Tractates on Matthew 10.1–13.2

Then follows: “You have heard that it was said to those of old: Whoever puts away his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you: whoever puts away his wife, except for the cause of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery.” In all things our Lord and Saviour reforms the rights of the ancient law for the better. Long ago, indeed, the Jewish people, living unlawfully and serving their own pleasures, seemed to be granted through Moses the licence of giving divorce for any cause whatever; not because the reason of the law so required, but because the unbridled pleasure of a carnal people could not keep the justice of the law according to the rigour of discipline. For that reason this freedom was permitted, as the Lord himself shows in another place by his answer, when they were again questioning him. For when they asked why Moses had permitted a certificate of divorce to be given, the Lord answered, saying: “Because of the hardness of your heart Moses wrote this, that a certificate of divorce be given; but from the beginning it was not so.” Hence now, not undeservedly, our Lord and Saviour, taking away that licence, restores the precepts of his ancient constitution. For he commands that the chaste union of marriage be kept by an indissoluble law, showing that the law of marriage was first instituted by himself. For he himself says: “What therefore God has joined into one, let man not separate.” By this saying, by the pronouncing of this sentence, he condemned both the promiscuous licence of the Jews and the foolish and wretched presumption of the Manichaeans, who deny that marriages are from God, saying that it is not permitted to put away a wife except for the cause of sexual immorality; openly showing that he acts against God's will who presumes to profane a marriage joined by God by the unlawful separation of divorce. Hence let them not be unaware how grave a crime of condemnation they incur before God who, through the unbridled pleasure of lust, put away their wives (without the cause of sexual immorality) and wish to pass into other marriages. They believe that they commit this with impunity because it seems permitted by human and worldly laws, not knowing that in this they sin more gravely and more, because they prefer human laws to divine ones, so that they believe lawful what God has established as unlawful, because it has been freely permitted by man. But just as it is not right to put away a wife who lives chastely and purely, so too it is permitted to put away an adulteress, because she has made herself unworthy of her husband's fellowship, she who by sinning against her own body has dared to violate the temple of God.

Then he says: 'You have heard that it was said to those of old: You shall not swear falsely, but you shall render your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King; nor shall you swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be: yes, yes; no, no: what is more than this comes from evil.' Through the grace of Gospel teaching the law given through Moses received its advance. In the law it was commanded not to swear falsely; but in the Gospel not to swear at all. This very thing the Holy Spirit long ago was preparing to command through Solomon, saying: 'Let not your mouth grow used to swearing.' And again: 'As a slave constantly flogged is not free of bruises, so everyone who swears and trades will not be cleansed of sin.' Hence it is not fitting for us to swear at all. For what need has any of us to swear, since we may not lie at all; whose words ought always to be so true, so faithful, that they are held as an oath? And therefore the Lord forbids us not only to swear falsely but also to swear, lest we seem to speak the truth only when we swear; lest we, whom he has appointed to be truthful in every word, should think it lawful to lie without an oath. For this is the reason for an oath, that everyone who swears swears for this purpose, to speak what is true. And therefore the Lord wishes there to be no difference between our oath and our speech: because, as there should be no perfidy in an oath, so too there should be no lie in our words, since both, perjury and lying, are condemned by the punishment of divine judgment, as Scripture says: 'The mouth that lies kills the soul.' So whoever speaks the truth swears; for it is written: 'A faithful witness does not lie.' Hence not undeservedly the divine Scripture often recalls that our God swears, because whatever is said by God, who is truthful and does not know how to lie, is held as an oath, since all that he speaks is true. We do indeed find God sometimes swearing, but because of the perfidy of Jewish unbelief, of those who think that nothing is true except what rests on the faith of an oath. Therefore God too wished to swear, so that those who did not believe God speaking might at least believe him swearing.

