Homilies on Matthew, Homily 77

“Now learn a parable from the fig tree: when its branch is still tender and puts out leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things, know that it is near, right at the doors.” Since He had said, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days,” but they were asking how much time would pass before this happened and wanted to know the exact day, He also gives the comparison with the fig tree, showing that the interval would not be long, but that His coming would follow quickly. He declared this not only through the parable but also through the words that follow: “Know that it is near, right at the doors.” Through this He also foretells something else: a spiritual summer and a calm that will come on that day for the righteous (after the present storm). But for sinners the opposite will come: winter after summer. He declares this in what follows, saying that the day will come upon them while they are living in luxury. But He did not introduce this image of the fig tree only to explain the interval; He could have shown them that in other ways as well. He also meant to confirm through it that His words would certainly come true. For just as this happens inevitably with the fig tree, so will that. Whenever He wants to speak of something that will certainly happen, He points to the inevitable processes of nature; and blessed Paul imitates Him in this. So, when speaking of His resurrection, He says, “When the grain of wheat falls into the earth, unless it dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” Having learned from this, blessed Paul uses the same comparison when reasoning with the Corinthians about the resurrection: “You fool,” he says, “what you sow does not come to life unless it dies.” After this, to keep them from immediately returning to the question, “When?” He reminds them of what He has said: “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things are fulfilled!” All these things. What things, tell me? Those concerning Jerusalem, the wars, the famines, the plagues, the earthquakes, the false Christs, the false prophets, the spreading of the gospel everywhere, the uprisings, the disturbances, and everything else that we said would happen until His coming. How, then, someone may ask, could He say, “This generation”? He was speaking of the generation of believers, not the generation then alive. For He regularly distinguishes a generation not only by its time but also by its way of worshiping and living, as when He says, “This is the generation of those who seek the Lord.” What He said above, “All these things must happen,” and again, “The gospel will be preached,” He declares here as well: all these things will certainly happen, and the generation of the faithful will remain, destroyed by none of the things He has mentioned. For Jerusalem will perish, and most of the Jews will be destroyed, but nothing will prevail over this generation: not famine, not plague, not earthquake, not the turmoil of wars, not false Christs, not false prophets, not deceivers, not traitors, not those who cause others to stumble, not false brothers, nor any other trial of this kind. Then, to strengthen their faith further, He says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” That is, it would be easier for these firm, fixed, immovable bodies to be wiped out than for any of My words to fall to the ground. Let anyone who disputes these things test His sayings. When he finds them true in what has already happened—for he certainly will—let him also believe what is still to come. Let him examine everything carefully, and he will see actual events testifying to the truth of the prophecy. He has brought forward the elements both to declare that the church is more honored than Heaven and earth and to show through this as well that He Himself is the maker of all things. For since He was speaking about the end, which many disbelieve, He brought forward Heaven and earth, revealing His indescribable power and showing with great authority that He is Lord of all. Through these things He makes His words credible even to those who are very prone to doubt. “But no one knows that day and hour, not even the angels of Heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” By saying, “Not the angels,” He silenced them, so that they would not seek to learn what even those angels do not know. And by saying, “Neither the Son,” He forbids them not only to learn it but even to ask about it. To see that this is why He said it, notice how, after His resurrection, when He saw that they had become excessively curious, He silenced them more firmly. Here He has mentioned many unmistakable signs, too many to count; but then He simply says, “It is not for you to know times or seasons.” Then, so that they would not say, “We are left bewildered; we are utterly despised; we are not considered worthy even of this,” He says, “Which the Father has placed within His own power.” He did this because He was extremely careful to honor them and hide nothing from them. So He refers it to His Father, both to inspire awe and to place what He had spoken of beyond their questioning. For if this is not the reason, but He is ignorant of it, when will He know it? At the same time as we do? But who would say that? He knows the Father clearly, just as clearly as the Father knows the Son; yet is He ignorant of the day? Moreover, “The Spirit searches even the deep things of God,” and does He not know even the time of the judgment? He knows how He must judge and fully understands each person's secrets; could He be ignorant of something far more ordinary than that? And if “all things were made by Him, and without Him not even one thing was made,” how could He be ignorant of the day? For He who made the worlds plainly made the times as well; and if He made the times, He also made that day. How, then, is He ignorant of what He made? 2. You claim that you know even His substance, yet that the Son does not know even the day—the Son who is always in the Father's bosom. And yet His substance is much greater than the days, infinitely greater. How, then, can you claim the greater things for yourselves while refusing to allow even the lesser