus, Jansenius, and others throughout.

Verse 37: Go, and Do Thou in Like Manner

37. AND HE SAID: HE WHO SHOWED MERCY TO HIM. AND JESUS SAID TO HIM: GO, AND DO LIKEWISE. — "So that, obviously," says St. Augustine, Book V On Christian Doctrine, chapter 30, "we may understand him to be a neighbor to whom the office of mercy must be shown, if he is in need, or would have to be shown, if he were in need. From which it now follows that he also from whom this must be shown to us in return, is our neighbor: for the word neighbor is relational, and no one can be a neighbor except to a neighbor. But who does not see that no one is excepted, to whom the office of mercy is to be denied? since it has been extended even to enemies, such as the Samaritans were especially to the Jews." St. Augustine fittingly adds: "What is so distant as God from men? since God had in Himself two goods, justice and immortality; we had two evils, iniquity and mortality: He was made mortal, and so near to us, not as what we are, that is, a sinner, by taking on the punishment, and not the guilt, He destroyed both the guilt and the punishment."

Isidore of Pelusium gives the a priori reason, Book IV, epistle 123, saying: "For proximity is judged by nature, not by virtue; by substance, not by dignity; by compassion, not by place; by the manner of care, not by nearness of location: for consider him your neighbor who most needs you, and of your own free will go to bring him aid."

Verse 38: Martha Received Him into Her House

38. NOW IT CAME TO PASS AS THEY WENT (as Jesus and His disciples were traveling, preaching through the villages and towns, as I said in verse 1), THAT HE (Jesus) ENTERED INTO A CERTAIN VILLAGE (Greek komen, that is, a hamlet, village, or town, namely Bethany, where Martha seems to have had a house); AND A CERTAIN WOMAN, MARTHA BY NAME, RECEIVED HIM INTO HER HOUSE, — as a guest and stranger, He who as God was the Lord of all. Whence St. Augustine, sermon 26 On the Words of the Lord: "The servant received the Lord, he says, the sick woman received the Savior, the creature received the Creator, she who was to be fed in spirit received Him who was to be fed in the flesh, by condescension, not by condition." In Martha the virtue of hospitality is praised, because she received into her home Jesus, who was hateful to the Scribes and Pontiffs. But by receiving the man she equally received God, who blessed her and her entire household.

He heaped her with heavenly gifts, and at length received her into heaven and blessed her with eternal glory. Thus Abraham, receiving guests, took in angels clothed in human form as guests, from whom he received the promise of Isaac to be born from him, and thence of Christ, who was to bless all nations. See what is said at Hebrews XIII. Wherefore Christ appeared to Martha as she was dying, repaid her the reward of hospitality, and invited her to a heavenly home — not a guest-lodging, but a kingdom — saying: "Come, My most beloved hostess, for as you received Me into your house, so I shall receive you into My heaven." So her Life has it, which from St. Antoninus adds that Christ honored the burial of St. Martha by His presence. Thus Christ honors those who honor Him.

Verse 39: Mary, Sitting at the Lord's Feet, Heard His Word

39. AND SHE HAD A SISTER CALLED MARY — surnamed Magdalene; these two sisters "were sisters not only in the flesh," says St. Augustine at the place already cited, "but also in religion: both cleaved to the Lord, both served the Lord present in the flesh," made blessed by so great a guest.

WHO ALSO SITTING AT THE LORD'S FEET WAS HEARING HIS WORD. — The word "also" notes that Magdalene sat with Jesus as if at leisure — not casually, not at some other time when she had leisure, but at that very moment when she most especially should have been laboring with Martha in preparing the table for Christ: "Sitting at His feet," as a most humble disciple, supremely loving and revering Christ, that she might hear Him teaching most quietly, most modestly, most eagerly, and most attentively. "The better it was that she sat at His feet," says St. Augustine, Sermon 27 On the Words of the Lord, "the more she received; for water flows together to the lowliness of the valley, and runs down from the swelling of the hill."

