Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 70–75

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory, and all nations will be gathered before him,” and the rest. If not examined, the passage seems plain, as exhorting people to give and to be generous, and turning them away from all inhumanity and stinginess. Yet let us see what must be investigated in it, for the sake of those who think there is nothing else in it but an exhortation to humanity. Certainly the whole Church believes that there will be a second and glorious coming of Christ, when the Son of God, who was taken up in glory, will return here with glory in his own form and beauty, so that his body will be as it was when he was transfigured on the mountain before the three disciples who went up with him: so that he appears no longer to three, nor to a few others, but to all the nations gathered before him, and sits on the throne of his glory; and then he will separate the bad from the good. But whether it means all the nations of all who have lived in all generations, or only those left at the consummation, or only those that have believed in God through Christ, and of these whether all or not all, is not clear enough. Yet to some it seems that this was said about the differences among those who have believed. As far, then, as the simple text goes, those standing on the right are praised and called into the prepared kingdom for no other reason than their humanity alone, and those on the left are put to shame and assigned to the fire for no other reason than their inhumanity. What then? If those who were humane were negligent about the other virtues, will they obtain such promises? Or will those who were not humane, if they fulfilled the other virtues, be utterly cursed and condemned to the fire, and that with the devil himself? You see, then, that the passage needs wisdom. Again, it must be discussed whether the Saviour's coming in glory will be in a place, or whether we must seek another explanation. For what place will that be, that it can hold in one view both all the angels coming with Christ and all the nations gathered there? And what is to be said of the throne of his glory? Do you suppose it will be some bodily seat? Or does this too need a subtler interpretation? So whoever wishes to understand all things rationally will find much wisdom in these things too. It is dangerous to expound such matters; but lest, because of the difficulty of understanding, we keep completely silent and abandon those who are moved by these things to waver, let us expound a few things out of many, as far as is possible. I think, then, that the time of Christ's coming will be when there will be so great a manifestation of Christ and his divinity that not only none of the righteous, but not even any of the sinners, will fail to know Christ as he is; when sinners will recognize their offences before their own eyes, and the righteous will plainly see to what end the seeds of their righteousness have brought them. And this is what he said: “All nations will be gathered before him.” For if now, when not all know Christ as he is, and not even those who seem to know him know him openly, but people enter into his presence by faith alone when they receive knowledge of him through faith, as it is written, “Enter into his presence with exultation,” how much more rightly are all nations said to be gathered and set before him when he has been made openly manifest to all, good and bad alike, faithful and unfaithful alike, before the eyes of their mind, no longer found by faith or by anyone's diligent search, but brought forth by the manifestation of his own divinity? The Son of God will not appear in one place and not appear in another when he comes in his glory; but as he himself wished to show his coming by comparison with the lightning going out, saying: “If they say to you, Behold, he is in the desert, do not go out; behold, he is in the house, do not believe it. For as the lightning goes out from the east and appears even to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” For as the lightning going out from the east, because it fills all things, appears even to the west, so when Christ comes in his glory, and for that reason will be everywhere, he will be in the sight of all everywhere, and all everywhere will be in his sight; and so they will be set before the throne of his glory, that is, before his kingdom and the power of his dominion. His thrones are said to be either certain of the more perfect saints, of whom it is written, “For there thrones were set for judgement,” or certain angelic powers, of whom it is said, “Whether thrones or dominions.” So the King of the ages, God the Word, who was made in the form of man, will sit on such a throne of his glory; and all nations will be gathered to him, no longer scattered among many false doctrines about him; and they will be before him in such a way that we do not understand all nations as coming before him in a place, just as we do not understand in a place that the righteous will say what they are going to say. As long, then, as the wicked are confused, knowing neither themselves nor Christ, but are held darkened in errors, and as long as the righteous see through a mirror and in an enigma, and know themselves in part, not as they truly are, so long the good are not separated from the bad; but when, through the manifestation of the Son of God, all have come to the understanding of themselves, then the Saviour will separate the good from the bad. Those who are saved are called sheep because of the gentleness they learned from him who says, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart,” and because they were ready to go even to slaughter, imitating Christ, who was led as a sheep to slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer, without