Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 15.7–16.1

“Do not be vexed, then, as though what is said were burdensome. For when others have lost their savor, it is possible for them to return through you; but you, if you should suffer this, will destroy others as well as yourselves. So the greater the matters entrusted to you, the greater the zeal you need.” That is why he says, “But if the salt has lost its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” For others, falling ten thousand times, can obtain pardon; but the teacher, if he suffers this, is deprived of every defense and will pay the utmost penalty. For so that, hearing “when they revile you and persecute you and say every evil word against you,” they might not be afraid to come forward into the open, he says: “Unless you are arrayed against these things, you have been chosen in vain.” For it is not being ill spoken of that you must fear, but being seen to join in the hypocrisy; for then you will lose your savor and be trampled on. But if you keep stinging them and then are ill spoken of, rejoice. For this is the work of salt: to bite and pain the slack. So slander necessarily follows, doing you no harm, but even bearing witness to your firmness. But if, fearing it, you betray the vehemence that befits you, you will suffer much more grievously, being both ill spoken of and despised by all. For this is what being trampled on means.

Then he leads them to another, loftier example: “You are the light of the world.” Again, “of the world,” not of one nation nor of twenty cities, but of the whole world; and a spiritual light, much better than this sunbeam, just as the salt too is spiritual. And first salt, and then light, so that you may learn how great is the gain of stinging words and the benefit of a severe teaching. For it binds and does not let men run loose, and makes them see clearly, leading them by the hand to virtue. “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor do they light a lamp and put it under the bushel.” Again by these words he leads them to strictness of life, teaching them to be watchful, as men lying under the eyes of all and contending in the middle of the theater of the world. “Do not look at this,” he says, “that we are sitting here now and are in a small corner; for you will be as conspicuous to all as a city set on the top of a mountain, as a lamp shining in a house on the lampstand.” Where now are those who disbelieve the power of Christ? Let them hear these things, and, astonished at the power of the prophecy, let them worship his might. For consider how great were the things he promised to men who were not known even in their own country: that land and sea would know them, and that they would reach the ends of the world by their fame; or rather not by fame only, but by the working of their beneficence. For it was not fame carrying them everywhere that made them known, but the very demonstration given by their works. For as though they had become winged, they ran over the whole earth more swiftly than the sunbeam, sowing the light of godliness.

But here he seems to me to be anointing them for boldness as well. For to say, “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden,” is the speech of one displaying his own power; for just as it is impossible for that city to be hidden, so it is impossible for the preaching to be silenced and to lie concealed. For since he had spoken of persecutions and slanders and plots and wars, so that they might not think that these would be able to stop their mouths, he encourages them and says that it will not only not lie hidden, but will shine upon the whole world; and for this very reason they will be illustrious and conspicuous. By this, then, he displays his own power; and by what follows he demands boldness from them, speaking thus: “Nor do they light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” “For I have lit the light,” he says; “but that it remain burning, let that be the work of your zeal, not for your own sakes only, but for the sake of those who are to enjoy this brightness and be led by the hand to the truth. For slanders will not be able to overshadow your brightness, if you live with strictness, and as men who are going to convert the whole world. Show, then, a life worthy of the grace, so that as that is proclaimed everywhere, so this too may run along with it.” Then he sets down another gain too, besides the salvation of men, sufficient to make them watchful and to lead them to every effort. “For you will not only set the world right,” he says, “by living rightly, but will also cause God to be glorified; just as by doing the opposite you will both destroy men and cause the name of God to be blasphemed.”