SHE HEARD HIS WORD. — Christ here teaches by His own example what disciples and apostolic and religious men ought to do in their lodgings, namely, "let them not rest idly on their backs," says St. Chrysostom in the Catena, "but rather fill their hosts with sacred and divine teachings," so that they let no time pass without fruit, but everywhere cast the seeds of piety, and rouse everyone to virtue and the love of God. Among others, Father Peter Faber, the first companion of St. Ignatius Loyola, used to do this: in perpetual pilgrimages and missions he spent his whole life in the Society, and accordingly left this salutary admonition to us in his testament, that on entering a lodging they should immediately apply themselves either to reciting the Hours or to mingling pious discourses, and show themselves professors of piety; for in this way they would hinder all lewd talk and tempters of chastity, and bear no small fruit — just as he himself more than once moved to repentance by his discourses robbers staying in an inn, and there heard their confessions. See more in his Life. St. Francis Xavier did the same on ships, while sailing through the whole East and everywhere preaching the Gospel both by word and by the example of charity and a holy life.

Verse 40: Martha Was Busy About Much Serving

40. BUT MARTHA WAS BUSY ABOUT MUCH SERVING. — In Greek, περιεσπᾶτο περὶ πολλὴν διακονίαν, that is, she was being stretched or distracted about much serving, caring with anxious and dutiful charity that the food worthy of so great a guest might be properly cooked, that the table and dining couches might be suitably laid, that the guests' feet might be washed, and that all the other offices of hospitality might be exactly performed. Hence the Arabic renders it, "But Martha was diligently serving at great length."

WHO STOOD AND SAID (in Greek, "but standing by, she said"; Syriac, "she came and said"): Lord, do You not care (Arabic: "Lord, does my matter not trouble You") THAT MY SISTER HAS LEFT ME TO SERVE ALONE? TELL HER THEREFORE TO HELP ME. — Martha speaks thus, partly from the disturbance of her anxiety about preparing everything fittingly for Christ, partly from confidence in Christ's kindness; as if to say: Lord, I am overwhelmed with labors out of love and service to You: my sister sees this, and meanwhile sits idle and at leisure. It is therefore Your kindness to take care and to command her to relieve me, and come to share the pious labor; and to serve You equally with me: for she depends wholly on You and neglects me. Give her therefore a word, that she may help me, and she will do it; for I know that if I were the one asking her, I should accomplish nothing, because she is wholly fixed on You and Your words.

Verse 41: Martha, Martha, Thou Art Careful and Troubled

41. AND THE LORD ANSWERING, SAID TO HER: MARTHA, MARTHA, YOU ARE ANXIOUS, AND ARE TROUBLED ABOUT MANY THINGS. — Arabic: "You, anxious, are troubled about very many things." "The repetition of the name Martha is an indication of love," says St. Augustine, Sermon 26 already cited, "or perhaps for arousing attention, that she might listen more attentively": for she was wholly intent on her services, so that she attended less to Jesus' words, unless roused by the repeated calling of her name. St. Augustine adds: "Mary preferred to commit her cause to the Judge (Christ), and did not wish to labor in answering," for she knew that Christ stood by her, and was accustomed to act as her patron. Whence here Christ "became Mary's advocate, He who had been appealed to as judge," says the Interlinear Gloss from St. Augustine, Sermon 27. "You are troubled about many things," as if to say: You are too anxious, Martha, and therefore you are troubled. For you want to prepare many things for Me, when few things are needed for Me: for I am content with one kind of food — indeed, I take pleasure in it — both from love of frugality and of health. For Galen and the physicians teach that variety of foods burdens the stomach, and is digested by it with difficulty and slowness. I have heard of some who, living perpetually on one food, have lived to a long and utterly decrepit age. Emmanuel Sa and others render the Greek τυρβάζεις as "you are in tumult": "But tumult in this place is distraction and disturbance," says Euthymius; for those who are distracted and anxious about many things experience many anxieties and tumults of thoughts and cares, which conflict in the mind and afflict it. Therefore, excessive anxiety and worry is a sign and effect of some internal passion and disturbance, namely of excessive fear and love: for if anyone loves too much honor, wealth, comforts, a friend, or any other thing, and fears to lose it, he is anxious, troubled, and distressed.