So the Lord says: 'You have heard that it was said to those of old: You shall not swear falsely. But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.' In these sayings of the Lord, by which he forbids us to swear by such elements, there is a twofold understanding. First, he wished to take from us both the practice of swearing and the custom of human error; lest any of us, by swearing by these elements, should hold the creature in the honour of divine veneration; or should believe he had impunity for perjury if he swore by the elements of the world, since it is written: 'Nor has he sworn to his neighbour deceitfully.' In this he condemns the error both of Jewish unbelief and of the human race, which, abandoning the creator, held the creature in divine veneration, as the Apostle reported: 'And they worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator.' Then it can also be understood in this way: that when one swears by heaven and earth, one swears by him who established heaven and earth, as the Lord himself showed in another place, saying: 'He who swears by the altar swears by it and by all that is on it: and he who swears by the throne of God swears by it and by him who sits on it.' 'Nor,' he says, 'by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King': that is, the type of the body of Christ, which is that spiritual and heavenly church. 'Nor shall you swear,' he says, 'by your head,' because according to the Apostle, 'the head of man is Christ.' Hence whoever swears by these swears by him who is the author of all of them. 'So let your word be,' he says, 'yes, yes; no, no: what is more than this comes from evil': teaching that every word uttered by us should contain nothing but what is true; since every lie (that is, what is more) is traced back to its author the devil, who has always been a liar from the beginning, and so was his father. Hence we must always speak and meditate what is true, so as to show that we are disciples of him who is the truth, who is blessed for ever.

Then follows: 'You have heard that it was said to those of old: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you: Do not resist evil: but if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the left too: and to him who wishes to go to law with you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak too.' Through the Gospel precepts the Lord shapes us to every example of patience and humility. Long ago it had been commanded in the law that if anyone, moved by the fury of anger, had put out another's eye or tooth, he himself too should be subject to a like penalty and the same loss. In this precept both the justice of the law was shown and the rashness of an insolent people was reined in under this terror: so that, since they had no fear of the future judgment, at least the penalty of present vengeance might keep them from crime. But those who live according to the Gospel faith do not seek the repayment of such vengeance, for whom all hope of repayment and vengeance is kept for the future. And therefore the Lord in the Gospel not only does not command us to repay injury, but commands those struck on the right cheek to offer the other too, if the anger of the striker demands it. For he says: 'Whoever strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the left too.' For this is truly to live by faith: to seek not present revenge but future vindication from him who says: 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.' Jeremiah plainly shows such a Gospel man, who, struck on the cheek, gladly offers the other, when he says: 'It is good for a man when he has borne a heavy yoke in his youth. He will sit alone and keep silence, because he has borne a heavy yoke. He will give his cheek to be struck, and will be filled with reproach.' In this he plainly shows that man to be blessed who, living under this yoke of the Gospel law, does not turn away from any injury of a persecutor. For such practice of endurance leads to the passion of martyrdom. For he will easily be able to bear bodily punishments even in time of persecution if, trained beforehand in peace, he receives such injuries calmly and gladly. Nor indeed is it fitting for a Christian to repay injury, lest he be judged like the one to whom he repays it. For if it is evil to do an injury, he who pays back evil in return is not free of fault, and so he who imitates evil cannot be held good.

The Lord commands not only that the cheek be offered to the striker, but also that losses be borne. For he added this: 'And whoever wishes to go to law with you and take your tunic, give him your cloak too.' After the endurance of bodily injury, the Lord wishes us also to have contempt for worldly things, and to be so far removed from all lawsuits or contention in court that if perhaps a slanderer or tempter, to test our faith, brings a suit wishing to take away what is ours, the Lord orders us to offer of our own accord not only what he unjustly seeks but also what he does not ask for. For if each despises these small things because of a litigant's slander, trained by such practice he will easily be able to despise all such things in persecution too. For this is perfect faith and perfect victory against the one doing injury, if even what he does not ask for is offered.

Then he says: 'Whoever compels you to go a mile, go with him two more.' The Lord commands us to be tireless and ready for every work of devotion. For he wishes our good to be not so much of necessity as of our own will; so that, while we do more of ourselves than is asked of us by others, we may obtain the glory of a greater reward. For it is the duty of whole love and perfect devotion to give more of one's own accord than you have been asked. Some have believed this sense is also to be understood spiritually, so that whoever is compelled to go a mile should go with him two more: that is, that if any unbeliever, or one who has not yet attained knowledge of the truth, has made mention of one God the Father, founder of all things, as if entering by the road of the law, you should go with him two more; that is, after the profession of the Father, you should lead the same person along the way of truth to the knowledge of the Son and the Holy Spirit, showing him that not only the Father but also the Son and the Holy Spirit are to be believed.

