Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to “set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law”; and “a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.” He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. (Matt 10:34–39)

He did not say that he would separate child from parent but “against his parent,” because he does not mandate a physical separation but a spiritual one. Whoever is separated physically is separated from his parent but is not against him. But whoever is separated spiritually, he is with his parent in body but against his parent in the faith. For whoever is far away from his parent is not against him by back talking, flattering and arguing. One cannot believe that he is ordering us to leave our parent when he had said, “Honor your father and your mother.” Therefore, if you have an unbelieving parent, obey him, and you will find the reward for your respect, and he will have his own condemnation for his unbelief. And so he did not say, “Whoever loves his parent is not worthy of me,” but he said, “He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Just as it is one’s duty to love parents after God, so it is a breach of duty to love them more than God. Therefore, if you have an unbelieving parent, obey him. But if he wants to plunge you into the same pit of unbelief in which he is, then love God more than your parent, because he is not the parent of your soul but of your flesh. But only God is the Father of all holy souls. Render to each person what belongs to him. Offer the obedience of the flesh to your parents in the flesh, but offer holiness of the soul to your spiritual parents.

And truly there is nothing that we ought to love more than God. Friends leave, parents fail, but Christ alone never leaves or fails at any time as long as we ourselves want to be with him. When we leave this world, every soul returns to its place, and nobody remembers the emotions of the flesh once the flesh has left—the parent does not remember his child nor the child his parent. Everything that we received from the earth will be released to the earth, and we will have nobody with us except our works; if they are good, they will redound to our glory; if they are bad, they will redound to our punishment.

One bears his cross, if he was prepared for every danger for God’s sake, even to the point of death, rather than leave Christ. Even if such a person escapes a cross by God’s mercy, he nonetheless is daily crucified as far as his intention is concerned. So even if he suffers no such thing, he nonetheless receives its reward. The will is rewarded, not the deed, because the will comes from our will, but the deed is accomplished by the grace of God.

It is better to die for God and to live forever than to live for yourself and to die forever. If he died for us, when he was not able to die unless he wanted to, how much more ought we to die for him, since we are mortal, even if we do not want to be? If the Lord died for his servants and this without a reward, it is more just that a servant should die for his Lord—especially when this is rewarded.

Anonymous, Incomplete Commentary on Matthew, Homily 25

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:21–33)

A student is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master. Knowledge of imminent events greatly helps us to endure, especially if our will is anticipated by a model of patience. Our Lord, Eternal Light, Leader of believers, and Parent of immortality, sent encouragement to His disciples in advance for their coming suffering, so that no disciple should imagine that he is better than his teacher, and no slave that he is above his master. For if they call the master of the house by the surname of a demon because of their jealousy, how much more will they commit all kinds of injury and outrage toward the household servants? But they do not at all frighten us with these insults if we, rather than grabbing a position of glory, place ourselves on the same level with our Savior when it comes to suffering.

There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed. He is referring to the day of judgment, which will reveal the hidden conscience of our will. Those things that they thought were covered up, he will uncover in the light of open acknowledgment. He tells us, therefore, that we should not be afraid of threats, schemes, or the power of our persecutors, because the day of judgment will reveal that those things were really of no account and unfounded.

And what I tell you in the dark, speak it in the light; and what you hear in your ear, proclaim on the rooftops. We read that the Lord was not accustomed to making pronouncements at night or teaching in the dark. In fact, every word of His is darkness to carnal persons, and His word is night to unbelievers. Whatever He has said must be spoken with a freedom of faith and confession by each one. For this reason, He commands that those words spoken in darkness should be proclaimed in the light. Whatever the Lord entrusted to their hearing in secret, let it be heard on the rooftops, and the speaker’s declamation may be heard from on high. For the knowledge of God must be faith fully announced, and the teaching of the Gospel’s hidden depths must be revealed in the light of the apostolic preaching. We do not fear those who, though they possess bodily abilities, have no law over the soul. Rather, we fear God who has power of destroying both soul and body in Gehenna.

Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on Matthew 10.15–17

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday after Pentecost

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. (Matthew 9:35–10:8)

It is appropriate to examine the authority of His words no less than His deeds, because, as we said, there consists the same important significance in His words as in His actions. The Lord had compassion on the harassed and helpless crowd just as a flock is scattered about without a shepherd. And He said: The harvest is plentiful, the workers are few, pray that the Lord of the harvest send out many workers into the harvest. Once He called his disciples together, He gave them authority to drive out unclean spirits and to cure every kind of sickness and disability. While these events were pertinent to their present context, it is necessary to consider what significance they have for the future.

No troublemaker had stirred up the crowd, nor were they harassed or made helpless by some calamity or disturbance. Why did the Lord have pity on those who were harassed and helpless? Clearly, the Lord took pity on the people troubled by the oppressive violence of the unclean spirit and disabled by the weight of the Law because they still had no shepherd who would restore to them the guardianship of the Holy Spirit. Although the fruit of this gift was most abundant, nothing had yet been harvested. For the Spirit’s abundance surpasses the multitude of those who draw on Him. If everyone gathers as much as he needs, there is always enough to give generously. It is useful that the Lord ministers through many; He urged nonetheless that we ask the Lord of the harvest to send forth many workers into the harvest, that is, that we ask God to grant an abundance of harvesters who utilize the gift of the Holy Spirit which was prepared. Through prayer and supplication God pours His bounty upon us. In order to indicate that this harvest and the many harvesters would be drawn first from the twelve apostles, He gave to those gathered together the authority for expelling spirits and for healing every kind of sickness. By the powers of this gift they were able to expel the Troubler and cure illness. It is appropriate that we consider the significance of each point of this teaching.

