Tractates on Matthew

… 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.

Then he says: 'You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt of the earth has lost its savour, it is good for nothing except to be thrown out and trampled by men.' The Lord calls his apostles the salt of the earth. And let us see what the Lord wishes to be understood of his apostles under the comparison of this word. To grasp this more fully, we must first carefully ask what this salt is, and of what earth, and then for what thing and use it serves. We must also treat the nature and use of salt itself, so that, knowing these, we may more easily attain by spiritual understanding the force of the Lord's saying. The nature of salt, then, comes about through water, through the heat of the sun, through the blowing of the wind; and from what it was, it is generated into another form. So too the apostles and all believers, reborn to God through the water of baptism, through faith in Christ (who by comparison is called the sun of righteousness) and through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, have passed from an earthly to a heavenly birth. Hence the holy apostles are not undeservedly called by the Lord the salt of the earth. And of what earth? It is easy to know: the earth, namely, of our body, which, long foolish and insipid with a sense of vanity, they salted with the wisdom of the Gospel preaching. For they became the salt of our earth, because through them we both received the words of wisdom and were changed by a heavenly birth into a spiritual nature. As this salt, then, that is, the salt of the earth, is needed by all without distinction, by kings and the powerful, rich and poor, slaves and masters, so too the word of heavenly wisdom, preached through the apostles, is necessary to all for life: for all, according to the Apostle, need the grace of God. For as we do not have this present life without the use of salt, so too we cannot obtain that eternal life without the gift of divine wisdom.

But since we have spoken above, according to spiritual understanding, about the nature or grace of salt, now let us also treat the power of salt itself. 'You, then,' he says, 'are the salt of the earth.' So, as salt, when it works in any flesh, does not admit corruption, takes away stench, cleanses filth, and does not allow worms to be born, so too the heavenly grace and faith given through the apostles works in us in like manner. For it takes away the corruption of carnal lust, cleanses the filth of sins, shuts out the smell of evil conduct, does not allow the worms of delights to be born, that is, lustful and deadly pleasures to arise from the body: preserving our bodies even from that immortal worm which torments sinners with unwearied punishment, of which it is written: 'Their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched.' And as salt is applied from outside but works within by the power of its nature, so too heavenly grace penetrates the outer and inner parts of man and keeps the whole man whole and incorrupt from sin. And that those who are seasoned with the salt of heavenly wisdom are worthy of God was shown long ago by the preceding figure of the law, because every sacrifice to be offered to God was salted with salt. The Evangelist recalled this very thing, saying: 'Every sacrifice,' he says, 'will be salted with salt': showing that the man becomes a truly worthy sacrifice to God who has been filled with the power of heavenly wisdom. Hence not undeservedly, when the Lord rebuked Jerusalem, or rather the synagogue, through the prophet Ezekiel, he says among other things: 'You were not washed with water, nor salted with salt'; foretelling that it would neither receive the grace of saving baptism to wash away its sins, nor take up the faith of heavenly wisdom. So whoever uses this heavenly salt will be seasoned; but whoever will not will lose his savour. Not undeservedly the Apostle too warned that our speech should always be seasoned with the salt of grace.

Further, we find the grace and power of this salt shown beforehand in the books of Kingdoms too. When there were bad waters in Jericho which made people barren, the holy prophet Elisha was asked to give a saving remedy to those waters. Then holy Elisha, not ignorant of the heavenly mystery, said that an earthen vessel should be brought to him and salt put in it. And he came and threw the salt at the outflow of the waters; and so the barren nature of the waters was healed and changed into fruitfulness: which we recognise by plain reasoning was done as a sacrament of the truth to come. For the Apocalypse plainly reported that the nations are signified by waters, saying: 'The waters which you saw are peoples and nations and crowds and tongues.' These could not otherwise be healed or receive a saving remedy unless salt were put into an earthen vessel, that is, unless the wisdom of God took a human body. After it came, for our salvation's sake, to the outflow of the waters, that is, to the end of human death, then the nature of all believers, which was barren of the fruit of seed, was changed into the fruitfulness of faith and righteousness. Hence not undeservedly the Lord calls his apostles the salt of the earth, whom he filled with divine and heavenly wisdom from himself. And he testified that they are the salt of the earth just as he did that they are the light of the world. For though he professed that he himself is the light of the world, yet he also wished to call his disciples by this name, not taking from himself the light that is his, but bestowing it: because he bestows the true and eternal light that is his without any loss to his own nature. We know indeed that some salts are produced from the earth: but this likeness too fits the person of the apostles. For though they seemed born of the earth of the human body, yet through faith in Christ they had already begun to be something else: so that they were held no longer earth but the salt of the earth; because from carnal they were made spiritual, fit to season by faith the insipid hearts of believers.

'You, then,' he says, 'are the salt of the earth: but if the salt has lost its savour, with what will it be seasoned? It is good for nothing except to be thrown out and trampled by men.' He shows that those lose their savour who, once instructed through faith and heavenly wisdom, though they ought to remain faithful and steadfast, abandon faith and divine wisdom and either rush into heresy or return to the folly of the Gentiles. And therefore he says: 'But if the salt has lost its savour, with what will it be seasoned?' Because such men, made insipid by the devil's fraud, lose the grace of faith and vanish. Though they could have seasoned others too, who did not believe and were still strangers to the faith, with the word of divine preaching, they became useless even to themselves. Judas Iscariot, finally, had been of such salt: but after he rejected divine wisdom and became an apostate from an apostle, not only could he not benefit others, but he became wretched and useless to himself. And therefore the Lord added, saying: 'It is good for nothing except to be thrown out and trampled by men': because such people are no longer to be held faithful and members of the household, but cast out of the church, as strangers and enemies of the faith. Hence Judas too, from a member of the household of faith, became an enemy of the truth. So such people, cast out of the church, must be trampled by various vices of the flesh and various pleasures of the world: and this is what he says: 'It is good for nothing except to be thrown out and trampled by men.' What it is to be trampled by men Solomon too reported in his book, when he spoke of the harlot: 'The woman who is a fornicator,' he says, 'is trampled like dung on the road by men passing by.' Since, then, we have been seasoned with such apostolic salt, we must remain in such and so great a seasoning of spiritual grace that we too may deserve to be called the salt of the earth by Christ our Lord, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Then he says: 'You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp to put it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, so that it may give light to all who are in the house.' The Lord called his disciples the salt of the earth, because they seasoned with heavenly wisdom the hearts of the human race made insipid by the devil. Now too he calls them the light of the world, because, illuminated by him who is the true and eternal light, they too became light for those in darkness. For since he himself is the sun of righteousness, he not undeservedly calls his disciples too the light of the world; because through them, as through certain glittering rays, he poured the light of knowledge of himself into the whole world: for they drove the darkness of error from the hearts of men by showing the light of truth. For we too, illuminated through them, have been made light out of darkness, as the Apostle says: 'For you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord: walk as children of light.' And again: 'You are not children of night nor of darkness, but you are children of light and children of the day.' Rightly holy John too testified in his letter, saying: 'God is light, and he who abides in God is in the light, as he himself is in the light.' Hence, since we rejoice that we have been freed from the darkness of error, we must always walk in the light as children of light.

