Commentary on Matthew 18–19

“On that day the disciples came to Jesus, saying: Who, do you think, is greater in the kingdom of heaven?” and the rest. The Lord teaches that only those who have turned back into the nature of children enter the kingdom of heaven, that is, that the vices of our bodies and souls must be called back to childlike simplicity. He has called all believers “children” through the faith of hearing. For these follow their father, love their mother, do not know how to wish evil to their neighbor, neglect the care of wealth; they do not grow insolent, do not hate, do not lie, believe what is said, and hold what they hear as true. And when the habit and will of all these dispositions is taken up in us, it makes the road of the heavens passable. We must return, then, to the simplicity of infants: because, set in it, we shall carry about the image of the Lord’s humility. If any receive such ones in the name of Christ, they will obtain the reward of having received Christ. “But whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble,” that is, whoever brings in the stumbling block of temptation, “it is better for him that a donkey millstone be hung on his neck and that he be sunk in the depth of the sea.” So many and such things are not compared idly: a millstone, and a donkey’s millstone, and being sunk with it in the sea, and this being better for him. By the common sense of all, what is better is always useful. What usefulness is there, then, in being sunk with a donkey millstone hung on the neck? For so heavy a death will serve for punishment: and I do not know how it will be useful to seek what is the last of evils. So what must be understood is to be sought. The work of the mill is the labor of blindness: for beasts of burden are driven round in a circle with their eyes shut. And we often find the nations named by the name of the beast of burden. So the nations do not know what they do: and, held in the work of their life, they are kept in the ignorance of blind labor. But to the Jews the road of knowledge was supplied in the law. If they caused the apostles of Christ to stumble, it would be more right that they, a donkey millstone tied to their neck, had been sunk in the sea, that is, pressed down by the labor of the nations, had remained in the ignorance of the world: because it would have been more tolerable for them not to have known Christ than, as those to whom he was prophesied, not to have received him. “Woe to this world because of stumbling blocks. For it is necessary that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes.” The humility of the passion is a stumbling block to the world. For in this especially human ignorance is held fast, that it will not accept the Lord of eternal glory under the ugliness of the cross. And what is so dangerous to the world as not to have received Christ? But under the naming of “man” he designates the Jewish people as the author of this stumbling block, through which all this danger is prepared for the world, that they should deny Christ in his passion, whom the law and the prophets proclaimed as able to suffer. He says it is necessary that stumbling blocks come for this reason: because, for the mystery of giving eternity back to us, all the humility of the passion had to be fulfilled in him. Above we explained that the names of kin are contained in the cutting off of hand or foot: and so he signifies that the kinship of the Israelite race must be left behind, as by a kind of cutting off of members, because through it stumbling blocks are prepared for the world. “See that you do not despise one of these little ones who believe in me.” He laid on us the tightest bond of mutual love, especially toward those who had truly believed in the Lord. For the angels of the little ones daily see God: because the Son of Man came to save what was lost. So the Son of Man saves, and the angels see God, and the angels belong to the little ones. That angels preside over the prayers of the faithful is a settled authority. So the angels daily offer to God the prayers of those saved through Christ. So he is despised at peril whose desires and requests are carried to the eternal and invisible God by the eager service and ministry of angels. And to show the great joy in heaven at the return of human salvation, he set out the example of a comparison, of one who left ninety-nine sheep in the mountains and sought one that was straying: when it is found there is more joy than was had in keeping the ninety-nine. The one sheep is to be understood as man, and under one man the whole is to be perceived. For in the straying of one Adam the whole human race went astray; so the ninety-nine that did not stray are to be thought of as the multitude of heavenly angels, who have in heaven joy and care for human salvation. So both the one seeking man is Christ, and the ninety-nine left are the multitude of heavenly glory: to which the straying man, with the greatest joy, has been brought back in the Lord’s body. Rightly, then, this number is added through a letter in Abraham and completed in Sara: for from Abram he is called Abraham, and from Sarai Sara receives her name. For in one Abraham we all are: and through us, who are all one, the number of heavenly glory is to be filled. And therefore all creation awaits the revelation of the sons of God: and therefore it groans and is in pain, so that the number which was added through the alpha of Abraham, and which was completed in the alpha in Sara, may be filled up for the heavenly establishment by the increase of believers. “But if your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him,” and the rest. The Lord laid on us the same order of keeping love which he himself had held in preserving Israel: for he commands that a sinning brother be reproved and rebuked by him alone against whom he has sinned. For he himself rebuked the Jewish people when it sacrificed to foreign gods, by the coming of his majesty and the whole terror of his present power. And then, when the same people could not bear the coming of God approaching, though placed outside the mountain, he commanded that for the disobedient one or two also be brought, so that in the mouth of two witnesses the truth and reality of the word might stand: because the law, the prophets, and John were sent to insolent Israel, and by these witnesses it was called upon to stop