Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 86–92

“Truly I say to you, from now on I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until I drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father.” And in Luke the same is said of the bread: “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you. I say to you that from now on I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” So the Saviour will eat and drink that bread and Paschal drink renewed in the kingdom of God, and he will eat and drink with his disciples. For just as he did not count it robbery to be equal with God, but humbled himself even to death, so he will eat bread and drink of the fruit of the vine, and drink it new, and because of his great goodness and love for men he will eat and drink with his disciples when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father. For note what he says: “When I drink it new with you,” at no other time than “in the kingdom of my Father.” And elsewhere: the kingdom of God is not food and drink. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink in a bodily way, in the likeness of present food and drink, for those who have shown themselves worthy of the heavenly bread and the bread of angels, and of that food of which the Saviour says: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” That we will eat and drink in the kingdom of God can be shown from many places of Scripture, especially from what is written: “Blessed is he who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.” So this Passover will be fulfilled in the kingdom of God, and Jesus will eat it with his disciples, and drink; and what the Apostle says, “Let no one judge you in food and drink,” and the rest, “which are a shadow of things to come,” points to future mysteries of spiritual foods and drinks, of which the things written in the law about foods and drinks were the shadow. It is plain that we will eat and drink the true food and the true drink in the kingdom of God, building up and strengthening by them that truest life. And as for his saying, “Jesus took bread,” and likewise “taking the cup,” one who is still a little child in Christ, and still carnal in Christ, understands it in the ordinary way; but the more discerning should ask from whom Jesus took it. For he receives it as God gives it, and he gives it to those who are worthy to receive bread and cup from God. How God gives bread Jacob too indicates, saying: “If the Lord my God is with me and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, of all that you give me, Lord, I will give you a tenth.” Likewise it is written in the Gospel according to John: “Moses did not give you the bread, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” And always, for those who keep the feast with him, Jesus takes bread from the Father, gives thanks, breaks it, and gives it to the disciples according as each of them is able to receive it; and he gives it saying, “Take and eat”; and he shows, when he nourishes them with this bread, that it is his own body, since he himself is the Word, which we need now, and which we will need when it has been fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Now it is not yet fulfilled; then it will be fulfilled, when we have been prepared to receive the full Passover, which he came to fulfil who came not to abolish the law but to fulfil it. And now he fulfils it as through a mirror, in the enigma of fulfilment; but then he will fulfil it face to face, when what is perfect has come. If, then, we too wish to receive the bread of blessing from Jesus, who is accustomed to give it, let us go into the city, into the house of a certain man, where Jesus keeps the Passover with his disciples, his acquaintances preparing it for him; and let us go up to the upper part of the house, large, furnished, and prepared, where, taking the cup from the Father and giving thanks, he gives it to those who have gone up with him, saying, “Drink, for this is my blood of the new covenant,” which is both drunk and poured out: drunk by the disciples, and poured out for the remission of the sins committed by those by whom it is drunk and poured out. And if you ask how it is also poured out, examine together with this word what is also written: “For the love of God has been poured out in our hearts.” And if the blood of the covenant has been poured into our hearts for the remission of our sins, then, when the drinkable blood has been poured into our hearts, all the sins we committed before are remitted and blotted out. And he who took the cup and says, “Drink of this, all of you,” does not leave us while we drink, but drinks it with us, since he himself is in each one; for we cannot, alone and without him, either eat of that bread or drink of the fruit of that true vine. And do not wonder that he himself is the bread and eats the bread with us, that he himself is the drink from the fruit of the vine and drinks with us. For the Word of God is almighty, and is called by different names, and he is countless according to the multitude of his powers, since he, one and the same, is every power. Then he taught the disciples who had kept the feast with their Master, and had received the bread of blessing, and had eaten the body of the Word, and had drunk the cup of thanksgiving, to sing a hymn to the Father for all these things, and to pass from a height to a height, because the faithful can never do anything in a valley. That is why they went up to the Mount of Olives, on which each olive, as a fruit-bearing tree, can say: “But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God.” And those who have not yet become like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, but are still like olive shoots around the spiritual table of their Father, can be on the Mount of Olives, of which Zechariah too prophesies. And how fittingly it is the mount of mercy, where he was about to declare the stumbling of his disciples' weakness: for he did not wish it to happen, but declared what was going to be, being already prepared then, not to drive away the disciples who were falling, but to receive them when they turned back.