voice; and not simply without voice, but without voice before its shearer, that is, before one taking away and plundering what is his. And the wicked are called goats, because they climb rough and hard rocks to their harm and walk along their precipices. So understand with me that the saints are on the right, who have done right works and are more fully turned to righteousness, which is always at God's right hand. Therefore, according to the worth of their right deeds, they stand on the right, and have received the reward of their right deeds, the right hand of the King, in which are rest and glory. But those who, through the perversity of their life, have separated themselves from the right by their very wicked and sinister works, have fallen to the left, that is, condemned to the sorrow of torments; and so they stand on the left. “Then he will say to those on the right,” inviting them to himself, “Come,” so that whatever was lacking to them, when they are more perfectly united to Christ, they may obtain, hearing “Come” and doing it. Such is what he says in Luke: “Take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten. For to everyone who has, more will be added; but from him who does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken away.” And he calls them blessed of the Father, adding “blessed of my Father,” so that the eminence of their blessing may be made plain, since they are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth; and perhaps because there are some lower ones who are blessed, but not of the Father. “Receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Where the Latin has “from the foundation of the world,” the Greek has “from the laying down of the world,” and he expounds according to the Greek word what could not fittingly be expounded according to the Latin. Why the Scriptures frequently use the term “laying down” of the world, as here, “from the laying down of the world,” let him inquire who can, knowing that not everything created is said to be laid down, nor is it written anywhere “from the laying down of thrones, or dominions, or principalities.” If you gather from every place the term “laying down,” wherever else it may be used, and compare those passages with what is said about the laying down of the world, rising through the word to the other things which were created but not laid down, since no laying down of them took place, you will see the reason for the term “laying down,” since the term is used only of the world. But to entrust such things to writing, which may come into the hands of men of bad character, slanderers, and lovers of novelty, is not reverent, lest pearls too finely worked be cast before swine, or holy things given to dogs.

“I was hungry and you gave me to eat,” and the rest. It seems to me that by these words not just one kind of righteousness is rewarded, as many think. For it is absurd to understand no other virtue in the one rewarded in this way than the mere sharing of kindness. We do not say this so that we may pursue kindness more negligently, since all the faithful must observe it especially, but so that we may pursue all things equally, or almost equally, and so receive from all of them every blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. First it must be understood that, as far as the text goes, just as giving food to the hungry is not enough for obtaining the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom unless we also do the rest that follows, so it is not possible to fulfil all those things according to the letter, as many think, without acting in part against God's commandment. For such a man would also have to be engaged in making money, so as to give food and drink and clothing to Christ hungry and thirsty and cold in the saints, and in this way also to take him in as a stranger, visit him when sick, and go to him in prison. But truly, whether we understand the simpler and bodily good deeds or the spiritual ones, it is certain that whether one does a good work in this way or in that, and nourishes souls with spiritual food, or performs any kind of good work for God's sake, he gives food and drink to Christ hungry and thirsty. Whether in what we do for the saints who are rich in merits but poor in goods, or for any who are poor in merits even if they are rich in goods, or in whatever circumstances someone has carried out Christ's commandment, he feeds Christ and gives him drink, who eats and drinks the righteousness and truth of the faithful. Likewise we cover Christ, when he is cold, with clothing, receiving the covering of wisdom from God, so that by our teaching we may teach some and clothe them with heartfelt mercy, chastity, gentleness, humility, and the other virtues; all these virtues are the spiritual clothing of those who hear the teaching of those who teach them, according to him who says: “Put on heartfelt mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness,” and the rest; and, more than that, we clothe them with Christ himself, who is all these things to the faithful, according to him who said: “Put on the Lord Jesus.” When therefore we have clothed one of the least who believe in Christ with such clothing, we are seen to have clothed the Lord himself, so that, as far as it rests with us, the word of God may not be naked in the world. We also take in the Son of God, who has become a stranger, and the members of his household, his body, who are strangers in the world, away from all bodily doings, as he himself says of himself and of his disciples: “And these are not of this world, as I too am not of this world.” And Christ with his own seeks a soul into which he may enter. When, therefore, we prepare our heart with various virtues to receive him, or those who are his, we receive him as