Then follows: 'And to him who asks of you, give.' That is, that after the knowledge of the Trinity we should bestow the gift of heavenly grace with a ready mind. Or certainly, that we should give to those who ask for mercy as far as we can; so that, with merit going before, we may more easily obtain what we ask of God from him who says: 'Ask, and it will be given to you.' But if we despise those who ask of us, with what confidence do we believe that God will grant us what we ask, as Scripture says: 'See that you do not turn your face from any poor man; so it will be that the face of God is not turned from you'? 'And from everyone,' he says, 'who wishes to borrow from you, do not turn away.' We are commanded in all things to keep the religion of devotion and faith, so as to count another's need in tribulation as our own, and not to make more of property than of a brother. And therefore, whether brothers ask, or ask for a loan in need, we must share with a religious mind and loving affection, awaiting the reward of eternal repayment, as David says: 'Pleasant is the man who has mercy and lends; he will order his words in judgment.' And again: 'He has scattered, he has given to the poor: his righteousness remains for ever and ever.' Hence holy Job too, whose example it is fitting for us to follow, recalls that he fulfilled these very Gospel precepts, saying: 'If I let the needy go, so that he went out from my door with empty bosom; if I held anyone's bond and did not tear it up; and if I lent, I received nothing from my debtor; or if ever the earth groaned because of me, or its furrows wept together; or if I ate its fruits alone without payment; or if I grieved the soul of the lord of the land by deceiving him.' All these things Job fulfilled faithfully because he awaited the reward from him who is the repayer of eternal goods: to whom be praise and glory for ever. Amen.

Then follows: 'You have heard that it was said to those of old: You shall love your neighbour, and hate your enemy. But I say to you: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who slander and persecute you: so that you may be sons of your Father, who commands his sun to rise on the good and the bad, and rains on the just and the unjust.' The Lord wishes us to be perfect in all things in his precepts. Long ago it was indeed commanded in the Law: 'You shall love your friends and hate your enemies'; but these precepts were given to an earthly and carnal people according to the time, like that other: 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' But now to the Gospel people are handed on the precepts of heavenly and perfect righteousness, that we should love enemies, cherish those who hate us, pray for those who slander and persecute us, so that we may truly deserve to be sons of God, who by his mercy bestows without distinction on good and bad, just and unjust, the heavenly benefits and gifts of the present life. To keep such Gospel precepts the Holy Spirit exhorts us through Isaiah too: 'Hear the word of the Lord, you who fear his name: say, You are our brothers, to those who hate and abhor you; that the name of the Lord may be glorified and appear to them in joy, and let them be confounded.' Hence not undeservedly David testifies thus in the Psalm, saying: 'Lord my God, if I have done this; if I have repaid evil to those who repaid me, may I deservedly fall empty before my enemies.' Blessed Job too recalls this very thing, saying: 'If I have rejoiced at the fall of my enemy, if I have said in my heart, Well done: let my ear hear a curse.' These precepts of Gospel grace, which have now been given for the salvation of men, we find shaped beforehand in animals through the commandments of the Law, when it is said: 'If,' it says, 'you see your enemy's oxen fallen under their load, you shall not pass by, but shall lift it with him': so that already in the law of Moses each might learn in animals what he would one day do to a man according to the Gospel.

And rightly follows: 'If you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not the tax collectors do this too? And if you greet your brothers only, what more are you doing? Do not the pagans do this too? Be perfect, then, as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.' The Lord shows that we cannot have the merit of perfect love if we love only those by whom we know mutual love will be paid back to us, since we know such love is common even to Gentiles and sinners. Hence the Lord wishes us to surpass the common law of human love with the law of Gospel love; so that we show the affection of our love not only towards those who love us but also towards enemies and those who hate us, so that in this we may imitate the example of the Father's love and goodness.

And he added: 'Take care not to do your righteousness before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.' The Lord wishes us to be strangers to all boasting of vain glory and human desire, so that we do not do the work of our righteousness with the aim of wishing to please men, but God alone, from whom we await the reward of our merit. For he loses the merit of righteousness before God who wishes to live justly for this purpose, to gain the glory of human praise. Hence the Apostle says: 'If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ.'

