Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, Christ, invited by a Pharisee, heals a man with dropsy on the Sabbath, and demonstrates by an evident example to the Pharisees that this is lawful. Second, verse 7, He gives the parable of the invited guests, to show that the last place should be sought; and then He teaches that the poor should be invited, not the rich. Third, verse 16, He proposes the parable of the invited guests variously excusing themselves from the supper, and therefore excluded from it. Fourth, verse 26, He teaches that His followers must hate their parents and bear the cross. Fifth, verse 28, He proves the same by the parable of one wishing to build, and one wishing to wage war, each of whom first calculates the costs necessary for the building and the war.
We have heard the third part mostly at Matthew XXII, 2; the fourth at Matthew X, 37. Therefore the first, second, and fifth parts remain to be explained here.
Vulgate Text: Luke 14:1-35
1. And it came to pass, when Jesus entered the house of a certain ruler of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him. 2. And behold, a certain man who had dropsy was before Him. 3. And Jesus answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? 4. But they held their peace. And He taking him, healed him, and sent him away. 5. And answering them, He said: Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit, and will not immediately draw him out on the Sabbath day? 6. And they could not answer Him to these things. 7. And He spoke a parable also to them that were invited, observing how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them: 8. When you are invited to a wedding, do not sit down in the first place, lest perhaps one more honorable than you be invited by him; 9. and he that invited you and him come, and say to you: Give this man place, and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10. But when you are invited, go, sit down in the lowest place, that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you: Friend, go up higher. Then you shall have glory before those who sit at table with you: 11. because everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. 12. And He said to him also that had invited Him: When you make a dinner or a supper, do not call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor your rich neighbors, lest perhaps they also invite you again, and a recompense be made to you. 13. But when you make a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind, 14. and you shall be blessed, because they have nothing to repay you: for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just. 15. When one of those who sat at table with Him heard these things, he said to Him: Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. 16. But He said to him: A certain man made a great supper, and invited many. 17. And he sent his servant at the hour of supper to say to them that were invited, that they should come, for now all things are ready. 18. And they all began at once to make excuse. The first said to him: I have bought a farm, and I must needs go out and see it: I pray you, hold me excused. 19. And another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to try them: I pray you, hold me excused. 20. And another said: I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 21. And the servant returning, told these things to his lord. Then the master of the house being angry, said to his servant: Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the blind, and the lame. 22. And the servant said: Lord, it is done as you commanded, and yet there is room. 23. And the lord said to the servant: Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24. But I say to you, that none of those men that were invited shall taste of my supper. 25. And great multitudes went with Him, and turning, He said to them: 26. If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27. And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple. 28. For which of you, having a mind to build a tower, does not first sit down and reckon the charges that are necessary, whether he have wherewithal to finish it: 29. lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that see it begin to mock him, 30. saying: This man began to build, and was not able to finish? 31. Or what king, about to go to make war against another king, does not first sit down and think whether he be able, with ten thousand, to meet him that with twenty thousand comes against him? 32. otherwise, while the other is yet afar off, sending an embassy, he asks conditions of peace. 33. So likewise every one of you that does not renounce all that he possesses, cannot be My disciple. 34. Salt is good. But if the salt lose its savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? 35. It is neither profitable for the land nor for the dunghill, but shall be cast out. He that has ears to hear, let him hear.
Verse 1: Jesus Enters the House of a Ruler of the Pharisees
1. AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN JESUS ENTERED THE HOUSE OF A CERTAIN RULER OF THE PHARISEES ON THE SABBATH TO EAT BREAD, AND THEY WERE WATCHING HIM. 2. AND BEHOLD, A CERTAIN MAN WITH DROPSY WAS BEFORE HIM. — "Ruler," who held the chief place among the men of his order, says Titus, and was the first among his own, or the principal of the Pharisees. "In order to bring them some benefit, He makes Himself familiar and as it were domestic to them," says Titus. And St. Cyril, in the Catena: He knew indeed the malice of the Pharisees, he says, but He became their guest, so as to benefit those present by words and miracles, namely to teach them that it is lawful on the Sabbath to bestow health on the sick, and what is proper for guests and hosts to do. For this is what Christ does in what follows.
Bread. — "Bread" among the Hebrews signifies all food by synecdoche.
Man with Dropsy. — The Syriac says, who had gathered waters, that is, water under the skin. For dropsy is a disease which in Latin is called aqua intercus (water under the skin), because hydor, that is water, collects under the skin, by which the belly swells, and therefore the patient always thirsts, and the more he drinks, the more he thirsts, swells, and grows sick; of which Horace says, Book II of Odes, ode 2:
The dread dropsy grows by self-indulgence,
Nor drives away the thirst, unless the cause of the disease
Has fled from the veins, and the watery
Languor from the pale body.
The reason is that those with dropsy convert everything they drink into putrid and salty humor: therefore the more they drink, the more saltiness they acquire; and saltiness excites thirst.
This man with dropsy seems to have been a friend or acquaintance of the ruler who had invited Jesus, and perhaps the ruler had invited Jesus for this reason, so that He might heal him. Certainly the man with dropsy himself, eager for health, voluntarily presented himself to Jesus, tacitly imploring healing from Him, say Cyril and Euthymius. Even though the Pharisees with a different intent had arranged or wished him to be presented to Christ, namely to test whether He would cure him on the Sabbath, thinking that by this means He would violate the Sabbath, and therefore would not be a true Prophet sent by God, who had established the strict observance of the Sabbath.
Verse 3: Is It Lawful to Heal on the Sabbath?
3. AND JESUS ANSWERING, SPOKE TO THE LAWYERS AND PHARISEES, SAYING: IS IT LAWFUL TO HEAL ON THE SABBATH? 4. BUT THEY HELD THEIR PEACE. AND HE TAKING HIM, HEALED HIM, AND SENT HIM AWAY. — "Answering," not a spoken word or question, since none had preceded here, but their thought, by which they were thinking that it was not lawful to heal the man with dropsy on the Sabbath, and therefore that Christ, if He healed him, would be doing wrong.
IS IT LAWFUL. — That is, is it lawful?
TAKING HIM. — In Greek epilabomenos, that is, having taken hold of him, having touched him; as if to say: He healed him by touching, or by the touch of His hand He dried up the dropsy, that is, the abundance of waters with which the man with dropsy was swollen. Moreover the man with dropsy himself, says Cyril, out of fear of the Pharisees did not ask for a remedy because of the Sabbath, but stood there so that Christ, moved by compassion, would heal him.