to the Son, “in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden”? But you do not know what God is in His substance, even if you make this insane claim ten thousand times; nor is the Son ignorant of the day. He knows it with complete certainty. This, I say, is why, after telling them everything, both the times and the seasons, and bringing it right to the doors (“for it is near,” He says, “right at the doors”), He said nothing about the day. For if you ask about the day and hour, He says, you will not hear them from Me; but if you ask about the times and the events leading up to it, I will hide nothing and tell you everything exactly. I have shown in many ways that I am not ignorant of it: I have mentioned the intervals, everything that will happen, and how short the time is from now until the day itself (for this is what the parable of the fig tree indicated). I lead you right to the entrance; and if I do not open the doors for you, I do this too for your good. To learn from something else as well that His silence does not indicate ignorance, notice, along with what we have mentioned, how He gives another sign: “But as in the days of Noah they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day the flood came and swept them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” He said this to show that He would come suddenly and unexpectedly, while most people were living in luxury. For Paul says this too, writing, “When they speak of peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them.” And to show how unexpected it will be, He said, “Like labor pains upon a pregnant woman.” How, then, does He say, “After the tribulation of those days”? For if there is luxury then, and peace and safety, as Paul says, how does He say, “After the tribulation of those days”? If there is luxury, how is there tribulation? There is luxury for those who are oblivious and at peace. That is why He did not say, “When there is peace,” but, “When they speak of peace and safety,” showing that they are as oblivious as the people in Noah's time, who lived in luxury amid such evils. But the righteous were not like this; they spent their time in tribulation and sorrow. Through this He shows that when Antichrist comes, the pursuit of unlawful pleasures will become more intense among transgressors and those who have learned to despair of their own salvation. Then there will be gluttony, then revelry and drunkenness. That is why He gives an example that fits the situation so well. For just as they did not believe while the ark was being built, He says, but lived in pleasure when they saw it standing among them, proclaiming beforehand the evils to come, as though nothing terrible were about to happen, so it will be now. Antichrist will indeed appear, followed by the end, the punishments at the end, and unbearable vengeance; but those held captive by the intoxication of wickedness will not even recognize the terrible nature of what is about to happen. That is why Paul also says, “Like labor pains upon a pregnant woman”: that is how those fearful, incurable evils will come upon them. And why did He not speak of the disasters in Sodom? He wanted to introduce an example that embraced all humanity and was disbelieved after it had been foretold. So, since most people disbelieve what is to come, He confirms it through the past, striking fear into their minds. Along with the points I have mentioned, He also shows that He was the one who brought about those earlier events. Then He gives another sign. Through all these things He makes it clear that He is not ignorant of the day. And what is the sign? “Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. So keep watch, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.” All these things both prove that He knew and are intended to turn them away from their questioning. This is also why He spoke of the days of Noah, and why He said, “Two will be on the bed,” indicating that He would come upon them unexpectedly, while they were so unconcerned. And “two women grinding at the mill” is itself an occupation that does not suggest they are thinking about what is coming. Along with this, He declares that servants as well as masters will be both taken and left, those at ease as well as those at work, people from both ranks. It is just as He says in the Old Testament, “From the one who sits on the throne to the captive woman at the mill.” For since He had said that the rich are saved only with difficulty, He shows that even they are not all lost, nor are all the poor saved, but that people from both groups are saved and lost. And He seems to me to be declaring that His coming will be at night. For Luke says this too. Do you see how precisely He knows everything? After this, again to keep them from asking about it, He added, “So keep watch, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.” He did not say, “I do not know,” but, “You do not know.” For after bringing them very nearly to the hour itself and placing them there, He again discourages their questioning, because He wants them to keep striving at all times. That is why He says, “Keep watch,” showing that this is why He did not tell them. “But know this: if the master of the house had known during which watch the thief would come, he would have kept watch and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. So you too must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” This is why He does not tell them: so that they will keep watch and always be ready. That is why He says, “He will come when you do not expect Him,” because He wants them to wait in anxious anticipation and continually practice virtue. His meaning is this: if ordinary people knew when they were going to die, they would certainly strive earnestly at that hour. 3. So, to make them strive at other times as well as at that hour, He tells them neither the hour of the end for everyone nor the hour of each person's death. He wants them always to expect it, so that they will always strive. That is why He also made the end of each person's life uncertain. After this, He openly calls Himself Lord, having nowhere spoken so plainly. But here He also seems to me to shame the careless, because