Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 71.1–71.4

“But the Pharisees, hearing that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered together; and one of them, a lawyer, asked him, testing him and saying, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’” Again the evangelist sets down the cause for which they ought to have been silent, and shows their rashness from this too. How and in what way? Because when those had been silenced, these attack again. For they ought to have kept quiet on this account too; but they vie with the former, and put forward the lawyer, not wishing to learn, but making trial; and they ask, “Which is the first commandment?” For since the first was this, “You shall love the Lord your God,” expecting that he would give them some handle by amending it, since he showed himself to be God, they put forward the question. What then does Christ do? Showing from what they had come to this, from having no love, from wasting away with envy, from being caught by jealousy, he says, “You shall love the Lord your God; this is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And why “like it”? Because this one prepares the way for that, and is in turn built up by it. “For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light”; and again it says, “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God”; and what follows from this? “They became corrupt and abominable in their practices.” And again, “The love of money is a root of all evils, through craving which some have wandered from the faith”; and, “He who loves me will keep my commandments”; and his commandments, and their sum, are, “You shall love the Lord your God, and your neighbor as yourself.” If, then, to love God is to love one’s neighbor (“For if you love me,” he says, “O Peter, feed my sheep”), and to love one’s neighbor works the keeping of the commandments, with reason he says, “On these hang the whole law and the prophets.” For this reason he does here also what he did before. For there, asked about the manner of the resurrection, he also taught that there is a resurrection, instructing them in more than they inquired; and here, asked the first commandment, he states the second too, not falling far short of that (for it is second, yet like that), hinting to them from what their question had arisen, namely from enmity. “For love does not envy.” By this he shows himself obedient both to the law and to the prophets. But why does Matthew say that he asked testing him, while Mark says the opposite? “For Jesus, seeing,” he says, “that he answered wisely, said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’” They do not contradict each other, but even agree closely. For he asked testing him at the beginning, but was benefited by the answer and was praised. For he did not praise him at the beginning; but when he said that to love one’s neighbor is more than burnt offerings, then he says, “You are not far from the kingdom,” because he looked beyond the lowly things and grasped the beginning of virtue. For all those things exist for the sake of this, both the sabbath and the rest. And not even so did he make his praise complete, but still lacking. For to say “You are not far” shows him still distant, so that he might seek what was lacking. And if he praised him when he said that God is one, and there is no other besides him, do not be surprised; but learn from this too how he answers according to the opinion of those who come to him. For even if they say countless things about Christ unworthy of his glory, yet this at least they will not dare to say, that he is not God at all. Why then does he praise the one who said that besides the Father there is no other God? Not excluding himself from being God (away with the thought!); but since it was not yet the time to reveal his Godhead, he lets the man remain in the former doctrine, and praises him for knowing the old things well, so as to make him fit for the teaching of the new as well, introducing it in due time. And besides, “God is one, and there is no other besides him,” both in the Old Testament and everywhere, is said not to set aside the Son, but by way of contrast with the idols. So in praising this man for so speaking, he praises him with this meaning. Then, since he had answered, he asks in turn, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?” They say to him, “David’s.” See after how many miracles, after how many signs, after how many questions, after how great a display of his concord with the Father, both by words and by deeds, after praising this man who said that God is one, he asks; so that they may not be able to say that he worked miracles but was opposed to the law and hostile to God. For this reason, after so many things, he asks this, leading them secretly to confess that he too is God. And the disciples he first asked what the others say, and then asked them; but these not so; for they would have called him a deceiver and wicked, as men who said everything without fear. For this reason he examines their own verdict. For since he was now about to go to the Passion, he sets down the prophecy that clearly proclaims him Lord, yet not simply, nor coming to this of his own accord, but from a reasonable cause. For having asked them first, since they did not answer the truth about him (for they said he was a mere man), overturning their mistaken opinion, he so brings in David proclaiming his Godhead. For they thought he was a mere man, and so they said, “David’s”; but he, correcting this, brings forward the prophet bearing witness to his lordship, and the genuineness of his sonship, and his equality of honor with the Father. And he does