Mystically, St. Gregory, Book XIV of the Morals: The man with dropsy is healed, he says, before the Pharisee; for by the illness of the former's body, the illness of the latter's heart is expressed, for he was laboring under the dropsy of avarice and covetousness.
Whence tropologically Bede says: The man with dropsy is one whom the overflowing flood of carnal pleasures weighs down; for it is a disease named from watery humor. But properly speaking, the man with dropsy is the avaricious rich man, who the more he abounds, the more he thirsts, says St. Augustine, Book II of Questions on the Gospels, Question XXIX.
Therefore avarice and any kind of covetousness is a mystical dropsy. First, because it is itself watery and fluid. Second, because it kindles thirst, according to the saying:
The more waters are drunk, the more they are thirsted for.
For covetousness and avarice are kindled by indulgence, and extinguished by resistance. So says St. Augustine in the place already cited. Third, dropsy induces swelling, but a watery one; so wealth makes the rich man swollen and proud, but on account of fluid and fleeting riches. Fourth, those with dropsy have fetid breath, says the Gloss, on account of the putrid and fetid waters with which they are swollen; so too the covetous exhale nothing but the foulness of their covetousness, from their mouth, countenance, and entire body. Fifth, dropsy, says Paulus Aegineta, Book III, chapter XLVIII, is contracted because an abundance of gas together with a quantity of moisture collects within the membrane (which is called the peritoneum) and the intestines, so that the abdomen when struck emits a sound like a drum: for which reason it is also called tympanites: which comes upon those suffering from bloating of the stomach, abdomen, and neck, and from prolonged fevers, but sometimes arises from hardness of the peritoneum, or of the womb in women, or from a scirrhous growth: hence the belly indeed swells, but the rest of the body, since it receives no nourishment, wastes away. Hence the body also appears with a whitish and phlegmatic color, like a dead person. So covetousness arises partly from the taste and sensation of carnal pleasures, which excite thirst for the same, and generate bad habits like corrupt humors in the belly, that is, in the appetite; partly from various and fluid imaginations of pleasures, which arouse concupiscence for them in the will: hence the appetites of concupiscence swell, but the force of mind and spirit withers, wastes away, and is consumed, so that it seems to grow pale, turn white, and resemble a dead person. Sixth, the remedy for dropsy, says Galen, is first, theriac; second, cow and goat dung; third, wild cucumber, dwarf elder root, germander, dried figs, euphorbia, flower of salt mixed with sea water, radish, lodestone, squill, sulphur, and similar things, which dry up or expel the water under the skin, especially through urine. Abstinence from liquids and drink is also an effective remedy. It is told that a certain poor man with dropsy begged a physician for a remedy for his disease; the physician, seeing that he was poor, said in jest: Abstain from drink for a year, and you will be cured. The poor man took this as if said in earnest, and with great thirst he followed through; and when the year had turned, having been restored to health, he returned to the physician and thanked him for the advice. Thus the remedy for covetousness is mortification, abstinence, continence, which dries up or drives away and expels all vicious habits.
Verse 5: An Ass or an Ox Fallen into a Pit
5. AND ANSWERING THEM, HE SAID: WHICH OF YOU SHALL HAVE AN ASS OR AN OX FALL INTO A PIT, AND WILL NOT IMMEDIATELY DRAW HIM OUT ON THE SABBATH DAY? — As if to say, says Bede: "If you on the Sabbath hasten to rescue an ass or an ox, or any animal that has fallen into a pit, taking care not for the animal but for your own avarice, how much more ought I to free a man, who is worth far more than a beast! The former is a work of covetousness, the latter of charity." Bede adds: "They were violating the Sabbath in this work of covetousness, who accused Christ of violating it in a work of charity."
Mystically Bede says: By the ox and the ass are signified the wise and the dull; or the Jews pressed under the yoke of the law, and the Gentiles tamed by no rule of reason; for the Lord draws out all who are submerged in the pit of concupiscence. Moreover St. Augustine, Book II of Questions on the Gospels: He fittingly compared the man with dropsy, he says, to an animal falling into a pit, for he was laboring under fluid; just as He compared the woman whom He loosed to a beast of burden which is loosed so that it may be led to water.
Verse 6: They Could Not Answer Him
6. AND THEY COULD NOT ANSWER HIM TO THESE THINGS. — Being convicted by manifest truth, says Euthymius; but privately among themselves they murmured against Christ, and afterwards publicly exclaimed before the people: "This man is not from God, who does not keep the Sabbath," John IX, 16. Jesus knew this; but He healed the man nevertheless, because He permitted their obstinacy and malice to increase for this purpose, that through it the cross decreed for Him by God might be prepared for the salvation of men. Not caring, says Theophylactus, about the scandal of the Pharisees: for where great benefit results, one should not be concerned if fools are scandalized.
Verse 7: A Parable to Those Who Were Invited
7. AND HE SPOKE A PARABLE ALSO TO THOSE WHO WERE INVITED, OBSERVING HOW THEY CHOSE THE FIRST SEATS, SAYING TO THEM. — He calls it a "parable," that is, a weighty teaching about avoiding ambition in any matter whatsoever, drawn from the analogy of seeking the first place at a banquet. For from the fact that Christ shows how unbecoming is the ambition for the first seat at table, He tacitly shows by analogy how the same ambition is equally unbecoming in any other matter whatsoever. For it is the same vice, even if it occurs in different subject matter.
Observing. — In Greek epecho, that is, attending, contemplating, that is, after He had noticed and considered that the Pharisees at this banquet, as also at others, according to their custom were hunting for, seizing, and occupying the first reclining places at the table. For they were proud, and thought that the first places were owed to them everywhere as teachers, and they contended and competed among themselves for these, as still happens from time to time at banquets, especially among noble ladies and men of little brain.
This is as it were a pre-parable, or prologue and heading of the parable, which indicates on what occasion and against whom the parable was spoken, namely against the Pharisees, whose ambition Christ, having observed, wished to heal and cut away by this parable.
Verse 8: Do Not Sit Down in the First Place
8. WHEN YOU ARE INVITED TO A WEDDING, DO NOT SIT DOWN IN THE FIRST PLACE, LEST PERHAPS ONE MORE HONORABLE THAN YOU BE INVITED BY HIM;
9. AND HE THAT INVITED BOTH YOU AND HIM COME AND SAY TO YOU: GIVE THIS MAN PLACE: AND THEN YOU BEGIN WITH SHAME TO TAKE THE LOWEST PLACE. — For when the host has taken the first place from you to give it to one more honorable, then the second and third guest, and all the rest who follow, diligently wishing to keep their own place, will be unwilling to yield it to you, especially as you are seen as ambitious, and therefore you will descend from the first to the lowest place with embarrassment. As if to say: Do not proudly exalt yourself, lest another, offended by your arrogance, overthrow and bring you low.