Then he says: 'But when you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the squares, to be honoured by men: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing; so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.' In all things the Lord forms us by heavenly teaching to the glory of perfect faith. Above, he taught that the work of righteousness is to be done not for men but for God. Now too we are commanded, when we give alms, not to sound a trumpet: that is, not to publish what we do; because it is not the mark of a devoted mind to do anything in God's affairs so as to expect the glory of human praise. For many give something for the use of the poor for this reason, to buy with their means the empty praise of men and the fame of the world: these the Lord shows have received the reward of their work in this world; because while they seek this glory of the world, they lose the reward of the future promise.

And therefore the Lord added: 'So that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you': wishing the work of mercy to be not public but hidden; that is, that we should work not for men's praise but for God alone, from whom we await glory and the reward of future blessing. Solomon, praising the church, long ago testified to the almsgiving of this faithful work under the silence of religious reticence, saying: 'Your cheeks are beautiful, apart from your silence.' This silence, namely, of which the Lord says: 'Let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing.' But here the Lord is not speaking of the hands of the human body, which have no sense of seeing or speaking: but by the right or left hand either works or men are signified. Indeed we read it written in the books of Kingdoms that men are signified by a hand, when it is said: 'Have I not ten hands in Israel?', that is, ten tribes of Israel. Hence there is no doubt that by the right hand the just are signified, and by the left the sinners are understood, as Solomon reported: 'The Lord knows the ways on the right; but those on the left are perverse.' The Lord in the Gospel shows this understanding of right and left most openly, when he declares that the just are to be placed on the right and sinners on the left. So if this right hand of the just does anything according to the Lord's commandment, the left is commanded not to know: that is, that what we do religiously and faithfully we should not boast of in the sight of sinners and unbelieving men. But if we do anything faithfully, not from desire for human praise, even before religious brothers, a work of devotion and faith cannot be judged boasting by the brothers, before our Lord and Saviour, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Then he says: 'And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the corners of the squares, to be seen by men: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and with the door shut pray to your Father, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.' The Lord instructs us in every perfection of heavenly righteousness and faith. For he wishes us to fulfil every work of divine religion without hypocrisy and without any desire for human praise. For we are forbidden, in the manner of the hypocrites, to show off our prayers boastfully to all, lest we lose the merit of grace. For the Lord requires not a feigned and boastful prayer, but a simple and faithful one. And therefore we are commanded by the Lord to pray with the door shut, that is, within the secret of the heart and of conscience itself, so that from him who is the knower of secret and hidden things we may receive the reward of hidden prayer. For it is the mark of a religious mind to pray to God not with shouting or the sound of the voice, but with devotion of soul and faith of heart, as David testifies in the Psalm, saying: 'Speak in your hearts, and be pricked with compunction on your beds.' Indeed we find in the books of Kingdoms that most holy Hannah fulfilled the precepts of this Gospel teaching. For when, without any sound of voice, in the secret of her heart, praying faithfully in the sight of the Lord, she poured out the prayers of her desire, she at once deserved to be heard by the Lord. So too to Daniel, praying always in secret with the three boys, the Lord granted to know the interpretations of the dream and the secrets of revelations. Cornelius too, not yet instructed in the Gospel precepts, while he was in his room praying secretly and faithfully, deserved to hear the voice of the holy angel speaking. What shall we say of Jonah, who, shut not in a room but in the womb of a beast, praying deserved to be heard so far that he escaped safe and alive from the depth of the sea and the belly of so monstrous a beast? He was heard by God not because he cried with his voice but because he cried with faith. And therefore there is no need of shouting in prayer to God, whom we know sees the secrets of the heart; but of the cry of faith and the devotion of a religious mind.

Hence not undeservedly the Lord says in what follows: 'When you pray, do not speak much, as the pagans do: for they think they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them: for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.' For pagan men think that by a multitude of words they can more easily obtain from the Lord what they ask: but the Lord does not expect this from us. He wishes rather that we commend our prayer not by verbosity of speech but by faith of heart and merits of righteousness; to him, surely, who knows better all that is necessary for us, and recognises all that we are going to ask before we speak. How much difference there is between a talkative prayer and a humble and simple one we have an example in that Pharisee and the tax collector. For the prayer of the Pharisee, boasting of himself in a multitude of words, is rejected: but the tax collector, humble and submissive, asking pardon for his sins, went down more justified than the Pharisee who boasted of himself. In this we find fulfilled what is written: 'The prayer of the humble has pierced the clouds, coming to God,' who is accustomed to hear the prayer of the one praying, who is blessed for ever. Amen.