Verse 42: Mary Hath Chosen the Best Part

42. BUT ONE THING IS NECESSARY. — The Arabic: "But what is necessary is easy"; the Greek, ἑνὸς δέ ἐστι χρεία, that is, "But there is need of one thing": this one thing Christ sets in opposition to the many things about which Martha is troubled. The Syriac: "But one thing is what is required." The Egyptian, Ethiopic, and Persian agree.

You will ask: What is this "one thing," and necessary? Luther, Bullinger, Melanchthon, and the other Innovators of the same stamp answer that this one thing is faith — or, hearing the Gospel and believing in it: for this alone is said here that Magdalene did, verse 39: "Sitting," it says, "at the Lord's feet, she was hearing His word." For they themselves hold that faith alone is necessary for salvation. Believe, they say, that you will be saved through me — or by Christ's blood — and you shall infallibly be saved. But this faith is rash, fallacious, and false; for blasphemers, thieves, and robbers can have it: for besides faith, hope, charity, and good works are necessary for salvation, as is clear from Matthew XIX, 17; I Corinthians XIII, and elsewhere throughout Scripture; and this is clear in Magdalene herself, who was hearing the Lord's word in such a way that she obeyed what she heard, and carried it out through works of charity, humility, and penitence, as is clear in chapter VII, 43, and from her whole subsequent life.

More truly, therefore, many orthodox writers understand by "one thing" one kind of food; as if to say: You, O Martha, are anxious and troubled to set before Me many dishes, but in vain; for there is need of only one, one suffices for Me: I do not require a sumptuous table; I choose common and easily prepared food: for this is what My temperance and love of poverty dictate to Me. Meanwhile, I do not condemn — rather I praise — your devotion, reverence, and zeal toward Me, in which you prepare so much and such great things for the dignity of My person, to show how much you esteem Me and how much affection you bear toward Me: but still I warn you not to be too anxious, nor to be troubled in your serving, nor to call Magdalene away from My discourses. So St. Basil, in the Longer Rules, question 20; Theophylact; and St. Gregory, in St. Thomas's Catena; St. Jerome, in the Letter to Eustochium; Toletus, Emmanuel Sa, and Francis Lucas here. Hear St. Basil: "There is need of few things, or of one: of few indeed for the preparation, but of one as the aim, that necessity may be satisfied." So also Titus: "We have not come here for this reason, to fill our bellies with superfluous foods; for nature is content with few things." Theophylact adds: "We have need of one thing, namely to eat whatever comes to hand, not various kinds." Hence the Arabic renders it: "But what is necessary is easy."

Secondly, and more loftily and more suitably to what follows, this "one necessary thing" is the knowledge, zeal, and love of the one God and of eternal salvation, to which Mary fixed herself wholly as to the best portion and lot. Whence, explaining this "one," He adds: "Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her."

