Homilies on Matthew, Homily 18

“You have heard that it has been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist evil; but whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take away your coat, let him have your cloak also.” Do you see that He was not speaking about an eye earlier, when He laid down the law to pluck out the offending eye, but about someone whose friendship harms us and throws us into the gulf of destruction? For He who speaks so forcefully here, and does not allow you to strike out another person’s eye even when that person is plucking out yours—how could He have made a law to strike out your own? But if anyone condemns the ancient law because it commands such retaliation, he seems to me to have very little understanding of the wisdom a lawgiver needs, the value of choosing the right time, or the benefit of accommodating people’s limitations. For if he considered who heard these sayings, what their disposition was, and when they received this code of laws, he would fully acknowledge the Lawgiver’s wisdom. He would see that the very same One made both those laws and these, and wrote each of them for the greatest benefit and at the proper time. Yes, for if He had introduced these lofty and most demanding commandments at the beginning, people would have accepted neither these nor the others. But by establishing each set at its proper time, He has corrected the whole world through both. Besides, He commanded this so that we would keep our hands to ourselves, rather than strike out one another’s eyes. For the threat of suffering has effectively restrained our inclination to inflict suffering. In this way He is quietly sowing the seeds of considerable self-restraint, at least by commanding retaliation with exactly the same acts. Surely the person who began such wrongdoing deserved a greater punishment, and the principle of justice itself demands this. But because He intended to mix mercy with justice, He sentences someone whose offenses were very great to a punishment less than he deserves, teaching us to show great consideration even while we suffer. So, after mentioning the ancient law and fully acknowledging it, He again indicates that it is not our brother who has done these things, but the evil one. This is why He also adds, “But I say to you, do not resist the evil one.” He did not say, “Do not resist your brother,” but “the evil one,” indicating that people dare to act this way at his prompting. In this way He softens and quietly removes most of our anger against the aggressor by transferring the blame to another. “What then?” someone asks. “Shouldn’t we resist the evil one?” Indeed we should, but not in this way. We should resist as He has commanded, by giving ourselves up to suffer unjustly, for this is how you will overcome him. One fire is not put out by another, but fire is put out by water. And to show you that even under the old law the one who suffers has the advantage and wins the crown, examine what actually happens, and you will see how great his advantage is. For the one who begins with unjust acts will himself have destroyed both people’s eyes, his neighbor’s and his own (which is why everyone rightly hates him and ten thousand accusations are aimed at him). But the injured person, even after retaliating in equal measure, will have done nothing terrible. This is also why many sympathize with him, since he is free of that offense even after retaliating. And though the calamity is equal for both parties, the judgment passed on it is not equal, either with God or with people. It seems, then, that in the end even the calamity is not equal. Earlier He said, “Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause,” and, “Whoever calls him a fool will be in danger of hell fire.” Here He requires still more complete self-restraint, commanding the person who is mistreated not merely to remain quiet, but to go even further in response by offering the other cheek. He says this not to make a law only about this particular kind of blow, but also to teach us the patience we should practice in all our other trials. Just as, when He says, “Whoever calls his brother a fool is in danger of hell,” He speaks not only of this word but of every kind of verbal abuse, so here He is making a law not so much about bravely bearing a blow as about remaining undisturbed whatever we suffer. This is why there He singled out the most extreme insult, and here He names what seems the most degrading of all blows: a blow to the cheek, so full of insolence. He commands this out of concern both for the person who strikes and for the person who is struck. For the person insulted, trained in self-restraint this way, will not think he has suffered any harm (indeed, he will not even feel the insult, since he is striving for a prize rather than receiving a blow). And the person offering the insult will be ashamed and will not strike a second time, even if he is fiercer than any wild beast; instead, he will thoroughly condemn himself for the first blow. For nothing restrains wrongdoers so much as the gentleness with which the injured bear what is done to them. It not only restrains them from going further, but also moves them to repent of what they have already done and to draw back in wonder at such patience. It brings them closer to us and turns them into slaves, not merely friends, instead of haters and enemies. Taking revenge does exactly the opposite: it disgraces both people, makes them worse, and fans their anger into a greater flame. Indeed, as things go from bad to worse, it often ends in death itself. This is why He not only forbade you to become angry when struck, but even commanded you to satisfy the other person’s desire, so that even the first blow may not seem to have fallen on you against your will. For in this way, however dead to shame he may be, you will be able to strike him a more deadly blow than if you had struck him with your hand; or, if his shamelessness is even greater, you will make him correspondingly gentle. 