not stop even at this, but in order to frighten them he adds what follows, saying, “Until I put your enemies under your feet,” so that at least in this way he might draw them on. And lest they should say that David called him so out of flattery, and that this is a human verdict, see what he says: “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord?” See how modestly he brings in the verdict and the opinion about himself. First he said, “What do you think? Whose son is he?” so as to bring them by questioning to an answer. Then, when they said, “David’s,” he did not say, “And yet David says this,” but again in the form of questions: “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord?” so that what was said might not offend them. That is why he did not say, “What do you think of me?” but, “of the Christ.” For this reason the apostles too spoke modestly, saying, “It is permitted to speak freely about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried.” And he himself likewise, for this reason, brings in the doctrine as in the form of question and reasoning, saying, “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’?” and again, “If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” not denying that he is his son (away with the thought! for he would not have rebuked Peter for this), but correcting their supposition. So that when he says, “How is he his son?” he means this: not in the way you say. For they said that he is only his son, and not also Lord. And this after the testimony, and then modestly: “If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” But even hearing this they answered nothing; for they did not wish to learn anything that they ought. That is why he himself adds, saying that he is his Lord. Or rather not even this absolutely, but taking the prophet along with himself, because he was greatly disbelieved by them and slandered among them. Which especially we must consider, so as not to be offended if something lowly and modest is said by him; for this is the cause, along with many others, that he speaks condescending to them. That is why here too he teaches doctrine in the form of question and answer; yet even so he hints at his dignity. For it was not the same to hear that he was Lord of the Jews and of David. And consider, I pray you, the timeliness. For when he had said, “The Lord is one,” then he said of himself too that he is Lord, and from prophecy, no longer from works only. And he shows the Father avenging him on them: “For until I put,” he says, “your enemies under your feet”; and from this too the great concord and honor of the one who begot him toward him. And he puts this end to his discourses with them, lofty and great and able to sew up their mouths. For they were silent from then on, not willingly, but because they had nothing to say; and they received so mortal a blow that they no longer dared to attempt the same things. “For no one,” it says, “dared from that day to question him any more.” And this benefited the crowds not a little. That is why he now turns his discourse to them, having driven off the wolves and frustrated their plots. For those men gained nothing, being caught by vainglory and having fallen into this terrible passion. For the passion is terrible and many-headed. For some love rule because of it, others money, others strength. And going on its way, it comes even to almsgiving, and fasting, and prayers, and teaching; and many are the heads of this beast. But to be vainglorious over those other things is no wonder; but over fasting and prayer, this is what is strange and full of tears. But lest we only accuse again, come, let us tell also the way by which we shall escape it. Against whom, then, shall we strip first? Against those who are vainglorious over money, or over garments, or over offices, or over teaching, or over crafts, or over the body, or over beauty, or over adornment, or over cruelty, or over love for mankind and almsgiving, or over wickedness, or over their death, or after death? For, as I said, this passion has many coils, and goes even beyond our life. “For so-and-so has died,” someone says, “and in order to be admired, he ordered such and such things to be done; and for this reason so-and-so is poor, and so-and-so rich.” For this is the grievous thing, that it is made up even of opposites. Against whom, then, shall we stand and draw up our line first? For one and the same word does not suffice against all. Do you wish, then, against those who are vainglorious over almsgiving? I think so; for I love this thing greatly, and I grieve to see it ruined, and vainglory plotting against it like a nurse turned procuress against a king’s daughter. For she nurses her, but for shame and loss, acting as her bawd, and bidding her despise her father, and adorn herself to please men who are often foul and contemptible; and she puts on her such adornment as those outside wish, shameful and dishonorable, not such as the father wishes. Come then, let us turn on these, and let there be some almsgiving done with abundance for display to the many. Then first she leads her out of the father’s chamber. And the father bids her not appear even to the left hand; but this one shows her to the slaves and to chance comers who do not even know her. Do you see a harlot and procuress throwing her into love of absurd men, so that she may be shaped as they bid? Do you wish to see how she makes such a soul not only a harlot but mad too? Then observe her mind. For when, leaving heaven, she runs after runaway slaves and household drudges, pursuing through the lanes and alleys those who hate her, the ugly and ill-favored, those who do not even wish to