Verse 10: Friend, Go Up Higher
10. BUT WHEN YOU ARE INVITED, GO, SIT DOWN IN THE LOWEST PLACE, THAT WHEN HE WHO INVITED YOU COMES, HE MAY SAY TO YOU: FRIEND, GO UP HIGHER. THEN YOU SHALL HAVE GLORY BEFORE THOSE WHO SIT AT TABLE WITH YOU. — For hosts, being as it were masters in their own house, are accustomed to assign to each guest his proper place at the table, which formerly the master of the feast, or the director of the banquet, used to do, taking into account the dignity or age of each one. Hence the brothers of Joseph, invited by him, "sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his age," Genesis XLIII, 33. He alludes to Proverbs XXV, 6: "Do not put on airs in the king's presence, and do not stand in the place of the great. For it is better that it be said to you: Come up here, than that you be humbled before the prince." See what was said there.
Wisely therefore Titus says: "That man, he says, is prudent who, although he rightly deserves the honor of the first seat, so far from seeking it, even voluntarily defers to others. Wherefore a modest spirit, content with its own lot, is a great and splendid gift."
Then you shall have glory. — Christ teaches that the path to glory and eminence is to flee from it and to humble oneself, both because men hate the ambitious and bring them low, but raise up the modest and humble; and because true glory is that which is given, not that which is sought; and because God has so established by His eternal law that the humble are exalted and the proud are cast down. Wherefore the proud, if they are wise, conceal their pride, and outwardly humble themselves and occupy the lowest place, so that they may be heard as humble, and therefore be praised by bystanders and exalted: for if they seek and seize the first place, they will stir up rivals who will cast them down and overthrow them, whether justly or unjustly. Hear the Wise Man, Sirach III, 20: "The greater you are, humble yourself in all things, and you shall find grace before God." Where I have gathered much on this topic.
This precept of Christ, or rather counsel and teaching of wisdom, the Gentile Philosophers also taught from the light of natural reason. Plutarch, in the Banquet of the Seven Sages, introduces Thales rebuking the pride of Alexidemus, who, because he was the son of the tyrant Thrasybulus, had rushed out of the dining room because he saw that others were preferred before him in reclining, with these sharp words: "Are you really afraid that, just as the Egyptians say that stars increase or diminish in power according to the position to which they are raised or lowered, so likewise your place will bring you fame or obscurity? Surely you are worse than that Spartan who, when the prefect had assigned him the last place in a certain chorus, said: 'Well done by you, who have found a way to make even this place honorable,' since he considered that it is not the man who is adorned by the place, but rather the place that is adorned and honored by the man." Therefore we should not be concerned about what place we are seated in, or after whom, but rather that we should agree well with those with whom we recline, and immediately show that in ourselves lies the principle and occasion of friendship, since we do not resent the one who seats us, but praise the fact that he has joined us to such companions. For he who is angry on account of his place is more angry at the person next to whom he is placed than at the host or the one who seated him, and becomes hostile to both. Similar is the speech of Seneca, Book I of On Anger: "You began to be angry with the host because you were placed in a less honored position, and with the very guest who was preferred to you. Madman, what does it matter which part of the couch you press? Can a cushion make you more or less honorable?" Let guests therefore accustom themselves, without pride, and in a brotherly or friendly manner, from the very door, that is, from the beginning of the dinner, to associate and recline together.
Praiseworthy was that custom of young Romans who, as Valerius Maximus testifies, Book II, chapter 1, when invited to dinner, diligently inquired who would be present at the banquet, lest they should take their reclining place ahead of the arrival of a senior person. The following convivial precept also applies here: "Willingly yield the honor of your seat to another, and when invited to a more honorable place, courteously decline: if however someone invested with authority should frequently and seriously command it, modestly comply, lest you appear obstinate instead of civil." For honor follows him who flees from it, and flees from him who pursues it, like a shadow follows the body.
Symbolically: Religious in their Religious life fulfill that saying of Christ, "Sit down in the lowest place." For this is the lowest place, to cast oneself beneath the feet of all, and to strip oneself of all possessions and even of one's own will; for he who has retained nothing has left no lower place to which he might descend. Moreover one reclines in this place, and rests in it; for this humility is not of merely one or another action, which even some laypeople sometimes practice; but of one's entire life, since it is included in the very state of life itself, which embraces the whole of life.
Hence St. Jerome, epistle 26 addressed to Paula and Eustochium, most noble ladies, so highly recommends cooking, lighting lamps, sweeping the hearth and floors, cleaning vegetables, throwing bundles of greens into a boiling pot, setting the tables, offering cups, serving out food, running here and there, all of which works so proceed from humility that they both indicate that humility which the state of life brings, and increase the same more and more each day.
Verse 11: Everyone Who Exalts Himself Shall Be Humbled
11. BECAUSE EVERYONE WHO EXALTS HIMSELF SHALL BE HUMBLED: AND HE WHO HUMBLES HIMSELF SHALL BE EXALTED, — both by men and by God, and this often in this life, always in the life to come. This is the post-parable or conclusion of the parable, explaining its meaning, purpose, and fruit. I have explained this saying at Matthew XXIII, 12.
Verse 12: Do Not Call Your Friends or Rich Neighbors
12. AND HE SAID ALSO TO HIM THAT HAD INVITED HIM: WHEN YOU MAKE A DINNER OR A SUPPER, DO NOT CALL YOUR FRIENDS, NOR YOUR BROTHERS, NOR YOUR KINSMEN, NOR YOUR RICH NEIGHBORS: LEST PERHAPS THEY ALSO INVITE YOU AGAIN, AND A RECOMPENSE BE MADE TO YOU.
AND TO HIM WHO HAD INVITED HIM, — the ruler of the Pharisees, verse 1, to whom Christ, in return for a bodily banquet, repaid a spiritual counsel, as a kind of banquet in return. For it seems that this ruler had invited guests so that in turn he might be invited by them, says the Gloss.