2. “And if anyone wants to sue you and take away your coat, let him have your cloak also.” He wants us to show this patience not only when we are struck, but also with our possessions. This is why He again uses the same forceful image. Just as in the other case He commands us to prevail through suffering, so here He commands us to do so by allowing ourselves to be deprived of more than the wrongdoer expected. But He did not state it simply that way; He added something to intensify it. He did not say, “Give your cloak to someone who asks,” but “to someone who wants to sue you,” that is, “if he drags you into court and causes you trouble.” And just as, after commanding us not to call another person a fool or become angry without cause, He went on to require more by commanding us to offer the right cheek also, so here, after saying, “Come to terms with your adversary,” He again expands the command. For now He orders us not only to give what the other person wants, but even to show greater generosity. “What then?” someone may say. “Am I supposed to go around naked?” We would not be naked if we obeyed these sayings fully; instead, we would have more clothing than anyone else. First, no one would attack people with this disposition. And second, even if someone happened to be so savage and cruel as to go that far, many more people would be found to clothe someone who practiced such self-denial, not only with garments but even with their own flesh, if that were possible. Further, even if someone had to go around naked because of this kind of self-denial, it would still be no disgrace. For Adam too was “naked” in paradise, “and was not ashamed”; Isaiah was “naked and barefoot,” and more glorious than all the Jews; and Joseph, when he stripped himself, shone more brightly than ever. Being naked in this way is no evil, but being dressed as we now are, in expensive garments, is both disgraceful and ridiculous. This is why, you see, those people received God’s praise, while He condemns these through both prophets and apostles. So let us not suppose His commands are impossible. Besides being beneficial, they are very easy if we are clear-minded, and their benefit is so great that they provide tremendous help not only to us, but also to those who mistreat us. This is their chief excellence: while they lead us to suffer wrong, through that very means they also teach the wrongdoers to control themselves. For while he thinks it a great achievement to take what belongs to others, you show him that you find it easy to give even what he does not ask for. While you counter his pettiness with generosity and his greed with wise moderation, consider what a lesson he will learn, taught by actual deeds rather than words to despise vice and pursue virtue. For God wants us to benefit not only ourselves, but all our neighbors as well. Now if you give and refrain from suing, you have sought only your own advantage. But if you give him something else as well, you have made him better too and sent him away that way. This is the nature of salt, which is what He wants them to be: it both maintains its own strength and preserves all the other substances with which it comes into contact. This is the nature of light, too, for it shows objects both to a person himself and to everyone else. Since He has placed you among these things, likewise help the person sitting in darkness, and teach him that even before, he took nothing by force. Convince him that he has done you no harm. Yes, for you yourself will also be held in greater respect and reverence if you show that you gave freely and were not robbed. Through your moderation, then, turn his sin into an instance of your own generosity. 3. And if you think this is a great thing, wait, and you will see clearly that you have still not reached perfection. For He who lays down the laws of patient endurance does not stop with you even here, but goes further, saying, “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two.” Do you see the height of self-denial? After giving your coat and your cloak, even if your enemy wants to put your naked body to hardship and labor, even then, He says, you must not refuse him. For He wants us to share everything, both our bodies and our possessions, with those who insult us as well as with those in need. Sharing with those who insult us comes from courage; sharing with those in need comes from mercy. This is why He said, “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two,” again leading you higher and commanding you to show the same eagerness to excel. For if the things He spoke of at the beginning, which are far less than these, have such great blessings pronounced on them, consider what kind of reward awaits those who carry out these commands as they should, and what they become even before receiving their rewards: in a human body capable of suffering, they gain complete freedom from passion. For when neither insults nor blows nor the plundering of their property pains them, and they yield to none of these things but greatly increase their endurance, reflect on the kind of training their soul is receiving. This, then, is why He has commanded us to act in this case just as we do when struck or deprived of our possessions. “For why,” He says, “do I mention insults and property? Even if he wants to use your very limbs for exhausting labor, and does so unjustly, once again prevail and go beyond his unjust desire.” For “to force” means to drag someone along unjustly, without any reason, and as an insult. Nevertheless, be ready at your post for this too, prepared to suffer more than the other person wants to do to you. “Give to the person who asks you, and do not turn away from the person who wants to borrow from you.” These last commands are less demanding than the earlier ones, but do not be surprised, for He always does this, mixing the small with the great. And if these are small compared with those, let those who take other people’s possessions listen, those who distribute their own among prostitutes and kindle a double fire for themselves, both through their unjust income and through their ruinous spending. But by “borrowing” here He does not mean an agreement involving interest, but simply the use of something. Elsewhere He even goes further, saying that we should give to those from whom we do not expect to receive anything. 