The sense is, as if He said: You, O Martha, are distracted and troubled about many things; I suggest to you a remedy, that you gather yourself into one — namely, that you make it your concern to please the one God in all things, and that out of love for the one God you carry out all your actions; thus they will not distract you, but, fixed in God, you will carry them all through by His will, without disturbance, quietly and sweetly; for you will cut away what is superfluous, nor take up more than is needful or than you can do. So Bede, Euthymius, Jansenius, and others. Hence St. Augustine, Sermon 26 On the Words of the Lord; and St. Gregory, book I on the book of Kings, chapter IV, and others say: This "one thing" is the ultimate end and highest good of man, toward which our mind must be directed and from which it must not be distracted. And Cassian, Conference I, chapter VIII: "One thing," he says, "is the gazing on and contemplation of the one God; so that, having surpassed even the wonderful fruits and ministries of the Saints, it may now be fed on the sole beauty and knowledge of God"; for although contemplation is not necessary for salvation, yet it is necessary for full sanctity and perfection, which frees the soul from all anxiety and disturbance and makes it wholly tranquil, as being fully united to God and resting in Him. This the Psalmist did, saying: "One thing (Hebrew: "one") I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life," Psalm XXVI, 4. And Paul: "But one thing, forgetting those things which are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press toward the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus," Philippians III, 14. And Esther XIV, 18: "You know, O Lord, that Your handmaid has never been glad since I was brought here until this present day, except in You, O Lord God." For, as Christ says, John XVII, 3: "This is life eternal, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." Wherefore St. Giles, one of the first companions of St. Francis, a man much enlightened by the Lord, when asked what was the way to sanctity and perfection, answered in a word: "One to One": namely, let one soul be united to one God; for duality separates and divides, but unity gathers and unites. For God is one: wherefore he who seeks God must reduce himself to unity, and must seek Him in unity and in conformity of will, and in union of mind and love, as St. Bernard teaches, Sermon 7 on the Canticle. Hence St. Augustine, book II On Order, chapter XVIII, tome I, shows by induction that all things tend to one; because, as he shows in On True Religion, chapter XXXII, unity, or simplicity, is a trace of God, who is the first, essential, and uncreated unity, the source and origin of all unities. And in chapter XLII, he declares how great is the beauty of unity — and so on. In short, the one thing necessary is God; for all other things are contingent and free, created out of nothing by the mere good pleasure of God. As the common saying goes: "He who chases two hares catches neither": so he who strives to please both God and the world pleases neither.

Tropologically: you will attain this one thing through prayer, meditation, and contemplation; for these join and unite us to the one God. "It belongs to the Religious to strive toward this One, and to be drawn to the sacred Monad," says St. Dionysius, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, chapter VI. And Climacus, chapter I: "A monk is one who always has his spirit lifted up to God, and prays in every place, at every time, and in every affair." And St. Chrysostom, book I On Praying to God: "Prayer," he says, "is the soul and spirit of a religious and perfect life." And St. Bonaventure, in his little work On the Perfection of Life, chapter V, says that a Religious who does not frequent prayer carries a dead soul in a living body; or is like a body without a soul, having what is outward in religion without what is inward. Again: "Religion," he says, "is languid and weak which does not have much prayer." What then, O unhappy soul, St. Augustine says at the end of the Meditations, do you wander among many things? You seek rest, and do not find it; love the One in whom are all things, and in Him you shall joyfully and fully rest: for He Himself will fill you with all good things; He will make you drink of the torrent of His pleasure — nay, will intoxicate you. Hear Epictetus to Arrian: "It is necessary," he says, "that all beginnings, as in a turned-around circle, return to one beginning, all beautiful things to one Beautiful, all true things to one Truth, all good things to one Good, all divine things to one God; all things that are one to the one thrice One." For unity, beginning, good, true, and God are the same, are one. Wherefore the Spouse, Canticles II: "My beloved is mine," she says, "and I am His." For one bride must wholly attend to one bridegroom. Hence the Saints long to be separated from the flesh and to die, that they may unite their whole mind to God. "I desire to be dissolved," says Paul, "and to be with Christ." And St. Simeon: "Now You dismiss Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word, in peace." And the Psalmist: "Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged!" The reason is given by St. Basil, in the Longer Rules, question 2: "For," he says, "they utterly abhorred this life as a kind of prison, so hard were they to restrain their minds (Greek ἐξορμάς, that is, violent rushes and impulses — namely, to fly out of this prison); these were they whose minds the love of God had captivated. For, blazing with an insatiable desire of beholding the divine beauty, they longed for this: that, in a course equal to the infinity of eternal life, the faculty of contemplating the Lord's joyfulness might be granted them." So greatly does blessed leisure abound in activity for the wise, and is fruitful; and a soul which has once plunged itself into the Godhead can everywhere both feed on it and feed others. Wherefore David, Psalm XLI: "My soul," he says, "has thirsted for God, the living fountain: when shall I come and appear before the face of God?"