And he added: 'A city set on a mountain,' he says, 'cannot be hidden.' By the city he here signifies the church, of which the divine Scriptures testify in many places, and of which David especially speaks, saying: 'Glorious things are spoken of you, city of God.' And again: 'The rush of the river gladdens the city of God.' And again: 'As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God has founded it for ever.' And to show plainly that he was speaking of this city, the Holy Spirit made mention of the mountain itself too, saying: 'In the city of our God, on his holy mountain.' Of which the Lord speaks through Isaiah, saying: 'Behold, I will prepare for you carbuncle stone, and your foundations of sapphire, and your bulwarks of jasper, and your gates of crystal stone, and your circuit of choice stones, and all your sons taught by God.' And many similar things which we have passed over, so as not to weary readers; especially since what has been said is amply enough to prove this city. So the city set on the mountain he shows to be the church, established in heavenly glory on the faith of our Lord and Saviour; which, by spiritual action rising above all the humility of earthly weakness, has been made glorious and conspicuous to the whole world; which is no longer overshadowed through the proclamation of the law, but is seen in open preaching through the teaching of the Gospel.

And he added: 'Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, so that it may give light to all who are in the house.' Let us see, then, the reason for this saying of the Lord too. We know that a lamp is lit for this purpose, that it may not be covered by a bushel or any covering; if this is done, its use will profit nothing: but it is lit on a lampstand for this, that, placed in a high place, it may cast away the blindness of the dark night and give the use of its light to those in the house. The Lord mentions this so that we might know that we too have been lit by the grace of faith and illuminated by the light of the Spirit for this purpose, that we ourselves too might shine spiritually like a lamp through works of faith and righteousness; and that we might illuminate with the light of truth itself those placed in the darkness of error, the night of ignorance driven away. Hence the Apostle says: 'Among whom you shine as lights in this world, holding the words of life.' If we do not do this, we shall seem by our unbelief to cover and overshadow, as with a kind of veil, the usefulness of so necessary a light, to the loss both of ourselves and of others. For this reason too we know and read that the man who preferred to hide the talent received for the gain of heavenly trading rather than give it to the money-changers' table incurred the penalty due.

And therefore that spiritual lamp, which has been lit for the use of our salvation, must always shine in us. For we have the lamp of the heavenly commandment and of spiritual grace, of which David reported: 'Your commandment is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths.' Of which Solomon too says: 'For the precept of the law is a lamp.' Of which the Lord testifies through the prophet Zephaniah too: 'And I will search Jerusalem with a lamp.' For in this lamp he shows the unquenchable light of his law and grace, which must not be covered or darkened by any veil of a blind mind, as the Jews or heretics do, who strive to cover and hide the clear light of divine preaching with perverse interpretations, preaching perfidy for faith and veiling the light of truth with the darkness of error. Hence this lamp of the law and faith must not be hidden by us, but always set in the church, as on a lampstand, for the salvation of many, so that we may enjoy the light of truth itself and all believers may be illuminated. To the contemplation of this light the Holy Spirit too exhorts us through Isaiah, saying: 'Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. For he has sent away his people, the house of Israel.' Of which light blessed Peter too testified in his letter, saying: 'Who rescued us from darkness and called us into his wonderful light.' Hence the prophet Zechariah too, to reveal the mysteries of this spiritual light and of the heavenly lampstand which was shown as a figure of the church, testified, among the other things shown him for the merit of his prophecy, that he saw a golden lampstand with its lamps. For in the tabernacle of testimony too, as an example of the truth to come, the lampstand with lamps shone for the people with unwearied light. The reason for this is hidden to the Jews, like all the sacraments of the law, but is now plain to us. For we know that in that lampstand was shown the type of the true and eternal light, that is, of the Holy Spirit, who through manifold grace always illuminates the whole body of the church. Hence the Lord too in the Gospel, among other things, urges his disciples to have lamps burning in their hands, saying: 'Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning.' That the Lord commanded this is surely to be understood not in a bodily sense but by spiritual reasoning. For since the commandment of God, or the light of the law, is signified by the lamp, therefore we are commanded to carry the lamp in our hands, so that, illuminated by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we may shine with works of righteousness and faith, as Solomon reported: 'The ways of the just,' he says, 'will shine like light; they go forth and give light until the day is set right.'

Rightly, then, when in the present place the Lord had mentioned the lamp, saying, 'Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, so that it may give light to all who are in the house,' he added, saying: 'So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.' For God is glorified in us before unbelievers and the faithless if we live according to the divine precepts, if we shine with good works. Hence the holy Apostle too says: 'Glorify and carry God in your body.' And blessed Peter in his letter likewise warns: 'So that when they disparage you, the works of righteousness may glorify our God.' But it can also be understood otherwise, because spiritual understanding is manifold, so that we may recognise that by the lamp the Lord himself is signified, because of the humility of the body he assumed. He indeed, according to the glory of his divinity, is called the Sun of righteousness, but according to the sacrament of the body he assumed he is also shown as a lamp; because, though he was the God of glory and eternal majesty, he appeared humble in this world like a lamp. And not without cause like a lamp: because a lamp is accustomed to shine through the night. Therefore he appeared humble in this world like a lamp, to drive away the darkness of error and the night of ignorance from our hearts, we who live in this world as if placed in night. Such a lamp, then, that is, the incarnation of Christ shown by the Law and the prophets, is no longer read in the obscure preaching of the law as under a bushel, nor covered by the unbelief of the scribes and Pharisees as by a vessel of perfidy: but set on the cross, as on a lampstand, it illuminates the whole house of the church. According to the mystery of the incarnation, then, he is a lamp; according to the glory of divinity, the Sun of righteousness. In short, on the very lampstand of the cross he shone like the sun, when, through the preaching of the apostles as through certain rays, our Lord and Saviour, who is blessed for ever, brought the brightest light of knowledge of himself to the whole world.

Then he says: 'Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets: I have not come to abolish but to fulfil.' The Son of God, who is the author of the Law and the Prophets, did not come to dissolve the Law or the Prophets; for he himself gave Moses to hand on the Law to the people, and cleansed the Prophets with the Holy Spirit for the proclaiming of things to come. 'So I have not come,' he says, 'to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfil.' And he fulfilled the Law and the Prophets in this way: by himself completing what had been written in the Law and the Prophets. Hence, when he had drunk the vinegar offered him on the cross, he said: 'It is fulfilled': to show plainly that all that had been written of him in the Law and the Prophets had been completed, even to the drinking of vinegar. He fulfils the Law in every way, when he completed by the sacrament of his passion the mystery of the Passover or the lamb, shown long ago in figure. Hence the Apostle says: 'For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.' He fulfils the Law when, by taking a body, he completed by the reality of truth the sacrifices of the Law and all the examples prefigured of him. Or certainly he fulfils the Law when he confirms the precepts of the Law he had given with the supplement of his Gospel grace. And which Law he came to fulfil he shows in what follows, saying: 'Until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or one stroke will fall from the Law, until all things come about.' How true and divine, then, is the preaching of the Law we know from this very fact, from which the Lord shows not even an iota or one stroke can fall. Although in this iota or stroke of the Law the sacrament of the cross too can be understood, because the iota and the stroke show in themselves a kind of image of the cross, which, proclaimed by the Law and the Prophets, could by no means be passed over.