DO NOT CALL YOUR FRIENDS. — Christ counsels this as something more perfect, He does not command it as something necessary. For it is lawful to invite friends, indeed it is meritorious if done out of friendship and charity. Whence Bede says: "He does not forbid brothers, friends, and the wealthy from celebrating feasts with one another as if it were a crime, but He shows that, like other dealings of human necessity, they avail nothing for meriting the rewards of heavenly life," namely of themselves, unless, as I have said, they are directed to a higher end, for example, to charity.
INVITE YOU AGAIN, — invite in return, as rich and powerful men are accustomed to do, to repay banquet with banquet, which is a human and earthly impulse, either of gratitude or of avarice. For, as St. Ambrose says: "To be hospitable to those who will repay you is a disposition of avarice."
And a recompense be made to you — by man, and one that is brief, scanty, and cheap, which if you aim at alone, you exclude the spiritual, heavenly, and eternal recompense of God, and you deprive yourself of it; but if you aim at both, you will receive both, but a lesser measure: for the one diminishes and as it were weakens the other; but if you aim at the divine alone, and the human you merely accept, or rather merely permit because it is offered, you will receive the divine recompense in its fullness.
Verse 13: Call the Poor, the Maimed, the Lame, and the Blind
13. BUT WHEN YOU MAKE A FEAST, CALL THE POOR, (namely) THE MAIMED, THE LAME, AND THE BLIND, — who on account of bodily defect are unable to work and procure food for themselves: for the rest who are able to do this should be reckoned not so much as poor but as rich.
The maimed. — In Greek anaperous, that is, maimed, mutilated, injured, either in body or in mind. St. Chrysostom gives the reason, in the Catena: "If you invite a poor man, he says, you will have God as your debtor: and the lesser the brother is, the more Christ through him approaches and visits; he who receives a great man often does it for glory or advantage. But you say: The poor man is unclean and filthy. Wash him, and make him sit at table with you; if he has dirty clothes, provide him with clean clothing; but if you do not wish to receive him upstairs in the upper room, or where the servants are, receive him; if you do not wish him to sit with you, send dishes from the table to him."
Following this counsel of Christ, St. Gregory the Pope often admitted twelve poor persons to his table, and therefore among them he merited to receive at his table Christ Himself, who had introduced Himself in the guise of a poor man. St. Louis, king of France, did the same, who daily admitted 120 poor persons, and on feast days two hundred, to his table and often served them, and even washed their feet. Following St. Louis as a kind of uncle, his nephew St. Louis, a Franciscan and Bishop of Toulouse, did likewise; also St. Hedwig, Duchess of Poland, and her granddaughter St. Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew, king of the Hungarians, who daily admitted nine hundred poor persons to her table, with a great reward of grace and divine recompense.
Mystically Origen says: "He who avoids vainglory, he says, calls to a spiritual banquet the poor, that is, the ignorant, to enrich them; the maimed, that is, those with a wounded conscience, to heal them; the lame, that is, those who turn aside from reason, so that they may walk rightly; the blind, so that they may see the truth."
Verse 14: You Shall Be Repaid at the Resurrection of the Just
14. AND YOU SHALL BE BLESSED, BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOTHING TO REPAY YOU: FOR YOU SHALL BE REPAID AT THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST, — where those who receive the poor are to be blessed, says the Interlinear Gloss. Therefore the poverty of the guests purifies the intention of the host, so that he invites the poor for no reason other than the love of God, since he hopes for nothing from the poor. Wherefore God, who considers what is done for His poor as done to Himself, may repay to that person a copious reward and the perennial delights of the heavenly banquet, according to the saying: "And I dispose to you, etc., that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom," Luke XXII, 29. Whence St. Chrysostom concludes, in the Catena: "Therefore let us not be troubled when we do not receive compensation for our beneficence, but rather when we have received it. Because if we have received it here, we shall not receive it again there; but if man does not repay, then God will repay you," for whose sake and love you conferred the benefit.
Verse 15: Blessed Is He Who Shall Eat Bread in the Kingdom of God
15. WHEN ONE OF THOSE WHO SAT AT TABLE WITH HIM HEARD THESE THINGS, HE SAID TO HIM: BLESSED IS HE WHO SHALL EAT BREAD IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD. — Namely "at the resurrection of the just," as Christ had said in the preceding verse: for hearing this and desiring it, he burst forth with this exclamation, attracted by the sweetness of the resurrection he had heard of, says the Gloss. Moreover St. Cyril, in the Catena: This man was, he says, carnal, thinking the rewards of the Saints to be bodily. He was therefore one of the Pharisees; for they believed in the resurrection, which the Sadducees denied, Acts XXIII, 8. For God feeds, satisfies, and inebriates the Blessed in heaven with all delights, according to the saying: "I shall be satisfied when Your glory shall appear." And: "They shall be inebriated with the plenty of Your house, and You shall make them drink of the torrent of Your pleasure," Psalm XXXV, 9. How great and of what kind this pleasure is, St. Augustine describes at length in the Soliloquies and in the Meditations.
Mystically: Hear St. Augustine, sermon 33 On the Words of the Lord according to Luke: "He was sighing as if toward something far off (toward heaven), and the Bread Himself was reclining before him. Who is the bread from the kingdom of God, but He who says: I am the living bread who came down from heaven?" John VI.
Verse 16: A Certain Man Made a Great Supper
16. BUT HE SAID TO HIM: A CERTAIN MAN MADE A GREAT SUPPER. — Note: This parable is virtually the same as the one in Matthew XXII, 2, but repeated by Christ in a different place, time, and manner, as I showed there.
You will ask, what is this supper? First, some understand by the supper the Incarnation, preaching, and redemption of the Word: for this is a great supper, because Christ, assuming flesh, visiting us at the end of times, invited us to Himself, namely to His Gospel, grace, and glory. For thus this supper is understood in the same or similar parable in Matthew, XXII, 1. But there it is called a dinner, here it is called a supper. The dinner is in the Church Militant, the supper in the Church Triumphant, according to the saying of Leonidas to his soldiers about to fight: "Take your dinner, fellow soldiers, for you will dine in the underworld (or rather, in heaven)." For the earthly and militant Church strives toward the heavenly and triumphant. Second, St. Cyril, in the Catena, understands by the supper the Eucharist. This man, he says, is God the Father, who prepared a great supper for us in Christ, who gave us His own Body to eat. Whence the Church reads this parable and applies it to the feast of the Venerable Sacrament. Third, and genuinely according to the literal sense: this is the blessedness and glory of heaven: for we shall enjoy this in the kingdom of God and at the resurrection of the just, as was said before: it is called a supper because it will be given in the evening, that is, at the end of life and at the end of the world, after the labors of this age, after which no other refreshment will be given, because it will itself be eternal. A great supper, says St. Gregory, homily 36, is the fullness of eternal sweetness. For, as the Gloss says, after dinner there remains supper, after supper no banquet remains; from dinner many are ejected, from supper none.