a stranger into the house of our breast, making a large upper room, cleaned and furnished, to receive Christ, who is a stranger in the world, and the rest of his disciples. For when we receive people's word, we are seen to have received them in us, and through them Christ, whose word they carry. Likewise, in people who are weak, whether in faith or in some good work, or who suffer a stumbling, Christ is weak and suffers stumbling, as he himself says to Peter, who was minding the things of the flesh: “You are a stumbling block to me,” that is, you are a weakness to me. And all his beloved disciples are weak together with such people and suffer stumbling, saying: “Who is weak, and we are not weak? Who is made to stumble, and we do not burn?” And if his disciples become weak with the weak, how much more the Saviour himself, their creator? For the greater the mercy toward weak men that holds a person, the more heavily such weakness presses on him. When therefore we have visited one of the weak brothers, whether by teaching, or by rebuke, or by consolation, or by prayers, or by the terror of judgement, or by doing him some good work, and have made him better in Christ, we have visited Christ himself and strengthened him in his weakness; and we refresh the other disciples of Christ, who share such sufferings, as Paul says to Philemon: “For we have had great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.” And do not think it blasphemous to call Christ weak. For he himself was crucified out of weakness, for mercy's sake, and he himself bears our weaknesses and those of all who are his. Further, everything here is a prison for Christ and for those who are his. Therefore let us go to those who are held in the house of these chains as in a prison, and who spend their lives in this world as in a prison, bound by the necessity of nature. When therefore we have gone to such people and done every good work for them, we have visited them in prison, and Christ in them. Let us see, then, whether these things, understood in a general sense, exhort us both to simple kindness and to all praiseworthy deeds, so that one may be able worthily to obtain the blessing that says to the worthy: “Come, blessed of my Father.” And the righteous will not then answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry?” and the rest, because they have forgotten what they did, but because, out of humility, they declare themselves unworthy of praise for their good deeds. But he, wishing to show them his compassion in his own, declares that he himself is also in those who are his brothers, saying: “Truly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Let us see now that he says to the righteous, “Come, blessed of my Father,” but to the unrighteous, “Depart from me,” although they too had certainly been believers; and we understand fulfilled in them what is written: “To everyone who has more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken away.” For those who keep God's commandment are near to the Word, and they are called so that they may be made nearer still, hearing: “Come, blessed of my Father.” But those who do not do his commandments are far from him, even if they seem to stand by him. Therefore even what they seemed to have, in standing by him, will be taken from them when they hear, “Depart from me”; so that those who now at least seem to be before him will afterwards not even seem to be. Therefore we too must guard this, lest we also hear, as those who have distanced ourselves from the Lord, “Depart from me”; and let us do everything so that he may say to us: “Come, blessed of my Father.” It must be considered, too, that of the saints it is not only said “blessed,” but with an addition that carries no ordinary honour, that is, blessed not of anyone else but of God the Father. On the other hand, of those to whom “cursed” is said, it is not said “cursed of my Father.” For the Father is the giver of blessing, but each one who has done what deserves a curse is himself the author of his own curse. And those who depart from Jesus fall into the eternal fire, which is of another kind than this fire we have in use. For no fire among men is eternal, or even lasts long; it is soon put out. But that fire is eternal of which Isaiah too speaks at the end of his prophecy: “Their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched.” Perhaps it is of such a substance that, being itself invisible, it burns invisible things, according to what the Apostle says, that “the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal.” If then the things that are seen are temporal, and the things that are not seen are eternal, it follows that if that fire is visible, it is also temporal; but if it is eternal, then the fire by which those who depart from the Saviour are punished is also invisible. Such is what Job too says: “A fire that is not kindled will devour him.” And do not wonder when you hear that there is an invisible fire that punishes, since you see among men a fever that comes upon bodies and torments them severely, especially those who are most violently afflicted by it. And consider that he says the kingdom was prepared from the foundation of the world for none but the righteous, and therefore Christ their King will give it to them. But he shows that the eternal fire was not prepared for those to whom it is said, “Depart from me, you cursed,” as the kingdom was for the righteous, but for the devil and his angels; because, as far as he is concerned, he created men not for perdition but for life and joy. But by sinning they join themselves to the devil; and as those who are saved are made equal to the holy angels, and become sons of the resurrection, and sons of God, and angels, so those who perish are made equal to the devil's angels and become his sons.