Then he says: 'Whoever abolishes,' he says, 'one of these least commandments and teaches men so, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.' If it is impious to abolish the least commandments, much more the great and greatest. Hence the Holy Spirit testifies to this very thing through Solomon, saying: 'He who despises small things will fall little by little.' And therefore nothing of the divine precepts is to be abolished, nothing mutilated, but the whole is to be kept and taught with a faithful and devoted mind, lest the glory of the heavenly kingdom be lost: because what in the judgment of unbelievers or worldly men is thought least and small is not small before God, but necessary. But whoever teaches and does, the Lord shows that he will be great in the kingdom of heaven. Therefore we must work not only with words but also with deeds; not only to teach, but to do what you have taught. And let us hear the Lord himself in the Gospel rebuking such teachers, who say and do not do: 'Woe to you,' he says, 'scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you load men with burdens that cannot be carried, but you yourselves do not touch the loads with your finger.' Hence the Apostle too says: 'Not the hearers of the Law,' he says, 'are righteous before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.' If he says this even of hearers, what must be understood of teachers? Hence Solomon too says: 'Do not be quick with your tongue, and slack and remiss in your works.' And therefore he who teaches must offer from himself an example of pure faith by the honour of his conduct, as the Apostle writes to Timothy: 'Be,' he says, 'a pattern for the faithful.' And again: 'Showing yourself an example of good works, in righteousness, in chastity, in sobriety, through sound teaching.' Hence the Son of God himself too, who is teacher and lord of the law, wished, for our example, to fulfil in deeds all that he taught.

And he added: 'Unless your righteousness abounds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.' The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is rebuked, because they sought not the faith of the divine promise but human praise and the glory of the world, as we have the example of that proud and puffed-up Pharisee, who, putting forward the merits of his righteousness as he saw them, shamelessly boasted of himself in God's sight with a lifted mind and proud words. So the scribes and Pharisees kept the appearance of righteousness, not to please God, but to seek the fame of human glory, to buy earthly gain and temporal advantages. And therefore the Lord urges us to surpass this famous righteousness of human praise with works of heavenly righteousness and the merits of faith, through Christ our Lord.

Then follows: 'You have heard that it was said to those of old: You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you: whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.' This is what the Lord said: 'I have not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it.' That is, to add what was lacking: to reform, namely, the precepts of the Law for the better. Hence the holy Apostle too says: 'Do we then destroy the Law through faith? Far from it: rather we establish the Law.' To a rude and hard people the commandments of righteousness of the Law were handed on; but to a perfect and faithful people the Gospel precepts of perfected faith and heavenly righteousness are handed on. The Law commanded not to kill, but the Gospel not even to be angry: so as to take every root of sin out of our hearts; because through anger one can come even to murder. Hence not undeservedly blessed Job testified thus in his book, saying: 'Anger kills the foolish, and envy slays the one led astray.' David too says thus: 'Be angry and do not sin; speak in your hearts, and be pricked with compunction on your beds.' This testimony the holy Apostle interpreted, saying: 'Let not the sun set on your anger, and do not give place to the devil.' Since, then, it is not permitted to be angry, much less to commit the crime of murder. And since anger is held liable in the future judgment, what penalty do we think the doer of the crime itself will have?

'But whoever says,' he says, 'to his brother, Raca, will be liable to the council. And whoever says, Fool, will be liable to the Gehenna of fire.' So the Lord teaches us to be perfect in all things, so that we may not be held guilty at the future judgment even for light or vain words. For he forbids saying to a brother 'Raca', that is, empty and vain: for he who is full of faith and the Holy Spirit ought not to be called empty and vain. Nor ought he to be called a fool who, by believing in Christ, has obtained the grace of divine wisdom. Hence too, when the Holy Spirit spoke through Solomon of the Gospel man, he testified thus, saying: 'Blessed is he who has not slipped by a word of his mouth, and is not goaded by the sorrow of offence.' And therefore in another place the same Solomon says: 'Make bars for your mouth, and make a balance for your tongue and your words.' And again: 'Put away from you a crooked mouth, and drive far from you unjust lips.' And again: 'Let not your mouth grow used to undisciplined speech; for in it is the sorrow of offence.' Hence David too says: 'Set a guard, Lord, on my mouth, and a door round about my lips.' And again in another psalm he said: 'I said, I will guard my ways, so that I do not offend with my tongue.' Because, as Solomon says: 'The lips of the imprudent will tell foolish things; and the word of the prudent is weighed on a balance.' And therefore the Lord in the Gospel testified that we will give an account even for an idle word. Hence the Apostle too exhorts thus, saying: 'Let no evil word come out of your mouth, but only what is good for the building up of faith.' And again: 'Let your speech be always in grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each one.' For which reason it is fitting for us to be careful in all things, lest by familiarity with useless words we acquire loss to our salvation.

Then he says: 'If you offer your gift before the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then offer your gift.' How highly the Lord values brotherly love we learn from this very fact, since he shows that a gift offered to God is not offered acceptably unless the offerer of the gift is first reconciled to his brother, laying anger aside. Indeed we find that the gifts of Cain as he offered them were rejected by God for this reason, because, not keeping the rights of love, he kept anger against his brother in his mind. Hence not undeservedly the Lord in the Gospel in many places suggests that the love of brotherly charity is above all to be kept, saying: 'A new commandment I give you, that you have love for one another.' And again: 'By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.' Not undeservedly too the Lord speaks thus through the prophet Zechariah: 'Judge just and peaceable judgment, and do not keep the malice of your brother in your hearts.' Through David too he likewise testifies: 'Cease from anger, and abandon indignation.' In like manner too the Holy Spirit speaks through Solomon, saying: 'Man keeps anger against man, and do you seek healing from God? He has no mercy on a man like himself, and does he pray to God for sins? He, though he is flesh, keeps anger, and does he ask atonement from God? And who will pray for his offences?' And he added, saying: 'Remember the last things, and cease from enmity.' Hence holy David too, not ignorant of the Gospel precept through the Holy Spirit, testified thus of himself, saying: 'If I have regarded iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.' For what is so pleasing to God, so necessary for our salvation, as what the Lord commands: not to keep anger, to offer a gift to God with a peaceful mind and simple conscience, as Abel first offered? And therefore his gifts were received by God, Cain's rejected: because Abel offered gifts to the Lord with a pure and simple mind, but Cain kept anger against his brother in his heart. Therefore, if we want our gifts to please God, we must exclude anger from our heart, kill the malice conceived against a brother, and keep brotherly peace, preserve love, cherish unanimity, guard concord, so that we may deserve to appease the Lord, who is blessed for ever.

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.