“And how,” someone says, “will God be glorified through us, if men are going to slander us?” But not all will; and even those who do this out of envy will in their conscience admire you and approve you, just as those who openly flatter men living in wickedness accuse them in their minds. “What then? Do you bid us live for display and ambition?” Away with it! That is not what I mean. For I did not say, “Be eager to bring your good deeds into the open,” nor did I say, “Show them,” but, “Let your light shine”; that is, let your virtue be great, and the fire abundant, and the light unspeakable. For when virtue is so great, it is impossible for it to lie hidden, even if the one who pursues it should try ten thousand times to overshadow it. Offer them a blameless life, and let them have no true occasion for accusation; and even if your accusers are ten thousand, no one will be able to overshadow you. And he rightly said “light.” For nothing makes a man so conspicuous, even if he wishes ten thousand times to lie hidden, as the display of virtue. For as though he were clothed with the sunbeam itself, so he shines more brightly than it, sending his rays not onto the earth only but passing beyond heaven itself. From here too he comforts them the more. “For even if you are pained,” he says, “at being blasphemed, you will have many who admire God because of you.” And on both sides the reward is gathered for you, both when God is glorified through you and when you are blasphemed for God’s sake. For so that we might not make a practice of being ill spoken of, having learned that the thing has a reward, he did not put that simply either, but with two conditions: namely, when false things are said, and when it is for God’s sake. And he shows that not only that, but also being well spoken of brings great gain, since the glory passes on to God; and he holds out kind hopes to them. “For the slander of the wicked,” he says, “is not so strong as to darken the others’ eyes so that they cannot see your light. For only when you have lost your savor will they trample on you, not when you are slandered for doing what is right. For then there will be many who admire, not you only, but through you your Father too.” And he did not say “God” but “the Father,” already laying down beforehand the seeds of the nobility that was to be given them. Then, showing his equality of honor, above he said, “Do not grieve when you are ill spoken of; it is enough for you to hear these things for my sake”; but here he puts the Father, everywhere showing the equality.

Knowing, then, the gain from this zeal and the danger of indolence (for it is much worse than our own destruction that our Master should be blasphemed because of us), let us give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, offering a life brighter than the sun; and if anyone wishes to slander us, let us not grieve at being ill spoken of, but at being justly ill spoken of. For if we live in wickedness, even if there is no one to slander us, we are the most wretched of all; but if we take care of virtue, even if the whole world speaks ill of us, then we shall be the most enviable of all, and shall draw to us all who choose to be saved; for they will attend not to the slander of the wicked but to the virtue of our life. For the demonstration given by works is clearer than any trumpet, and a pure life is brighter than light itself, even if those who slander are ten thousand. [For if] we have all the things mentioned before, and are meek and humble and merciful, and pure and peacemakers, and when ill spoken of do not insult in return but even rejoice, we shall draw those who behold us no less than by signs; and all will be well disposed toward us, even if one is a wild beast, even if a demon, even if anything whatever. And if there should be some who slander, do not be troubled at all by this, nor look at the fact that they insult you in public, but examine their conscience, and you will see them applauding you and admiring you and reckoning up ten thousand praises. See, at any rate, how Nebuchadnezzar praises the youths in the furnace, although he was an enemy and a foe; but when he saw them standing nobly, he proclaims and crowns them, for no other reason than that they disobeyed him and obeyed the law of God. For the devil, when he sees himself accomplishing nothing, at last departs, afraid of becoming the cause of more crowns for us; and when he has departed, even if someone is foul and corrupted, he will recognize virtue, once that mist has been removed. And if men too should reason amiss, you will have the praise from God, and the admiration will be greater.

Do not grieve, then, nor lose heart; for the apostles too were to some the savor of death, and to others the savor of life. For if you give no handle, you are free from all the charges, or rather you have become more blessed. Shine, then, in your life, and take no account of those who slander. For it is not possible, it is not possible, for one who cares for virtue not to have many enemies. But this is nothing to the virtuous man; for through such things he will be the more illustrious. Considering these things, then, let us look to one thing only, to order our own life with strictness; for so we shall also lead by the hand to the life there those who sit in darkness. For such is the power of this light, that it shines not only here, but also leads those who follow it there. For when they see us despising all present things and preparing for what is to come, they will be persuaded by our deeds before any word. For who is so senseless as, seeing the man who yesterday and the day before was living in luxury and wealth now stripping himself of everything and taking wing, and arrayed against hunger and poverty and every hardship, against dangers and blood and slaughter and all that seems terrible, not to receive from this a clear proof of the things to come? But if we entangle ourselves in present things and push ourselves further into them, how will they be able to be persuaded that we are hastening to another journey? And what defense will we have any longer, when the fear of God does not have as much power with us as human glory had with the philosophers of the Greeks? For some of them both stripped themselves of money and despised death, in order to make a display before men; that is why their hopes too have become empty. What argument, then, will rescue us, when, with so much set before us and so great a philosophy opened to us, we cannot do even as much as they, but destroy both ourselves and others besides? For a Greek doing lawless things does not do as much harm as a Christian doing them; and very naturally. For their reputation is ruined, but ours, by the grace of God, is revered and illustrious even among the ungodly. That is why, when they most want to reproach us and to magnify the accusation, they add this: “and a Christian!”, which they would not say unless they had a great opinion of our doctrine.