Symbolically: Unity is the beginning of all numbers, inasmuch as from it every number flows; and it is the end of all, into which every number is resolved: nor does it draw its origin from any, nor is it cut up into any number. Thus God, the best and greatest, is the beginning and end of all things, according to Revelation XXI, 6: "I am the Alpha and the Omega," opening all and closing all, before whom and after whom is nothing, and so far is He from having taken His origin from creatures, that He preceded them by an eternal interval, existing without them, since they cannot subsist without Him. Hence that Platonic philosopher: "From divine unity," he says, "all things proceed, and in proceeding they retain a certain unity impressed upon themselves — the image of divine unity, by which they are recalled to it, and, when recalled, are perfected." And Plato in the Parmenides: by "one" he understands the divine being, in which all things have life, as branches in the root. Hence that saying of Pythagoras: "Man ought to become one"; for "he who cleaves to God becomes one spirit with Him," says the Apostle; and Macrobius, book I on the Dream of Scipio: "Unity," he says, "the beginning and end of all things, and itself suffering neither beginning nor end, has led us to the highest God." Trismegistus, in the Pimander: "Unity," he says, "the beginning, root, and origin of all things, contains every number, is comprehended by none, and generates every number, itself generated from no number: this is the image of God."

Again, where sin is, there is multitude; but where virtue is, there is singularity, there charity, there unity. He therefore who is zealous for virtue should love the One, and should be zealous for unity. For Christ, the Master of unity, willed to gather us into one Church, and to unite us to Himself. For unity gives mildness to heaven, sanctity to the soul, health to bodies, peace to homes and cities and concord of minds; and the virtue and strength of every people come from unanimity. For duality is the cause and mother of every discord, schism, war, storm, disease, and disturbance. Whence Plato, book V of the Republic: "No evil," he says, "is more destructive to a city than one who divides it and makes many out of one; nor is anything better than what binds it together and makes it one." Aristotle, book I of the Ethics, chapter VI, cites Speusippus as saying that a thing is properly called good and perfect when it is one; since each thing has its goodness in itself through the unity by which it receives its being: for a thing is whatever it is just so long as it is one; when it ceases to be one, it ceases to be what it is. For matter does not have being except through its union with form; take away this union, you divide matter from form, and the composite perishes. Union, therefore, is life, but division is death. Hence St. Augustine, speaking of the heavenly life: "There," he says, "there will not be any envy of unequal charity, where in all the unity of charity reigns." And St. Gregory: "And so great is the force of charity there that it unites all, so that each one rejoices at having received in another the good that he himself did not receive. Therefore the kingdom of life is in charity, which is union; the kingdom of death is in hatred, which is division. Wherefore Pythagoras said that unity was God, and duality the demon: Homer followed him, placing the nature of unity in the notion of good, and duality in the notion of evil: hence in Iliad 2 he sings thus:

It is not good that many should reign, let there be one king.

There is one king among bees, one leader in flocks, cranes follow one leader, in a ship there is one helmsman, in a city one magistrate, in the body one head, in an army one commander, in the Church one Pontiff, in the world one sun. Finally, unity is virginity, which makes us like the angels: duality is marriage, which makes us like the animals.

