Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 8–13

How the Saviour's enemies are made by the Father the footstool of his feet, it is fitting to consider in a worthy manner, in keeping with the kindness of God, who makes his enemies the footstool of his feet. For we must not suppose that God makes Christ's enemies the footstool of his feet in the same way as enemies are put under the feet of earthly kings who destroy their own enemies. Do not they trample their adversaries without mercy? But God makes Christ's enemies the footstool of his feet not for their destruction but for their salvation, as we shall show by bringing forward examples from the holy Scriptures that mean this very thing. For it is written in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, in the second Aleph: “How the Lord in his wrath has darkened the daughter of Zion! He has cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, and has not remembered the footstool of his feet.” And see that as long as Israel was the footstool of God's feet, it was glorious in heaven; but after it was cast down so as not to be the footstool of his feet, it ceased to be in heaven. Attend carefully to what it says: “He has cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, and has not remembered the footstool of his feet.” Likewise the saying, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my feet,” signifies not disgrace but glory for the earth, which understands some small and last part of God, which is figuratively called his feet. So also the Church on earth, at the beginnings of the worship of God and of the knowledge of God, is the footstool of his feet; just as that sinful woman, doing penance, was at the feet of Jesus at the beginnings of her repentance, for she could not yet pour the ointment of the fragrance of her good deeds on the head of Christ; it was desirable for her even to stand by the Lord's feet and anoint them. And each of us, understanding himself to be what the Apostle says, “We too were once without understanding, unbelieving, going astray, and serving various desires and pleasures,” will see how, since he was such before he was washed from them, he had been an enemy of Christ, an enemy of righteousness, of truth, of wisdom, of peace. But after “the kindness of God our Saviour appeared,” he first became the footstool of Christ's feet. And I, confident that this is the sense of Scripture, do not hesitate to affirm that this is how the Father says to the Son, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.” And the Apostle in the first letter to the Corinthians gives such a sense to Scripture, so that we understand that those who were once enemies become the footstool of Christ's feet in the sense of their subjection, speaking in this way: “But now Christ has risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep: for since through a man came death, through a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the beginning, then those who are Christ's, who believed at his coming; then the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God and the Father, when he has done away with every principality, authority, and power. For he must reign until he puts his enemies under his feet: the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he has subjected all things under his feet. But when it says that all things have been subjected to him, it is plain that he is excepted who subjected all things to him. And when all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself also will be subjected to him who subjected all things, that God may be all in all.” We have explained all this in its proper place. Yet see how in all these passages the word “subjection” is used for the salvation of those subjected.

“At that time Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying: The scribes and Pharisees have sat on the seat of Moses; do whatever they tell you, but do not do according to their works.”

Often, and especially in Matthew, it is written that the disciples of Christ are better than the rest of the crowds. And you find in the churches some who hear the divine teachings with love and approach the word more eagerly. Such people, then, are rightly said to be disciples of Christ, and the many others who are not such to be his people. And some things he says to his disciples alone and not to the crowds, such as the beatitudes written in the Gospels, about which Matthew says that, seeing the crowds, he went up the mountain, and when he had sat down his disciples came to him, and opening his mouth he taught them, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” and the rest. And Luke says: “Lifting up his eyes on his disciples, he said: Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.” Other things he announces to the crowds, as the parable of the sower shows. Matthew writes thus: “While he was speaking to the crowds, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with him.” So to them he was speaking what is written before this. And when someone had said, “Behold, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wishing to see you,” he answered the one who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” No longer stretching out his hand over the crowds but over his disciples, he said: “Behold my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my mother and brother.” And Matthew, setting out the preceding parables, writes: “Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great crowds gathered to him, so that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole people stood on the shore; and he spoke many things to them in parables, saying: Behold, the sower went out to sow his seed.” And lest you think that the account of the parable of the sower was placed thus by chance, because Jesus spoke it to the crowds, consider the account of Mark and Luke, who wrote in the same way. Mark thus: “He began again to teach by the sea; and a great crowd gathered to him, so that he got into a boat and sat in the sea, and the whole crowd was on the land by the sea; and he taught them many things in parables, and said to them: The sower went out to sow.” And Luke in this way: “When a great crowd came together and people from town after town came out to him, he told this parable: The sower went out to sow his seed.” The evangelists, plainly knowing the difference between the people and the disciples, added after the parable that he explained, no longer to the crowds but to the disciples, the reason why he spoke to the crowds in parables. Matthew says thus: “The disciples came and said to him: Why do you speak to them in parables?” Luke thus: “His disciples asked him what this parable might be.” And Mark so: “And when they were alone, the disciples asked him what this parable was.” And see whether you can hear and learn from the Gospel of John that if people only believe, and do not desire to ascend in the word, they are Christ's people; but those who strive for the better gifts and eagerly take up what is first of all graces, the word of wisdom, are his disciples. John says that Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him: “If you remain in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” So he says some things to his disciples, some to the crowds, and others to the crowds and disciples together, as are these very words of which we are now speaking. Let us see, then, what he says to the crowds and disciples: “The scribes and Pharisees have sat on the seat of Moses.” I think this means the following: those who profess to interpret the law of Moses and glory in this, or who profess to rise above it, sit on the seat of Moses. Those who do not depart from the letter of the Law are called scribes. But those who, professing something greater, divide themselves off from the many as better are for this reason called Pharisees, which means “divided” and “set apart”; for phares means division. So one can see among the Jews to this day scribes and Pharisees sitting on the seat of Moses. I do not say this because only the scribes and Pharisees sat on the seat of Moses, who spoke and did not do, and who bind heavy and unbearable burdens on men's shoulders but would not themselves move them with a finger. For I think that those who understand and expound Moses according to his spiritual power sit on the seat of Moses, but are not scribes and Pharisees but better than they. Such are the beloved disciples of Christ, who interpret his word by the grace of God and find the things that signify one thing by means of another. Before the coming of Christ, then, those sat well on the seat of Moses who interpreted the sayings of Moses well and with reason. But after the coming of Christ they sit on the seat of the Church, which is the seat and throne of Christ. And as the scribes and Pharisees sat badly on the seat of Moses, but well those who understood the law rightly and handed it on, so too some sit on the church's seat who say what each one ought to do but do not do it, and bind heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, not willing themselves to move them with a finger; of whom the Saviour said: “Whoever breaks one of these least commandments and teaches men so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” But others of those who sit there do before they speak, and speak wisely, taking into account the differences of shoulders, and lay burdens on them sparingly, first moving the burdens themselves to encourage the rest of their hearers; of whom the Lord says: “But whoever does and teaches so will be called great in the kingdom of God.”

Further, according to the simple sense of this saying, “Do whatever they tell you, but do not do according to their works,” we say that by these words he wished to show that there are some in the Church who in word are able to teach wonderful things and expound them with reason, but are not willing to act according to what they say: their teaching is to be heard, but their way of life is not to be imitated. He rebukes, then, such teachers as not only do not do what they teach, but also, cruelly and without mercy, lay on their hearers, not according to an estimate of each hearer's strength, but things greater than their strength: for example, those who forbid marriage and drive people from what is fitting into an immoderate purity; and those who also teach abstinence from foods and other such things, to which faithful people ought not to be bound at all. By the word of their exposition they bind heavy burdens, contrary to the will of Christ, who says, “My yoke is easy and my burden light,” and lay them, as far as their word goes, on men's shoulders, bending them down and making those who cannot bear it fall under the weight of heavy commandments. And often one sees those who teach such things acting contrary to their words, and not willing to move them with