“Then Jesus says to them: All of you will stumble because of me this night. For it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I am raised, I will go before you into Galilee.” Those who stumble do not stumble in the day but in the night, and in that night in which Christ is betrayed. So too Peter, when he denies, does not deny in the day but in the night, and in a night which the light had not yet approached; for he denies before cockcrow. And if someone asks how, after so many and such great signs and wonders, and words spoken with no lesser power than that by which the signs and wonders had been done, the disciples stumble, let him know that the word wishes to show by these things that, just as no one can say “Lord Jesus” except in the Holy Spirit, so no one can be without stumbling without the Holy Spirit. When what Jesus had said, “All of you will stumble because of me this night,” was being fulfilled, the Holy Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. But we, after we have confessed the Lord Jesus in the Holy Spirit (since those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God), if after receiving the Holy Spirit we stumble or deny, have no room for excuse, as though we had stumbled without the Holy Spirit or denied without the Holy Spirit. They stumbled as people still standing in the night; but for us the night is already far gone, and the day has drawn near. That is why it is said: “Let us walk honestly, as in the day.” And whoever walks honestly is in the light; he does not deny Christ, because he is not in the night. Further, they stumbled in the night, as the Lord himself testifies, because, according to Scripture, the Father did not spare his only Son for us all, but handed him over to the passion for us, so that for a little while the sheep of the flock might be scattered, having stumbled, but afterwards be gathered by Christ when he rose and went before them into Galilee, those of them who were willing to follow him into Galilee, so that the people of the Gentiles who sat in darkness might see a great light, and that light might rise on those in the region and shadow of death.

“Peter answered and said to him: Even if all stumble, I will never stumble. Jesus said to him: Truly I say to you, this night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times. Peter said to him: Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. And all the disciples said likewise.” The Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans says, “Let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written,” not commanding every man to become a liar, but declaring that he is a liar, as the psalm says: “I said in my ecstasy, Every man is a liar.” But Peter here, hearing the Saviour say, “All of you will stumble because of me this night,” was claiming to make our Lord a liar by what he said in his self-confidence, “Even if all stumble, I will not stumble,” not considering that he who said, “I am the truth,” could not lie. For this reason, as I think, all the disciples only stumbled over Jesus; but Peter, who thought he could make the truth a liar, not only stumbled but was also abandoned because of his bold promise, and in addition to stumbling he also denied. And since, not only inconsiderately but almost impiously, he said, “Even if all stumble because of you, I will not stumble,” not thinking of the slipperiness of human nature, and uttered a great word, therefore he was not abandoned only a little, that is, to deny, or to deny once, but was abandoned more fully, so as to deny three times; so that the boldness of his promise might be exposed by one maidservant, who asked him and said, “You too were with Jesus the Galilean.” And he denied it before all, saying, “I do not know what you are saying.” And again he denied, not simply, but with an oath. And the third time, not only with an oath but with cursing, that he did not know the man. By this we are taught never to promise anything, trusting in ourselves, beyond our human condition, as if we were able of ourselves to fulfil the confession of Christ, or any of God's commandments, since the Apostle admonishes us, saying: “Do not be high-minded, but fear.” For after he heard, “All of you will stumble because of me this night,” he ought to have asked the Lord and said: “Even if all stumble because of you, be in me, so that I do not stumble; and grant me especially this grace, that at the time when all your disciples have stumbled, I may not fall into denial, nor stumble from the beginning.” If he had asked him, perhaps the maidservants and the other attendants would have been kept away from him, and he would not have denied. For it was not possible that, when the question was put to him, he could have said “Lord Jesus” in the Holy Spirit, or have confessed, since the Holy Spirit had not yet been given. You will ask whether it was possible for him not to stumble at all, when the Saviour had said, “All of you will stumble because of me.” To this question someone will answer that it was necessary, since the