Then follows: “You have heard that it was said to those of old: Whoever puts away his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you: whoever puts away his wife, except for the cause of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery.” In all things our Lord and Saviour reforms the rights of the ancient law for the better. Long ago, indeed, the Jewish people, living unlawfully and serving their own pleasures, seemed to be granted through Moses the licence of giving divorce for any cause whatever; not because the reason of the law so required, but because the unbridled pleasure of a carnal people could not keep the justice of the law according to the rigour of discipline. For that reason this freedom was permitted, as the Lord himself shows in another place by his answer, when they were again questioning him. For when they asked why Moses had permitted a certificate of divorce to be given, the Lord answered, saying: “Because of the hardness of your heart Moses wrote this, that a certificate of divorce be given; but from the beginning it was not so.” Hence now, not undeservedly, our Lord and Saviour, taking away that licence, restores the precepts of his ancient constitution. For he commands that the chaste union of marriage be kept by an indissoluble law, showing that the law of marriage was first instituted by himself. For he himself says: “What therefore God has joined into one, let man not separate.” By this saying, by the pronouncing of this sentence, he condemned both the promiscuous licence of the Jews and the foolish and wretched presumption of the Manichaeans, who deny that marriages are from God, saying that it is not permitted to put away a wife except for the cause of sexual immorality; openly showing that he acts against God's will who presumes to profane a marriage joined by God by the unlawful separation of divorce. Hence let them not be unaware how grave a crime of condemnation they incur before God who, through the unbridled pleasure of lust, put away their wives (without the cause of sexual immorality) and wish to pass into other marriages. They believe that they commit this with impunity because it seems permitted by human and worldly laws, not knowing that in this they sin more gravely and more, because they prefer human laws to divine ones, so that they believe lawful what God has established as unlawful, because it has been freely permitted by man. But just as it is not right to put away a wife who lives chastely and purely, so too it is permitted to put away an adulteress, because she has made herself unworthy of her husband's fellowship, she who by sinning against her own body has dared to violate the temple of God.

Then he says: 'You have heard that it was said to those of old: You shall not swear falsely, but you shall render your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King; nor shall you swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be: yes, yes; no, no: what is more than this comes from evil.' Through the grace of Gospel teaching the law given through Moses received its advance. In the law it was commanded not to swear falsely; but in the Gospel not to swear at all. This very thing the Holy Spirit long ago was preparing to command through Solomon, saying: 'Let not your mouth grow used to swearing.' And again: 'As a slave constantly flogged is not free of bruises, so everyone who swears and trades will not be cleansed of sin.' Hence it is not fitting for us to swear at all. For what need has any of us to swear, since we may not lie at all; whose words ought always to be so true, so faithful, that they are held as an oath? And therefore the Lord forbids us not only to swear falsely but also to swear, lest we seem to speak the truth only when we swear; lest we, whom he has appointed to be truthful in every word, should think it lawful to lie without an oath. For this is the reason for an oath, that everyone who swears swears for this purpose, to speak what is true. And therefore the Lord wishes there to be no difference between our oath and our speech: because, as there should be no perfidy in an oath, so too there should be no lie in our words, since both, perjury and lying, are condemned by the punishment of divine judgment, as Scripture says: 'The mouth that lies kills the soul.' So whoever speaks the truth swears; for it is written: 'A faithful witness does not lie.' Hence not undeservedly the divine Scripture often recalls that our God swears, because whatever is said by God, who is truthful and does not know how to lie, is held as an oath, since all that he speaks is true. We do indeed find God sometimes swearing, but because of the perfidy of Jewish unbelief, of those who think that nothing is true except what rests on the faith of an oath. Therefore God too wished to swear, so that those who did not believe God speaking might at least believe him swearing.

So the Lord says: 'You have heard that it was said to those of old: You shall not swear falsely. But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.' In these sayings of the Lord, by which he forbids us to swear by such elements, there is a twofold understanding. First, he wished to take from us both the practice of swearing and the custom of human error; lest any of us, by swearing by these elements, should hold the creature in the honour of divine veneration; or should believe he had impunity for perjury if he swore by the elements of the world, since it is written: 'Nor has he sworn to his neighbour deceitfully.' In this he condemns the error both of Jewish unbelief and of the human race, which, abandoning the creator, held the creature in divine veneration, as the Apostle reported: 'And they worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator.' Then it can also be understood in this way: that when one swears by heaven and earth, one swears by him who established heaven and earth, as the Lord himself showed in another place, saying: 'He who swears by the altar swears by it and by all that is on it: and he who swears by the throne of God swears by it and by him who sits on it.' 'Nor,' he says, 'by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King': that is, the type of the body of Christ, which is that spiritual and heavenly church. 'Nor shall you swear,' he says, 'by your head,' because according to the Apostle, 'the head of man is Christ.' Hence whoever swears by these swears by him who is the author of all of them. 'So let your word be,' he says, 'yes, yes; no, no: what is more than this comes from evil': teaching that every word uttered by us should contain nothing but what is true; since every lie (that is, what is more) is traced back to its author the devil, who has always been a liar from the beginning, and so was his father. Hence we must always speak and meditate what is true, so as to show that we are disciples of him who is the truth, who is blessed for ever.

Then follows: 'You have heard that it was said to those of old: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you: Do not resist evil: but if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the left too: and to him who wishes to go to law with you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak too.' Through the Gospel precepts the Lord shapes us to every example of patience and humility. Long ago it had been commanded in the law that if anyone, moved by the fury of anger, had put out another's eye or tooth, he himself too should be subject to a like penalty and the same loss. In this precept both the justice of the law was shown and the rashness of an insolent people was reined in under this terror: so that, since they had no fear of the future judgment, at least the penalty of present vengeance might keep them from crime. But those who live according to the Gospel faith do not seek the repayment of such vengeance, for whom all hope of repayment and vengeance is kept for the future. And therefore the Lord in the Gospel not only does not command us to repay injury, but commands those struck on the right cheek to offer the other too, if the anger of the striker demands it. For he says: 'Whoever strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the left too.' For this is truly to live by faith: to seek not present revenge but future vindication from him who says: 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.' Jeremiah plainly shows such a Gospel man, who, struck on the cheek, gladly offers the other, when he says: 'It is good for a man when he has borne a heavy yoke in his youth. He will sit alone and keep silence, because he has borne a heavy yoke. He will give his cheek to be struck, and will be filled with reproach.' In this he plainly shows that man to be blessed who, living under this yoke of the Gospel law, does not turn away from any injury of a persecutor. For such practice of endurance leads to the passion of martyrdom. For he will easily be able to bear bodily punishments even in time of persecution if, trained beforehand in peace, he receives such injuries calmly and gladly. Nor indeed is it fitting for a Christian to repay injury, lest he be judged like the one to whom he repays it. For if it is evil to do an injury, he who pays back evil in return is not free of fault, and so he who imitates evil cannot be held good.

The Lord commands not only that the cheek be offered to the striker, but also that losses be borne. For he added this: 'And whoever wishes to go to law with you and take your tunic, give him your cloak too.' After the endurance of bodily injury, the Lord wishes us also to have contempt for worldly things, and to be so far removed from all lawsuits or contention in court that if perhaps a slanderer or tempter, to test our faith, brings a suit wishing to take away what is ours, the Lord orders us to offer of our own accord not only what he unjustly seeks but also what he does not ask for. For if each despises these small things because of a litigant's slander, trained by such practice he will easily be able to despise all such things in persecution too. For this is perfect faith and perfect victory against the one doing injury, if even what he does not ask for is offered.