Great. — Because nothing greater or better can be conceived; for God Himself will be our dish, our food, and our feast. Whence Euthymius says: "The ineffable enjoyment of God is signified," who will refresh, satisfy, inebriate, bless, and glorify not only us, but absolutely all the blessed, so that they can wish for or desire nothing more, according to the saying: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love Him," 1 Corinthians II, 9.
AND INVITED MANY, — namely all the Jews, who were the Church and people of God; Christ invited them through Himself, through the Apostles, and through John the Baptist to the Gospel teaching and grace, and thence to the glory of the heavenly kingdom, where this supper is celebrated. For Christ first called these, and especially the chief men of the Jews, such as the Scribes, Pharisees, Priests, and Pontiffs, preaching to them: "Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," Matthew III and IV.
Verse 17: All Things Are Now Ready
17. AND HE SENT HIS SERVANT AT THE HOUR OF SUPPER TO SAY TO THEM THAT WERE INVITED, THAT THEY SHOULD COME, FOR ALL THINGS ARE NOW READY — for the heavenly feast, for eternal happiness, for the enjoyment of God. St. Augustine, sermon 34 On the Words of the Lord: "The supper being now prepared, he says, Christ having been sacrificed, after the resurrection of Christ the Apostles were sent, etc."
Verse 18: I Have Bought a Farm
18. AND THEY ALL BEGAN AT ONCE TO MAKE EXCUSE. THE FIRST SAID TO HIM: I HAVE BOUGHT A FARM (in Greek agron, that is, a field, with which a farm or country house is usually joined) AND I MUST NEEDS GO OUT AND SEE IT: I PRAY YOU, HOLD ME EXCUSED. — Here are literally indicated the Scribes and Pharisees, Priests, and Pontiffs, who, called by Christ to the Gospel, and thence to the feast of heavenly glory, neglected it, because they were wholly devoted to farms, that is, to gathering possessions and temporal goods: thus occupied with these, they had neither the inclination nor the leisure to think about the salvation of their soul and eternal happiness. "God offers, says St. Gregory, homily 36 on the Gospels (for I always mean these here, not his homilies on Ezekiel, since I am treating the Gospels), what you should have asked for; unsolicited, He wishes to give what could scarcely have been hoped for: He announces the prepared delights of eternal refreshment, and yet all at once make excuses." And again: "When he says: I pray you, and yet disdains to come: humility sounds in the voice, but pride is in the action." And again: "What is designated by the farm, if not earthly substance? He went out therefore to see the estate, because he thinks only of outward things on account of his wealth."
Aptly St. Bernard, in the Declamations, calls men who gape after riches, pleasures, honors, and ambition, madmen: "I myself once saw," he says, "five men — why should I not consider them madmen? The first, with puffed cheeks, was chewing sea sand. The second, standing by a sulphurous lake, was eagerly trying to inhale the most foul and fetid vapor it exhaled. The third, leaning over a furnace intensely kindled, rejoiced to catch the sparking embers in his gaping jaws. The fourth, sitting atop the pinnacle of the temple, drew in with open mouth the breath of the lightest breeze, and if it seemed to blow less, he himself fanned a wind with a bellows as if he hoped to swallow all the air. The fifth, set apart from the rest, laughed at the others — himself also deserving laughter, and most of all. For with an incredible zeal he labored to suck his own flesh, now applying his hands, now his arm, now other parts to his mouth." By these emblems St. Bernard signified the various kinds of sinners. For the first represents the greedy, the second the voluptuous, the third the wrathful, the fourth the ambitious, and the fifth represents men who glory most in their own affairs and are self-complacent, who always hunger after earthly goods and are never satisfied.
Verse 19: I Have Bought Five Yoke of Oxen
19. AND ANOTHER SAID: I HAVE BOUGHT FIVE YOKE OF OXEN, AND I GO TO TRY THEM: I PRAY THEE, HAVE ME EXCUSED. — He notes another species of the Pharisees' avarice, by which, on account of estates and farms, they greedily acquired even oxen and animals for cultivating their estates and for food, or for any other use (for the wealth of the ancients lay in cattle, as is evident in Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, etc.), and thus occupied with these things, they neglected Christ's teaching and His guidance to the heavenly kingdom. So Theophylactus and Titus. But Gregory, hom. 36, says: "What shall we understand by five yoke of oxen, if not the five bodily senses? which are also rightly called yokes, because they are doubled in each sex. These bodily senses, because they cannot comprehend interior things, but know only what is external, and abandoning what is inmost, touch what is outside — rightly through them curiosity is signified. Which, while it seeks to scrutinize another's life, always ignorant of its own interior, strives to think about external things."
Verse 20: I Have Married a Wife
20. AND ANOTHER SAID: I HAVE MARRIED A WIFE, AND THEREFORE I CANNOT COME. — "What is understood by the wife," says St. Gregory, hom. 36, "if not the pleasure of the flesh?" There was therefore a twofold impediment for the Pharisees, and now is for many, namely avarice and pleasure, or lust: these are the thorns that choke the word of God, according to that saying of Christ, chapter viii, verse 14: "And that which fell among thorns, these are they who have heard, and going their way are choked with the cares, and riches, and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit." But let these hear Paul admonishing, I Cor. vii, 29: "The time is short; it remains that those who have wives be as though they had none, etc.; and those who buy, as though they possessed not; and those who use this world, as though they used it not; for the fashion of this world passes away." "Let temporal things be for use, eternal things for desire," says St. Gregory, hom. 36 on this Gospel.
Moreover, marriage is not condemned here (except insofar as a mind too intent upon it is diverted from salvation), but integrity is called to a greater honor, says St. Ambrose: "The love of earthly things is birdlime for the wings of the spirit," says the Gloss from St. Gregory, and St. Gregory gives the reason: "Bodily delights," he says, "when they are not possessed, kindle desire; but when they are possessed and consumed, they breed disgust: spiritual things, however, when they are not possessed, are held in contempt; when they are possessed, they are desired." He adds the reason a priori: "In the former (bodily things) appetite begets satiety, satiety begets disgust; but in the latter, appetite begets satiety, satiety begets appetite. For spiritual delights increase desire in the mind while they satisfy: because the more their flavor is perceived, the more fully is it known how eagerly they should be loved. And therefore they cannot be loved when not possessed, because their flavor is unknown."