MARY HAS CHOSEN THE BEST PART. — For herself, as the Syriac and Arabic add; in Greek agathen, that is, good par excellence, or by way of eminence, that is, the best. For Christ here compares and prefers Mary to Martha, as is clear from the context and from the interpretation of all the Fathers, as if to say: You, O Martha, chose a good part, but Mary chose a better one. "Not that you chose a bad one, but she chose a better one," says St. Augustine. "Behold, Martha's part is not reproved, says Bede, but Mary's is praised." Hear again St. Augustine, sermon 27 On the Words of the Lord: "Do we think that the ministry of Martha was reproved, whom the care of hospitality had occupied, who had received the Lord Himself as her guest? How could she rightly be reproved, who was rejoicing in so great a Guest?" So also Ambrose: "Nor is Martha, he says, reproved in her good ministry; but Mary, because she chose the better part for herself, is preferred." And Cassian, Conference I, chapter 8: "When Martha was laboring, occupied with pious care and serving, seeing herself alone unable to be sufficient for so great a ministry, she asked the Lord for her sister's help, saying: Do You not care, etc., and indeed she was calling her not to a lowly work, but to a praiseworthy ministry, and yet what does she hear?"

Theophylactus gives the reason: "For by the one the body is fed, by the other the soul is given life." And Euthymius: "It is good to be hospitable, but it is better to sit beside God; for the former is corporeal, but the latter is spiritual." St. Augustine gives another symbolic reason, sermon 27 On the Words of the Lord, saying: "But why is it better? because you are busy about many things, she about one: the one is preferred to the many; for the one does not come from the many, but the many from the one." And further on: "Many are the things that were made, one is He who made them, etc.; very good are the things He made, how much better He who made them!" The three divine Persons, really distinct among themselves, are one in the same numerical divinity, which is the most simple and most perfect unity: thus the more you approach unity and simplicity, the more you approach God, says St. Augustine. Indeed Christ, John 17:21, praying to the Father for His faithful and beloved ones: "That all, He says, may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us." And shortly after: "And the love which You gave Me, I have given to them, that they may be one, as We also are one, I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one."

Moreover, the part of Mary, which Christ calls the best, is, having left behind all earthly cares, to sit beside Christ, to hear His word, to devote oneself to God alone and to divine things, to apply oneself continually to prayer and contemplation. Hear Richard of St. Victor, on Canticles 8: "Magdalene chose the best part, who practices the grace of contemplation, and yet is occupied in the part of her sister, so that she may also be crowned with the reward of the active life: in which, with equal charity, she merits an equal reward. Martha labors bodily in one place about certain things, Mary in many places through charity about many things; for in the contemplation and love of God she sees all things, is enlarged to all things, comprehends and embraces all things, so that in comparison with her Martha can be said to be anxious about few things. Therefore this one thing is very necessary, and rightly to be preferred, in which the soul both clings to God through love, and shows charity and care to all." Hence our Suarez, treatise On Mental Prayer: Mary chose the best part, he says, because mental prayer is, as it were, the beatitude of this life. For it is, as it were, the beginning of the beatific vision, by which the Saints are blessed in heaven.

Hence likewise St. Magdalene was in perpetual and solid joy. Hear St. Bernard, sermon On Magdalene: "Far be it that in the land of those living in delight, material for joys should be found; when the whole face of the world is changed by such great alternations: but there is a joy most firm with its continuous pleasantness, which the perfect soul promises itself from its secure conscience. For the mind, purely cleansed from the stain of this world, and fixing the whole affection of its desire on the sharp point of divine contemplation, scorns threats, knows not fear, eludes false hope, and free from all scandals, sleeps and rests in peace in the selfsame." Hugo of St. Victor gives the reason for this blessed tranquility, Book III On the Soul, chapter 9: "A right conscience, he says, is tranquil, because it is sweet to all and burdensome to none; using a friend for gratitude, an enemy for patience, all for benevolence, and those it can for beneficence."