Then he says: 'Whoever compels you to go a mile, go with him two more.' The Lord commands us to be tireless and ready for every work of devotion. For he wishes our good to be not so much of necessity as of our own will; so that, while we do more of ourselves than is asked of us by others, we may obtain the glory of a greater reward. For it is the duty of whole love and perfect devotion to give more of one's own accord than you have been asked. Some have believed this sense is also to be understood spiritually, so that whoever is compelled to go a mile should go with him two more: that is, that if any unbeliever, or one who has not yet attained knowledge of the truth, has made mention of one God the Father, founder of all things, as if entering by the road of the law, you should go with him two more; that is, after the profession of the Father, you should lead the same person along the way of truth to the knowledge of the Son and the Holy Spirit, showing him that not only the Father but also the Son and the Holy Spirit are to be believed.

Then follows: 'And to him who asks of you, give.' That is, that after the knowledge of the Trinity we should bestow the gift of heavenly grace with a ready mind. Or certainly, that we should give to those who ask for mercy as far as we can; so that, with merit going before, we may more easily obtain what we ask of God from him who says: 'Ask, and it will be given to you.' But if we despise those who ask of us, with what confidence do we believe that God will grant us what we ask, as Scripture says: 'See that you do not turn your face from any poor man; so it will be that the face of God is not turned from you'? 'And from everyone,' he says, 'who wishes to borrow from you, do not turn away.' We are commanded in all things to keep the religion of devotion and faith, so as to count another's need in tribulation as our own, and not to make more of property than of a brother. And therefore, whether brothers ask, or ask for a loan in need, we must share with a religious mind and loving affection, awaiting the reward of eternal repayment, as David says: 'Pleasant is the man who has mercy and lends; he will order his words in judgment.' And again: 'He has scattered, he has given to the poor: his righteousness remains for ever and ever.' Hence holy Job too, whose example it is fitting for us to follow, recalls that he fulfilled these very Gospel precepts, saying: 'If I let the needy go, so that he went out from my door with empty bosom; if I held anyone's bond and did not tear it up; and if I lent, I received nothing from my debtor; or if ever the earth groaned because of me, or its furrows wept together; or if I ate its fruits alone without payment; or if I grieved the soul of the lord of the land by deceiving him.' All these things Job fulfilled faithfully because he awaited the reward from him who is the repayer of eternal goods: to whom be praise and glory for ever. Amen.

Then follows: 'You have heard that it was said to those of old: You shall love your neighbour, and hate your enemy. But I say to you: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who slander and persecute you: so that you may be sons of your Father, who commands his sun to rise on the good and the bad, and rains on the just and the unjust.' The Lord wishes us to be perfect in all things in his precepts. Long ago it was indeed commanded in the Law: 'You shall love your friends and hate your enemies'; but these precepts were given to an earthly and carnal people according to the time, like that other: 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' But now to the Gospel people are handed on the precepts of heavenly and perfect righteousness, that we should love enemies, cherish those who hate us, pray for those who slander and persecute us, so that we may truly deserve to be sons of God, who by his mercy bestows without distinction on good and bad, just and unjust, the heavenly benefits and gifts of the present life. To keep such Gospel precepts the Holy Spirit exhorts us through Isaiah too: 'Hear the word of the Lord, you who fear his name: say, You are our brothers, to those who hate and abhor you; that the name of the Lord may be glorified and appear to them in joy, and let them be confounded.' Hence not undeservedly David testifies thus in the Psalm, saying: 'Lord my God, if I have done this; if I have repaid evil to those who repaid me, may I deservedly fall empty before my enemies.' Blessed Job too recalls this very thing, saying: 'If I have rejoiced at the fall of my enemy, if I have said in my heart, Well done: let my ear hear a curse.' These precepts of Gospel grace, which have now been given for the salvation of men, we find shaped beforehand in animals through the commandments of the Law, when it is said: 'If,' it says, 'you see your enemy's oxen fallen under their load, you shall not pass by, but shall lift it with him': so that already in the law of Moses each might learn in animals what he would one day do to a man according to the Gospel.

And rightly follows: 'If you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not the tax collectors do this too? And if you greet your brothers only, what more are you doing? Do not the pagans do this too? Be perfect, then, as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.' The Lord shows that we cannot have the merit of perfect love if we love only those by whom we know mutual love will be paid back to us, since we know such love is common even to Gentiles and sinners. Hence the Lord wishes us to surpass the common law of human love with the law of Gospel love; so that we show the affection of our love not only towards those who love us but also towards enemies and those who hate us, so that in this we may imitate the example of the Father's love and goodness.

And he added: 'Take care not to do your righteousness before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.' The Lord wishes us to be strangers to all boasting of vain glory and human desire, so that we do not do the work of our righteousness with the aim of wishing to please men, but God alone, from whom we await the reward of our merit. For he loses the merit of righteousness before God who wishes to live justly for this purpose, to gain the glory of human praise. Hence the Apostle says: 'If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ.'

Then he says: 'But when you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the squares, to be honoured by men: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing; so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.' In all things the Lord forms us by heavenly teaching to the glory of perfect faith. Above, he taught that the work of righteousness is to be done not for men but for God. Now too we are commanded, when we give alms, not to sound a trumpet: that is, not to publish what we do; because it is not the mark of a devoted mind to do anything in God's affairs so as to expect the glory of human praise. For many give something for the use of the poor for this reason, to buy with their means the empty praise of men and the fame of the world: these the Lord shows have received the reward of their work in this world; because while they seek this glory of the world, they lose the reward of the future promise.

And therefore the Lord added: 'So that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you': wishing the work of mercy to be not public but hidden; that is, that we should work not for men's praise but for God alone, from whom we await glory and the reward of future blessing. Solomon, praising the church, long ago testified to the almsgiving of this faithful work under the silence of religious reticence, saying: 'Your cheeks are beautiful, apart from your silence.' This silence, namely, of which the Lord says: 'Let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing.' But here the Lord is not speaking of the hands of the human body, which have no sense of seeing or speaking: but by the right or left hand either works or men are signified. Indeed we read it written in the books of Kingdoms that men are signified by a hand, when it is said: 'Have I not ten hands in Israel?', that is, ten tribes of Israel. Hence there is no doubt that by the right hand the just are signified, and by the left the sinners are understood, as Solomon reported: 'The Lord knows the ways on the right; but those on the left are perverse.' The Lord in the Gospel shows this understanding of right and left most openly, when he declares that the just are to be placed on the right and sinners on the left. So if this right hand of the just does anything according to the Lord's commandment, the left is commanded not to know: that is, that what we do religiously and faithfully we should not boast of in the sight of sinners and unbelieving men. But if we do anything faithfully, not from desire for human praise, even before religious brothers, a work of devotion and faith cannot be judged boasting by the brothers, before our Lord and Saviour, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Then he says: 'And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the corners of the squares, to be seen by men: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and with the door shut pray to your Father, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.' The Lord instructs us in every perfection of heavenly righteousness and faith. For he wishes us to fulfil every work of divine religion without hypocrisy and without any desire for human praise. For we are forbidden, in the manner of the hypocrites, to show off our prayers boastfully to all, lest we lose the merit of grace. For the Lord requires not a feigned and boastful prayer, but a simple and faithful one. And therefore we are commanded by the Lord to pray with the door shut, that is, within the secret of the heart and of conscience itself, so that from him who is the knower of secret and hidden things we may receive the reward of hidden prayer. For it is the mark of a religious mind to pray to God not with shouting or the sound of the voice, but with devotion of soul and faith of heart, as David testifies in the Psalm, saying: 'Speak in your hearts, and be pricked with compunction on your beds.' Indeed we find in the books of Kingdoms that most holy Hannah fulfilled the precepts of this Gospel teaching. For when, without any sound of voice, in the secret of her heart, praying faithfully in the sight of the Lord, she poured out the prayers of her desire, she at once deserved to be heard by the Lord. So too to Daniel, praying always in secret with the three boys, the Lord granted to know the interpretations of the dream and the secrets of revelations. Cornelius too, not yet instructed in the Gospel precepts, while he was in his room praying secretly and faithfully, deserved to hear the voice of the holy angel speaking. What shall we say of Jonah, who, shut not in a room but in the womb of a beast, praying deserved to be heard so far that he escaped safe and alive from the depth of the sea and the belly of so monstrous a beast? He was heard by God not because he cried with his voice but because he cried with faith. And therefore there is no need of shouting in prayer to God, whom we know sees the secrets of the heart; but of the cry of faith and the devotion of a religious mind.