4. “You have heard that it has been said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who mistreat you; bless those who curse you; do good to those who hate you, so that you may become like your Father who is in Heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” See how He has crowned our good deeds with the highest pinnacle. This is why He teaches us not only to endure a blow, but to offer the right cheek also; not only to add the cloak to the coat, but also to travel two miles with someone who forces you to go one: so that you might readily accept what is far greater than these. “But what,” someone may ask, “is greater than these?” Not even to regard the person doing these things as an enemy—or rather, something still greater than this. For He did not say, “Do not hate,” but “Love.” He did not say, “Do not injure,” but “Do good.” And if anyone examines this closely, he will see that something much greater is added even to these things. For He did not simply command us to love, but to pray. Do you see how many steps He has climbed, and how He has placed us at the very summit of virtue? Look closely, counting from the beginning. The first step is not to initiate injustice; the second, after the other person has begun, to defend yourself by equal retaliation; the third, not to do to the person troubling us the same thing we have suffered, but to remain quiet; the fourth, even to give yourself up to suffer unjustly; the fifth, to give up still more than the wrongdoer wants; the sixth, not to hate the person who has done this; the seventh, even to love him; the eighth, to do him good as well; the ninth, to appeal to God Himself on his behalf. Do you see the height of self-control? This is why its reward, as we see, is glorious too. Because the command was great and required a fervent soul and deep commitment, He assigns it a reward unlike any of the earlier ones. Here He mentions neither the earth, as He does for the meek, nor comfort and mercy, as for those who mourn and the merciful, nor the kingdom of Heaven, but something more thrilling than all of these: our becoming like God, in the way human beings can. For He says, “So that you may become like your Father who is in Heaven.” And notice, please, that neither here nor in the preceding passages does He call Him His own Father. When He was discussing oaths, He called Him “God” and “a great King,” and here, “their Father.” He does this because He is reserving what He has to say on these points for the proper time. 5. Then, bringing the likeness still closer, He says, “Because He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and unjust.” “For He too,” He says, “far from hating, even showers benefits on those who insult Him.” Yet surely the cases are not parallel in any respect, not only because of the surpassing greatness of His benefits, but also because of His exalted dignity. You are despised by your fellow slave, but He by His slave, who has also received ten thousand benefits from Him. And you offer words when you pray for him, but He offers deeds, very great and wonderful ones, lighting the sun and giving the yearly rains. “Nevertheless, even so, I allow you to be My equal, insofar as a human being can be.” So do not hate the person who wrongs you, who is securing such good things for you and bringing you such great honor. Do not curse the person who mistreats you, for then you have undergone the labor but are deprived of the fruit; you will bear the loss but lose the reward. This is the height of foolishness: after bearing what is more painful, refusing to bear what is less painful. “But how,” someone asks, “is this possible?” After seeing God become man, descend so far, and suffer so much for your sake, do you still ask and doubt whether it is possible to forgive your fellow servants for the wrongs they have done you? Do you not hear Him on the cross saying, “Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”? Do you not hear Paul when he says, “He who has gone up on high and is sitting at the right hand intercedes for us”? Do you not see that even after the cross, and after He had been taken up, He sent the apostles to the Jews who had killed Him to bring them His ten thousand blessings, even though the apostles would suffer ten thousand horrors at their hands? 