Tractates on Matthew 8.1–9.3

After this follows: 'Agree,' he says, 'with your adversary while you are with him on the way, lest the adversary hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you to the officer, and you be thrown into prison: Amen I say to you, you will not get out of there until you pay the last farthing.' Some think this saying of the Lord is to be understood thus, asserting that such an adversary, who has become an enemy by his own or another's fault, should quickly be called back to peace and friendship while we are with him on the way, that is, in the course of the present life: lest, when one has left the world, each, as one unmindful of love and guilty of enmities, begin to be brought before God the judge, and be handed by the judge to the officer, that is, the overseer of torments, so that, thrown into the prison of Gehenna, he pays the penalties due for sin. But this explanation does not seem to have full reason. For what? If one of the brothers becomes an adversary for a cause of faith, must consent be given to his perfidy, lest religious discord remain with such a man? We also have as adversaries the Gentiles, who oppose our faith, who sometimes in time of persecution compel us to unspeakable sacrifices: must we act, because of such adversaries, so as to give sacrilegious consent to their will, lest they remain enemies? To their sacrilegious persuasion we must not only not consent, but resist with unconquered faith.

Some also think that the adversary here is plainly to be understood as the devil; by what reasoning they build this I do not see. For in what should consent be given to the devil, whose work it is to persuade, urge and extort everything against faith, against salvation, against divine religion? Unless perhaps it should be understood in this sense, that if some persecutor, being an enemy, or the devil (because he is the author of persecution) wishes to inflict death on a Christian for the name of Christ, he should gladly give consent, so as to be handed over to death for Christ, lest the same devil, who is our accuser, make us guilty before God of betraying the faith and make us liable to punishment: because the devil, though he is the author of every crime, is himself also the accuser. For this we read said of him in the Apocalypse: 'And the dragon was cast down,' it says, 'the accuser of our brothers, who accused them before God day and night.' He is the persuader, he the accuser: he persuades so as to deceive; he accuses so as to condemn.

But others, whose explanation seems plainer to me, think that the adversary here is to be understood as the Holy Spirit, who opposes the vices and desires of the flesh, as the Apostle shows, saying: 'The flesh,' he says, 'lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: for these are opposed to each other, so that you do not do whatever you wish.' For the Spirit desires heavenly things, the flesh longs for earthly things: the Spirit rejoices in spiritual gifts, the flesh delights in bodily vices. Hence the Apostle too says: 'Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.' This adversary of sin and of human error, I believe, persuading what is just and holy, the Lord has commanded us to obey in all things while we are with him on the way, that is, in the company of the present life, so that we may have eternal peace and perpetual fellowship with him. But if anyone, not listening to the will of the Holy Spirit, has been contrary to it, there is no doubt that such a man, after leaving life, is to be brought to the Son of God, who is the judge of the living and the dead, by whom he will be handed over to the officer, that is, the angel of torments, to be thrown into the prison of Gehenna; from which he will not be released unless he pays even the last farthing, that is, pays the whole penalty of his debt even to the last sin. Of this adversary, then, the Lord is understood to speak in the present place, who, opposing our sins, desires our salvation, who wishes us to agree with him for this reason, that we may deserve both to escape the punishments of hell and to obtain the heavenly kingdom. Solomon too seems to testify of him in his book, when he says: 'There is one, and there is not a second, and indeed he has neither son nor brother, and there is no end to all his labour.' And: 'Two are better than one, who have a good reward for their labour; for if one falls, the other raises his companion. Woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to raise him': showing that the flesh which has deserved to have the concord and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, when it has fallen into death, is raised by the same Spirit to life and everlasting glory. And therefore he said, 'Woe to him who is alone'; because when he has fallen he has no one to raise him: that is, because the flesh which has not deserved by its unbelief to have the partnership of the Spirit is not raised to eternal life but is roused to perpetual punishment by him who is the judge of the living and the dead: to whom be praise and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Then he says: 'You have heard that it was said to those of old: You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you: if anyone looks at a woman to lust after her, he has already committed adultery in his heart.' Not undeservedly holy David says: 'You have commanded your commandments to be kept exceedingly.' So exceedingly, because not only adultery but even lust is held guilty of the crime. The Law condemns adultery, but the Gospel punishes even lust, which is the root of adultery. Hence the Holy Spirit testifies to this very thing through Solomon in many places, saying: 'Do not go after your lusts, and turn away from your pleasure; for if you give your soul its lust, it will hand you over to the joy of your enemies and those who envy you.' And again: 'Do not give your soul to harlots in anything, lest you destroy yourself and your inheritance. Do not look around in the streets of the city, nor wander in its squares. Turn your face from an adorned woman, and do not look at another's beauty.' And afterwards he added: 'Many, admiring the beauty of another man's wife, have been rejected: for her conversation burns like fire.' He said well, 'burns like fire': because in conversation with such a woman the desire of lust is kindled like fire. Hence you must avoid such a woman, lest the flame of desire burn you up. Therefore Solomon too says: 'Let not the desire for beauty conquer you, nor be caught by your eyes, nor be carried off by her eyelids.' And again he says: 'Take away from me the lust of the belly and of intercourse, and let not the lust of intercourse seize me, and do not hand me over to an irreverent and unbridled soul.' Let us also hear blessed Job, who showed himself in all things a Gospel man, and fulfilled the Lord's commandment before he heard it, testifying this very thing of himself when he says: 'If my foot has turned from the way, and my heart has followed my eye, if I have touched gifts with my hands, let others eat my fruits; if my heart has followed another man's wife, or if I have been constant with her, let my wife too please another. For it is the wrath of fury and of an unclean spirit to defile a man's wife: it is a burning fire.' Hence, since adultery is a grave sin, to root out the root of that sin, lest our conscience be stained, he forbade even lust, which is the origin of adultery, as blessed James reports in his letter: 'Lust,' he says, 'gives birth to sin, and the lust of sin gains death.' Therefore the Holy Spirit speaks of this very thing through David thus: 'Blessed,' he says, 'is he who will take and dash his little ones against the rock.' Showing that man to be blessed and truly a Gospel man who kills the desires and lusts of the flesh, born of human weakness, at once, before they grow, at the very beginning of their birth, through faith in Christ, who is called the rock.