Hence not undeservedly the Lord says in what follows: 'When you pray, do not speak much, as the pagans do: for they think they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them: for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.' For pagan men think that by a multitude of words they can more easily obtain from the Lord what they ask: but the Lord does not expect this from us. He wishes rather that we commend our prayer not by verbosity of speech but by faith of heart and merits of righteousness; to him, surely, who knows better all that is necessary for us, and recognises all that we are going to ask before we speak. How much difference there is between a talkative prayer and a humble and simple one we have an example in that Pharisee and the tax collector. For the prayer of the Pharisee, boasting of himself in a multitude of words, is rejected: but the tax collector, humble and submissive, asking pardon for his sins, went down more justified than the Pharisee who boasted of himself. In this we find fulfilled what is written: 'The prayer of the humble has pierced the clouds, coming to God,' who is accustomed to hear the prayer of the one praying, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Then he says: 'Pray, then, in this way.' Our Lord, who is accustomed to hear those who pray to him, shows in what words we ought to pray. O how faithful and blessed for us is this prayer, whose order the teacher of life and heavenly master has set for us! How blessed we too can be, if we keep these words of the Lord's prayer not only by the service of the mouth but by the most faithful action of our conduct! So the Lord set this form of praying for his disciples, for the hope of human salvation, saying: 'Our Father who are in heaven.' How great is the Lord's love toward us! How great his mercy and kindness, which has granted us the gift of so great a grace that we servants dare freely to call our Lord and God Father! By this word he shows that we are no longer only servants but also sons of God. And though it would have been more than enough for grace that we should merely deserve to be called servants, the love of God so overflowed that we are called not only servants but also sons of God by adoption. The grace of this name, given through faith to those who believe in Christ, John shows in the Gospel, saying: 'As many as believed in him, he gave them power to become sons of God, to those who believe in his name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' Hence the Apostle too says: 'And because you are sons of God, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' Since, then, we have obtained the grace of so great a gift, that we have been made not only servants but also sons, we ought to act and live as sons of God: so that we may prove by spiritual action that we are what we are called, as John says in his letter: 'He who is born of God does not commit sin, because the birth of God guards him, and the devil does not touch him. But he who commits sin is not of God but of the devil, because the devil sins from the beginning.' And therefore, guarding the sacrament of our heavenly birth, we must be strangers to every sin, so that we may truly deserve to be called and to be sons of God. The holy prophets too knew the grace of this divine mercy, in which we are permitted to call God Father, as Isaiah says: 'For you are our Father: because Abraham has not known us, and Israel has not known us, but you, Lord, are our Father; from the beginning your name is upon us.' Likewise Malachi too testifies in his book, saying: 'For there is one Father of us all.' How great is the Lord's mercy! We who had long ago of our own will taken the devil as father to ourselves, now, reborn through water and the Holy Spirit, have begun to have God as Father. For he himself is the one God and Father for us, who regenerates by his Spirit those whom he makes sons for the eternal inheritance. And therefore we must walk as sons of God, lest, acting otherwise than befits sons of God, we be held guilty of usurping so great a name.

So he says: 'Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be your name.' Not that the name of God can be hallowed by anyone, since he himself hallows all, who says through the prophet: 'Be holy, as I too am holy, says the Lord.' But we ask that his name be hallowed for this, that it may be hallowed in us through works of righteousness, through the merit of faith, through the grace of the Holy Spirit. That we may receive this hallowing through such gifts, the help of his mercy is necessary. But he who is the fountain of eternal holiness needs no hallowing.

Then he says: 'Your kingdom come.' Likewise here too we do not wish for God that he may reign, who is the King of the eternal ages, whose kingdom has neither beginning nor end: but that that kingdom, that is, the heavenly one which he promised us, may come. But it is a mark of great confidence and a sincere conscience to wish confidently that this kingdom of the Lord may come. And therefore, since we always pray that the kingdom of God may come, we ought to show ourselves such in the faith of the Lord and in his commandments that we may be worthy of the future kingdom.

Then he says: 'Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.' Here too the reason of understanding is the same. For there is no one who can resist and oppose God so that he may not do what he wills, since all things in heaven and on earth exist by his will: but we pray that his will may be done in us. And the will of God is that, believing in him with our whole heart, we should fulfil what he commands to be done. Of this will of God the Apostle testifies, saying: 'This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from carnal desires.' Of which the Lord too spoke in the Gospel, saying: 'This is the will of my Father who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life.' So when we say, 'Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth,' we pray for this: that as the will of God is faithfully kept by the angels in heaven, so too it may always be kept by us on earth with religious and faithful devotion. That this will may be rightly fulfilled in us, the help of divine condescension must be asked without ceasing. Or certainly: 'Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth': that, as in heaven, that is, in holy and heavenly men, the will of God is fulfilled, so too on earth, that is, in those who have not yet believed, we pray that the will of God may be done through the belief of faith and the knowledge of truth.

Then he says: 'Give us today our daily bread.' We understand this saying of the Lord in two ways. First, that we should ask for nothing but daily food: for we are not commanded to ask for riches or an abundance of worldly things, but daily bread, which alone is necessary for the present life to Christians living by faith, as the Apostle says: 'Having food and covering, we are content with these.' Solomon too plainly shows this very thing: 'The needs of man,' he says, 'are bread, water and clothing.' But when we say 'today', we are taught to think only of the present day, not of the whole time of life, lest our mind be occupied with worldly anxiety: as the Lord himself openly shows in another place, saying: 'Do not think about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.' But we must notice that this has been commanded us spiritually, that we ask for daily bread: that is, that heavenly and spiritual bread which we receive daily for the healing of the soul and the hope of eternal salvation, of which the Lord says in the Gospel: 'The heavenly bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of this world.' And this bread, then, we are commanded to ask for daily: that is, that by the gift of the Lord's mercy we may deserve to receive daily the bread of the Lord's body. For the holy Apostle says: 'But let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread of the Lord and drink of the cup.' And again: 'He who eats the bread of the Lord unworthily and drinks the cup will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.' Hence not undeservedly we ought always to pray that we may deserve to receive this heavenly bread daily: lest, some sin intervening, we be separated from the body of the Lord.