sinning; it was warned the third time by the very coming of the Lord, as before the assembly of the church looking on: and, these rebukes having been in vain, it is disregarded as of the worthlessness of a tax collector or a Gentile. And to strike the greatest fear, by which all might be held in the present, he set out beforehand the immovable judgment of apostolic severity: that those whom they have bound on earth, that is, left tied in the knots of sins, and those whom they have loosed, that is, received into salvation by the confession of pardon, these, by the condition of the apostolic sentence, are either loosed or bound in heaven too. So much did he care for the harmony of human peace that he confirms that by the merit of unity all things to be asked of God are to be obtained; and where two or three are gathered with the same spirit and will, he promises that he will be in their midst. For he who is peace and love will place his seat and dwelling in good and peaceable wills. Then, when Peter asked whether he should forgive a brother sinning against him seven times, he answered: “Not up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” In every way he trains us to the likeness of his humility and goodness, and, softening and breaking the stings of our turbulent movements, he strengthens us by the example of his own readiness to be appeased: granting, indeed, pardon for all sins through faith. For the vices of our nature would not deserve indulgence. So all pardon is from him: since he forgives even the sins that are against himself after the return of confession. The penalty to be paid through Cain was set at sevenfold: but that sin was against a man; for in Abel it was a sin against a brother even to killing. But in Lamech the punishment was set even to seventy times seven; and in him, as far as we think, the penalty set against the authors of the Lord’s passion is signified. But the Lord, through the confession of believers, grants pardon for this crime, that is, through the gift of baptism he grants the grace of salvation to slanderers and persecutors: how much more, he shows, must we give back pardon without measure or number, and not think how often we forgive; but rather stop being angry with those who sin against us, as often as the necessity of being angry has arisen? This constancy of pardon certainly teaches that there should be no time at all for anger with us: since God grants us pardon for all sins whatever by his gift rather than by our merit. For it is not right that we should be shut in a number for giving pardon according to the prescription of the law, since through the grace of the Gospel it has been granted to us by God without measure. Indeed, for the disposition of perfect goodness he set out the example of a comparison, in which the master released the whole debt to a servant who had nothing with which to pay: and that servant, extorting from his fellow servant the small amount owed to him, lost through this vice of his will the gift of his master’s generosity and liberality. The reason of this comparison is plain, and it was all explained by the Lord himself.

“And it happened, when Jesus had finished these sayings, he moved into Galilee and came into the borders of Judea,” and so on. He heals Galileans in the borders of Judea. For he could have spared the crowds of the sick the fatigue and brought help to the weak within Galilee itself: but the typological reason was to be fulfilled even by the privileges of places, so that he might admit the sins of the nations to the pardon that was being prepared for Judea. “Then Pharisees came to him, testing him and saying: Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for any cause?” In the discussion about a wife and divorce, it occurs that it is written otherwise in Genesis than the Lord now spoke at present. For there the whole matter is related under the words of Adam; here the Lord indicates that all those things were said by him who formed the man and made the woman. But we, following the apostle’s authority, who professed that this mystery is great, but that he takes it of Christ and the church, will leave this passage untouched as it is. Yet we warn the reader that whenever he consults himself about this same question, he should carefully note the force of the words, both those with which the Lord answered and those the disciples used, and weigh the mind of the apostle Paul on this, whether he is silent or sometimes treats it in other places. Let our speech and intention be about the eunuchs. In one he placed nature, in another necessity, in the third will: nature in him who is born so, necessity in him who has been made so, will in him who has decided to be such in hope of the heavenly kingdom: to whom he has warned us to become like, if indeed we can. “Then little children were brought to him, that he might lay his hands on them and pray; but the disciples forbade them,” and the rest. It is new that the disciples forbade little children to come to Christ, who were being brought so that he might lay his hand on them and pray. The gospel matter, as we have said, has tempered between the effect of the present and of the future a reason midway and fitting to both: so that an image of the future might cling to the things that were being done. The little children were truly brought, but they were also truly forbidden. But these are the figure of the nations, to whom salvation is given back through faith and hearing. But out of the affection for saving Israel first, they are forbidden by the disciples to approach. The will to forbid does not fit apostolic gentleness: but the impulse to forbid the little children crept in for the typological fulfillment. The Lord says they must not be forbidden, because the kingdom of heaven is of such: for the gift and endowment of the Holy Spirit was to be given to the nations through the laying on of hands and prayer, the work of the law ceasing. “And behold, one came to him and said to him: Teacher, what good shall I do that I may have eternal life?” and the rest. Fittingly, after the preceding discourse, in which the little children were forbidden and the answer given that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such, this young man follows, asking by what good works he might have eternal life. This young man both asked, and was insolent, and again was made sad: and all the things