Tractates on Matthew 14.1–17.4

Then he says: 'Pray, then, in this way.' Our Lord, who is accustomed to hear those who pray to him, shows in what words we ought to pray. O how faithful and blessed for us is this prayer, whose order the teacher of life and heavenly master has set for us! How blessed we too can be, if we keep these words of the Lord's prayer not only by the service of the mouth but by the most faithful action of our conduct! So the Lord set this form of praying for his disciples, for the hope of human salvation, saying: 'Our Father who are in heaven.' How great is the Lord's love toward us! How great his mercy and kindness, which has granted us the gift of so great a grace that we servants dare freely to call our Lord and God Father! By this word he shows that we are no longer only servants but also sons of God. And though it would have been more than enough for grace that we should merely deserve to be called servants, the love of God so overflowed that we are called not only servants but also sons of God by adoption. The grace of this name, given through faith to those who believe in Christ, John shows in the Gospel, saying: 'As many as believed in him, he gave them power to become sons of God, to those who believe in his name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' Hence the Apostle too says: 'And because you are sons of God, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' Since, then, we have obtained the grace of so great a gift, that we have been made not only servants but also sons, we ought to act and live as sons of God: so that we may prove by spiritual action that we are what we are called, as John says in his letter: 'He who is born of God does not commit sin, because the birth of God guards him, and the devil does not touch him. But he who commits sin is not of God but of the devil, because the devil sins from the beginning.' And therefore, guarding the sacrament of our heavenly birth, we must be strangers to every sin, so that we may truly deserve to be called and to be sons of God. The holy prophets too knew the grace of this divine mercy, in which we are permitted to call God Father, as Isaiah says: 'For you are our Father: because Abraham has not known us, and Israel has not known us, but you, Lord, are our Father; from the beginning your name is upon us.' Likewise Malachi too testifies in his book, saying: 'For there is one Father of us all.' How great is the Lord's mercy! We who had long ago of our own will taken the devil as father to ourselves, now, reborn through water and the Holy Spirit, have begun to have God as Father. For he himself is the one God and Father for us, who regenerates by his Spirit those whom he makes sons for the eternal inheritance. And therefore we must walk as sons of God, lest, acting otherwise than befits sons of God, we be held guilty of usurping so great a name.

So he says: 'Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be your name.' Not that the name of God can be hallowed by anyone, since he himself hallows all, who says through the prophet: 'Be holy, as I too am holy, says the Lord.' But we ask that his name be hallowed for this, that it may be hallowed in us through works of righteousness, through the merit of faith, through the grace of the Holy Spirit. That we may receive this hallowing through such gifts, the help of his mercy is necessary. But he who is the fountain of eternal holiness needs no hallowing.

Then he says: 'Your kingdom come.' Likewise here too we do not wish for God that he may reign, who is the King of the eternal ages, whose kingdom has neither beginning nor end: but that that kingdom, that is, the heavenly one which he promised us, may come. But it is a mark of great confidence and a sincere conscience to wish confidently that this kingdom of the Lord may come. And therefore, since we always pray that the kingdom of God may come, we ought to show ourselves such in the faith of the Lord and in his commandments that we may be worthy of the future kingdom.

Then he says: 'Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.' Here too the reason of understanding is the same. For there is no one who can resist and oppose God so that he may not do what he wills, since all things in heaven and on earth exist by his will: but we pray that his will may be done in us. And the will of God is that, believing in him with our whole heart, we should fulfil what he commands to be done. Of this will of God the Apostle testifies, saying: 'This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from carnal desires.' Of which the Lord too spoke in the Gospel, saying: 'This is the will of my Father who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life.' So when we say, 'Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth,' we pray for this: that as the will of God is faithfully kept by the angels in heaven, so too it may always be kept by us on earth with religious and faithful devotion. That this will may be rightly fulfilled in us, the help of divine condescension must be asked without ceasing. Or certainly: 'Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth': that, as in heaven, that is, in holy and heavenly men, the will of God is fulfilled, so too on earth, that is, in those who have not yet believed, we pray that the will of God may be done through the belief of faith and the knowledge of truth.

