Homilies on Matthew, Homily 62

“And it happened that when Jesus had finished these sayings, He left Galilee and came into the regions of Judea beyond the Jordan.” After repeatedly leaving Judea because of those men’s envy, He now visits it often, because the passion was drawing near. For a while, however, He does not go up to Jerusalem, but “into the regions of Judea.” “And,” when He arrived, “great crowds followed Him, and He healed them.” He does not always keep teaching with words or always keep performing miraculous signs. Instead, He does one and then the other, working in different ways for the salvation of those who attend Him and follow Him. Through the miracles, He shows Himself to be a Teacher whose words deserve belief, and through His teaching, He increases the benefit they receive from the miracles. In this way He leads them by the hand to the knowledge of God. But please notice this too: the disciples pass over whole crowds in a single word, without naming each person who was healed. They did not say that this person and that person were healed, but that many were, teaching us to avoid showing off. Christ, however, healed them to benefit both them and, through them, many others. For the healing of these people’s infirmities became a foundation for others’ knowledge of God. But it did not have that effect on the Pharisees. This very thing made them even fiercer, and they came to Him to test Him. Since they could not find fault with the works He was doing, they put questions to Him. For they “came to Him and, testing Him, said, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?” What foolishness! They thought they could silence Him with their questions, although they had already received clear proof of His ability to silence them. When they argued at length about the Sabbath, when they said, “He blasphemes,” when they said, “He has a demon,” when they criticized His disciples as they walked through the grainfields, when they argued about unwashed hands—on every occasion He sewed their mouths shut and silenced their shameless tongues, and then sent them away. Yet even this did not make them keep away from Him. Such is wickedness, such is envy: shameless and bold. Even if it is silenced ten thousand times, it attacks again ten thousand times. But please notice their cunning too, in the form of their question. They did not say to Him, You commanded us not to divorce a wife, although He had already spoken about this law. They made no mention of those words. Instead, taking their opportunity from this subject, thinking to make their trap greater, and intending to force Him to contradict the law, they did not say, Why did You establish this or that? As though nothing had been said, they asked, “Is it lawful?” They expected Him to have forgotten what He had said. If He said, “It is lawful to divorce,” they were ready to confront Him with His own words and say, How, then, did You assert the opposite? But if He repeated what He had said before, they were ready to confront Him with the words of Moses. What, then, did He say? He did not say, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” Although He says this later, He does not speak that way here. Why is that? So that He might show His gentleness along with His power. He does not always remain silent, so that they will not suppose their intentions are hidden; nor does He always rebuke them, so that He may teach us to bear everything with gentleness. How, then, does He answer them? “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two will be one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate.” See the wisdom of a teacher. When asked, Is it lawful? He did not immediately say, It is not lawful, so that they would not become agitated and confused. Before giving His decision, He made it clear through His argument, showing that this too is His Father’s commandment, and that He gave these commands in full agreement with Moses, without opposing him. But notice how forcefully He argues, both from creation and from His command. He did not merely say that He made one man and one woman, but that He also gave this command: the one man should be joined to the one woman. If He had intended the man to divorce this woman and bring in another, then when He made one man, He would have formed many women. But as it is, both by the manner of creation and by the way He gave the law, He showed that one man must live with one woman continually and never separate from her. And see how He says, “He who made them at the beginning made them male and female.” That is, they sprang from one root and came together into one body, “for the two will be one flesh.” After this, to make criticizing this law a fearful thing and to confirm the law, He did not say, “Therefore, do not divide or separate,” but, “What God has joined together, let no man separate.” But if you bring up Moses, I tell you about Moses’ Lord, and along with this, I also appeal to the time when it happened. For at the beginning God made them male and female, and this law is older (although it may seem to have been introduced by Me just now), and was established with great insistence. He not only brought the woman to the man, but also commanded him to leave his father and mother. And He did not merely make it a law for him to come to the woman, but also “to cling to her,” indicating by His choice of words that they must not be separated. Even this did not satisfy Him; He sought another, greater union as well: “for the two,” He says, “will be one flesh.” Then, after reciting the ancient law, which had been introduced through both deeds and words, and showing that it deserved respect because of its giver, He Himself goes on to interpret it and give the law with authority, saying, “So they are no longer two, but one flesh.” Just as cutting flesh apart is a horrible thing, so divorcing a wife is unlawful. He did not stop there, but brought God into the argument as well by saying, “Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate.” He showed that the act was against both nature and law: against nature, because one flesh is cut apart; against law, because when God has joined it together and commanded that it not be divided, you conspire