Tractates on Matthew 1.1–3.9

… Therefore the Lord Jesus answered and said to him: 'Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.' So Jesus, to complete all the sacraments of the law, came down from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John, recognising his God through the Holy Spirit, whose sandals he had professed he was not worthy even to carry, excuses himself from doing what he was commanded: because he did not believe baptism was necessary for him, whom he knew had come for this, to blot out the sins of the world by his baptism; and therefore he testifies that he ought rather to be baptized by him, saying: 'I ought to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?' As if he were saying: I am a man, you are God; I am a sinner, because a man; you are without sin, because God. Why do you wish to be baptized by me? I do not refuse the service, but I do not know the mystery. I baptize sinners for repentance. Why do you wish to be baptized, you who have no cause of sin? Or rather, why do you wish to be baptized as a sinner, you who came to take away sins? What then is it that John says: 'I ought to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?' [The Lord answered, showing] not the faithfulness of his servant's service but the mystery of his own dispensation, by saying: 'Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness': showing that this is all righteousness, that the Lord and teacher himself should complete the sacrament of our salvation. So the Lord did not come to be baptized for his own sake, but for ours, to fulfil all righteousness. For it is just that what one teaches another to do, he should himself begin first. Since, then, he had come as teacher and Lord of the human race, he wished to teach by his example what was to be done, so that disciples might follow the teacher and servants the Lord. Since, then, he was going to give a new baptism for the salvation of the human race and the remission of sin, he himself first deigned to be baptized, not to lay aside sins, he who alone had done no sin, but to sanctify the waters of baptism for washing away the sins of believers. For the waters of baptism could never have cleansed the sins of believers unless they had been sanctified by the touch of the Lord's body. So he was baptized so that we might be washed from sins. He was dipped in water so that we might be cleansed from the filth of offences. He received the bath of regeneration so that we might be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, as he himself says in another place: 'Unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he will not enter the kingdom of heaven.'

The baptism of Christ, then, is the washing away of our offences and the renewal of saving life. Hear the Apostle showing this very thing, when he says: 'For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ.' And he added: 'So you were buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ rose from the dead, so you too may walk in newness of life.' Through baptism, then, we die to sin, but live with Christ; we are buried to our former life, but rise to new life; we are stripped of the error of the old man, but take up the clothing of the new man. So the Lord fulfilled all righteousness in baptism too, because he wished to be baptized for this, that we might be baptized; he received the bath of regeneration for this, that we might be born again into life.

And John indeed baptized our Lord and Saviour, but rather he was baptized by Christ: because the one sanctified the waters, the other was sanctified by the waters; the one gave grace, the other received it; the one laid aside sins, the other forgave them; because the one is man, the other God: for it belongs to God to forgive sins, as it is written: 'Who can forgive sins but God alone?' And therefore John says to Christ: 'I ought to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?' For John needed baptism, because he could not be without sin; but Christ could not need baptism, because he had done no sins. Hence in that baptism our Lord and Saviour cleansed the sins first of John, then of the whole world. And therefore he says: 'Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.' The grace of this baptism was long ago shown beforehand in a mystery, when the people was led through the river Jordan into the land of promise. As then there was a way through the Jordan for the people going to the land of promise, with the Lord going before, so now, through the same waters of the river Jordan, the first road of the heavenly way has been opened, by which we are led to that blessed land of promise, that is, the promise of the heavenly kingdom. For them Joshua son of Nun was leader in the Jordan; but for us the Lord Jesus Christ became, through baptism, the leader of eternal salvation, the only-begotten Son of God, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.

Then follows: 'And when Jesus was baptized, he immediately came up from the water. And behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove. And behold, a voice from heaven saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' As in the Lord's bodily birth, so too in his baptism, things appeared worthy of all wonder and fitting to his majesty. So the heavens opened as the Lord came up from the waters after baptism; the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove, in bodily appearance, bringing the Father's testimony upon the Son; the voice of the Father too is at once heard from the heavens, saying: 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' David too foretold the hearing of this sacred voice over the waters, saying: 'The voice of the Lord over the waters, the God of majesty thundered.' In this, surely, the voice of the Father's majesty, bearing witness to the Son, sounded like a kind of thunder.