Then he says: 'Give us today our daily bread.' We understand this saying of the Lord in two ways. First, that we should ask for nothing but daily food: for we are not commanded to ask for riches or an abundance of worldly things, but daily bread, which alone is necessary for the present life to Christians living by faith, as the Apostle says: 'Having food and covering, we are content with these.' Solomon too plainly shows this very thing: 'The needs of man,' he says, 'are bread, water and clothing.' But when we say 'today', we are taught to think only of the present day, not of the whole time of life, lest our mind be occupied with worldly anxiety: as the Lord himself openly shows in another place, saying: 'Do not think about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.' But we must notice that this has been commanded us spiritually, that we ask for daily bread: that is, that heavenly and spiritual bread which we receive daily for the healing of the soul and the hope of eternal salvation, of which the Lord says in the Gospel: 'The heavenly bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of this world.' And this bread, then, we are commanded to ask for daily: that is, that by the gift of the Lord's mercy we may deserve to receive daily the bread of the Lord's body. For the holy Apostle says: 'But let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread of the Lord and drink of the cup.' And again: 'He who eats the bread of the Lord unworthily and drinks the cup will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.' Hence not undeservedly we ought always to pray that we may deserve to receive this heavenly bread daily: lest, some sin intervening, we be separated from the body of the Lord.

'And forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors.' This voice is plainly just and necessary for all. First, that we should confess that we are sinners; then, that we should pray that our sins be forgiven us by God in the same way as we ourselves forgive those who sin against us. If we do not do this at all, we make ourselves guilty before God by our own words, as Scripture says: 'A man's own lips are a strong snare to him.' Hence not undeservedly Solomon too, not ignorant through the Holy Spirit of the form of this Lord's prayer, warned beforehand, saying: 'You shall not lie a word in your prayer.' For who would dare, or how can anyone lie to God in prayer? Unless perhaps the one who, asking God for pardon of sins according to the Lord's prayer, does not himself forgive those who sin against him, not keeping the divine saying: 'Man keeps anger against man, and do you seek atonement from God? He has no mercy on a man like himself, and does he pray to God for sins?' The Lord himself shows this most openly in another place, bringing forward the example of that servant debtor, whose master, when asked, had granted him the whole debt though he owed very much; and when, after the debt was forgiven, he would not himself forgive his fellow servant who owed him, he was handed over to prison and condemned to punishment.

Then he says: 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' The reason for this temptation is twofold, and its cause various: because to some temptation is brought through sin for their amendment, to others for the testing of faith, to others it is brought for glory, as blessed James testified in his letter, saying: 'Blessed is he who endures temptation, for, made blessed, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.' For we do not pray so as to refuse altogether a temptation which we know to be useful, as holy David says: 'Prove me, Lord, and try me; burn my reins and my heart.' Since we know that holy Abraham too obtained the glory of perfect faith through temptation; and we have read that the blessed Apostle too was handed over to temptations for the advance of his faith. When he asked the Lord that the author of temptation be driven from him, he was answered: 'My grace is enough for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.' So we do not pray that we may not be tempted at all; but that we may not be handed over to temptation beyond what the strength of faith can bear: which itself is plainly shown in another book of the Gospel; for it is written thus: 'And do not bring us into temptation which we cannot bear.' The Apostle too, to show this very thing, testified thus, saying: 'But God is faithful, who does not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can, but with the temptation makes also a way through, so that you may be able to endure.' And therefore we pray not that that temptation be taken from us which can be useful; but that which exceeds the measure of our weakness for the overthrow of our faith. And therefore fittingly and necessarily at the end of the prayer we also ask to be delivered from the evil one, who does not cease daily to assault our faith with various temptations, from whom not undeservedly we pray in daily prayer, lest, hindered by his assaults, we be unable to fulfil the divine precepts. So all that is necessary for our faith and salvation is contained in this brevity of the Lord's prayer: when we confess the profession of the Father's name, when we ask that the meaning of that name be in us, when we seek the coming of God's kingdom, when we pray that his will be done in us; when we ask daily for bread, earthly or heavenly, for the hope of our salvation, when we implore pardon of sins, when we pray that heavy temptation be taken from us; finally when we ask the Lord unceasingly that we be delivered from the evil one, who is the author of all sin. This very thing the Holy Spirit had foretold long ago through Isaiah, saying: 'For the Lord will make a shortened word throughout the whole world.' Hence not undeservedly follows: 'If you forgive men their sins, your Father who is in heaven will forgive you your offences: but if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins.' To what we pray, 'Forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors,' follows the just sentence of the Lord, in which he says: 'If you do not forgive men their sins, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive you.' And therefore, so that we may pray to the Lord confidently about having our sins forgiven, let us first forgive those who sin against us. Hence Solomon too says: 'Forgive your neighbour his sins, and your sins will be loosed for you.' But if with an unfaithful soul and hardened mind we hold on to the sins of those who offend against us, the Lord openly shows that we too do not deserve to receive pardon of sins: to whom be honour, praise and glory, together with the Holy Spirit, before all ages, and now, and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.

