Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ. (Matthew 16:13–20)

Peter did not say “you are a Christ” or “a son of God” but “the Christ, the Son of God.” For there are many christs by grace, who have attained the rank of adoption, but only One who is by nature the Son of God. Thus, using the definite article, he said, the Christ, the Son of God. And in calling him Son of the living God, Peter indicates that Christ Himself is life and that death has no authority over Him. And even if the flesh, for a short while, was weak and died, nevertheless it rose again, since the Word, who indwelled it, could not be held under the bonds of death.

Cyril of Alexandria, Fragment 190

This is not the property of Peter alone, but it came about on behalf of every human being. Having said that His confession is a rock, He stated that upon this rock I will build my church. This means he will build his church upon this same confession and faith. For this reason, addressing the one who first confessed Him with this title, on account of his confession He applied to him this authority, too, as something that would become his, speaking of the common and special good of the church as pertaining to him alone. It was from this confession, which was going to become the common property of all believers, that He bestowed upon him this name, the rock. In the same way also Jesus attributes to him the special character of the church, as though it existed beforehand in him on account of his confession. By this He shows, in consequence, that this is the common good of the church, since also the common element of the confession was to come to be first in Peter. This then is what He says, that in the church would be the key of the kingdom of heaven. If anyone holds the key to this, to the church, in the same way he will also hold it for all heavenly things. He who is counted as belonging to the church and is recognized as its member is a partaker and an inheritor of heaven. He who is a stranger to it, whatever his status may be, will have no communion in heavenly things. To this very day the priests of the church have expelled those who are unworthy by this saying and admitted those who have become worthy by repentance.

Theodore of Mopsuestia, Fragment 92

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. (Matthew 15:21–28)

In order to follow the underlying principle operating within these events which took place, we must consider the force of the words presented in the person of the Canaanite woman. A certain confidence that the number of proselytes has been and still is within the people of Israel, those who passed from paganism into the works of the Law. Once they left their former way of life, they were incorporated—like those in a household—in an unfamiliar religion and placed under the dominion of Law. The Canaanites have lived on the land that is now Judea. They were either absorbed by war, or dispersed throughout local regions, or subjected to slavery as a conquered people. The result is that they bear only their name, possessing no ancestral land. This people, now mixed with Jews, came from the pagans. Because some of those among the crowd who believed were undoubtedly proselytes, this Canaanite woman should rightly be considered as a model of the proselytes because she left her territory, that is, one who transferred her identity from the pagans to another people. She who pleads for her daughter is evidently pleading for the people of the pagans. Since she knew the Lord is from the Law, she called him the Son of David. For it is contained in the Law that “a sprout” comes “from the root of Jesse” and that the Son of David is King of an eternal and heavenly Kingdom.

This one who confessed Christ as Lord and Son of David is not herself in need of healing, but pleads on behalf of her daughter, that is, for the pagans who have been weighed down by the domination of unclean spirits. The Lord says nothing, reserving by his maintenance of silence the privileges of salvation for Israel. And the disciples, feeling pity for her, join in the supplication.

He who comprises the mystery of the Father’s will responds that he has been sent to the lost sheep of Israel, making it absolutely clear that the daughter of the Canaanite woman represents a figure of the Church. She sought what was offered to others, not because salvation should be denied to the pagans, but the Lord had come for his own in his own land. He was waiting for the first-fruits of faith from those among whom he had been born. The others would later be saved by the apostolic preaching. For this reason he said: It is not right to take the children’s bread and give it to the dogs. Honor has been accorded to Israel. God’s affection for Israel is augmented by his jealousy for it; next to Israel the pagans received the name “dog.” But the Canaanite woman, already saved by faith, responded with a certainty of inward mysteries by saying that little dogs feed on the crumbs fallen from the table. The reproach of the name “dog” was thereby softened under its guise as an affectionate nickname.

Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on Matthew 15.3–4

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
And caused the dawn to know its place,
That it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
And the wicked be shaken out of it?
It takes on form like clay under a seal,
And stands out like a garment.
From the wicked their light is withheld,
And the upraised arm is broken.
Have you entered the springs of the sea?
Or have you walked in search of the depths?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?
Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth?
Tell Me, if you know all this. (Job 38:12–18)

For the Lord made man, whom He fashioned after His own likeness, as a kind of seal of His power. But yet it shall be restored as clay; because, though he may by conversion escape eternal sufferings, yet he is condemned by the death of the flesh, in punishment of the pride he has committed. For man, who has been formed from clay, and adorned with the likeness of the Divine image, having received the gift of reason, forgets, when swelling with pride of heart, that he was formed of the basest materials. Whence it hath been ordered by the marvelous justice of the Creator, that, because he became proud in consequence of that reasonable sense which he received, he should again by death become earth, which he was unwilling humbly to regard himself. And because he lost the likeness of God by sin, but returns by death to the substance of his own clay, it is rightly said; The seal shall be restored as clay. And because, when the spirit is summoned from the body, it is stripped, as it were, of its kind of covering of flesh, it is fitly subjoined of the same clay; and shall stand as a garment. For, for our clay to stand as a garment is for it to remain empty and stripped off, even till the time of the resurrection. But because even they do not escape this punishment of pride, who overcome this very pride by living humbly, He subjoins what is the special punishment of the proud, saying; From the wicked their light is withheld, and the upraised arm is broken.

For the death of the flesh, which restores the Elect to their light, takes away their light from the reprobate. For the light of the proud is the glory of this present life. And that light is then withdrawn from it, when it is called by the death of the flesh, to the darkness of its own retributions. For then is the high arm there broken, because loftiness of heart, which has been violently seized on, beyond the order of nature, is scattered by the weight of Divine justice which overwhelms it, in order that how wickedly it had exalted itself for a while, it may learn when it is crushed forever by the weight of judgment. But none of us would know what was to follow after death, did not the Creator of our life come even to the punishment of our death. For did He not of His own mercy seek the lowest condition, He could not justly bring back to the highest, us, who were lost after we had received His likeness.

For whilst the Lord sought the narrowness of death, He spread abroad His faith in the nations, and extended Holy Church to numberless hearts of believers. To whom it is said by the Prophet, Enlarge the place of thy tent, and extend the curtains of thy tabernacles; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes: for thou shalt penetrate to the right hand and to the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles. But this breadth of the earth would surely not exist, had He not first despised, in dying, the life which we know, and pointed out by His rising again, the life which we know not. For He opened by His death the eyes of our minds, and shewed us what was the life which was to follow. Whence also, observing this order in the Gospel, He says to His disciples, Thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name through all nations. For few of the people of Israel believed at His preaching, but numberless peoples of the Gentiles followed the way of life, on His death. For He endured the proud, while He was still living in a suffering condition, but He overthrew them when dead to a life of suffering. Which Samson long before well typified in himself, for he slew but few during his life; but on the destruction of the temple he slew a host of enemies, at his death. Because the Lord doubtless killed but few from their pride and haughtiness when alive, but more, when the Temple of His body was broken in pieces: and the Elect from the Gentiles, whom He endured in His life, He subdued all at once by His death. After then He had taught us that He had penetrated the regions below, He rightly subjoined immediately the breadth of the earth to be considered, Hast thou considered the breadth of the earth? As if He were saying to man when scourged, Think on what I have endured, and consider what I have purchased; and complain not thyself of the rod, when thou art ignorant what rewards await thee, in retribution. In the midst then of these words of the Creator, I think it worth while for us to turn away our eyes for a while from the common and public good, and to observe what He secretly does with each of ourselves.

Gregory the Great, Morals on the book of Job 29.21,22,26

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” He said, “Bring them here to Me.” Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. (Matthew 14:13–21)

But mark, I pray, the Teacher’s skill, how distinctly He summons them on towards believing. For He said not at once, “I feed them;” which indeed would not have been easily received; but what? But Jesus, so it is written, said unto them, They need not depart; you give them something to eat. He said not, “I give them,” but, you give them; for as yet their regard to Him was as to a man. But they not even so are awakened, but still reason as with a man, saying, We have but five loaves, and two fishes. Wherefore Mark also says, They understood not the saying, for their heart was hardened. They continuing therefore to crawl on the ground, then at length He brings in His own part, and says, Bring them here to Me. For although the place be desert, yet He that feeds the world is here; and although the time be now past, yet He that is not subject to time is discoursing with you.

Why did He look up to Heaven, and bless? It was to be believed of Him, both that He is of the Father, and that He is equal to Him. But the proofs of these things seemed to oppose one another. For while His equality was indicated by His doing all with authority, of His origin from the Father they could no otherwise be persuaded, than by His doing all with great lowliness, and with reference to Him, and invoking Him on His works. Therefore we see that He neither did these actions only, nor those, that both might be confirmed; and now He works miracles with authority, now with prayer.

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew 49