'And forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors.' This voice is plainly just and necessary for all. First, that we should confess that we are sinners; then, that we should pray that our sins be forgiven us by God in the same way as we ourselves forgive those who sin against us. If we do not do this at all, we make ourselves guilty before God by our own words, as Scripture says: 'A man's own lips are a strong snare to him.' Hence not undeservedly Solomon too, not ignorant through the Holy Spirit of the form of this Lord's prayer, warned beforehand, saying: 'You shall not lie a word in your prayer.' For who would dare, or how can anyone lie to God in prayer? Unless perhaps the one who, asking God for pardon of sins according to the Lord's prayer, does not himself forgive those who sin against him, not keeping the divine saying: 'Man keeps anger against man, and do you seek atonement from God? He has no mercy on a man like himself, and does he pray to God for sins?' The Lord himself shows this most openly in another place, bringing forward the example of that servant debtor, whose master, when asked, had granted him the whole debt though he owed very much; and when, after the debt was forgiven, he would not himself forgive his fellow servant who owed him, he was handed over to prison and condemned to punishment.

Then he says: 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' The reason for this temptation is twofold, and its cause various: because to some temptation is brought through sin for their amendment, to others for the testing of faith, to others it is brought for glory, as blessed James testified in his letter, saying: 'Blessed is he who endures temptation, for, made blessed, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.' For we do not pray so as to refuse altogether a temptation which we know to be useful, as holy David says: 'Prove me, Lord, and try me; burn my reins and my heart.' Since we know that holy Abraham too obtained the glory of perfect faith through temptation; and we have read that the blessed Apostle too was handed over to temptations for the advance of his faith. When he asked the Lord that the author of temptation be driven from him, he was answered: 'My grace is enough for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.' So we do not pray that we may not be tempted at all; but that we may not be handed over to temptation beyond what the strength of faith can bear: which itself is plainly shown in another book of the Gospel; for it is written thus: 'And do not bring us into temptation which we cannot bear.' The Apostle too, to show this very thing, testified thus, saying: 'But God is faithful, who does not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can, but with the temptation makes also a way through, so that you may be able to endure.' And therefore we pray not that that temptation be taken from us which can be useful; but that which exceeds the measure of our weakness for the overthrow of our faith. And therefore fittingly and necessarily at the end of the prayer we also ask to be delivered from the evil one, who does not cease daily to assault our faith with various temptations, from whom not undeservedly we pray in daily prayer, lest, hindered by his assaults, we be unable to fulfil the divine precepts. So all that is necessary for our faith and salvation is contained in this brevity of the Lord's prayer: when we confess the profession of the Father's name, when we ask that the meaning of that name be in us, when we seek the coming of God's kingdom, when we pray that his will be done in us; when we ask daily for bread, earthly or heavenly, for the hope of our salvation, when we implore pardon of sins, when we pray that heavy temptation be taken from us; finally when we ask the Lord unceasingly that we be delivered from the evil one, who is the author of all sin. This very thing the Holy Spirit had foretold long ago through Isaiah, saying: 'For the Lord will make a shortened word throughout the whole world.' Hence not undeservedly follows: 'If you forgive men their sins, your Father who is in heaven will forgive you your offences: but if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins.' To what we pray, 'Forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors,' follows the just sentence of the Lord, in which he says: 'If you do not forgive men their sins, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive you.' And therefore, so that we may pray to the Lord confidently about having our sins forgiven, let us first forgive those who sin against us. Hence Solomon too says: 'Forgive your neighbour his sins, and your sins will be loosed for you.' But if with an unfaithful soul and hardened mind we hold on to the sins of those who offend against us, the Lord openly shows that we too do not deserve to receive pardon of sins: to whom be honour, praise and glory, together with the Holy Spirit, before all ages, and now, and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.

Then he says: 'When you fast,' he says, 'do not be gloomy like the hypocrites: for they disfigure their faces so as to appear to men to be fasting. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so as not to appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret: and your Father, who is in secret, will repay you.' As in the earlier precepts, so too concerning the observance of fasting the Lord instructs us by the commandments of his teaching to the merit of perfect faith; so that we fast not for human glory (as the hypocrites do), but for the future hope, to the Lord alone, from whom we await the reward of this devoted humility. But those who fast so as to please men rather than God have indeed the toil of afflicting the body, but through vain glory they cannot have the reward of their toil with God: because, though they ought to do this only for the sake of religion and faith, they prefer to seek the glory of human praise; and therefore the Lord says: 'Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.' And the purpose of fasting seems indeed to be one, both of the one who fasts with a mind devoted to God alone and of the one who in fasting desires to please men: but the grace of those fasting differs; because, though the purpose of both seems alike and the toil of fasting the same, yet the fruit is not the same nor the repayment of merits. For the one who fasts for God's sake differs far from the one who proposes to fast for men's sake: because to this one, as the wage of his toil, the compensation of human praise is made; for the other, for the devotion of humility, the merit of glory is kept in the future. So too the bearing of those who pray does not seem to differ in outward purpose; but in faith of soul and affection of mind there is a great difference of merits. For it is one thing (as was said above) to pray in expectation of human praise; another to pray only so as to await the reward of one's prayer from God the repayer. The case is similar concerning every observance of divine religion.

Hence not undeservedly the Lord, wishing all desire for praise and human boasting to be absent from us, teaches us how we may please him with a religious soul and devoted mind, saying: 'But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so as not to appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret': so that, if possible, we may veil the work of fasting and the affliction of body and soul with cheerfulness of face. Examples of this, even according to history, we read shown beforehand in the saints of past time. For most holy Judith, when she was afflicted with great grief for the people, after the solemnity of a three-day fast, her head anointed and her face washed, so covered the sadness of her inner affliction that she seemed to the enemies to rejoice with feigned joy: and so, while she covered her fasting with the gladness of her face, she brought back the triumph of victory over the enemy. Likewise most holy Esther, when, with face washed and head anointed after a three-day fast, she was able to be understood by the king, put to death Haman, that most wicked enemy of her people. What shall we say of Daniel and the three boys, who in such abstinence, among so many young men who were fed on the king's food, alone were found more pleasing in face than the rest?