even the slight power of the soul which is figuratively called a finger. For many who taught chastity did not keep chastity. Urging others to abstain from foods, they themselves, whether out of pretence or because they were overcome by their desires, took such foods as they had renounced in words, teaching one thing in public and doing another in secret and in hiding, doing everything for men's regard and for vainglory, as the following saying shows: “They do all their works to be seen by men.” And for the most part all those are such as love the first places at banquets, and greetings in the market place, and to be called by men Rabbi, or something like this Rabbi: for example, those who want to be called bishops, or presbyters, or deacons; whereas each of them, even if he were so called by someone, ought at least to show his conscience to God, that he does not wish to be named by a name whose knowledge and practice he does not have. And even if he has it, he still ought not to wish to be called by a name that belongs properly to another. For properly the bishop is the Lord Jesus, and the presbyters are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as is plain to those who consider what is written in Genesis about their seed, or the others who have been held worthy of this name, such as were the apostles of Christ; and the deacons are the seven archangels of God, after whose ministries the seven deacons in the Acts were ordained. The Lord, then, by these words cuts off such desires from our soul, and urges us rather to strive for humility, which is the first occasion of exaltation with God; just as, on the contrary, an occasion of humiliation with God is to love the first seats in the synagogues, and the first places at banquets, and the first greetings in the market place, and to be called Rabbi. And see that to this he adds: “Whoever is greater among you, let him be your servant,” and “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Thus from phylacteries and fringes worn for show by those who desire vainglory, and from boasting for display, and from clothes, rings, and shoes, it is plain who are those who love to be called Rabbi by men.

If, then, as we have said, the scribes and Pharisees sitting on the seat of Moses are the teachers of the Jews, who teach the commandments of the Law according to the letter, how does the Lord in these words command us to do according to what they say, when all the apostles forbid the faithful to live according to the letter of the law, as the letter of the apostles in the Acts bears witness, which they sent to the Gentiles, that they should keep nothing of the law except abstaining from what is sacrificed to idols, what is strangled, and sexual immorality? But they teach the Law according to the letter, not understanding the sense of the Law spiritually, as the Apostle says of them: “The end of the law is love from a pure heart and unfeigned faith; from which some, going astray, have turned aside to vain talk, wishing to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor what they affirm.” For all who expound the law of Moses according to the letter, falling away from the love that comes from a pure heart and from unfeigned faith, in which the spiritual law is set, are vain talkers. For circumcision, unleavened bread, the passover, and the rules about clean and unclean according to the letter of the Law are vain talk. Those, then, who have turned aside to vain talk and wish to be teachers of the law, yet are not so according to the truth of the law, speak the commandments of the Law but do not understand what they say, nor what the sayings of the law that they affirm signify. That is why the Saviour says of them: “For they say, and do not do”: for example, they speak about circumcision, the passover, unleavened bread, foods, feasts, new moons, sabbaths, and the other commandments of the law, but they do not do them according to the will of the law; for they are not circumcised as the law wills. Hence the Apostle says: “For we are the circumcision, who serve God in the Spirit and put no confidence in the flesh.” Nor do they sacrifice the passover, not knowing that “Christ our passover has been sacrificed for us.” Nor do they eat unleavened bread according to the law's purpose, which the Apostle interprets, saying: “Let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Indeed, they do not even celebrate the passover bodily, since the law commands that the lamb must be sacrificed in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord God chose, and that every male must appear three times a year before the Lord God. But we who are disciples of Jesus, understanding that the scribes and Pharisees who sit on the seat of Moses keep circumcision and the other bodily commandments of the law but are far removed from the spiritual commandments of the law, do and keep whatever they tell us from the law, understanding the sense of the law, but in no way doing according to their works. For what they say, they seem to say from the law, yet they do not do as the law teaches. They do not take up love in a pure heart, nor unfeigned faith, in which the sense of the law is set; nor do they understand that there is a veil over the letter of the law, nor do they hear the Prophet, who understands this and also asks: “Unveil my eyes, and I will consider wonderful things out of your law.” And so they bind heavy and, as Luke says, unbearable