Somewhat differently, St. Augustine, serm. 33 On the Words of the Lord according to Luke, explains and applies these three excuses of the three men in detail: "In the purchased estate," he says, "domination is noted: therefore pride is rebuked, because having found pride, he refused to come." And shortly after: "Five yoke of oxen — the five senses of this flesh are counted. Why are they called yoke of oxen? Because through these senses of the flesh, earthly things are sought. For oxen turn the earth; and all who are remote from faith are devoted to earthly things, occupied with carnal things." And further: "Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world; for all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life (for which Augustine reads 'the ambition of the world'), I John II. The ambition of the world — 'I bought an estate.'" And further: "Let us therefore put away from our midst vain and evil excuses, and let us come to the banquet where we may be inwardly fattened. Let not the haughtiness of pride hinder us, let not illicit curiosity puff us up or terrify us and turn us from God; let not the pleasure of the flesh hinder us from the pleasure of the heart — let us come and be fattened."
Christ, when the Pharisees and the chief priests spurned the Gospel and the preaching of the kingdom of heaven, substituted for them the common people, the poor and the afflicted, according to that saying: "The publicans and the harlots shall go before you into the kingdom of God," Matt. xxi, 31; and chapter xix, verse 30: "Many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first." For even though Christ from the beginning preached to both alike, namely to the Pharisees and to the crowds, yet the Pharisees are here said to have been called first, both because this pertains to the elegance of the parable — for to banquets the honored men are usually invited first, then the common people; and because Christ wished that the Scribes, by virtue of their office, should first recognize Him and commend the One they recognized to the unlearned people. But the opposite happened because of the pride and avarice of the Scribes. "Those who refused," says Euthymius, "were the chief priests, the Scribes and the Pharisees, and all the more honorable of the people; but those who were brought in instead of them were the common, the lowly, and the plebeian." So also Titus, St. Gregory, Theophylactus and others. Indeed, "the weak things of the world, as Paul says, God chose, that He might confound the strong," I Cor. I, 27.
Symbolically, St. Augustine, serm. 34 On the Words of the Lord according to Luke, says: "And who came, if not beggars, the feeble, the lame and the blind? But those did not come — the rich, the healthy, those who seemed to walk well and see sharply, who presumed much of themselves; and the more hopeless they were, the prouder they were. Let the beggars come, because He invites who for our sake became poor, though He was rich, that by His poverty we beggars might be enriched. Let the feeble come, because it is not the healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. Let the lame come, who may say to Him: 'Direct my steps in Thy paths.' Let the blind come, who may say: 'Enlighten my eyes, lest I ever sleep in death.'" By these poor and wretched, therefore, is signified: first, that no one is to be spurned, but all are to be called to Christ and to salvation; second, that the poor obey the Gospel and are saved more easily than the rich; third, that we must not despair of the salvation of anyone, however wretched, blind, and perverse.
Verse 22: It Is Done as Thou Hast Commanded, and Yet There Is Room
22. AND THE SERVANT SAID: LORD, IT IS DONE AS THOU HAST COMMANDED, AND YET THERE IS ROOM. — As if to say: Heaven is not yet filled with those to be saved; the number of the elect is not yet completed. Note and imitate the zeal of this servant, who rejects no one — though blind, maimed, or deformed — and strives to call and save more and more.
Verse 23: Go Out into the Highways and Hedges
23. AND THE LORD SAID TO THE SERVANT: GO OUT INTO THE HIGHWAYS, AND HEDGES: AND COMPEL THEM TO COME IN, THAT MY HOUSE MAY BE FILLED. — "Go out," beyond the city, beyond Jerusalem and Judea, and call the Gentiles to Christ. Hence He says, "into the highways," or, as Matthew has it, "into the crossroads," that is, into the roads that lead to all nations and to the ends of the earth. By "hedges" He calls the country houses and villages, which are enclosed not by walls, but by rustic hedges. They denote therefore country folk, barbarians, Indians dwelling in the countryside, in forests and among hedges after the manner of beasts, who are to be called to salvation, so that the Apostles and apostolic men may go to them and preach the Gospel: which has been done, and day by day is more and more accomplished through religious and zealous men. Hence the servant does not add, "it is done," as he added concerning the Jews in verse 22; because among the Gentiles it has not yet been fully accomplished, but day by day it is more fully accomplished and perfected, nor will it be completely perfected until the end of the world. So Titus, whom hear: "It is signified that after the Israelites were brought in through faith, the people of the Gentiles also were to be called — wild in mind and savage in spirit, as if born and raised outside the cities, altogether without any civilization. For they used no good laws or customs at all, but lived after the manner of beasts in a kind of great darkness and madness of reason." The Israelites were within the city, says Theophylactus, as those who had received the law and obtained a more civilized life; but the Gentiles were strangers to the covenants and the law of God, and were not made fellow citizens of the Saints. For thus the Apostle addresses them: "At that time you were without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants, having no hope of the promise, and without God in this world," Ephes. chapter II, verse 12.
Compel them to come in. — For since many of the Gentiles were idolaters, barbarous, and bestial, they had to be called to salvation by a greater and stronger force of preaching, and as it were compelled, namely by miracles, by an ardent spirit, by plagues also and punishments sent from time to time by God, "in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power," says Paul, I Cor. chapter II, verse 4; and I Thess. I, 5: "Our Gospel," he says, "came not to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much fullness." Hence also our Suarez says: Compel them to come in, that is, either by afflicting them with labors and sorrows, or by converting them with a vehement calling and impulse, as if miraculously.
Verse 24: None of Those Men Shall Taste My Supper
24. BUT I SAY TO YOU, THAT NONE OF THOSE MEN WHO WERE CALLED (and coldly and ungratefully excused themselves), SHALL TASTE MY SUPPER. — He marks the Pharisees and the leaders of the Jews, given over to earthly riches and pleasures, as those to be excluded from heaven and the heavenly banquet, and consigned to the torments of hell, because when they were called by Christ to the evangelical teaching and life, which is the straight way leading to heaven, they refused to embrace it, according to that saying: "Because I called, and you refused, etc. I also will laugh at your destruction," Prov. I, 24. Then too late they will repent of their ingratitude and folly, and will say: "What has pride profited us? Or what has the boasting of riches brought us? All those things have passed away like a shadow," Wisdom v. Behold, all these things from verse 4 until now Christ did and said at the banquet of the Pharisee, and He came to it, having been invited, in order to instruct and correct him with all these parables. Let religious and apostolic men imitate the same, so that they do not go to banquets except for the sake of spiritual fruit.