most truthful mouth foretold, “All of you will stumble,” that what Jesus had foretold should take place. But another will say: just as he who was entreated by the Ninevites did not do what he had foretold through Jonah, because of the repentance of the Ninevites, so it was possible for him to turn away stumbling from Peter too, had he entreated him. But as it was, his bold promise, made from a ready but not prudent feeling, became for him the cause not only of stumbling but of denying three times. You will ask further whether, if after hearing Jesus say, “Truly I say to you, before the cock crows this night you will deny me three times,” he had not added, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you,” but had prayed that his foreknown denial be turned away from him, he would perhaps not have denied. Someone says that there was room for Peter's entreaty, to receive help not to stumble, when Jesus had said, “All of you will stumble because of me”; for when it was said, “All of you will stumble,” it had not been pronounced with an oath. But after he pronounced it with the affirmation of an oath, it was not possible for Peter not to deny. For if Christ's “amen” was an oath, he would have lied in saying, “Truly I say to you,” if Peter had spoken truly in saying, “I will not deny you.” The other disciples of Jesus seem to me to have said nothing, with foresight and reflection, to what was said first, “All of you will stumble this night,” nor to have declared that they would not stumble; for they saw that Jesus was truthful in foretelling these things. But to what was said to Peter alone, “Truly I say to you, before the cock crows you will deny me three times,” they made the same promise as Peter: “Even if we must die with you, we will not deny you.” Peter did this unfittingly, after Christ's prophecy that he would deny three times before cockcrow; but the others answered with their promises as people who were not included in that prophecy, nor bound by what had been said to Peter, not desiring by their promises to make the Lord a liar, as Peter wished to do. For just as, when Jesus had been transfigured on the high mountain, and Moses and Elijah appeared in glory together with him, Peter said, “If you wish, let us make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” not knowing what he was saying, as Scripture testifies of him, so here too, not knowing what he was saying, he said, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.” For to die with Jesus, who was dying for us all so that we might live, was not for men, since all were in sins and all needed another to die for them, not they for others.

“Then Jesus came with them to an estate called Gethsemane.” For one who knows the meaning of Hebrew names, the name of this estate too, which they call Gethsemane, helps to make this passage clear, since it is not without cause that the name of the estate is given in Matthew and Mark. But we, passing that over, suggest only this: how Jesus came with his disciples to this estate called Gethsemane, taking them from the place where he had eaten the Passover with them. For it was not fitting, when he was to be betrayed, that he should be seized in the place where he had eaten the Passover with the disciples. It was fitting too that before he was betrayed he should pray, and choose a pure place for prayer. For he knew that as air differs from purer air, so does the ground of a holy place from that of a holier one, as it is written: “The place on which you stand is holy ground.” And you will ask whether, besides the disposition of the one praying, prayer also becomes purer and more acceptable because of the place in which one prays, according to what is written: “My house shall be called a house of prayer”; of which it is also said elsewhere: “And he heard my voice from his holy temple.” A Jew has no doubt about such things; but one who, because of Christ's teaching, has withdrawn from Jewish fables and from everything they understand bodily says that prayer does not differ from prayer because of the place, but that it is better to pray with no one than to pray with the wicked. To demonstrate this teaching he will use the example that Jesus, about to pray in the house of Jairus the priest for his dead daughter, put everyone out and chose only three to be with him, the same who had also been witnesses of his transfiguration on the mountain. For this reason, too, the custom has prevailed in the churches of Christ that those who are manifestly in great offences are excluded from the common prayer, lest a little leaven, not from the pure heart of those who pray, corrupt the whole lump of unity and concord. But this sense also contains something that may justly be objected to those who do not understand it as they should, taking from it occasion to say to their neighbour, “Do not come near me, for I am clean”; as the Pharisee did to the tax collector who was praying far off, beating his breast and saying, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.” We ought therefore to do this with measure: neither to pray with the unworthy, for the honour of prayer, according to him who said, “If two of you agree on anything they ask, it will be done for them”; nor to despise those below us, setting ourselves above them for the sake of boasting, according to him who said, “He who exalts himself will be humbled.” We have treated these things because it is said: “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”