to do this. 2. What, then, should they have done after this? Shouldn’t they have kept silent and praised His words? Shouldn’t they have marveled at His wisdom? Shouldn’t they have stood amazed at His agreement with the Father? But they do none of these things. Instead, as though they were defending the law, they say, “How, then, did Moses command a man to give a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Yet by now they should not have been the ones to bring this up; He should have brought it up to them. Nevertheless, He does not use His advantage against them or say to them, “I am not bound by this now,” but resolves this difficulty too. Indeed, if He had been a stranger to the old covenant, He would not have defended Moses or based His argument on the things done once for all at the beginning. He would not have taken care to show that His own commands agreed with the earlier commands. And Moses had given many other commandments as well, both about foods and about the Sabbath. Why, then, do they never appeal to him as they do here? Because they wanted to turn the many husbands against Him. For among the Jews divorce was considered neither right nor wrong, and everyone was accustomed to doing it. That is why, although so many things had been said on the mount, this was the only commandment they now remembered. Nevertheless, His wisdom beyond words offers a defense even of these things, and He says, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts,” made the law this way. He does not even allow Moses to remain under accusation, since He Himself had given him the law. Instead, He clears him of the charge and turns it all back on their own heads, as He does everywhere. For again, when they blamed His disciples for picking heads of grain, He showed that they themselves were guilty. And when they charged the disciples with breaking the law by not washing their hands, He showed that they themselves were the lawbreakers. He did the same concerning the Sabbath: everywhere, and here as well. Then, because His statement was hard to bear and placed so much blame on them, He quickly brings His discussion back to that ancient law, saying, as He had said before, “But in the beginning it was not so.” That is, through His acts at the beginning, God ordained the opposite. Here again He stops their mouths, so that they cannot say, How is it clear that “Moses said this because of our hardness”? For if this had been the original law, and for our good, that other law would not have been given at the beginning. God would not have created as He did or said such things. “But I say to you, Whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery.” Once He had stopped their mouths, He gave the law with His own authority, just as He did concerning foods and concerning the Sabbath. For concerning foods too, only after He had defeated their arguments did He declare to the crowd, “It is not what goes in that defiles a man.” And concerning the Sabbath, after He had stopped their mouths, He said, “Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day.” Here He does the very same thing. But what took place there happened here too. Just as there, after the Jews had been silenced, the disciples were troubled and came to Him with Peter and said, “Explain this parable to us,” so now they too were troubled and said, “If this is the man’s situation, it is good not to marry.” For now they understood His saying better than before. At that time they had kept silent, but now, after objections, answers, questions, and learning through His replies had made the law clearer, they questioned Him. They did not dare contradict Him openly, but brought forward what seemed to be a painful and distressing consequence, saying, “If this is the man’s situation with his wife, it is not good to marry.” For it did seem very hard to have a wife full of every bad quality and to endure a wild beast constantly shut up with you in the house. And to let you know how greatly this troubled them, Mark says that they spoke to Him privately. 3. But what does “If this is the man’s situation with his wife” mean? It means that if he is joined to her for this purpose, that they should be one—or, on the other hand, if the man brings blame on himself over these things and always transgresses by divorcing—it would be easier to fight against natural desire and against oneself than against a wicked woman. What, then, does Christ say? He did not say, “Yes, it is easier, so do that,” so that they would not suppose it was a law. Instead, He added, “Not all men accept it, but those to whom it is given,” elevating it and showing that it is a great thing, and in this way drawing them on and encouraging them. But notice a contradiction here. He says this is a great thing, while they say it is easier. Both things needed to be done: He needed to acknowledge it as a great thing, to make them more eager, while their own words needed to show that it was easier, so that on this ground too they would be more inclined to choose virginity and sexual abstinence. Since speaking of virginity seemed burdensome, He used the constraint of this law to drive them to desire it. Then, to show that it is possible, He says, “There are some eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb, there are some eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven.” By these words He quietly leads them to choose it and establishes that this virtue is possible, all but saying, Consider: if you had been in this condition by nature, or had suffered this very thing at the hands of those who inflict such deliberately cruel injuries, what would you have done, deprived of the enjoyment yet receiving no reward? So thank God now that you undergo with rewards and crowns what those men endure without crowns. Or rather, you do not even undergo the same thing, but something much lighter, supported both by hope and by the awareness of your good work, without desire raging like waves within you. For cutting off a body part cannot subdue such waves and bring calm as the restraint of reason can. Or rather, reason alone can do this. That is why He brought up those others: to encourage these men. If this was not what He was establishing, what