they do not take even as much care of their own souls as people expecting a thief take of their money. For when those people expect a thief, they keep watch and allow nothing in their house to be carried away. But you, He says, although you know that He will certainly come, fail to keep watch and stay ready to avoid being carried away from here unprepared. So the day brings destruction to those who sleep. For just as that man would have escaped if he had known, so you too will escape unharmed if you are ready. Then, since He has come to mention the judgment, He next directs His words to the teachers, speaking of punishment and honors. He puts those who do right first and ends with those who persist in sin, closing His teaching with something alarming. So He first says this: “Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant whom his Lord will put in charge of His household, to give them their food at their proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord finds doing this when He comes. Truly I tell you, He will put him in charge of all His possessions.” Tell me, is this too the language of someone who is ignorant? For if you say He is ignorant because He said, “Neither does the Son know,” what will you say when He asks, “Who, then?” Will you say He is ignorant of this too? Reject the thought. Not even someone out of his mind would say that. And yet in the earlier case someone might offer an explanation; here, not even that is possible. And what about when He asked, “Peter, do you love Me?” Did He not know even this? Or when He said, “Where have you laid him?” And the Father too will be found saying such things. For He Himself likewise says, “Adam, where are you?” and, “The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has grown great before Me. So I will go down and see whether their deeds match the cry that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.” Elsewhere He says, “Whether they will hear, whether they will understand.” And in the gospel too, “Perhaps they will respect My Son.” All these are expressions of ignorance. But He did not say these things out of ignorance; He was pursuing purposes worthy of Himself. In Adam's case, He meant to prompt him to offer an explanation for his sin; in the Sodomites' case, to teach us never to be certain until we are present at the deeds themselves; in the prophet's case, to keep foolish people from judging the prediction to be a kind of compulsion to disobey; and in the gospel parable, to show that they ought to have acted this way and respected the Son. But here His purpose is both to keep them from becoming curious and prying again and to show that this is something rare and precious. And see how much ignorance this saying would indicate, if He did not even know the person put in charge. For He does bless him: “Blessed,” He says, “is that servant.” But He does not say who he is. “For who is he,” He says, “whom His Lord will put in charge?” And, “Blessed is the one whom He finds doing this.” But these words concern not only money but also speech, power, gifts, and every stewardship entrusted to each person. This parable would also apply to rulers of the state, for everyone is bound to make full use of what he has for the common good. If you have wisdom, power, wealth, or anything else, do not use it to harm your fellow servants or ruin yourself. This is why He requires both wisdom and faithfulness from the servant, for sin also arises from foolishness. He calls him faithful because he has stolen nothing or wasted his Lord's possessions without purpose or result; and wise because he knew how to distribute what he had been given appropriately. For we need both things: to refrain from stealing our Master's possessions and to distribute them as we should. But if either is missing, the other is crippled. For if he were faithful and did not steal, yet wasted the goods and spent them on things outside his responsibility, he would deserve great blame. And if he knew how to distribute them well, yet stole them, the charge against him would again be very serious. Let those of us who have money listen to these things too. For He speaks not only to teachers but also to the rich. Both have been entrusted with riches: teachers with the more necessary wealth, and you with what is inferior. When teachers are freely distributing the greater riches, and you are unwilling to show generosity even with the lesser—or rather, honesty, not generosity, since you are giving what belongs to someone else—what excuse will you have? But now, before hearing the punishment of those who do the opposite, let us hear the honor given to the one who proves himself worthy: “For truly I tell you, He will put him in charge of all His possessions.” What can equal this honor? What words could express the dignity and blessedness of having the King of Heaven, who owns all things, put a man in charge of “all His possessions”? This is also why He calls him wise: he knew not to give up great things for small ones, but by practicing self-restraint here he has attained Heaven. 4. After this, as He always does, He corrects His hearers not only through the honor reserved for the good but also through the punishment threatened against the wicked. So He added, “But if the evil servant says in his heart, ‘My Lord is delaying His coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eat and drink with the drunkards, that servant's Lord will come on a day when he is not expecting Him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in two and assign him his portion with the hypocrites. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” But if someone should say, “Do you see what a thought has entered his mind because the day is unknown? ‘My Lord,’ he says, ‘is delaying His coming,’” we should answer that it was not because the day was unknown, but because the servant was evil. Otherwise, why did this thought not enter the heart of the faithful and wise servant? For what if the Lord does delay, you wretched man? Surely you expect Him to come. Why, then, do you not take care? From this, then, we learn that He does not delay at all. For this judgment belongs to the evil servant's mind, not to the Lord, which is also why the servant is blamed for it. To prove that He does not delay, listen to Paul saying, “The Lord is near; be anxious about nothing,” and, “He who is coming will come and will not delay.” But listen also to what follows, and learn how continually He reminds them that they do not know the day, showing that this benefits the servants and is suited to waking them and thoroughly stirring them up. What if some gained nothing from it? Some gained nothing from other things that were beneficial to them either, but He still does not stop doing His part. What, then, is the meaning of what follows? “For He will come on a day when he is not expecting Him and at an hour he does not know,” and will inflict the most severe punishment on him. Do you see how He brings up their ignorance everywhere, showing that it benefits them and using it to keep them always earnest? For this is what He works to achieve: that we should always be on watch. And since luxury always makes us slack, while afflictions make us alert, He says everywhere that the terrors come when people are at ease. Just as He showed this earlier through Noah's example, so here He says it happens while that servant is drunk and beating others, and that his punishment will be unbearable. But let us consider not only the punishment assigned to him; let us also examine this other point, so that we do not do the same things without realizing it. For those who have money and do not give to the needy are like this servant. You too are a steward of your own possessions, no less than the person who distributes the church's alms. Just as he has no right to squander carelessly and at random what you have given for the poor, since it was given to support them, neither may you squander your own possessions. Even if you have received an inheritance from your father, and everything you own has come to you this way, it all still belongs to God. You want what you have given to be distributed so carefully; do you not think that God will demand His own from us with greater strictness? Or do you think He allows it to be wasted at random? That is not so; it is not so. He left these things in your hands for this purpose: “To give them their food at the proper time.” But what does “at the proper time” mean? Giving to the needy, to the hungry. For just as you gave to your fellow servant to distribute, so the Lord wants you too to spend these things on what is needed. That is why, although He could have taken them away from you, He left them with you, so that you could have an opportunity to show virtue; so that, by making us need one another, He could make our love for one another more fervent. But when you have received these things, instead of giving, you even beat others. Yet if failing to give deserves blame, what excuse is there for beating? He seems to me to say this with the arrogant and greedy in mind, showing how serious the charge is when they beat those they were commanded to feed. 5. But He also seems to be referring here to those who live in luxury, since great punishment is reserved for luxury too. “For he eats and drinks,” it says, “with the drunkards,” pointing to gluttony. You did not receive these things to spend them on luxury, but to use them for alms. What! Do the things you have belong to you? You have been entrusted with the possessions of the poor, whether you acquired them through honest work or inherited them from your father. What, could God not have taken these things away from you? But He does not do this, so that you can be generous to the poor. But notice, please, how throughout all the parables He punishes those who do not spend their money on the needy. The virgins had not stolen anyone else's possessions, but they had not given their own. The man who buried the one talent had not embezzled it, but he had not doubled it. Nor are those who ignored the hungry punished because they seized other people's possessions, but because they did not spend their own, just like this servant. Let all of us who indulge our appetites listen, all of us who spend on costly banquets riches that do not belong to us at all, but to the needy. For although, out of His great love for humanity, you are commanded to give as though these things were yours, do not therefore suppose that they really belong to you. He lent them to you so that you could prove yourself worthy. So do not suppose they are yours when you give Him what belongs to Him. For if you had lent money to someone so that he could go and find a way to make a profit, you would not say the money was his. God has likewise given to you so that you could trade to gain Heaven. So do not turn the surpassing greatness of His love for humanity into a reason for ingratitude. Consider how well worth praying for it would be to find a way to wipe away our sins after baptism. If He had not said, “Give alms,” how many would have said, “If only it were possible to give money and so be freed from the evils to come!” But now that this has become possible, they have grown slack again. “But I give,” you say. And what does that amount to? You have not yet given as much as the woman who put in the two small coins; indeed, not even half, nor a very small part of what she gave. Instead, you spend most of it on useless expenses, banquets, drunkenness, and extreme extravagance: now inviting others, now accepting invitations; now spending, now pressuring others to spend. So your punishment is doubled, both for what you do yourself and for what you move others to do. See how He Himself blames His servant for this: “For he eats,” He says, “and drinks with the drunkards.” He punishes not only the drunkards but also those who join them, and very rightly, because (along with corrupting themselves) they also treat the salvation of others lightly. But nothing provokes God so much as our willingness to disregard our neighbor's concerns. So, showing His anger, He commands that the servant be cut in two. That is also why He declared love to be a distinguishing mark of His disciples, since anyone who loves must necessarily care about the concerns of the person he loves. So let us hold to this way, for this above all is the way that leads up to Heaven, makes people