that are written were done and accomplished. But we have warned that the things done under God showed, by the effects of the present, the form of what would follow: and that thus every speech in the heavenly Scriptures has always been tempered so as to fit no less the likeness of things to be done than the things that were being done. So this young man bears the form of the Jewish people, insolent in the law and expecting from Christ nothing of hope beyond the precepts of Moses. To him the Lord, in his very answer, declared the severity of the judgment to come from himself, saying: “Why do you call me good?” For he who must punish impious and unjust things abstained from the name of goodness, reserving this name for God the Father alone, who, by giving himself as judge, put off the office of severity: not that he himself was not good, but that as judge he would use a fitting severity against him. So he sends this man, insolent from the law and anxious about salvation, back to the law: so that in that very law in which he gloried he might understand that he had done no right work from it. For the Lord answered him with the words of the law. But the young man, like an insolent and boasting people, trusts in the law, though he obeyed it in nothing. For he had been commanded not to kill: he had killed the prophets. Not to commit adultery: he had brought corruption on the faith and adultery on the law, and had worshiped foreign gods. Not to steal: before Christ gave back the freedom of believing in faith, he dissolved the precepts of the law by theft. Not to be a false witness: he denied that Christ was risen from the dead. He was commanded to honor father and mother: he cut himself off from the family of God the Father and of mother church. He was commanded to love his neighbor as himself: he persecuted Christ, who took the body of us all and, by the condition of the body he took, became neighbor to each of us, even to the penalty of the cross. So he was commanded to return to the law, putting these aside and cutting off all vices. But he answers that he has done all these from his youth, and asks what still remains for him. But, as we have said, he had neither done those earlier things to which he is sent back, and, glorying in them as one completed, he says these things. The Lord answers him that he must sell all his goods and give to the poor: and then he will be perfect and have treasure in heaven. To this young man the answer is indeed that most beautiful and most useful precept of leaving the world, by which the riches of heaven are to be bought at the loss of earthly substance: but in being commanded to sell his goods and give to the poor, he is warned to leave his confidence in the law and exchange it in a happy trade; and to remember that in it there is the shadow of the truth, which is henceforth to be divided among the poor, that is, the nations, under the body of the truth itself; and that no one can do this except one who has begun to follow Christ. But the young man, hearing this, went away sad: for he had much confidence of wealth from the law. And in this too the reason of typological effect was kept: since, though it signifies that he was a young man, he himself had said above that he had served these precepts contained in the law from all his youth: though young manhood lies within youth, and a later stage of age cannot be contained within the bounds of an earlier one. But this was so, that by serving from youth it might show the long time of the people already in the work of the law. Then the Lord, knowing the young man’s sadness, answered that it is hard for a rich man to come into the kingdom of heaven. Israel, as we have said, boasted that it was rich by its confidence in the law. For it the entry into heaven is hard, holding on to old riches under the name of Abraham with the ambition of an empty lineage. Indeed he added that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. To have is not a crime, but measure must be kept in having. For how is one to share, how to give in common, if the material for sharing and giving in common is not left? So it is rather having harmfully that becomes a crime than having itself. But the wish to grow rich is a dangerous care: and innocence takes on a heavy burden when occupied with the increase of wealth. For service of God does not obtain the goods of the world without the vices of the world itself. Hence it is hard for a rich man to come to the kingdom of heaven. And also, since many could use rightly what they have, this reason was kept in the Lord’s speech, that it was not said absolutely that no one could enter the kingdom of heaven; but the rarity of those who will is to be understood from the difficulty. And these things belong to the understanding of the simple sense: but the order of the inner cause must be kept on the same course. The young man, as we have said, insolent, is sorrowful and sad when he is commanded to suffer the loss of the law. For to this people the cross and passion are a stumbling block; and therefore there is no salvation for it from them. But it glories in the law, despises the nations as fellow heirs, and refuses to pass over into gospel freedom: and therefore it will hardly enter the kingdom of heaven. For few of them, and very rare in comparison with the multitude of the nations, were going to believe: for they would hardly bend a will hardened in the law to the preaching of gospel humility. “But it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.” A camel does not fit with the eye of a needle: nor can the misshapenness of a huge beast be received into the narrows of a tiny hole. But at the beginning of the book, under the clothing of John, we pointed out that the nations are signified by the camel. For this beast obeys words, is restrained by fear, endures fasting, and submits to its burden by a kind of trained reasoning: by its example the savagery of the nations is softened to obedience to the heavenly precepts. These, then, enter the narrowest road of the heavenly kingdom: namely the needle, which is the preaching of the new word, by which the wounds of bodies are sewn up, the torn places of garments are rewoven, and death itself is pierced. This, then, is the road of this new preaching: into it the misshapenness of the nations will enter more easily than the wealth of the rich, that is, of one boasting in the law.