Have you not heard how many and how great are the things Christ commanded? When, then, will you be able to accomplish one of those commandments, when you leave everything and go about collecting interest, stitching loans together, arranging business deals, buying herds of slaves, making silver vessels, buying fields and houses and countless furnishings? And would that it were only this! But when to these untimely pursuits you add injustice too, cutting off land, tearing away houses, grinding down poverty, increasing hunger, when will you be able to set foot on these thresholds? “But sometimes I also show mercy to the poor.” I know it too; but there again there is great damage. For you do this either with conceit or with vainglory, so as not to profit even from your good deeds. What could be more wretched than this, when you are shipwrecked even in the harbor? So that this may not happen, when you have done some good thing, do not seek thanks from me, so that you may have God as your debtor. “For lend,” he says, “to those from whom you do not expect to receive.” You have a debtor; why do you leave him and demand payment from me, a poor and miserable man? Is the debtor annoyed when payment is demanded? Is he poor? Is he unwilling to pay? Do you not see his unspeakable treasures? Do you not see his indescribable generosity? Lay hold of him, then, and demand payment; for so he rejoices when payment is demanded of him. But if he sees another asked to pay for what he owes, he will be disposed as one insulted, and will no longer repay you, but will even justly accuse you. “For what ingratitude,” he says, “have you found in me? What poverty do you know in me, that you pass me by and go to another? You lent to one, and you demand payment from another?” For even if a man received it, it was God who bade you pay it out, and he wishes to be himself both the original debtor and the surety, giving you countless occasions to demand payment of him from every side. Do not, then, leave such ease and abundance and seek to receive from me who have nothing. For why do you display to me that you have shown mercy to a poor man? Did I say to you, “Give”? Did you hear it from me, that you should demand payment from me? He himself said, “He who has mercy on the poor lends to God.” You lent to God; put it to his account. “But he does not repay all of it now.” This too he does for your sake. For such is this debtor: not as many are, eager only to repay what was lent, but he does and arranges everything so that what was given may also be laid up in safety. That is why he pays down part here and stores up part there.

Knowing these things, then, let us show great mercy and much love for mankind, both with money and with deeds. And if we see someone suffering ill and being beaten in the marketplace, if it is possible to pay down money, let us do it; if it is possible to settle it with words, let us not hesitate. For there is a reward even for a word, or rather even for groans. And this is what the blessed Job said: “I wept for every one in distress, and I groaned when I saw a man in necessities.” And if there is a reward for tears and groans, how much more when there are both words and effort? For we too were enemies to God, and the Only-begotten reconciled us, casting himself into the middle, receiving blows for us, and enduring death for us. Let us, then, also be eager to deliver those who fall into countless evils; and not, as we do now, when we see people clashing and tearing at one another, stand there delighting in others’ disgrace, and forming a theater around them that belongs to the devil. What could be more cruel than this? You see people insulted, tearing themselves, ripping their clothes, beating their faces, and you bear to stand by quietly? Is the man fighting a bear? A wild beast? A serpent? He is a man who shares everything with you; he is a brother, he is a member. Do not watch, but separate them; do not take pleasure, but set them right; do not stir up others to the disgrace, but scare off and disperse those who have gathered too. For to rejoice at such misfortunes belongs to the shameless and to house-born slaves, to the scum and to senseless asses. You see a man disgracing himself, and do you not think that you yourself are disgraced? Do you not go into the middle and scatter the devil’s battle line and break up human evils? “So that I may receive blows myself?” you say; “do you bid me do this?” Most likely you will not even suffer this; but if you do suffer it, the thing is a martyrdom for you, for you suffered for God’s sake. And if you shrink from receiving blows, consider that your Master did not shrink from enduring the cross for you. For they are drunk and in darkness, with anger tyrannizing over them and commanding them, and they need someone in his senses to help them, both the one doing wrong and the one wronged: the one, to be freed from suffering ill; the other, to stop doing ill. Go up, then, and stretch out your hand, you who are sober, to the drunken man. For there is a drunkenness of anger too, and it is more grievous than that from wine.