Then he says: 'If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you: for it is better for you that one of your members perish than that your whole body go into Gehenna. And if your hand,' he says, 'causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you: for it is better for you that one of your members perish than that your whole body go into Gehenna.' He does not signify to me the eye or hand of the human body, but the eye or hand of the heart: that is, he commands that the sense of evil lust and carnal desire be cut out of hearts, from which the Lord himself shows in the Gospel that all evils proceed, saying: 'For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, blasphemies, false testimonies, and the other things that defile a man.' But mutilating the body does nothing for the amendment of an evil mind, in which the whole whirlpool of vices lies. Indeed we see many deprived of eyes or weakened in body who yet do not cease from vices. Hence the Lord commands us rather to cut out these members of vices, of an evil mind and perverse thought, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven: lest, with vices ruling, both body and soul, that is, the whole man, become guilty of eternal fire. Some, however, think this is to be understood of children or neighbours, who are dear and beloved to us like the eyes of our head; so that if perhaps some such, being contrary to our faith and hope, have caused a stumbling, they are to be cast off by us and held as enemies of salvation: lest each of us, joined with such faithless and blasphemous men, be condemned with a like penalty.

But since mention has been made of the body, this can more rightly be understood of the body of the church: in which the eye, as a precious member, is recognised to signify the bishop, who illuminates the whole body with the light of the divine commandment. Of him, then, the saying is rightly understood: 'If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you: for it is better for you that one of your members perish than that your whole body go into Gehenna': so that if perhaps such an eye, that is, a bishop, through perverse faith and shameful conduct, has been a stumbling block to the church, he commands that he be plucked out, that is, cast off from the body of the church, lest the people be held guilty of his sin. For it is written that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump. And again: 'Remove the evil from among yourselves.' By the hand the presbyter is understood to be signified: and if he too, holding a perverse faith or not living rightly, has caused the people to stumble, the Lord orders him to be cut off, that is, cast out, lest the church be stained by his sin, since the church, according to the Apostle, ought to be holy and spotless, through Christ our Lord, who is blessed for ever. Amen.