What place, then, is there here for heretics against the faith? What occasion for blasphemy is left in this profession of the Father, when the sacrament of the perfect Trinity has been shown even by the express propriety of the words? For in the mystery of baptism the Son is seen remaining in the body, and the Holy Spirit comes down in the form of a dove, and the voice of the Father is heard from the heavens, so that the unity of the Trinity may be declared; because neither can the Father be understood without the Son, nor the Son be known without the Holy Spirit. See, then, what the Father's testimony to the Son is, when he says: 'This is my Son.' His own, surely, not by adoption of grace, nor by the religion of a creature, as the heretics would have it, but by the propriety of his own race and the truth of nature. For many of the saints are called sons of God, and are: but this one is, beyond comparison, the one only-begotten Son of God the Father, true and proper, born from nowhere else than from the Father. Because the Father is as truly Father as he is truly God; so too the Son is as truly Son as he is truly Lord. So the perfect faith of the Trinity has been shown, since the Father testifies that Christ our Lord and God is his Son, and the Holy Spirit, that is, the Paraclete, is joined to the Father and the Son in so great a sacrament of faith: so that we should believe in a true Father, a true Son, and a true Holy Spirit: three persons, but one divinity of the Trinity, and one substance. These things have been said in passing about the mystery of the Trinity.

But since we recognise that all that the Lord did for us was shown as a sacrament of our salvation: in that the heavens were opened when the Lord was baptized, the same thing is shown, that the kingdom of heaven would be open to those reborn in baptism, which the Son of God, ascending to heaven in the body, first opened for us. Hence too, at once, in that the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove, and the voice of the Father is heard from the heavens, saying, 'This is my Son', in this a heavenly mystery and the order of our salvation are revealed: that through the saving baptism of water we would both become sons of God and be endowed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit; through whom praise and glory be to the Father and the Son for ever and ever. Amen.

'Seeing the crowds,' it says, 'Jesus went up on the mountain; and when he sat down, his disciples came to him; and opening his mouth he taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,' and the rest that follows. The Lord, about to lead his disciples from earthly and lowly things to high and lofty ones, climbed a mountain: the Mount of Olives indeed, so that by the meaning of its very name he might show the gift of his divine mercy. So the Lord went up the mountain, so that to his disciples, already leaving the earth and seeking things above, as if already set on high, he might hand on the precepts of the heavenly commandments, and bestow by divine gift the blessings foreseen long ago, as David had testified before, saying: 'For he who gave the law will give a blessing.' And to show more openly both the grace of the apostles and the author of this great blessing, he added: 'They will go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion': the Son of God, that is, who gave blessings to the apostles in Zion. For the same one gave blessings to the apostles on this mountain who long ago had given the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, proving that he is the author of both laws, as the Lord himself shows through Jeremiah, saying: 'And I will give them a new covenant: not such as I gave long ago to their fathers, when I led them out of the land of Egypt; but this is the covenant that I will give them: I will write my laws on their hearts, and in their understanding I will write them.' And long ago, when the law was given, the people were forbidden to approach the mountain; but now, when the Lord speaks on the mountain, no one is forbidden; rather all are invited to hear: because in the law there is severity, in the Gospel grace; there terror is struck into the unbelieving, here the gift of blessings is poured on believers. So if you too wish to receive a blessing from the Lord, leave earthly conduct, seek the life above; climb the height of faith like a mountain, so that you may deserve by right to be blessed by the Lord. But let us see what the words of the blessings themselves are.

'Blessed,' he says, 'are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' We know many poor people indeed, but not blessed merely because poor: because it is not the necessity of poverty that makes each of us blessed, but the faith of devoted poverty. For we know many who lack the world's means, and yet do not cease from sins and are strangers to the faith of God; it is plain that these certainly cannot be called blessed. And therefore we must ask who these blessed ones are, of whom the Lord says: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' He surely signifies that those poor are blessed who, despising the riches of the world and spurning its means, wished to be poor to the world so as to become rich to God. Such people seem poor to the world, but are rich to God; needy in the world, but wealthy in Christ. The apostles first gave us in themselves the example of this blessed poverty; despising all means, they at once followed the Lord's voice and deserved to be his disciples. We find such poor in the apostles' times too, who, believing first, sold all their goods and possessions and sought the Lord's riches under this devoted poverty. Hence the Apostle too shows that heavenly riches are in such poverty, saying: 'As having nothing, and possessing all things.' Hence, finally, Peter, when going up into the temple he was asked for alms by a lame man, said: 'Silver and gold I have none; but what I have I give you: in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, rise and walk.' O truly blessed poverty, which, though it has nothing of the world's means, bestows so much from heaven! It does not give silver or gold, but, what is more than all riches, it restores health of body. It did not have the image of Caesar on a coin to give; but it re-formed the image of Christ in a man. Of such poor the Lord speaks in the present place, of whom David too testifies in many places, saying: 'The poor will eat and be filled, and their heart will live for ever and ever.' And again: 'He will judge the poor of the people, and will save the sons of the poor.' 'This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.' So the kingdom of heaven fittingly belongs to such poor, who for the sake of religion and faith made themselves poor to the world, so as to possess, rich, the Holy Spirit. Or certainly he calls blessed the poor who are lifted up by no pride of the devil, no ambition of the world, but keep humility of spirit with devotion of faith. Hence David says in the Psalm: 'A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise.' Such poor in spirit, then, are blessed before God.