At this point all authority of the Lord’s power is transferred to the apostles, those who in Adam had been formed in the image and likeness of God, and now shared in the perfect image and likeness of Christ. Their power differs in no way from that of the Lord, since they who were once earthbound are now of heaven. They preach the coming of the Kingdom of heaven; they have now acquired the image and likeness of God in the fellowship of truth—as all the saints, who are called of heaven, may reign with the Lord; they heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons; and, whatever Adam’s evils incited by Satan are brought against the body, they cleanse again because they share the Lord’s authority. So that they will completely realize the likeness of God according to the prophecy of Genesis, they are commanded to give freely as they have freely received. In other words, for a gracious gift let there be a gracious offering of service.

Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on Matthew 10.1–2, 4

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday after Pentecost

As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Matthew 9:9–13)

The name “publican” comes from the life of those who abandoned the works of the Law and preferred to comport themselves according to common and public practice. Thus it is from his house, that is, from the sins of the body, that the Lord called Matthew in order to enter his mind and recline at its “table.” This is the self-same writer of this Gospel, and, upon leaving the home of his sin, he accepted the Lord, who illuminated his innermost dwelling place. In this place, a dinner is richly prepared from the food of the Gospel for sinners and publicans. It was then that a spirit of jealousy agitated the Jews because of the Lord’s communion with sinners and publicans. He unveiled their talk about keeping the Law as but veiled coverings for unfaithfulness, showing that He was bringing aid for them because they were sick, and was providing medicine for them because they needed it, though they thought they were healthy and in no need of treatment. But so that they would understand that none of them were healthy, he warned them to learn what is meant: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” In other words, He means that because the Law is bound up with offering sacrifices it is not able to be of help. Salvation for all people is preserved through the gift of mercy.

If He had come for all people, why then did He say that He had not come for the righteous? Was it not necessary that He should come for those that were there? But no one is made righteous by the Law. He shows that it is a worthless display of justice, although mercy was necessary for all those who, placed under the Law, offered feeble sacrifices for salvation. In fact, if justice had come from the Law, forgiveness through grace would not have been necessary.

Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on Matthew 9.2

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Holy Trinity

For the end, on behalf of the winepress, a psalm of David.

O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth,
        because your magnificence was lifted up far above the heavens.
From the mouth of infants and nursing babies you created praise,
        on account of your enemies,
        to destroy the enemy and the avenger.
Because I will see the heavens,
        the works of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
        which you laid down.
What is a man that you remember him?
        Or a son of a man that you observe him?
You made him somewhat less than angels;
        you crowned him with glory and honor.
And you appointed him over the works of your hands.
        You arranged all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
        and even still the livestock of the plains,
the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,
        the creatures that go through the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth. (Psalm 8:1–10 LXX)

Even the elements are sufficient, he is saying, to demonstrate your magnificence, O Lord—sky, earth, moon, sun, both the order and the beauty of them. Providence, which reaches to lowly human beings, however, proclaims your ineffable lovingkindness to a greater degree. Now, this has to do not with creation but with providence: he did not say “for you to form” but for you to be mindful and have regard. Elsewhere, on the other hand, he deplores with greater clarity the lowliness of our nature: “Man was made like futility, his days pass away like a shadow”; and again, “Man is like grass, his days like a flower of the field blossoming: a wind passed over him and he will not survive, nor will a trace of him be recognized any longer.” And you can find countless other such remarks in the divine Scripture to restrain human conceit. In this verse, accordingly, the inspired word expresses loud amazement, What is man for you to be mindful of him, or the son of man for you to have regard for him? After all, it is not simply that you brought them into being, but that you presented them with a privileged existence, you continue to keep them in mind and keep an eye on those badly disposed.

You have brought him a little lower than the angels. Here he adverted to the sentence following the Fall: by his mortality he was brought lower than the angels. With glory and honor you crowned him, and appointed him over the works of your hands. Now, it was after the Incarnation of our God and Savior that our nature received these privileges: “By grace it is, in fact, that you have been saved,” as the divine Apostle says, “and he raised us up with him and seated us in the heavenly places through Christ Jesus.”

You put all things under his feet, sheep and all cattle, and also the beasts of the field, birds of the air and fish of the sea, the creatures that travel the ways of the seas. And this is a precise demonstration of your loving-kindness and power, he is saying, imbuing the lowly nature of human beings with wisdom so that they might have control over not only the land creatures but those that fly and that swim and that do both, use their skills to hunt those in the heights and in the depths, and keep under control those that pass through the air and those hidden in the water.

You have therefore regaled all human beings with a common lordship over these creatures. But when the divine Word assumed our human first-fruits, declared it his own temple, named it his own flesh, and achieved the ineffable union, he took his seat above every principality, authority, and domination, and every name which is named, not only in this age but in the age to come; he put everything under his feet, not only sheep and all cattle but all creation, visible and invisible. The divine Apostle witnesses to this in his explicit cry, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor on account of the suffering of death”; and a little above, he says, “putting all things under his feet”; and in the letter to the Corinthians, “But when it says, ‘All things are put in subjection,’ it is clear that this does not include the one who put all things in subjection to him.” Uncreated nature alone, you see, is separate from this subjection as something free. The nature, which receives existence from it, however, is subject whatever it be—visible or invisible—to Christ the Lord, both as God and as man. Such is the honor human nature received from the God of all. Hence, as a conclusion he used the same verse as at the beginning: O Lord our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth!

Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms 8.4–7