would His words about the other eunuchs mean? But when He says that they made themselves eunuchs, He does not mean cutting off their body parts—far from it—but getting rid of wicked thoughts. For the man who has mutilated himself is actually subject to a curse, as Paul says, “I wish those who trouble you would even be cut off.” And with good reason. Such a person dares to commit the deeds of murderers, gives an opening to those who slander God’s creation, opens the mouths of the Manichaeans, and is guilty of the same unlawful acts as those who mutilate themselves among the Greeks. For cutting off our body parts has from the beginning been the work of demons and a scheme of Satan, so that they may bring God’s work into disrepute and ruin this living creature. By attributing everything to the nature of our body parts rather than to our choice, they aim to make most people sin without concern, as though they were not responsible, and to harm this living creature in two ways: by mutilating its body parts and by hindering our eagerness to choose freely to do good deeds. These are the devil’s ordinances. Besides the things we have mentioned, they introduce another wicked doctrine, using this very practice to prepare the way for arguments about fate and necessity. Everywhere they undermine the freedom God has given us and persuade us that evil deeds come from nature, in this way secretly planting many other wicked doctrines, although not openly. Such are the devil’s poisons. So I beg you to flee from such lawlessness. For besides the things I have mentioned, the force of lust does not become milder through this, but even fiercer. The seed within us has its sources elsewhere, and its waves swell from another cause. Some say this violent impulse originates in the brain, others in the loins. But I would say it comes from nothing other than an ungoverned will and a neglected mind. If the mind is self-controlled, the movements of nature produce no evil result. After speaking, then, of those whose being eunuchs is pointless and fruitless unless they too practice self-control in their minds, and of those who are virgins for Heaven’s sake, He goes on to say again, “Let the one who is able to accept it accept it.” He both makes them more eager by showing the extraordinary greatness of the good work and, because of His gentleness beyond words, refuses to confine it within the compulsion of a law. He said this after showing that it was entirely possible, so that their freely chosen eagerness might be greater. But if it is a matter of free choice, someone may ask, how does He say at the beginning, “Not all men accept it, but those to whom it is given”? So that you may learn that the struggle is great, not suspect that anyone is assigned to it by compulsion. For it is given to those who are willing. He spoke this way to show that anyone who enters this contest needs much help from above, and whoever is willing will certainly receive it. For He commonly uses this way of speaking when the good work is great, as when He says, “To you it is given to know the mysteries.” That this is true is clear even from the present example. For if it depended only on the gift from above, and those who live as virgins contributed nothing themselves, He would have had no reason to promise them the kingdom of Heaven and distinguish them from the other eunuchs. But please notice how some people gain from other people’s wicked actions. I mean that the Jews went away having learned nothing, since they had not asked with the intention of learning, but the disciples gained even from this. 4. “Then little children were brought to Him, so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. But He said to them, Let the little children come to Me, for the kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these. And He laid His hands on them and left that place.” And why did the disciples turn the little children away? Out of concern for dignity. What, then, does He do? To teach them humility and to trample worldly pride underfoot, He welcomes the children, takes them in His arms, and promises the kingdom to those like them. He had said something like this before as well. So if we too want to inherit the Heavens, let us work very diligently to acquire this virtue. For this is the height of true wisdom: to be simple with understanding. This is the life of angels. Yes, for the soul of a little child is free from all the passions. He bears no resentment toward those who have upset him, but goes to them as friends, as though nothing had happened. And however much his mother beats him, he seeks her out and prefers her to everyone. Even if you show him the queen wearing a crown, he does not prefer her to his mother dressed in rags. He would rather see his mother in those rags than the queen in her splendor. For he distinguishes what belongs to him from what is foreign to him by friendship, rather than by poverty and wealth. And he seeks nothing beyond what he needs: only to be satisfied at the breast, and then he stops nursing. The young child is not distressed by the things that distress us, such as losing money and things like that. Nor does he rejoice in what makes us rejoice, namely these passing things; he has no eager interest in people’s beauty. That is why He said, “The kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these”: so that we should practice by choice what young children possess by nature. Since cunning and pride were the chief reasons the Pharisees did what they did, He continually commands the disciples to be sincere, indirectly pointing to those men while instructing these. For nothing makes people so arrogant as power and superior rank. Since the disciples were going to enjoy great honors throughout the world, He prepares their minds in advance, allowing them neither to think in a merely human way, nor to demand honors from the crowds, nor to have people clear the way before them. For although these seem like little things, they cause great evils. The Pharisees, at least, trained in this way, were carried to the very height of evil, seeking greetings, the seats of highest honor, and the central places. From these they were cast onto the shoal of their mad desire for