PART. — It seems, says Maldonatus, to allude to the custom of the ancients, who, when about to divide an inheritance, ordered that the elder son or heir should divide it into the most equal parts possible, and then the younger could choose whichever he wished first, lest the elder by dividing unequally might defraud the younger, according to Seneca, Book VI, Declamation 3. So the inheritance was Christ, Martha the elder made two parts of Him, as it were, verse 40, namely to hear Christ and to serve Christ; Mary the younger chose the better part, namely to hear Christ: for the Hebrew pin chelec, that is, part, in Scripture signifies an inherited lot, according to the saying: "The Lord is my portion," Lam. 3:24. And: "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance," Psalm 15. Moreover, here Christ rightly calls the lot a "part," because the good part of the perfect life is Martha's lot, that is, the active life; but the better part, that is lot, is Mary's, namely the contemplative life. But the mixed life, which comprehends both action and contemplation simultaneously, is not a part, but the whole, or the total perfection; and in relation to this whole Christ called each one a part; therefore Christ led a mixed life, spending the night in prayer and preaching during the day, as did John the Baptist and the Apostles. For this is the whole itself, the perfect; because in it contemplation directs and sharpens action.

WHICH SHALL NOT BE TAKEN AWAY FROM HER. — Because, namely, the contemplation and occupation and study of Mary for hearing and meditating on the word, is a spiritual and eternal food of the mind; whence it is perfected in heaven through the perpetual vision of God, and will endure forever; whereas Martha's lot is temporal, inasmuch as it provides food for the body in this life only: for in heaven, to see, to love, and to praise God is the leisurely business of the Blessed, and their busy leisure. So St. Augustine, Bede, Theophylactus, and others. Whence St. Gregory, Book VI of the Morals, chapter 18: "Nor is Mary's lot, he says, ever said to be taken away, because the works of the active life pass away with the body, but the joys of the contemplative life grow even stronger from their end." Hear St. Augustine, sermon 27 On the Words of the Lord: "From you (O Martha) what you chose will be taken away, so that what is better may be given. For labor will be taken away from you, so that rest may be given. You are sailing, she is in port. And earlier: Martha was intent on how to feed the Lord; Mary was intent on how to be fed by the Lord. By Martha a banquet was being prepared for the Lord, in whose banquet Mary was already rejoicing." And again: "The labor of multiplicity passes away, and the charity of unity remains."

Lawrence Justinian, Book On the Tree of Life, treatise On Prayer, chapter 8: "The active life, he says, has a toilsome course, the contemplative life an everlasting joy; in the former the kingdom is acquired, in the latter it is received; the former makes one knock at the door of good works, as it were with hands, the latter calls those to be perfected to their homeland; in the former the world is despised, in the latter God will be seen. My people (says the Prophet of contemplatives) will sit in the beauty of peace, in the tents of confidence, and in rich repose." St. Gregory, Book II, homily 14 on Ezekiel: "The active life, he says, fails with the body. For who in the eternal homeland would offer bread to the hungry, where no one hungers? give drink to the thirsty, where no one thirsts? who would bury the dead, where no one dies? With the present age, therefore, the active life is taken away, but the contemplative is begun here, to be perfected in the heavenly homeland; because the fire of love, which begins to burn here, when it sees Him whom it loves, blazes up even more in love of Him."

See also Cassian, Conference I, chapter 10, where among other things he says: "In the future age all will pass from this manifold, that is, actual operation, to the charity of God and the contemplation of divine things through perpetual purity of heart." To such a one, therefore, you may rightly apply that saying of the Poet:

No old age will snatch you from heaven,
You will go as a companion to Phoebus, a companion to the stars,
By everlasting right.