But since we have said this according to the letter, we must also notice what is to be understood according to spiritual understanding. By the anointing of the head we recognise that mercy is signified. Hence to anoint the head is to show mercy to one's neighbour: which mercy, done to a poor man, is referred to the Lord, who according to the Apostle is understood to be the head of man, as the Lord himself says: 'As long as you did it to one of these least, you did it to me.' In return for this mercy, by divine repayment, we are poured over as with a kind of heavenly oil by him who says: 'Blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them.' Holy David too knew this anointing of the head with heavenly oil, when he says: 'Like ointment on the head, which runs down on the beard.' By the washing of the face, the cleansing of the body and the purity of a sincere conscience are recognised to be signified. Hence to wash the face is to bring back both the face of our heart and our conscience itself clean from all filth of sins and squalor of offence, so that we may truly have in us the joy of heavenly gladness and the cheerfulness of the Holy Spirit. And so it comes about that, while under this devotion of faith we fast to God rather than to men, we receive the reward of repayment from God, who is the knower of hidden things. For this is what the Lord says: 'So as not to appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret: and your Father who is in secret will repay you.' If, then, you wish always to have your head anointed and the face of your heart clean, according to the Lord's saying, persevere faithfully in works of mercy, persevere in the devotion of fasting, so that you may deserve to please the Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

'Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where rust and moth destroy, where thieves dig through and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroys, and where thieves do not dig through or steal: for where your treasure is, there your heart will be too.' The Lord forbids us to store up on earth, where all things are weak and perishable. For it is contrary to faith and salvation to seek these earthly treasures, to look for the riches of the world, to pursue the means of the world, which moths can corrupt, rust consume and thieves snatch. For whoever chooses to store up on earth rather than in heaven cannot have those treasures of eternal and heavenly life, as the Lord himself says: 'For a rich man will enter the kingdom of heaven with difficulty.' Likewise the Apostle too: 'For those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and the trap of the devil.' Let us remember that rich man who placed all his glory in the treasures of the world and in the abundance of his revenues: who, when because of the plenty of his crops he was thinking of enlarging his barns, and promising his soul the delights of wealth and the security of a long life, lost, I will not say what he had gathered, by a thief stealing it; but lost his very soul, for which he was storing up, on that same night. Hence not undeservedly David himself testified, saying: 'He stores up, and does not know for whom he will gather it.' Let us think too of that young man who, though he had fulfilled almost all the precepts of the law, because he had earthly rather than heavenly treasures, could not obtain the treasures of eternal life. And therefore David says well: 'Do not hope in iniquity, and do not covet robberies: if riches abound, do not set your heart on them.'

Therefore the Lord wishes us to lay up our treasures not on earth, where they can perish, but in heaven, where no adversities rule, where thieves do not dig through, that is, the devil and his angels, nor rust destroys, that is, sins rule. And how we ought to lay up this treasure in heaven the Lord himself shows in the Gospel, saying to that young man: 'Go, sell all that you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.' Such treasures, then, which are eternal and incorrupt, which cannot perish, we are commanded to lay up in heaven through works of righteousness, through the merits of devotion and mercy. For whatever is faithfully spent for the use of the poor (according to the faith of Scripture) is laid up in heaven, as Scripture says: 'He who gives to the poor lends to God.' Hence we find that believers under the apostles too, mindful of this precept of the Lord, stored up for themselves in heaven; because, selling all their goods, they transferred earthly treasures to the heavenly kingdom.

And therefore the Lord added, saying: 'Where your treasure is, there your heart will be too.' We who always store up in heaven with good works, where all our hope and salvation is, where eternal life is laid up for us, though placed on earth, yet always have our heart in heaven. But he cannot have his heart in heaven who, captured by greed for the world, has preferred to store up for himself on earth. Rightly the holy Apostle too exhorts even the rich of the world how they can obtain this heavenly treasure, saying: 'Command the rich of this world not to be proud, nor to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God, who provides us richly with all things to enjoy: let them do good, be rich in good works, give readily, share, store up for themselves for the future, so that they may lay hold of the true life,' from him who is the author of life and eternal immortality: to whom be praise and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Then he says: 'The lamp of your body,' he says, 'is your eye: if your eye is single, your whole body is full of light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body is dark. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?' The lamp of the body is understood as the sense of the mind and the faith of the heart: if this is pure and bright in us, it without doubt illuminates our whole body. And the lamp is set in comparison with faith for this reason, that, as a lamp illuminates the steps of those walking in the night, lest those walking run into pits or any stumbling blocks, so in this night of the world the splendour of faith, with the light of truth going before, illuminates all the steps of our life, lest we fall into the pits of sins or the stumbling blocks of the devil. This, then, is what the Lord says: 'The lamp of your body is your eye: if your eye is single, your whole body is full of light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body is dark': showing that if this faith of ours, which is signified by the lamp of the body or the eye, is blinded in us either by the darkness of sins or by the obscurity of perfidy, without doubt our whole body is rendered dark and shadowy. Holy John shows this very thing, saying: 'God is light'; and: 'He who holds his brother dear is in the light; but he who hates his brother walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.' And if this is understood, according to John's saying, of one who hates his brother, we must notice in what darkness the heretic dwells, who, having lost the light of Catholic truth, has become faithless and blasphemous. And therefore the Lord says: 'If,' he says, 'the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?' In him, namely, who has changed truth into a lie, faith into perfidy.

In another sense, by the eye of the body, which is more beautiful and precious than all the members, we notice that the bishop is signified, who by the clear preaching of his faith and teaching, like a kind of eye, illuminates the body of the church. If, through simple faith and holy conduct, he has been a Catholic and faithful teacher, the people over whom he presides can, by the example of his teaching and pattern, always remain in the light of truth. But if he who seems to give light to the rest has been, through perverse faith or shameful conduct, an evil and faithless teacher, without doubt he can make the whole body dark by the example of his life and perfidy. Hence not undeservedly the Lord says of such an eye: 'If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!' That is, if such a teacher, who ought to give the light of faith from himself to the rest, has been blinded by heresy and become dark, we must notice how great the darkness of sins can be in that people!

And he added: 'No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will bear with the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.' The Lord declares plainly that none of us can serve two masters, that is, God and the devil. And God indeed, though he is Lord of all, because all things were created by him and he rules in all by power, might and nature, yet deigns to be especially the Lord of those who, recognising their Lord and God, the founder of the universe, keep his precepts in faithful service. But the devil is understood to be the master of those whom, seducing them through sin from their true Lord and parent, he subjugates to his most wicked servitude, and over whom he rules by an unlawful right through the works of his iniquity. For this reason he too in his own place is called a master, because he rules such foolish men through sin. And therefore it is written: 'He who commits sin is a slave of sin.' But since, visited now by God's mercy and freed from the devil's domination, we have recognised the true Lord, by whom we were created and redeemed, we are forbidden to serve our former master, that is, the devil, who ruled us like a tyrant: or rather avarice and greed, which he calls mammon, which sometimes captures even religious minds. Hence we must flee and avoid the greed for money, the avarice of the world, lest we subject ourselves to its unworthy servitude, or to the devil, who is the author of avarice.

And this is what the Lord says: 'No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will endure the one and despise the other': because whoever loves his Lord and God with his whole heart must hate the devil with his works; because in the love of God it is plain that the devil is always held in execration. But whoever, through the wicked works of sins, loves mammon or the devil by doing his will cannot love God, whose precepts he despises. And therefore he who loves God cannot be called the devil's slave, over whom God himself now rules through the faith of heavenly grace. Likewise he who, serving sins, subjects himself to the devil's domination does not deserve to have God as Lord. And therefore the Lord says: 'You cannot serve God and mammon': showing that we cannot serve both God and the devil, that is, God the author of mercy, and the devil, the ruler of mammon and avarice. The Apostle too shows this when he says: 'What fellowship has light with darkness?' Mammon, that is, the devil, who is the author of mammon. The one calls us to mercy, the other to avarice; the one to life, the other to death; the one to salvation, the other to perdition. Which of the two must we obey? Surely the one who invites us to life, not the one who hands us over to death.