Then he says: 'When you fast,' he says, 'do not be gloomy like the hypocrites: for they disfigure their faces so as to appear to men to be fasting. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so as not to appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret: and your Father, who is in secret, will repay you.' As in the earlier precepts, so too concerning the observance of fasting the Lord instructs us by the commandments of his teaching to the merit of perfect faith; so that we fast not for human glory (as the hypocrites do), but for the future hope, to the Lord alone, from whom we await the reward of this devoted humility. But those who fast so as to please men rather than God have indeed the toil of afflicting the body, but through vain glory they cannot have the reward of their toil with God: because, though they ought to do this only for the sake of religion and faith, they prefer to seek the glory of human praise; and therefore the Lord says: 'Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.' And the purpose of fasting seems indeed to be one, both of the one who fasts with a mind devoted to God alone and of the one who in fasting desires to please men: but the grace of those fasting differs; because, though the purpose of both seems alike and the toil of fasting the same, yet the fruit is not the same nor the repayment of merits. For the one who fasts for God's sake differs far from the one who proposes to fast for men's sake: because to this one, as the wage of his toil, the compensation of human praise is made; for the other, for the devotion of humility, the merit of glory is kept in the future. So too the bearing of those who pray does not seem to differ in outward purpose; but in faith of soul and affection of mind there is a great difference of merits. For it is one thing (as was said above) to pray in expectation of human praise; another to pray only so as to await the reward of one's prayer from God the repayer. The case is similar concerning every observance of divine religion.

Hence not undeservedly the Lord, wishing all desire for praise and human boasting to be absent from us, teaches us how we may please him with a religious soul and devoted mind, saying: 'But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so as not to appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret': so that, if possible, we may veil the work of fasting and the affliction of body and soul with cheerfulness of face. Examples of this, even according to history, we read shown beforehand in the saints of past time. For most holy Judith, when she was afflicted with great grief for the people, after the solemnity of a three-day fast, her head anointed and her face washed, so covered the sadness of her inner affliction that she seemed to the enemies to rejoice with feigned joy: and so, while she covered her fasting with the gladness of her face, she brought back the triumph of victory over the enemy. Likewise most holy Esther, when, with face washed and head anointed after a three-day fast, she was able to be understood by the king, put to death Haman, that most wicked enemy of her people. What shall we say of Daniel and the three boys, who in such abstinence, among so many young men who were fed on the king's food, alone were found more pleasing in face than the rest?