6. But have you been greatly wronged? What have you endured like your Lord, bound, beaten with whips and rods, spat on by servants, enduring death—and the most shameful of all deaths—after showing ten thousand favors? And even if you have been greatly wronged, for this very reason above all do good to him, so that you may both make your own crown more glorious and free your brother from the worst sickness. This is also how physicians act: when the insane kick them and treat them disgracefully, they pity them all the more and take steps to cure them completely, knowing that the insult comes from the severity of their disease. Now I urge you to have the same attitude toward those who plot against you, and to treat those who injure you this way. For they above all are diseased; they are the ones suffering all the violence. Deliver him, then, from this terrible degradation, enable him to let go of his anger, and free him from that terrible demon, rage. For if we see people possessed by demons, we weep for them; we do not seek to become possessed ourselves. Let us act in the same way toward those who are angry. For the enraged truly are like the possessed—or rather, they are more miserable, since they are mad while aware of it. This is also why their frenzy has no excuse. So do not trample on the fallen person; pity him instead. For if we see someone afflicted with bile, blinded and dizzy, straining to vomit up this harmful fluid, we reach out a hand and keep supporting him through his struggles. Even if we stain our clothes, we pay no attention, but seek only one thing: how to free him from this terrible distress. Let us do this for the angry person too, and keep supporting him as he vomits and struggles. Do not let him go until he has expelled all the bitterness. Then he will feel the greatest gratitude toward you. Once he is at rest, he will clearly understand how great a trouble you have freed him from. But why do I speak of his gratitude? God will immediately crown you and repay you with ten thousand honors because you have freed your brother from a terrible disease. And that brother too will honor you as a master, always revering your patience. Do you not see how women in labor bite those standing nearby, and those people feel no pain? Or rather, they do feel pain, but bear it bravely and sympathize with those who are suffering and being torn by those pains. Imitate them yourself, and do not prove weaker than women. For after these women have given birth (for these men are more weak-minded than women), they will recognize you as a man by comparison. And if these commands are painful, consider that Christ came for this purpose: to plant these things in our minds and make us helpful to both enemies and friends. This is also why He commands us to care for both: for our brothers, when He says, "If you bring your gift"; for our enemies, when He lays down the law both to love them and to pray for them. 7. He urges them toward this not only through the example they have in God, but also through the opposite example. "For if you love those who love you," He says, "what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?" Paul also says this: "You have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed in your struggle against sin." So if you do these things, you have taken your stand with God; but if you abandon them, with the tax collectors. Do you see that the distance between the commandments is not as great as the difference between the persons? So let us not conclude, "The command is hard." Let us also consider the reward and think about whom we resemble if we carry it out properly, and whom we equal if we stray from it. Thus He commands us to be reconciled to our brother and not to stop until we have removed the hostility. But when He speaks about people generally, He no longer places us under this necessity, but requires only what we ourselves can do, making the law easy in this way too. For since He had said, "They persecuted the prophets who were before you," He commands them not only to endure those who act this way, but even to love them, so that these very words will not turn them against their persecutors. 8. Do you see how He pulls up by the roots anger and sensual desires, as well as the desire for wealth and glory, and everything that belongs to this life? He had already done this from the beginning, but now He does it much more. For the poor, the meek, and the mourner empty themselves of anger; the just and the merciful, of the desire for wealth; the pure in heart is freed from wicked desires; the person who is persecuted, insulted, and slandered is naturally practicing complete contempt for the things of this life and is free from pride and vain ambition. So, after freeing the hearer from these bonds and anointing him for the contests, He again roots out these passions in another way and with greater strictness. He began with anger and cut through the sinews of this passion on every side, saying, "Let the person who is angry with his brother, and the person who calls him a fool or ‘Raca,’ be punished"; and, "Let the person offering his gift not approach the table until he has ended the hostility"; and, "Let the person who has an adversary make his enemy a friend before he sees the court." Then He turns again to lust and says, "Let the person who looks with unchaste eyes be punished as an adulterer." If an unchaste woman, a man, or anyone else connected with him causes him to stumble, let him cut them all off. "Let the person who has a wife by lawful marriage never send her away and seek another." For by this He has pulled up the roots of wicked lust. After this He restrains the love of wealth, commanding us neither to swear nor to lie nor to cling even to the cloak we happen to be wearing, but instead to give up our coat too to the person who wants it, and our bodily service as well. In this way He completely, and more than completely, removes our longing for wealth. Then, after all these things and the varied garland of these commandments, He goes on to say, "Pray for those who mistreat you," leading us to the very highest summit of self-control. For just as being meek is less than enduring blows, being merciful less than giving your coat along with your cloak, being just less than bearing injury, and being a peacemaker less than following even when struck and forced along, so suffering persecution is less than blessing others when persecuted. Do you see how step by step He leads us up into the very vaults of Heaven? 