Verse 26: If Any Man Hate Not His Father and Mother
26. IF ANY ONE COME TO ME, AND HATE NOT HIS FATHER, AND MOTHER, AND WIFE, AND CHILDREN, AND BRETHREN, AND SISTERS, YEA AND HIS OWN LIFE ALSO, HE CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE. — That is, so that he may follow Me as his master, naked following the naked; Christ said these things to the Apostles and to the seventy-two disciples; for they alone renounce all that they possess, as I said at verse 33. All these things therefore pertain to the evangelical counsels, not to the precepts; although they can also be extended to the latter, and consequently to all Christians; for these too are in their own way and order disciples of Christ: wherefore when the precept of Christ presses, they must hate and repel the love of parents, brothers, wives, etc., and even of their own life, if it is opposed to Christ and the law of Christ. Hence Maldonatus considers these to be a matter of precept, Jansenius of counsel. See what was said at Matt. x, 37. Moreover, Suarez, in his Opuscule, book II On the Concurrence of God, chapter v, says: "He who does not hate," that is, he who does not love his Father less than he loves Me. For 'to hate' sometimes means the same as 'to love less,' as "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated," that is, I loved less, Rom. IX.
Verse 28: Building a Tower — Counting the Cost
Verse 28. FOR WHICH OF YOU, WISHING TO BUILD A TOWER, DOES NOT FIRST SIT DOWN AND COMPUTE THE COSTS THAT ARE NECESSARY, WHETHER HE HAS ENOUGH TO COMPLETE IT? — In Greek τὰ πρὸς ἀπαρτισμόν, that is, those things which are required for the perfection or completion, namely of the tower: for ἀπαρτίζειν means to perfect a thing so that nothing at all is lacking.
By this parable of the tower to be built, and by the following one of the war to be waged, Christ only wishes to teach with what great prudence one should test his strength — both of body, but especially of spirit; likewise the impulse of the Holy Spirit promising sufficient forces of grace — before he builds and ascends the arduous tower of evangelical life and perfection, and declares war against friends, against himself, against passions, and against the whole world; lest, if afterwards, unequal to such duties and sinking under the burden, he should draw back, he bring upon himself the loss of wasted expenditure and the disgrace of a building and a war imprudently begun which he cannot finish. The remaining details are emblematic. Therefore one should not anxiously inquire here who this king is, what the ten or twenty thousand represent, what it means to send an embassy and ask for terms of peace. So Jansenius, Maldonatus, Barradius, Franciscus Lucas, and others.
Hence the Gloss says: He, it says, computes the costs, who discerns that money must be spent, that the heart must be turned away from desires, that the soul must be prepared against adversities. And the Interlinear Gloss says: An earthly building is constructed by gathering expenses, but a heavenly one by dispersing expenses — which words are taken from St. Gregory, homily 37.
Symbolically: our Salmeron, vol. VII, tract. 24, no. 8, says: Christ, he says, in order to teach that Prelates ought to be exercised in both action and contemplation, puts forth two parables — one about a tower to be built, which is a symbol of the contemplative life, for a tower looks far into the distance; and the other about waging war against an adversary king, by which He represents the type of the active life. For to contend with adversaries and fight against one's own desires and vices belongs to those who are beginners on the way of God and are, as it were, turning over the first elements of the perfect life.
The tower therefore is the state of Religious life and the contemplative life. First, because both are lofty and exalted; and as a tower rises above other buildings, so Religious life rises above other offices and states. Second, as a tower is the ornament of a city, so Religious life is the ornament of the Church. Third, "towers are called from toruli [little couches/lookouts], because they see out before others," says Varro, book IV On the Latin Language. Thus in Religious life and contemplation we look ahead both at the ambushes of enemies and at future and eternal goods and evils. Hence the Burgundians are named from burgi (in Greek, πύργοι), that is, towers and citadels, in which they dwelt to watch for and guard against the incursions of the Vandals, Goths, Alans, etc. Fourth, St. Isidore, book XV; Origen, chapter II: Towers, he says, are so called because they are round and tall. For teres is something round with height, like a column; for although they are built square or broad, yet to those seeing them from afar they appear round, because the image of every corner vanishes and is consumed through the long extent of air and appears round. Thus Religious life makes men round, that is, candid, easy, versatile, agile for obedience and every good. Fifth, and more truly, towers are named from tuendo [protecting], because men would flee to them to protect themselves, and there be safe from the assault of enemies: thus Religious life protects us from the devil, the flesh, and the world, from temptations and occasions of sin, and preserves the fruits of good works, according to that saying of Song of Songs IV: "Thy neck is as the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks: a thousand shields hang upon it, all the armor of valiant men" — such as are the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the examples of the brethren, the vigilance of Superiors, the rules, frequent prayer, frequent communion, confession, reading, etc. See what was said there.
As therefore towers terrify men, so Religious life terrifies demons. Hence the etymology: "Tower," it says, "is named from terrifying enemies, or because it is grim in appearance, that is, terrible." Sixth, before the building of this tower each person must explore his own strengths; for this purpose the year of novitiate is given, in which the one entering tests the Religious life, and in turn is tested by it, whether he is suited for it. Finally, the Religious, with his heart fixed in heaven, as if from the loftiest tower, looks down upon and despises all things beneath him, as trifles.
Hear St. Chrysostom, hom. 45 to the People: "Just as to those looking down from the very summit of a mountain all things appear small, and not only men and trees, but even whole cities and great armies seem to go upon the earth like ants: so to those who with uplifted mind dwell in heavenly things as if on high, all human things — power, glory, riches — appear so small and trivial that they do not even judge them worthy of applying to them this nobility of the immortal soul."
Hear also St. Gregory lamenting that from a Religious he was made Pontiff: "Desiring nothing in this world," he says, "fearing nothing, I seemed to myself to stand upon a certain summit of things, so that I almost believed to be fulfilled in me what, at the Lord's promise, I had learned from the Prophet: 'I will lift thee up above the heights of the earth.' For he is lifted above the height of the earth who tramples by the contempt of his mind even those things which seem lofty and glorious in this present age; but suddenly, driven from the summit of things by the whirlwind of this temptation, I fell into fears and terrors; because, although I fear nothing for myself, I greatly dread for those who have been committed to me." So St. Gregory, book I, epistles 3 and 6.