“And taking Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.” Or, as Mark relates, he began to be afraid and troubled. He took these same disciples also on the mountain when he was to be transfigured, and to the daughter of Jairus the priest. And I ask whether perhaps he saw something more secret at that time before Jesus suffered, and going there wished to pray. For perhaps he saw the kings of the earth standing by, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. Therefore, since those were many and powerful in malice, he began to be sorrowful and troubled, or afraid. And consider that it did not say, “he was sorrowful and troubled,” but “he began to be sorrowful and troubled.” For there is a great difference between being sorrowful and beginning to be sorrowful. If, then, someone who defends human passions cites to us that Jesus himself was sorrowful, let him hear that he who was tempted in all things in like manner, yet without sin, was not saddened with the sadness of passion, but, according to human nature, came only to the very beginning of sadness and fear, so as to show by the facts themselves to his disciples who were present, especially to Peter, who thought great things of himself, what he afterwards said to them: that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. And one must never trust in the flesh, but always fear for it, because incautious confidence leads to boasting, while the fear of weakness urges one to flee to the help of God, as the Lord himself went forward a little, fell on his face, and prayed. So he began to be sorrowful according to his human nature, which is subject to such passions, but not according to his divine power, which is far removed from such passion. And we say these things of Jesus so that you may not think, as certain heresies do, that he was simply a man, but that he was God who took up the true nature of a human body, who could sympathize with our weaknesses, since he too was clothed in the weak nature of the human body; likewise sharing in body and blood, as the children do, of whom he says: “Behold, I and the children whom God has given me”; “they share in flesh and blood.” Seeing, then, the contest before him, which was not against flesh and blood, but against so many kings of the earth standing by, and rulers gathered together against him, as never before, he began to be afraid or sorrowful, suffering nothing more of sorrow or fear than the beginning only. For it is not written that he feared or was sorrowful, but that he began to fear and began to be sorrowful, when he also said, “My soul is sorrowful unto death.” This itself seems to mean something like this, as if he said: Sadness has begun in me, so that I may not be wholly without a taste of sadness; it is in me, not always, but until the time of death, so that when I have died to sin, I may die also to all sadness, of which only the beginning was in me. “Remain here, and watch with me”; as if he said: Though I said to the other disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there to pray,” and brought you three this far, I do not want you to go further, for you cannot yet. Therefore remain here watching, as I too am watching, knowing that I ordered the others to sit there as being lower, keeping them safe from the struggle; but you, as firmer, I brought so that you might labour with me in vigils and prayers. Yet you too remain here, so that each may stand in the rank of his own calling, since every grace, however great, has also one higher. That this is what he means by saying, “Remain here,” is plain from what is said next: “And going forward a little, he fell on his face.” Therefore let us remain where Jesus commanded, as the Apostle also commands, “Let each one remain with God in the calling in which he was called,” and do everything so as to watch together with him who neither slumbers nor sleeps, guarding Israel. He brought them there especially for this, and above all Peter, who trusted greatly in himself, that they might see and hear where man's ability lies and how it is obtained: that they might see him falling on his face and hear him saying, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me,” and learn not to think great things of themselves but to think humbly, not to be quick to promise but anxious to pray. That is why he took along those who seemed more faithful and strong, like Peter, in whom boasting could likewise easily find a place because of the confidence of their faith; while those of middling faith, I mean as regards the danger of boasting, are protected by the very smallness of their faith.