Note against Calvin that Martha represents the type of the active life, Mary of the contemplative life, while she sits, while she is silent, while when addressed she does not respond, she who finally, rapt within, is rendered insensible outwardly, says St. Bernard, sermons 3 and 5 On the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. So St. Augustine, Basil, Jerome, Gregory, Cassian, Bede, and others, whom Maldonatus cites at length here. But what is contemplation? St. Augustine (or whoever the author is) answers, Book On the Spirit and the Soul, chapter 32: "It is the delightful admiration of clear truth." St. Bernard says: "Contemplation is the elevation of the mind suspended in God, tasting the joys of eternal sweetness." And elsewhere: "It is the true and certain gaze of the soul upon any matter, or the undoubting apprehension of truth." Richard of St. Victor: "It is the free perspicacity of the mind, suspended in wonder at the spectacles of wisdom." John Gerson, Chancellor of Paris, Book On Meditation, consideration 12, from Hugh and Richard of St. Victor: "Contemplation, he says, is the free and unimpeded gaze of the mind diffused everywhere upon things to be perceived, and it is the jubilation of the elevated mind, a kind of death of carnal desires, that is, to taste how sweet the Lord is." As David tasted in his exultation, Psalm 83: "My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God." And Psalm 72:26: "For what is there for me in heaven, and what have I desired upon earth besides You? my flesh and my heart have fainted, O God of my heart, and God is my portion forever."

Now St. Gregory, Book II, homily 14 on Ezekiel, thus describes the acts and duties of the active and contemplative life: "The active life is to give bread to the hungry, to teach the ignorant with the word of wisdom, to correct the erring, to call back the proud neighbor to the way of humility, to care for the sick, to dispense what is expedient for each individual, and to provide for those entrusted to us how they may subsist. The contemplative life is indeed to retain the charity of God and neighbor with the whole mind, but to rest from external action, to cling solely to the desire of one's Maker, so that it no longer pleases one to do anything, but with all cares trampled underfoot the soul burns with desire to see the face of its Creator; so that it now knows how to bear the weight of corruptible flesh with sorrow, and with all its desires to long to participate in those hymn-singing choirs of angels, to be mingled with the heavenly citizens, to rejoice in the eternal incorruption in the sight of God."

Furthermore, St. Thomas, II-II, Question 180, article 7: "The contemplative life, he says, consists principally in the contemplation of God, to which charity moves one." And afterward: "The contemplative life, although it principally consists in the intellect, nevertheless has its beginning in the affections; inasmuch as one is incited by charity to the contemplation of God. And because the end corresponds to the beginning, it follows that the terminus and end of the contemplative life also resides in the affections; namely when one delights in the vision of the beloved object, and that delight in the thing seen further excites love."

The contemplative life, therefore, which is to cling perpetually to God, makes a person higher than the whole world, so that one may dwell in the heavens, and with mind fixed there, may despise all earthly things, both prosperous and adverse, as though exile placed beneath one, and may esteem nothing great except God and divine things. This life is therefore the dearest spouse of God, who dwells most peacefully and most pleasantly in the meditation of divine things alone, and says: "In peace, in the selfsame, I will sleep and rest." St. Bernard gives the reason, sermon 29 on the Canticles: "The tranquil God makes all things tranquil, and to gaze upon the Quiet One is to be at rest."

The contemplative life is acquired through the active life, namely through mortification, contempt of all things that are in the world, silence, custody of the cell, and the duties of charity and the other virtues. "For just as the flower precedes the fruit, so the cenobitic life precedes the eremitic," that is, the active precedes the contemplative, says St. Sabas, as is recorded in the Life of St. John the Silentiary. Therefore St. Basil, Cassian, Dorotheus, and other ascetical writers teach that the pursuit of virtue must begin in the active and cenobitic life; from there one must proceed to the contemplative and solitary life. See among others our own James Alvarez de Paz, tome III, where he treats at length on the contemplative life, and assigns fifteen degrees of it.

Finally, note that the Church rightly and fittingly reads these words on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, both because the Blessed Virgin was the most dutiful hostess of Christ; and because she herself perfectly discharged both offices, that of Martha and that of Magdalene; and because she herself chose the best part, which shall not be taken away from her. See our Father Canisius, Book V of the Marian work, chapter 7. Hear St. Ildephonsus, sermon 5 On the Assumption: "Of her it is said, he says, she chose the best part, because she was the first of all women to offer her virginity to God, and therefore merited that the Son of God should receive from her the body of our redemption."