Do you not see the sailors, who, when they see some men caught in a shipwreck, spread their sails and go off with great haste to snatch their fellow craftsmen from the waves? And if partners in a craft show such protection, how much more is it right to do all these things for partners in nature! For here too there is a shipwreck more grievous than that. For either a man blasphemed when abused, and emptied out everything; or, tyrannized by anger, he swore falsely and again fell into hell; or he deals a blow and commits murder, and again suffers this same shipwreck. Go, then, and stop the evil, and pull up those who are drowning, going down into the very sea of the storm; and having broken up the devil’s theater and taken each aside by himself, exhort him to quell the flame and to lull the waves to sleep. And if the blaze is greater and the furnace becomes fiercer, do not be afraid; for you have many who will lend a hand and stretch out a hand, if only you make a beginning, and above all the God of peace. And if you are the first to shake off the flame, many others will follow too, and you yourself will receive the reward for what they achieve.

Hear what Christ commanded the Jews, who crawled on the ground: “If you see the beast of burden of your enemy fallen down,” he says, “do not pass by, but raise it up.” And yet to separate and reconcile men who are fighting is much easier than to raise a fallen beast of burden. And if we must raise up the ass of our enemies, much more must we help raise the souls of our friends, and above all when the fall is more grievous; for these fall not into mud but into the fire of hell, not bearing the burden of anger. But you, seeing your brother lying under his load, and the devil standing over him and kindling the blaze, pass by cruelly and pitilessly, which it is not safe to do even in the case of a dumb animal. And the Samaritan, seeing a wounded man unknown to him and in no way related to him, both stopped and set him on his beast and brought him to the inn and hired a physician, and gave part of the money and promised the rest. But you, seeing a man fallen not among robbers but among a battle line of demons and under the siege of anger, not in a desert but in the middle of the marketplace, when you are not going to spend money, nor hire a beast, nor accompany him a long way, but only to speak words, do you hesitate and hang back and pass by cruelly and pitilessly? And how do you expect ever to have God gracious to you when you call on him?

But let me speak also to you who disgrace yourselves in public, to the one who abuses and does wrong. Do you lay on blows, tell me, and kick and bite? Have you become a wild boar and a wild ass? And are you not ashamed, do you not blush, to turn into a wild beast and betray your own nobility? For even if you are poor, you are free; even if you are a craftsman, you are a Christian. For this very reason, that you are poor, you must keep quiet. For fighting belongs to the rich, not to the poor; to the rich, who have many causes of wars. But you, without having the pleasure of wealth, go about gathering for yourself the evils of wealth, enmities and quarrels and fights, and you choke your brother and throttle him and throw him down in public with everyone watching; and do you not think rather that you yourself are disgraced, imitating the impulses of irrational animals, or rather becoming worse even than they? For with them all things are common, and they flock together and go about with one another; but with us nothing is common, but everything is upside down: fights, quarrels, abuse, hatreds, and insults. And we revere neither heaven, to which we have all been called in common, nor the earth, which he has given up to all in common, nor nature itself; but anger and the love of money have swept everything away. Did you not see that man who owed the ten thousand talents, and then, after their remission, was choking his own fellow servant for a hundred denarii, what evils he underwent and how he was handed over to deathless punishment? Do you not dread the example? Are you not afraid that you too may suffer the same? For we too owe the Master many and great debts; but nevertheless he bears with us and is long-suffering, and neither presses upon us, as we do upon our fellow servants, nor throttles and chokes us; and yet if he had chosen to demand even the smallest part of them from us, we should have perished long ago.