followers of Christ, and makes them as much like God as possible. See how the virtues that live along this way are more necessary. And, if you wish, let us examine them and bring forward the verdicts of God's judgment. Let there be, then, two ways of living a most holy life: one that secures the goodness of the person practicing it, and another that secures his neighbor's goodness too. Let us see which wins greater approval and leads us to the summit of virtue. Surely the person who seeks only his own interests will receive endless blame even from Paul—and when I say Paul, I mean Christ—but the other will receive praise and crowns. How is this clear? Listen to what He says to one and to the other: “Let no one seek his own good, but everyone another's.” Do you see how He rejects the one and introduces the other? Again, “Let each of you please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” Then comes praise beyond words, together with an admonition: “For even Christ did not please Himself.” These judgments alone are enough to establish the victory. But to prove the point even more fully, let us see which good works are confined to ourselves and which extend from us to others as well. Fasting, lying on the bare ground, preserving virginity, and living a life of self-denial benefit the people who practice them. But the things that extend from ourselves to our neighbors are almsgiving, teaching, and love. Listen to Paul speaking about this too: “Though I give away all my possessions to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, if I have no love, I gain nothing.” 6. Do you see how gloriously love itself is celebrated and crowned? But if you wish, let us compare them from a third perspective too. Let one person fast, deny himself, become a martyr, and be burned to death; but let another postpone his martyrdom to build up his neighbor. Let him not only postpone it but even leave this life without martyrdom. Who will receive greater approval after departing from here? We do not need many words or a long, roundabout explanation. Blessed Paul is here to give his judgment: “To depart and be with Christ is better; nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.” He preferred building up his neighbor even to departing to be with Christ. For doing His will is, in the highest sense, being with Christ, and nothing is so much His will as what benefits one's neighbor. Would you like me to give you a fourth proof of these things? “Peter, do you love Me?” He says. “Feed My sheep.” After asking him a third time, He declared this to be an unmistakable proof of love. But this is said not only to priests, but to every one of us as well, for we too have been entrusted with a little flock. Do not despise it because it is a little flock, for “My Father,” He says, “takes pleasure in them.” Each of us has a sheep; let him lead it to the proper pastures. As soon as a man gets out of bed, let his first concern be how he can do or say something that will make his whole household more reverent. Let the woman, too, be a good housekeeper; but before attending to this, let her have another, more necessary concern: that the whole household should do the works of Heaven. For if, in worldly matters, we work diligently to pay taxes before attending to our household affairs, so that we will not be beaten, dragged to the marketplaces, and subjected to ten thousand disgraceful things for failing in these duties, much more should we do this in spiritual matters and first pay what is due to God, the King of all, so that we do not come to that place “where there is gnashing of teeth.” Let us seek those virtues that, along with securing our own salvation, can benefit our neighbor most. Almsgiving is such a virtue, and so is prayer; or rather, prayer itself is made effective and given wings by almsgiving. “For your prayers,” it says, “and your alms have come up as a memorial before God.” But not only prayer: fasting too draws its strength from this. If you fast without giving alms, the act does not even count as fasting. Such a person is worse than a glutton and a drunkard, and worse by as much as cruelty is more serious than luxury. And why do I speak of fasting? Even if you practice self-denial, even if you preserve virginity, you are placed outside the bridal chamber if you do not give alms. Yet what equals virginity, which, because of its great excellence, has not been made compulsory by law even under the new order? Nevertheless, it is cast out when it has no almsgiving. But if virgins are cast out because they do not give alms generously enough, who will be able to obtain pardon without giving alms? No one; anyone who lacks this must inevitably perish. For if in worldly matters no one lives for himself, but the artisan, soldier, farmer, and merchant all contribute to the common good and their neighbor's benefit, much more should we do this in spiritual matters. For this is truly living. Anyone who lives only for himself and disregards everyone else is useless, and is not even a human being or a member of our race. “What, then,” you might say, “if I neglect my own interests while seeking the good of everyone else?” It is impossible for someone who seeks the good of everyone else to neglect his own. For anyone who seeks the good of others hurts no one, but has compassion for all and helps them as much as he can. He will rob no one, covet no one's possessions, steal nothing, and give no false testimony. He will avoid all wickedness, devote himself to every virtue, pray for his enemies, and do good to those who plot against him. He will neither insult anyone nor speak ill of them, even if he hears ten thousand evil things from them. Instead, he will speak the apostle's words: “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?” But when we look to our own good, it is far from certain that the good of others will follow. Persuaded by all these things that no one can be saved who has not cared for the common good, and looking at the man who was cut in two and the man who buried his talent, let us choose this way, so that we too may attain eternal life. May God grant that we all attain it, through the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.