Then he says: 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.' As above about the poor, so here too he speaks about those who mourn: not calling those blessed who grieve heavily at the bereavement of a beloved spouse, or the loss of sons and daughters; but rather he signifies that those are blessed who either expiate the sins they have committed with a constant flood of tears, or who, out of love for the law, do not cease to mourn the iniquity of the world and the offences of sinners. To those who mourn so holily, then, the consolation of eternal joy is not undeservedly promised by the Lord. Holy David, finally, awaiting it, watered even his bed with constant weeping, saying: 'I will wash my bed every night, I will water my couch with my tears.' And again: 'My tears have been bread to me day and night, while it is said to me daily: Where is your God?' And again: 'For I ate ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.' And again: 'You will feed us with the bread of tears, and give us drink in tears in measure.' Do you want to know the holy mourning of the saints? Hear what is said of Samuel the prophet, that he mourned King Saul until the day of his death. Jeremiah too, when he wept for the people's sins, says thus: 'My eyes have run down like rivers of water over the destruction of my people.' And again: 'Who will give water to my head, and to my eyes a fountain of tears, and I will weep for this people day and night?' Daniel too is affected with heavy mourning for the people's sins, as he himself testifies, saying: 'And I was mourning,' he says, 'for three weeks of days, eating no bread and drinking no wine.' The Apostle too weeps with like mourning for certain wounded Corinthians, saying: 'And I will come to you, so that I may mourn many of those who sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness and sexual immorality they practised.' Such mourning, then, the Lord rewards with the consolation of perpetual joy, as Isaiah reported, saying: 'Give to those who mourn Zion glory instead of ashes, the anointing of joy to the mourners, the garment of glory instead of a spirit of sadness.' David says: 'You have turned my mourning into joy for me; you have torn my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.'

Then he says: 'Blessed are the meek, for they will possess the earth as an inheritance.' The graces of the divine promises are different, because the degrees of merit are different. So he says: 'Blessed are the meek, for they will possess the earth.' The meek are gentle, humble and modest people, simple in faith and patient under every injury, who, instructed by the precepts of the Gospel, imitate the example of the Lord's gentleness, who says in the Gospel: 'Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.' Indeed Moses long ago had the greatest grace with God for this reason, because he was meek. For this is written of him: 'And Moses was gentle above all who were on the earth.' Hence David says in the Psalm: 'Remember, Lord, David and all his gentleness.' Such meek people, then, he shows to be blessed, to whom he has promised, not in the present life but in the future, possession of that happy land, of which we read it said in the Psalm: 'But the gentle will possess the earth, and will delight in abundance of peace.' And again: 'Those who wait for the Lord will possess the earth as an inheritance.' Of which the Holy Spirit testifies through Solomon too, saying: 'For the upright will dwell in the land, and the holy will dwell in it.' So the Lord shows these meek to be blessed, who, following the mildness of the Lord's gentleness, will enjoy the perpetual possession of the inheritance of that blessed land. But he speaks above all of the earth of our body, in which the saints, transfigured into glory, according to the Apostle, will reign in eternal happiness.

Then he says: 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.' He taught that righteousness is to be sought by us not with easy desire nor with a light heat of longing. For he signifies that those are blessed who, to obtain it, burn with the longings of inner desire after the manner of hungering and thirsting: because if each of us longs for it with desire, hungering and thirsting, he cannot always think of anything but righteousness, seek anything but righteousness: because one who hungers and thirsts must long for what he thirsts and hungers for. Rightly, then, he who is the heavenly bread and the fountain of living water promises to those who hunger and thirst for it in this way the fullness of that perpetual refreshment, saying: 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.' Surely that righteousness of faith which is of God and of Christ, of which the Apostle too reported: 'But the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all and upon all who believe in him.' Or certainly our Lord and Saviour himself, who, according to the Apostle, 'became for us both righteousness and sanctification and redemption'; with desire for whom, as for food and drink, the blessed always burn, as the Lord himself testifies through Solomon, saying in the person of Wisdom: 'Those who eat me will hunger still, and those who drink me will thirst still.' This righteousness, then, we too must always hunger and thirst for, so that we may deserve to be filled with the food of perpetual refreshment. And it is well said, with the addition, in the present place: 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled': because those who hunger not for righteousness but for unrighteousness, namely those who desire gold and silver, who long for the riches or honours of the world, and who are never satisfied with earthly wealth or the desires of the flesh, such people are not blessed but unhappy; because to them is owed not the hope of promised glory but the penalty of damnation.