“For I was hungry and you did not give me to eat,” and the rest. It is written to the faithful: “You are the body of Christ, and members in part.” So, just as the soul dwelling in the body, though it does not hunger as to its spiritual substance, yet hungers for every food of the body because it is joined to its body, so too the Saviour suffers what his body, the Church, suffers, though he himself is impassible as to his divinity. For when the saints lack food, he too hungers. When others of his members need medicine, he too, as one sick, needs it. Likewise, when others need to be taken in, he himself, as a stranger in them, seeks where to lay his head. So too he is cold in the naked and clothed in the clothed. And if out of love Paul says, “Who is weak, and I am not weak?”, and this redounds rather to the praise of the Apostle, showing the greatness of his love toward the faithful, how much more than Paul and every man adorned with love can the Saviour, the Son of God's love, fittingly say: “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?” That is why he says, “I was sick,” and so too, “I was in prison, and you did not visit me.” For when a member of Christ is placed in prison, he is not free of the prison who says of the righteous man, “I am with him in tribulation,” that is, I suffer tribulation with him. For as he who is mine is in tribulation with me, so I too am in tribulation with him. And I say this not unaware of that more common tradition. And consider this too: speaking to the righteous, he dwells on each word, praising them, and lists their good deeds kind by kind; but speaking to the unrighteous, he cuts it short, abbreviating and gathering their evil deeds briefly. That is, to the righteous he says of sickness, “I was sick and you visited me,” and separately of prison, “I was in prison and you came to me.” But to the unrighteous, though he could have done the same, “I was sick and you did not visit me; I was in prison and you did not come to me,” he cut the account short and joined both, saying: “I was sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.” For it belonged to a merciful judge to proclaim the good deeds of men more generously and enlarge them, but to mention their evil deeds in passing and shorten them. And the righteous too dwell on each word, saying: “When did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink, or naked and clothe you, or a stranger and take you in? Or when did we see you sick, or in prison?” For it is proper to the righteous, when their good deeds are recounted to their face, to decline them carefully and one by one, out of humility: as if, when the Lord says, “You did this, and this, and this good to me,” they were to refuse and say, “We did neither this, nor this, nor this for you.” The unrighteous do not speak one by one, but hastily: “When did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not serve you?”, applying the word “serve you” to everything, as though cutting short and passing over each charge, so that the charges may not seem heavier by being listed carefully and singly; for it is proper to bad men, to excuse themselves, to wish to show their faults as either none at all or light and few. And Christ's answer, given both to the righteous and to the unrighteous, signifies this very sense. For, wishing to show the good deeds of the righteous as great, and the faults of sinners as not great, he says to the righteous: “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” But to the unrighteous he says this: “Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me either,” not adding “my brothers,” as when he spoke to the righteous. For by a loose use of the name, [all] who believe in Christ are brothers of Christ; but in reality his brothers are those who are perfect and are his imitators, like him who said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”; those who can say, “Our Father who are in heaven.” And a good work done for the holier is more pleasing to God than one done for the least of the saints, and it is a lighter fault to neglect the less holy than the holier. He calls them “least” here either because they were esteemed least in the world, or because they were least in their own eyes. For, wishing to become great with God, they made themselves least, as most dear disciples of him who said: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” And note this too: having first said, “Come, you blessed,” and then, “Depart, you cursed,” since it is proper to the good God to remember the good deeds of the good before the evil deeds of the wicked, afterwards, in the outcome of both, he first names the punishment of the wicked, then the life of the good, saying: “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but those into eternal life”; so that first we may avoid the evils that belong to fear, and afterwards seek the good things that belong to honour.