“And going forward a little, he fell on his face praying and saying: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” He who said, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart,” humbling himself in a praiseworthy way, now too falls on his face praying, and afterwards humbles himself still more, becoming obedient unto death, since humility is the price of exaltation. For no one is exalted by God except one who has humbled himself for God's sake. He falls on his face praying, not having gone far, but only a little from the three disciples who remained with him; for he did not wish to be far from them, but to pray near them. And when he says in prayer, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me,” showing in prayer his devotion, as a beloved Son who is pleased with the Father's dispositions, he added, “Yet not as I will, but as you,” teaching that we should not pray for our will to be done when it happens that we will something other than God wills. “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as you.” In the respect in which he began to be afraid and sorrowful, in that respect too he prays that the cup of the passion may pass from him; yet not as he wills, but as the Father wills. For in taking up the nature of human flesh he fulfilled all its properties, so that he might not be thought to have had flesh in appearance, but in truth; and in keeping with this, in this passage he prays that the cup of the passion may pass from him, yet not as he himself wills, but as the Father wills. For it is proper to every faithful man, first, not to wish to suffer any pain, especially what leads to death, because he is a man of flesh; but if God so wills, to consent even against his own will, because he is faithful, lest he seem to despair of himself more than to hope in God. For as we ought not to be over-confident, lest we seem to profess our own strength, so we ought not to act faint-heartedly and distrust, lest we seem to declare the powerlessness of God our helper. This will, then, which he expresses, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as you,” is not according to his divine and impassible substance, but according to his human and weak nature. Another interpretation of this passage is this. As the Son of God's love, he loved, according to his foreknowledge, those who were going to believe from among the Gentiles; and the Jews, as the seed of the holy fathers, to whom belong the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the promises, he loved as branches of the good olive tree. And loving them, he saw what they would suffer, when they demanded his death and chose Barabbas for life; therefore, grieving over them, he said, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” Then, recalling his desire, and seeing how great a benefit would come to the whole world through his passion, he said, “Yet not as I will, but as you.” He also saw that because of that cup of the passion, Judas too, who was one of the twelve, would be the son of perdition. Again, he understood that through that cup of the passion the principalities and powers would be triumphed over in his body. Because of those, then, whom he did not wish to perish in his passion, he said, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me”; but because of the salvation of the whole human race, which was to be won for God through his death, he said, as if reconsidering, “Yet not as I will, but as you.” That is: If it is possible that all those good things which are to come through my passion may come without my passion, let this passion pass from me, so that the world may be saved and the Jews may not perish in my passion. But if the salvation of many cannot be brought about without the perdition of some, as far as your justice is concerned, let it not pass as I will, but as you will. As if he said: This indeed is my will; but since your will is far more eminent, as the will of the unbegotten God, the Father of all, therefore I wish your will to be done rather than mine. This cup of the passion, which is drunk, Scripture names in many places, especially the cup drunk properly by the martyrs, as in that place: “What shall I render to the Lord for all that he has rendered to me? I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” If, then, the cup of salvation is the cup of martyrdom, we must keep that cup by drinking it all, because it is the cup of salvation, so that we spill none of it. So he drinks the whole cup who suffers, for his testimony, whatever is inflicted on him; but he pours it out after receiving it who, when called to martyrdom, denies so as not to suffer anything. There is also a cup of another kind, an inebriating one, which one drinks after eating at the table prepared for him by God against those who afflict the righteous. It must be noted that Mark and Luke wrote this very thing, and they also relate that Jesus was tempted by the devil. John relates the passion as the others do, but he does not present Jesus praying that the cup might pass from him, just as he does not relate that Jesus was tempted by the devil. I think the reason is this: they speak of him more according to his human nature than according to his divine; but John interpreted more according to the divine nature than according to the human, and the divinity could not be tempted. That is why the three evangelists related that he was tempted, but John, in keeping with how he had begun, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” knows nothing of God the Word being able to be tempted. So here too these three related that Jesus asked the Father that the cup might pass from him, since it was also proper to man, as regards the weakness of the flesh, to wish to escape the passion; but John, whose purpose was to set forth Jesus as God the Word, knowing that he is the life and the resurrection, knows nothing of the impassible God fleeing from the passion.