Then he says: 'Blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them.' We are called by the Lord to show mercy by very many testimonies, in the Old as well as the New Testament; but for a summary of faith we think that what the Lord himself utters in the present place with his own voice is more than enough, saying: 'Blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them.' The Lord of mercies says that the merciful are blessed, showing that no one can earn God's mercy unless he himself has been merciful. Hence too he says in another place: 'Be merciful, then, as your Father who is in heaven is merciful.' Then he says: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.' He signifies that those are pure in heart who, laying aside the filth of sin, have cleansed themselves from every defilement of the flesh, and have pleased God by works of faith and righteousness, as David testifies in the Psalm, saying: 'Who will go up to the mountain of the Lord, or who will stand in his holy place? The innocent of hands and pure of heart, who has not taken his soul in vain.' Rightly David too, knowing that God cannot be seen except with a pure heart, prays thus in the Psalm, saying: 'Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.' Such pure in heart, then, the Lord shows to be blessed, who, living with a pure mind and whole conscience under the faith of the Lord, will deserve to behold the God of glory in the future heavenly kingdom: no longer through a mirror and in an enigma, but face to face, as the Apostle reported. For now, though we contemplate God with the eyes of faith, we cannot see his brightness because of the weakness of the flesh; but then we shall see him, having received immortality and been transformed into heavenly glory, when we begin to behold the immortal God with immortal eyes; and then truly will be fulfilled in us what is written: 'As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts.' Not undeservedly the same David, when he showed the glory of the future time in which the saints will dwell with God, reported thus: 'Yet the just will confess you, and the upright will dwell with your face.'

Then he says: 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.' The peacemakers are those who, separated from the scandal of dissension and discord, keep the love of brotherly charity and the peace of the church under the unity of the Catholic faith: this peace, to be guarded, the Lord specially commends to his disciples in the Gospel, saying: 'Peace I leave you, my peace I give you.' That the Lord would give this peace to his church David testified before, saying: 'I will hear what the Lord God speaks in me, for he will speak peace to his people, and upon his saints, and to those who turn to him.' About guarding this peace the Apostle too warns, saying: 'In all things keeping the unity of the spirit with the bond of peace.' And again: 'The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your bodies from evil.' For nothing is so necessary for the servants of God, so saving for the church, as to keep charity, to love peace, without which the Apostle teaches the Hebrews that God cannot be seen, saying: 'Above all love peace, without which none of us will be able to see God.' Hence it is fitting for us to keep the peace of the church with all zeal and devotion, and, as far as in us lies, to call back those who dissent from peace to the charity of the church by zeal for peace and faith, after the example of the prophet who says: 'With those who hated peace I was peaceable; when I spoke to them, they attacked me without cause.' Rightly too in the Gospel, in the exultation of the angels announcing the Lord's birth, this holy voice is found: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.' Of which peace David too reported: 'Great peace,' he says, 'have those who love you, and there is no stumbling for them.' And Isaiah likewise: 'And I will set your sons in great peace, and in equity you will be built.' For if the Son of God deigned to take flesh and to suffer for this, to make peace for us with God through the blood of his cross, surely, as the Apostle reported, we ought to be peacemakers in all things, so that we may truly deserve to have the God of peace himself in us: for this is written: 'His place has been made in peace, and his dwelling in Zion.' And so we shall truly be not only sons of God, but heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. For this the Apostle reported: 'If sons of God,' he says, 'then heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.'

Then he says: 'Blessed are those who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' Not undeservedly did the Lord mention above that righteousness is to be hungered and thirsted for: for desire of it we ought to thirst so much that for its sake we should despise the persecution of the world, the punishments of the body, and death itself. In this meaning the martyrs above all are declared, who for righteousness, faith and the name of Christ endure persecutions in the world, to whom a great hope is promised, that is, possession of the kingdom of heaven. Of this blessedness the apostles were the leaders, and all the just who, afflicted by various persecutions for the righteousness of the law, came by the merit of their faith to the heavenly kingdom.

Then he says: 'Blessed will you be when men persecute you, and reproach you, and say every evil against you. Rejoice on that day and exult: for I tell you that your reward is great in heaven: for so their fathers did to the prophets also.' Whatever the unspeakable perfidy of persecutors can devise against the just in time of persecution for the name of Christ, whether heaping on various reproaches or inflicting punishments on the body, we must not only bear patiently but also accept with the joy of exultation, for the sake of future glory. For he says this: 'Rejoice on that day and exult: I tell you that your reward is great in heaven.' How glorious is the endurance of this persecution, whose reward the Lord says is laid up in heaven! And therefore, considering the prize of the glory set before us, we must be ready with devoted faith for every endurance of suffering, so that we may deserve to be made partners of the glory of the prophets and apostles, through Christ our Lord, who is blessed for ever.