see her, who hate her because she is burning for them, what could be madder than this? For the many hate no one so much as those who want glory from them. At any rate they weave countless accusations against them; and it is the same as if someone brought down a virgin, a king’s daughter, from the royal throne, and bade her give herself up to gladiators who spit upon her. For the more you pursue these men, the more they turn away from you; but God, if you seek the glory that is from him, draws you the more and praises you, and gives you a great reward. And if you wish to learn its loss from another side too: when you give for display and ambition, reckon how great a grief comes upon you afterward, and how continual the despondency, as Christ rings in your ears and says that you have lost all your reward. For vainglory is an evil everywhere, but especially in love for mankind, since it is the utmost cruelty, parading other people’s misfortunes and all but reproaching those in poverty. For if to speak of one’s own benefits is to reproach, to spread them abroad to many others, what do you think that is? How then shall we escape the danger? If we learn to show mercy, if we see whose glory we are seeking. For tell me, who is the master craftsman of almsgiving? God plainly, who showed the thing, who knows it best of all, and practices it without limit. What then? If you are learning to wrestle, to whom do you look, or to whom do you show yourself in the wrestling school, to the man selling vegetables and fish, or to the trainer? And yet the former are many, the latter one. What then, if others laugh at him while he admires you, will you not laugh at them along with him? And if you are learning to box, will you not look in the same way to the one who knows how to teach it? And if you pursue eloquence, will you not accept the praises of the rhetor and despise the others? How then is it not absurd, in the other arts to look to the teacher alone, but here to do the opposite? And yet the loss is not equal. For there, if you wrestle to please the many and not the teacher, the loss is in the wrestling; but here it is in eternal life. Have you become like God in showing mercy? Become like him, then, in not making a display too. For he too, when healing, said that they should tell no one. But you wish to be called merciful among men? And what is the gain? Gain there is none, but the loss is infinite. For these very men whom you call to witness become robbers of the treasures in heaven; or rather not they, but we, who plunder our own goods and scatter what is laid up above. O strange calamity, and outlandish passion! Where the moth does not destroy, nor does the thief break in, vainglory scatters. This is the moth of the treasures there; this is the thief of the wealth in heaven; this drags away the riches that cannot be plundered; this ruins and corrupts everything. For since the devil saw that place to be impregnable to robbers and worm and other plots, he drags away the wealth through vainglory.

But you desire glory? Then is the glory from the receiver himself not enough for you, or that from the God who loves mankind, but you long for that from men too? Take care that you do not undergo the opposite, that someone condemns you as not showing mercy but making a display and seeking honor, as making a tragedy out of other people’s misfortunes. For almsgiving is a mystery. Shut the doors, then, so that no one may see what it is not lawful to display. For our mysteries too are above all this: almsgiving and God’s love for mankind. “For according to his great mercy he had mercy on us,” when we were disobedient. And the first prayer too is full of mercy, when we entreat for the possessed; and the second again, for others who are in penance, seeking much mercy; and the third again, for ourselves; and this one puts forward the innocent children of the people, entreating God for mercy. For since we ourselves have condemned ourselves for our sins, for those who have sinned much and deserve to be blamed we ourselves cry out, but for ourselves the children do, those whose imitators in simplicity the kingdom of heaven awaits. For this figure shows this, that those who are lowly and guileless like those children are above all able to beg off the guilty. And the mystery itself, how much mercy, how much love for mankind it contains, the initiated know. You too, then, showing mercy to a man according to your power, shut the doors: let only the one shown mercy see; and if possible, not even he. But if you throw them open, you parade your mystery. Consider that the very man whose glory you seek will himself condemn you too; and if he is a friend, he will accuse you to himself; but if an enemy, he will ridicule you to others too. And you will undergo the opposite of what you desire. For you desire him to say, “He is merciful”; but he will not say this, but, “He is vainglorious, a man-pleaser,” and other things far worse than these. But if you hide it, he will say everything opposite to these: “He is loving, he is merciful.” For God does not allow it to be hidden; but if you hide it, he will make it plain, and the wonder greater, and the gain more. So that even for this very thing, being glorified, display is against us; for to the very thing we hurry and press toward, this very thing stands most in our way. For not only do we not receive the reputation of being merciful, but even the opposite, and besides this we undergo great loss too. On every account, then, let us keep away from this, and love God’s glory alone. For so we shall both obtain the glory here and 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 to the ages of ages. Amen.