“And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these words, he said to his disciples.” Wishing to show that God has set all things in weight and number and measure, he says in one place to his mother: “My hour has not yet come.” Again: “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this I came to this hour.” Again: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you.” So too God set the hour of the passion of his Son. Therefore, though he often suffered plots from the Jews, he could suffer nothing, since the devil had departed from him until a time; and he could suffer nothing until he had finished all the words that he had purposed to speak to his disciples. That is why, “when he had finished all these words, then he said to his disciples.” And see that he did not say simply, “when he had finished all the words,” but added “all these,” that is, those he had already spoken, not those he was still to speak. For he still had to speak other words too, before he was handed over: in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, about the woman who came to him; and he had to keep the Passover with his disciples, expose the hidden traitor, give thanks, and hand them the bread and the cup. He also had to foretell to his disciples that they would stumble, and to Peter that before the cock crowed he would deny him three times. And further, as the hour drew near, he had to pray more, not once nor twice but three times, until the hour fully arrived.

“You know that after two days the Passover takes place, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified,” and the rest. If, then, even the hour had been determined, as we said, so that he would not be handed over before all his teaching, how much more had the day also been determined, so that Christ our Passover should be sacrificed, doing away with the Jewish Passover and handing on the Passover according to the New Testament to his disciples? The month of the Passover also had to be determined. And I think even the year, of which the prophet also said: “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of salvation.” So he foretells it to his disciples, forearming them, lest, not having heard beforehand what was to happen, they should suddenly see their Master handed over to the cross and be stunned with fear at the passion befalling the Lord. That is why he said to them: “You know that after two days the Passover takes place, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.” He does not mean, as some thought, that after two days the day of the Passover will come, but that after two days a new Passover will take place. For he did not say, “After two days it will be the Passover,” or “will come,” so as not to show that the Passover customarily held according to the law was meant; but “the Passover takes place,” that is, one such as had never been held, so that by this new Passover that old one might be cut down. Then he adds: “And the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.” And after two days the Passover took place, as he had prophesied, when he was handed over at night and said to Judas, who kissed him, “Friend, why have you come?” And if the Passover took place after two days, on the fourteenth day of the moon, it is plain that when he said these things it was, by the Jewish reckoning, the eleventh day of the moon, when he also expounded the parables above. By whom he was handed over is not written here. But you will gather from the Scriptures that the Father too handed him over, as it is written: “He who did not spare his only Son, but handed him over for us all.” According to other Scriptures, Judas handed him over. And Satan too, who entered into Judas, handed him over. And the chief priests and the elders handed him over. That is why here he put “will be handed over” impersonally, not saying by whom: a word that can refer to all who handed him over. But not all handed him over with the same purpose. For God handed him over out of mercy toward the human race, in that he did not spare his only Son but handed him over for us all. But the others handed him over with a wicked purpose, each according to his own malice: Judas from avarice, the priests from envy, the devil from fear lest the human race be torn from his hand by Christ's teaching, not noticing that the race of men was to be rescued more by his death than it had been rescued by his teaching and miracles. For he was handed over to be crucified so that, stripping the principalities and powers, he might boldly triumph over them on the tree.