glory, and from there into impiety. So those men went away having brought a curse on themselves by their testing, while the little children received a blessing, since they were free from all these things. So let us too be like little children, and “in malice let us be infants.” For it is impossible, impossible, to see Heaven otherwise; the cunning and wicked must surely be cast into hell. 5. And even before hell, we will suffer the worst evils here. “For if you are evil,” it says, “you alone will endure the evil; but if you are good, it is for yourself and for your neighbor.” Notice, at any rate, how this happened in the earlier examples too. For no one was more wicked than Saul, and no one simpler and more sincere than David. Which, then, was stronger? Didn’t David have him in his hands twice and refrain from killing him when he had the power to do so? Didn’t he have him shut up as though in a net and a prison, and spare him? And this happened when others were urging him on and he himself could bring countless charges against Saul. Yet he let him go away safe. The other man was pursuing him with his entire army, while he wandered from place to place with a few desperate fugitives. Nevertheless, the fugitive had the advantage over the king, because one entered the conflict with simplicity, the other with wickedness. For what could be more wicked than Saul, who tried to kill David while David was leading Saul’s armies, bringing all his wars to a successful conclusion, doing the hard work of winning victories and trophies, yet bringing the crowns to Saul? 6. Such is the nature of envy: it is always plotting against its own honors, wasting away the person who has it, and surrounding him with countless calamities. That miserable man, for example, did not burst into that pitiful cry, mourning for himself and saying, “I am in great distress, and the Philistines are making war against me, and the Lord has left me,” until David had departed. Until he was separated from David, he did not fall in war, but enjoyed both safety and glory; for the commander’s glory passed to the king. David had no inclination to seize power and made no attempt to remove Saul from his throne. Instead, he accomplished everything for him and was devoted to him, as even later events make clear. While he served under Saul, anyone who did not examine the matter carefully might perhaps suppose that these things reflected a subject’s usual conduct. But after he had withdrawn from Saul’s kingdom, what was there to restrain him, even from killing Saul? Hadn’t Saul treated him wickedly once, twice, and many times? Wasn’t it after receiving benefits from him? Wasn’t it without having anything to accuse him of? Didn’t Saul’s kingship and safety mean danger and insecurity for David himself? As long as the other man lived and reigned, didn’t David have to wander as a fugitive and tremble in fear of the worst evils? Yet none of these things compelled him to stain his sword with blood. When he saw Saul asleep, bound, alone, and among his own men, and had touched his head, and when many were urging him on and saying that this favorable opportunity was a judgment of God, he immediately rebuked those urging him on, refrained from murder, and sent him away safe and well. And he rebuked the army for their betrayal of the king as though he were Saul’s bodyguard and shield-bearer, rather than his enemy. What could equal this soul? What could equal that gentleness? We can see this even from what has been mentioned, but much more from what people do now. For when we consider our own wickedness, we will understand more fully the virtue of those saints. So I urge you to make every effort to imitate them. For if you love glory and are plotting against your neighbor for that reason, you will enjoy it more abundantly when you reject it and refrain from plotting. Just as greed works against becoming rich, so loving glory works against obtaining glory. If you like, let us examine each of these. Since we have no fear of hell and little regard for the kingdom, come, let us lead you on even through the things of this present life. Tell me, who makes themselves ridiculous? Isn’t it those who do anything for the sake of glory from the crowd? And who receives praise? Isn’t it those who reject the crowd’s praise? So if craving empty glory deserves criticism, and the man who craves it cannot hide his craving, he will certainly be criticized, and his love of glory has become a cause of dishonor to him. He disgraces himself not only in this respect, but also because he is compelled to do many shameful things, full of the utmost disgrace. In the same way, when it comes to their earnings, people commonly suffer more harm from the disease of greed than from anything else. They fall victim to many tricks and suffer great losses for the sake of small gains, which is why this saying has even become a proverb. Likewise, the pleasure-seeker’s passion becomes an obstacle to enjoying his pleasure. Those who are excessively given over to it and are slaves to women are the very ones women lead around as servants. They will never grant them the dignity of treating them as men, but slap them, kick them away, lead them and take them everywhere, put on airs, and simply give them orders in everything. In the same way, nothing is more contemptible and dishonored than the person who is arrogant, mad for glory, and thinks highly of himself. For human beings love to quarrel, and they oppose nothing so strongly as someone who boasts, treats others with contempt, and is a slave to glory. And he himself, to maintain the appearance of his pride, acts like a slave to ordinary people, flattering them and courting their favor, enduring a slavery harsher than that of someone bought with money. Knowing all this, then, let us put aside these passions, so that we do not both pay a penalty here and suffer endless punishment there. Let us become lovers of virtue. For in this way, even before reaching the kingdom, we will reap the greatest benefits here, and when we depart for that place, we will share in the eternal blessings. May God grant that we all attain them through the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might forever and ever. Amen.