9. What, then, can we deserve, when we are commanded to imitate God and perhaps do not even manage to equal the tax collectors? For if “loving those who love us” is what tax collectors, sinners, and pagans do, then when we do not even do this (and we do not do it as long as we envy our brothers who are honored), what punishment will we not incur, commanded as we are to surpass the scribes, yet placing ourselves below the pagans? How, then, I ask you, will we see the kingdom? How will we set foot on that holy threshold when we do not surpass even the tax collectors? For this is what He indirectly indicated when He said, “Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?” And this is especially admirable in His teaching: while in each case He describes the prizes of the contests very fully—such as “seeing God,” “inheriting the kingdom of Heaven,” “becoming sons of God” and “like God,” “obtaining mercy,” “being comforted,” and “the great reward”—whenever He must mention painful things, He does so in a subdued tone. Thus, first of all, in so many sentences He mentions the name of hell only once. In some other instances too, He corrects the hearer with restraint, as though shaping His words to shame rather than threaten him, when He says, “Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?” and, “If the salt has lost its flavor,” and, “He will be called least in the kingdom of Heaven.” And there are places where He presents the sin itself as punishment, leaving the hearer to infer how terrible the punishment is, as when He says, “He has committed adultery with her in his heart”; and, “The person who divorces her causes her to commit adultery”; and, “Anything beyond these is from the evil one.” For those who have understanding, the sheer greatness of the sin is enough to correct them, without mentioning the punishment. This is also why He brings forward the pagans and the tax collectors here, putting the disciple to shame through the character of the people mentioned. Paul did this too, saying, “Do not grieve like the rest, who have no hope”; and, “Like the Gentiles who do not know God.” And to show that He requires nothing overwhelmingly difficult, but only a little more than was customary, He says, “Don’t even the Gentiles do the same?” Nevertheless, He does not stop speaking here, but ends it with His rewards and those good hopes, saying, “Therefore be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is.” And everywhere He repeatedly mentions the heavens, lifting their minds high by naming that very place. For at that point, for some reason I do not know, they were still rather weak and dull. 10. So, keeping in mind everything that has been said, let us show great love even toward our enemies. Let us abandon that ridiculous custom to which many thoughtless people give way: waiting for those they meet to greet them first. They have no enthusiasm for what carries a great blessing, but pursue what is ridiculous. Why, then, don’t you greet him first? “Because he is waiting for that,” comes the reply. But that is the very reason you should hurry forward to him, so that you may win the crown. “No,” he says, “because that was his aim.” And what could be worse than this foolishness? In other words, he says, “Because his aim was to secure a reward for me, I will not act on what he has suggested.” Now if he greets you first, you gain nothing even if you greet him in return. But if you are the first to hurry forward and speak to him, you have profited from his pride and, in a sense, gathered abundant fruit from his stubbornness. What is this but the height of foolishness: to give up the gain when we can reap such abundant fruit from mere words, and while condemning him, to stumble over the very same thing? For if you blame him for waiting to be greeted first by someone else, why do you imitate the very thing you condemn? Why imitate as good the very thing you said was evil? Do you see that nothing is more senseless than a person who keeps company with wickedness? So I beg you, let us flee this evil and ridiculous practice. For this plague has destroyed ten thousand friendships and created many hostilities. For this reason, then, let us greet them first. Since we are commanded to endure blows, forced journeys, and being stripped by enemies, what kind of pardon should we deserve if we are so quarrelsome over a simple greeting? 11. “Why,” someone says, “the moment we yield to him on this, we are despised and spat on.” And to keep a person from despising you, do you offend God? To keep your frenzied fellow servant from despising you, do you despise the Lord who has bestowed such great benefits on you? If it is wrong for your equal to despise you, how much more wrong is it for you to despise the God who made you? Along with this, consider the other point as well: when he despises you, at that very moment he is working to secure a greater reward for you. For you submit to it for God’s sake because you have listened to His laws. What honor does this not equal? How many crowns? May I be insulted and despised for God’s sake rather than honored by all kings, for nothing, nothing equals this glory. Let us pursue this, then, just as He Himself commanded, giving no weight to human affairs but showing perfect self-restraint in everything. Let us direct our lives this way. For then, even now, from this very moment, we will enjoy the good things of the heavens and the crowns that are there, walking as angels among people, moving about on earth like the angelic powers, and remaining free from all lust and all turmoil. And along with all these things, we will also receive the inexpressible blessings. May we all attain them through the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power and worship, with the unoriginate Father and the Holy and Good Spirit, now and always, forever and ever. Amen.