burdens, and lay them on the shoulders of the disciples who listen to them. For the bodily commandments of the law according to the letter are heavy burdens and no light bonds, as Peter testifies in the Acts of the Apostles, saying: “Why do you test God and wish to lay a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of God.” But its spiritual burden is light. That is why the Lord says to those who were weighed down and bound by the bodily commandments of the law: “Come to me, you who labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you, and see that my yoke is easy and my burden light.” And the light burden is the Gospel, which is the spiritual law. Further, the scribes and Pharisees who sit on the seat of Moses do all their works to be seen by men: taking on a visible circumcision, visibly removing bodily leaven from their houses and likewise bringing in bodily unleavened bread in its place, seeking a Jerusalem visible to men, and doing everything similar to these. For they look at the things that are seen and are temporal; and they give alms to be glorified by men, and stand in the streets and pray in order to seem religious. But Christ's true disciples, who look at the things that are not seen and are eternal, pray in their secret storeroom, give alms in secret, and fulfil the law in secret, as Jews established in secret, according to what Paul says: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter.” For in secret they feast also on the invisible unleavened bread of sincerity and truth; they also eat the passover, Christ sacrificed for us, who said, “Unless you eat my flesh, you will not have life remaining in you.” And by drinking his blood, the true drink, they anoint the lintels of the houses of their soul, seeking glory not, as those others do, from men, but from God who sees in secret.

After this let us see what it means when it says: “They broaden their phylacteries and enlarge the fringes of their garments.” On this one must know that what is written in the law about the divine words says: “Bind them on your hand, and they shall be immovable before your eyes” … Those, then, who do everything to be seen by men, the scribes and Pharisees, write sayings of the law on two cut pieces of parchment and tie them on: one they wear in their houses, placing on their heads like a crown what is written as being “on the forehead”; the other on the arm of their hand; and they call them phylacteries. Likewise, finding something about a fringe in Deuteronomy, they are thought to keep the law by making a fringe on some part of the garments they wear. These too, then, the Lord rebukes in the scribes and Pharisees, in their bodily and visible observances, saying: “They do all things to be seen by men. For they broaden their phylacteries and enlarge the fringes of their garments.” But the disciples of Jesus do all their works so as to be seen by God alone; for they bind the law of God on their hand, spiritually on their good work, and, always moving the divine precepts by meditating on the divine teachings, they make them movable before the eyes of their souls; and they make a fringe full of the power of Jesus, in imitating their Teacher.

What must be said about those who love the first places at banquets, and the first seats in the synagogues, and the first greetings in the market place, and to be called Rabbi by men? Plainly such faults were not found only among the scribes and Pharisees of that time, nor are they found only among them; but in the Church of Christ too are found people who not only welcome banquets and the tables of those who give them, but also love the first seats at them and do many things for this: first, to become deacons, not such as Scripture describes, but such as those who devour widows' houses, praying at length as a pretext, and who will therefore receive greater judgment. And those who wish to become such deacons consequently strive to seize the visible first seats of those who are called presbyters. And some, not content even with these, contrive a great deal to be called bishops by men, which is “Rabbi”; whereas they ought to understand that a bishop must be blameless, and the rest that follows, so that even if he is not called a bishop by men, he may be one before God. For one who has in himself the things Paul lists about the bishop, even if he is not a bishop before men, is a bishop before God, even if he has not reached that rank through ordination by men. Just as he is a physician who has learned the discipline of medicine and is able to heal as a physician, even if the sick do not entrust their bodies to him; and he is a helmsman who has learned the helmsman's art and is able to use it as is fitting, even if no one has entrusted the rudder of a ship to him, yet he is a helmsman. You will find new lovers of glory, eager for glory from men and not desiring it from God, who have certain people brought before them as before judges and governors; and, if it must be said, by this very conduct they make Christ's lightest burden an intolerable burden. But Christ's disciple endures, and even intercedes; he does everything to be seen by God, despising human glory. Seeing the supper of the gospel parables, and the heavenly churches of the firstborn, and the assemblies and the markets in which, according to the Song of Songs, the bride was, he does indeed love all the first places among spiritual things, so as to eat the better spiritual