But since we have said this according to the letter, we must also notice what is to be understood according to spiritual understanding. By the anointing of the head we recognise that mercy is signified. Hence to anoint the head is to show mercy to one's neighbour: which mercy, done to a poor man, is referred to the Lord, who according to the Apostle is understood to be the head of man, as the Lord himself says: 'As long as you did it to one of these least, you did it to me.' In return for this mercy, by divine repayment, we are poured over as with a kind of heavenly oil by him who says: 'Blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them.' Holy David too knew this anointing of the head with heavenly oil, when he says: 'Like ointment on the head, which runs down on the beard.' By the washing of the face, the cleansing of the body and the purity of a sincere conscience are recognised to be signified. Hence to wash the face is to bring back both the face of our heart and our conscience itself clean from all filth of sins and squalor of offence, so that we may truly have in us the joy of heavenly gladness and the cheerfulness of the Holy Spirit. And so it comes about that, while under this devotion of faith we fast to God rather than to men, we receive the reward of repayment from God, who is the knower of hidden things. For this is what the Lord says: 'So as not to appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret: and your Father who is in secret will repay you.' If, then, you wish always to have your head anointed and the face of your heart clean, according to the Lord's saying, persevere faithfully in works of mercy, persevere in the devotion of fasting, so that you may deserve to please the Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

'Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where rust and moth destroy, where thieves dig through and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroys, and where thieves do not dig through or steal: for where your treasure is, there your heart will be too.' The Lord forbids us to store up on earth, where all things are weak and perishable. For it is contrary to faith and salvation to seek these earthly treasures, to look for the riches of the world, to pursue the means of the world, which moths can corrupt, rust consume and thieves snatch. For whoever chooses to store up on earth rather than in heaven cannot have those treasures of eternal and heavenly life, as the Lord himself says: 'For a rich man will enter the kingdom of heaven with difficulty.' Likewise the Apostle too: 'For those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and the trap of the devil.' Let us remember that rich man who placed all his glory in the treasures of the world and in the abundance of his revenues: who, when because of the plenty of his crops he was thinking of enlarging his barns, and promising his soul the delights of wealth and the security of a long life, lost, I will not say what he had gathered, by a thief stealing it; but lost his very soul, for which he was storing up, on that same night. Hence not undeservedly David himself testified, saying: 'He stores up, and does not know for whom he will gather it.' Let us think too of that young man who, though he had fulfilled almost all the precepts of the law, because he had earthly rather than heavenly treasures, could not obtain the treasures of eternal life. And therefore David says well: 'Do not hope in iniquity, and do not covet robberies: if riches abound, do not set your heart on them.'

Therefore the Lord wishes us to lay up our treasures not on earth, where they can perish, but in heaven, where no adversities rule, where thieves do not dig through, that is, the devil and his angels, nor rust destroys, that is, sins rule. And how we ought to lay up this treasure in heaven the Lord himself shows in the Gospel, saying to that young man: 'Go, sell all that you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.' Such treasures, then, which are eternal and incorrupt, which cannot perish, we are commanded to lay up in heaven through works of righteousness, through the merits of devotion and mercy. For whatever is faithfully spent for the use of the poor (according to the faith of Scripture) is laid up in heaven, as Scripture says: 'He who gives to the poor lends to God.' Hence we find that believers under the apostles too, mindful of this precept of the Lord, stored up for themselves in heaven; because, selling all their goods, they transferred earthly treasures to the heavenly kingdom.