Considering these things, then, beloved, let us be humbled, and let us be grateful to those who owe to us; for they become for us an occasion of the greatest pardon, and by giving a little we shall receive much. Why, then, do you demand payment with violence, when you ought, even if he were willing to pay, to forgive him, so that you may receive the whole from God? But as it is, you do everything, using force and contention, so that nothing of yours may be forgiven; and you think you are injuring your neighbor, but you are driving the sword against yourself, increasing your punishment in hell; whereas if you practice a little philosophy here, you make your accounts gentle for yourself. For God wants us to begin such generosity for this reason, so that he may have an occasion to give us more in return. As many debtors, then, as you have, of money and of sins, set them all free and demand of God the reward for such magnanimity. For as long as they remain your debtors, you will not have God as your debtor; but if you release them, you will be able to lay hold of God and demand, with great munificence, the reward for so great a philosophy. For if a man came by and, seeing you holding someone liable, bade you release him and look to himself for the account owed on his behalf, he would not choose to be ungrateful after the release, since he had transferred the whole to himself; how will God not repay many times and ten thousand times over, when at his command we let those liable to us go away free of liability, bringing no charge against them, small or great? Let us not, then, consider the momentary pleasure that comes to us from exacting payment from those who are liable, but the loss we shall endure from it in the future, harming ourselves in what is deathless. Rising above all things, then, let us forgive both money and offenses to those liable to us, so that we may make our own accounts gentle; and what we were not able to achieve by the rest of virtue, obtaining this by not bearing grudges against our neighbors, may we enjoy the eternal good things, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

“Do not think that I came to destroy the law [or] the prophets.” [Who] suspected this, or who accused him, that he should make a reply to it? For no such suspicion arose from what had been said; for to bid men be meek and gentle and merciful and pure in heart, and to strive for righteousness, showed nothing of the kind, but quite the opposite. Why ever, then, did he say this? Not at random or idly; but since he was about to legislate commandments greater than the old ones, saying, “You have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘You shall not kill’; but I say to you, do not even be angry,” and to cut the road of a divine and heavenly way of life, so that the novelty might not trouble the souls of the hearers and make them rebel against what was said, he uses this correction in advance. For even if they did not fulfill the law, still they were held by a great scrupulousness toward it; and though in deeds they were breaking it every day, they wanted the letters to remain unmoved and no one to add anything more to them; or rather, they put up with their rulers adding to them, not for the better but for the worse. For they were in this way undoing the honor due to parents by their own additions, and they were loosening many other things in the law by these untimely excesses. Since, then, Christ was neither of the priestly tribe, and what he was about to introduce was a kind of addition, not lessening but heightening virtue, foreseeing that both these things would trouble them, before writing those wonderful laws he casts out what was about to lurk in their minds. And what was it that lurked and stood in the way? They thought that in saying these things he was acting to abolish the old ordinances. He heals this suspicion, then. And he does this not only here but elsewhere too. For since they thought him to be opposed to God for this reason too, because he did not keep the sabbath, healing this suspicion of theirs he again offers defenses there as well: some befitting himself, as when he says, “My Father is working, and I am working”; others with much condescension, as when he brings forward a sheep perishing on the sabbath and shows the law set aside for its safety, and mentions circumcision, which again does this same thing. That is why he often speaks humbler words too, so as to remove the impression of being opposed to God. That is why he who had raised countless dead by a word alone, when he was calling Lazarus, added a prayer too; then, so that this might not show him less than the one who begot him, correcting the suspicion, he added, “I said these things because of the crowd standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” And he neither does everything as one with authority, so as to correct their weakness, nor does he do everything with prayer, so as not to leave to those who came after a ground for wicked suspicion, as though he were weak and powerless; but he mixes these with those, and those with these. And even this he does not do at random, but with the wisdom that befits him. For doing the greater things with authority, in the lesser he looks up to heaven. For in forgiving sins, revealing hidden things, opening paradise, driving out demons, cleansing lepers, bridling death, and raising the dead by the thousand, he did everything by command; but when he was making many loaves spring from a few, which was much less than these, then he looked up to heaven, showing that he does not do this from weakness. For how would he who was able to do the greater things with authority have needed prayer in the lesser? But, as I said, he does this to stop the mouths of their shamelessness. Reason the same way, then, in regard to his words too, when you hear him speaking humble things. For there are reasons for such words and deeds: for example, that he might not be thought alien to God; that he was instructing and healing all; that he was teaching humility; that he was clothed with flesh; that the Jews could not hear everything at once; that he was teaching us to say nothing great about ourselves. That is why, having often said many humble things about himself, he leaves the great things to others to say.