foods and the firstfruits of the spiritual banquet and not the leftovers of others. He also loves the first seats with the apostles, who sit on twelve thrones, hastening by good deeds to show himself worthy of such seats. So too the greetings that take place in the markets, which we explained above. One is the teacher of all; the righteous man does not love to be called Rabbi, either by men or by anyone else, being sure that one is the teacher of all, and all who are under him are brothers of one another. And one who has been born by the birth from above, not only of water but also of the Spirit, has received the Spirit of adoption, so that it may be said of him that he is not born of the flesh nor of the will of a man but of God; being no longer the son of any of those held on earth and below, he does not call anyone on earth father, as one who, through every act fulfilled according to God, says: “Our Father who art in heaven.” And if someone ministers the divine words, he by no means puts himself forward to be called teacher, knowing that when he has made good progress Christ is in him, who must be called teacher by all who are being built up; but he professes himself a servant according to the commandment of Christ, who says: “Whoever is greater among you, let him be the servant of all.” For Christ himself too, though he was truly the teacher, professed himself to be a servant, saying: “But I am in your midst, not as one who reclines at table but as one who serves.” And well, after all the things by which he forbade the desires of vainglory, did he add: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled.” Would that all heard this, and especially deacons, presbyters, and bishops, above all those who think that this was not written: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled”; because, as though they did not know the other saying either, “Whoever humbles himself will be exalted,” they do not listen to him who said: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” They are puffed up, and through being puffed up they fall into the condemnation of the devil, and do not seek to rise by humility from the condemnation of being puffed up, whereas they ought to remember the word of Wisdom, which says: “The greater you are, the more humble yourself, and you will find grace before God”; which the Lord first fulfilled. For as great as he was, so much did he humble himself. “For though he was in the form of God, he did not count it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross; for which reason God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name”; who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut the kingdom of heaven before men,” and the rest.

Let those who dare to say that God is not good because of the curses which God set against sinners in his law hear how, as truly the Son of that God who gave the law, he too, after the likeness of the blessings set down in the law, speaks the beatitudes of those who are saved, and after the likeness of the curses set down in the law, sets woes against sinners, saying: “Woe to you” and “to you.” And let those who find fault with the God of the law, hearing this and not understanding that those curses too were spoken by a kind God, say what we ought to understand by Jesus saying, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees.” Those who admit that it belongs to goodness to pronounce these things against sinners should understand that God's purpose in setting forth the curses in the law is similar. Whether it is that curse or this pronounced woe, it befalls each sinner not because of the pronouncement of the one who pronounces it but because of the sins of the sinner himself, who makes himself worthy to receive either those curses or these woes, which God pronounced against them for the sake of discipline, to turn them to the good. For a father, too, rebuking his son, often utters for his correction certain words that seem to be curses, and yet he does not want him to become worthy of those curses, but rather longs to turn him away from them. We have said this to show that the Gospels agree with the law. So now too, saying, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, who shut the kingdom of heaven,” he frightened the scribes and Pharisees, so that they would not shut the kingdom of heaven before men. The scribes and Pharisees, in shutting the kingdom of heaven, commit two offences at once: one, that they themselves do not enter the kingdom of heaven; the second, that they do not let those who are entering go in. These two sins are by nature inseparable from each other. For one who commits one of them cannot keep himself from the other. Likewise, on the contrary, one who keeps himself from the one cannot fail to keep himself from the other. For example, no one is found who himself enters the kingdom of heaven and does not let others enter; for one who forbids others to enter the kingdom, this very thing, that he does not let others enter, is enough to shut him out from entering the kingdom of heaven; since one who has caused one of the little ones of the Church to stumble, preventing someone from entering the kingdom of heaven, will suffer what is written in the Gospel, “woe.” Likewise, on the contrary, one who is able to make someone enter the kingdom of heaven, if indeed it is in his power both to allow and to forbid, will much more himself enter the kingdom of heaven.