Verse 31: A King Going to Make War
Verse 31. OR WHAT KING, ABOUT TO GO TO MAKE WAR AGAINST ANOTHER KING, DOES NOT FIRST SIT DOWN AND CONSIDER WHETHER HE IS ABLE WITH TEN THOUSAND TO MEET HIM WHO COMES AGAINST HIM WITH TWENTY THOUSAND? — This parable of war signifies the same thing as that of the tower, verse 28, as I said. "By this is signified," says Titus, "that our struggle is with hostile powers (demons), and again with that law which rages in our members and daily stirs up very many disturbances of the soul and intestine wars." So also St. Cyril. Moreover, the fact that he sets ten thousand against twenty thousand, that is, single against double, symbolically signifies the simplicity of the Christian man who is about to fight against the duplicity of the devil. And Theophylactus says: The king, he says, is sin, the demons are his attendants, who compared with us are considered to have greater strength. Differently St. Gregory, hom. 37, says: The king who is going to come against us is Christ the judge, who will come with a double army against a single one, because He will examine us, who are scarcely prepared in deed alone, simultaneously on both deed and thought: let us therefore send an embassy to Him, namely tears, almsgiving, and sacrifices.
Verse 32: Sending an Embassy to Ask Terms of Peace
32. OTHERWISE, WHILE THE OTHER IS YET FAR OFF, SENDING AN EMBASSY, HE ASKS FOR TERMS OF PEACE. — This pertains to the emblem of the parable, and therefore is not to be adapted to the thing signified: for it is not permitted for us to make peace with demons or vices, but we must wage ἄσπονδον πόλεμον, that is, an irreconcilable war, against them. It can, however, be accommodated to the aim of Christ in this manner, as if to say: He who desires to follow Me perfectly in poverty and in the preaching of the Gospel must necessarily renounce parents, riches, friends, his own will and liberty, and thereby make them his enemies and adversaries. But if he perceives that he does not have sufficient strength for this, let him make peace with them, so that, remaining among them as a free man, he may at least embrace the evangelical precepts; but let go of the counsels of poverty, obedience, and evangelical preaching. For this is what Christ intends to signify and prove, as is evident from the conclusion which He adds in the following verse. He indicates here therefore two battle lines, two leaders, two standards — one of Christ, the other of Lucifer. Wherefore the Apostles and apostolic men must consider that in the preaching of the Gospel they are undertaking a war with Lucifer and all his followers, in order to defeat them and cast them out of the minds of men. So Cyril.
Verse 33: He That Does Not Renounce All He Possesses
33. SO LIKEWISE EVERY ONE OF YOU THAT DOES NOT RENOUNCE ALL THAT HE POSSESSES, CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE. — In Greek, πᾶσι τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ ὑπάρχουσιν, that is, all things that are his, as St. Augustine reads, epistle 38 to Latus: "In 'all things,'" he says, "is also contained this, that he should hate his father, and mother, and wife," etc.
This is the post-parable, signifying the aim, mind, and use of the parable, as if to say: Thus he who does not renounce riches and parents, and his own will and liberty, cannot be My disciple, so as to follow the evangelical life and perfection of poverty and preaching, which I profess: that is, he cannot follow the evangelical counsels so as to be My disciple, as the Apostles are. Again, he who does not wish to renounce all things when persecution or necessity demands it — as for example, if he should refuse to suffer loss of goods, parents, and life for the faith in Me — let him not take up My faith; because it is better not to begin the Christian life than to fall away and apostatize from what has been begun. For here, beyond the crime of infidelity, there is added also that of apostasy, according to that saying of II Peter, II, 21: "It were better for them not to have known the way of justice, than after having known it, to turn back from that which was delivered to them, the holy commandment."
Christ indicates that Christianity is not a children's game, but the arduous work of men, and therefore for it there is need of great grace of God and great strength and spirit of soul, such as the Christians had, especially the Romans, in the first three hundred years after Christ, who steadfastly and cheerfully poured out their fortunes, freedom, and life for the faith of Christ in the continual persecutions of the Emperors. It belongs to few, says Bede, to leave all things, that is, to set aside the cares of the world; but it belongs to all the faithful to renounce all things, that is, to hold the things of this world in such a way that they are not held by the world. Hear St. Gregory here, homily 36: "I wish to admonish you to leave all things, but I do not presume to. If therefore you cannot leave all the things of the world, hold the things of this world in such a way that you are not held by them in the world: so that earthly goods may be possessed but not possess you; so that what you have may be under the dominion of your mind, lest, if your mind is conquered by the love of earthly things, it be rather possessed by its own possessions. Let therefore the temporal thing be for use, eternal things for desire; let temporal things be on the journey, let eternal things be desired at the arrival: let whatever is done in this world be looked at, as it were, from the side; but let the eyes of the mind stretch out before us, while they gaze with full attention upon those things to which we are journeying."
Verse 34: Salt Is Good
34. SALT IS GOOD. BUT IF THE SALT LOSES ITS SAVOR, WITH WHAT SHALL IT BE SEASONED? — "Good," that is, salt is useful and effective for seasoning and preserving food, namely as long as it is salt and retains the sharp taste and vigor of salt: so you also, O Apostles, as long as you retain the vigor of the spirit, you will be useful to the world, to season it with the salt of faith and evangelical wisdom; but if you lose this spirit and become tasteless, you will be good for nothing else than to be despised and trampled upon by men, for there is no Apostle or teacher who may season or correct you. So Bede: see what was said at Matt. v, 13: "You are the salt of the earth," etc. And Mark IX, 49: "Have salt in you."
This is the third parable of salt (for the first was of building a tower, the second of waging war), from which it is clear that the two preceding ones properly pertain to the Apostles and apostolic men: for these season the world with the salt of their doctrine and holiness, and therefore follow not only the precepts but also the evangelical counsels. Secondarily, however, these can be applied to all Christians; for they ought to season the unfaithful, who are as it were tasteless, with the salt of their innocent life and good example.
Verse 35: He That Has Ears to Hear, Let Him Hear
35. HE THAT HAS EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR. — "Ears," both of the body and still more of the mind. "To hear," that is, ears suited, ready, and inclined for hearing and understanding: "let him hear," and weigh the things that I say and teach. For He arouses attention from the gravity and difficulty of the matter He proposes. See what was said at Matt. xiii, 9 and 13.