And therefore the Lord added, saying: 'Where your treasure is, there your heart will be too.' We who always store up in heaven with good works, where all our hope and salvation is, where eternal life is laid up for us, though placed on earth, yet always have our heart in heaven. But he cannot have his heart in heaven who, captured by greed for the world, has preferred to store up for himself on earth. Rightly the holy Apostle too exhorts even the rich of the world how they can obtain this heavenly treasure, saying: 'Command the rich of this world not to be proud, nor to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God, who provides us richly with all things to enjoy: let them do good, be rich in good works, give readily, share, store up for themselves for the future, so that they may lay hold of the true life,' from him who is the author of life and eternal immortality: to whom be praise and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Then he says: 'The lamp of your body,' he says, 'is your eye: if your eye is single, your whole body is full of light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body is dark. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?' The lamp of the body is understood as the sense of the mind and the faith of the heart: if this is pure and bright in us, it without doubt illuminates our whole body. And the lamp is set in comparison with faith for this reason, that, as a lamp illuminates the steps of those walking in the night, lest those walking run into pits or any stumbling blocks, so in this night of the world the splendour of faith, with the light of truth going before, illuminates all the steps of our life, lest we fall into the pits of sins or the stumbling blocks of the devil. This, then, is what the Lord says: 'The lamp of your body is your eye: if your eye is single, your whole body is full of light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body is dark': showing that if this faith of ours, which is signified by the lamp of the body or the eye, is blinded in us either by the darkness of sins or by the obscurity of perfidy, without doubt our whole body is rendered dark and shadowy. Holy John shows this very thing, saying: 'God is light'; and: 'He who holds his brother dear is in the light; but he who hates his brother walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.' And if this is understood, according to John's saying, of one who hates his brother, we must notice in what darkness the heretic dwells, who, having lost the light of Catholic truth, has become faithless and blasphemous. And therefore the Lord says: 'If,' he says, 'the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?' In him, namely, who has changed truth into a lie, faith into perfidy.

In another sense, by the eye of the body, which is more beautiful and precious than all the members, we notice that the bishop is signified, who by the clear preaching of his faith and teaching, like a kind of eye, illuminates the body of the church. If, through simple faith and holy conduct, he has been a Catholic and faithful teacher, the people over whom he presides can, by the example of his teaching and pattern, always remain in the light of truth. But if he who seems to give light to the rest has been, through perverse faith or shameful conduct, an evil and faithless teacher, without doubt he can make the whole body dark by the example of his life and perfidy. Hence not undeservedly the Lord says of such an eye: 'If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!' That is, if such a teacher, who ought to give the light of faith from himself to the rest, has been blinded by heresy and become dark, we must notice how great the darkness of sins can be in that people!

And he added: 'No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will bear with the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.' The Lord declares plainly that none of us can serve two masters, that is, God and the devil. And God indeed, though he is Lord of all, because all things were created by him and he rules in all by power, might and nature, yet deigns to be especially the Lord of those who, recognising their Lord and God, the founder of the universe, keep his precepts in faithful service. But the devil is understood to be the master of those whom, seducing them through sin from their true Lord and parent, he subjugates to his most wicked servitude, and over whom he rules by an unlawful right through the works of his iniquity. For this reason he too in his own place is called a master, because he rules such foolish men through sin. And therefore it is written: 'He who commits sin is a slave of sin.' But since, visited now by God's mercy and freed from the devil's domination, we have recognised the true Lord, by whom we were created and redeemed, we are forbidden to serve our former master, that is, the devil, who ruled us like a tyrant: or rather avarice and greed, which he calls mammon, which sometimes captures even religious minds. Hence we must flee and avoid the greed for money, the avarice of the world, lest we subject ourselves to its unworthy servitude, or to the devil, who is the author of avarice.

And this is what the Lord says: 'No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will endure the one and despise the other': because whoever loves his Lord and God with his whole heart must hate the devil with his works; because in the love of God it is plain that the devil is always held in execration. But whoever, through the wicked works of sins, loves mammon or the devil by doing his will cannot love God, whose precepts he despises. And therefore he who loves God cannot be called the devil's slave, over whom God himself now rules through the faith of heavenly grace. Likewise he who, serving sins, subjects himself to the devil's domination does not deserve to have God as Lord. And therefore the Lord says: 'You cannot serve God and mammon': showing that we cannot serve both God and the devil, that is, God the author of mercy, and the devil, the ruler of mammon and avarice. The Apostle too shows this when he says: 'What fellowship has light with darkness?' Mammon, that is, the devil, who is the author of mammon. The one calls us to mercy, the other to avarice; the one to life, the other to death; the one to salvation, the other to perdition. Which of the two must we obey? Surely the one who invites us to life, not the one who hands us over to death.