Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 18.1–18.6

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist the evil one; but whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And to the one who wants to go to law with you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.” Do you see that what he said earlier was not about an eye, when he legislated plucking out the eye that causes stumbling, but about the one who harms us through friendship and throws us into the pit of destruction? For he who here uses such intensity, and does not allow us to pluck out another’s eye even when he is gouging out ours, how could he have legislated plucking out one’s own? And if anyone accuses the old law because it commands retaliation in this way, he seems to me to be quite ignorant of the wisdom that befits a lawgiver, and not to know the force of times and the gain of condescension. For if he considers who those were who heard these things, and in what state, and when they received this legislation, he will greatly approve the lawgiver’s wisdom, and will see that it is one and the same who legislated both those things and these, and wrote each very usefully and at the fitting time. For if at the beginning he had brought in these lofty and exceedingly great commands, they would have received neither these nor those; but as it is, by arranging each at the fitting time, he set the whole world right by both. Besides, he commanded this too not so that we should gouge out one another’s eyes, but so that we should keep our hands to ourselves. For the threat of suffering prevented the impulse to act.

And so he gently sows much philosophy, since he bids the one who has suffered to retaliate with what is equal; and yet the one who began this lawlessness deserved a greater punishment, and the principle of justice demands this. But since he wished to mingle love for mankind with justice, he condemns the one who has offended more gravely to a punishment less than he deserves, teaching us to show great gentleness even in suffering. Having stated, then, the old law, and recited it all, he shows again that it is not our brother who has done these things but the evil one. That is why he added, “But I say to you, do not resist the evil one.” He did not say, “Do not resist your brother,” but “the evil one,” showing that these things are dared at his prompting, and in this way slackening and cutting away the greater part of our anger toward the one who has done them, by transferring the blame to another. “What then?” someone says, “must we not resist the evil one?” We must, but not in this way, but as he himself commanded, by offering ourselves to suffer ill; for so you will overcome him. For fire is not quenched by fire, but fire by water. And so that you may learn that even in the old law the one who suffers rather prevails, and he is the one who is crowned, examine the event itself, and you will see that his precedence is great. For the one who began with unjust hands will himself have destroyed both eyes, his neighbor’s and his own. That is why he is justly hated by all and assailed with countless accusations. But the one wronged, even after retaliating with what is equal, will have done nothing terrible. That is why he has many who share his grief, since he is pure of this offense even after acting. And the misfortune is equal for both, but the glory is not equal, either with God or with men. So in the end not even the misfortune is equal. At the beginning, then, he said, “He who is angry with his brother without cause, and he who calls him a fool, shall be liable to the hell of fire”; but here he demands even greater philosophy, bidding the one who suffers ill not only to keep quiet but to respond with greater generosity, offering the other cheek. And he says this not only legislating about such a blow, but teaching us forbearance in all other things too.

For just as, when he says that he who calls his brother a fool shall be liable to hell, he speaks not only about this word but about all abuse, so here too he legislates not only that we should bear it nobly when struck, but that we should not be troubled whatever we suffer. That is why there he chose the extreme of insult, and here he has put the blow that seems most shameful, the one on the cheek, which carries much insult. And he commands this taking account both of the striker and of the one struck. For the one insulted will think he suffers nothing terrible, being so prepared in philosophy (for he will not even perceive the insult, as one rather contending than being beaten); and the abuser, put to shame, will not bring on a second blow, even if he is fiercer than any wild beast, but will condemn himself strongly even for the first. For nothing so restrains wrongdoers as the wronged bearing what happens with gentleness. And it not only restrains them from going further, but even makes them repent of what they have already done, and withdraw admiring the gentleness, and makes them more closely attached, and makes them not only friends but even servants in place of enemies and foes; just as retaliation does all the opposite. For it both shames both parties and makes them worse, and raises the anger into a greater flame, and often ends in death as the evil goes further. That is why he not only commanded the one struck not to be angry, but also bade him satisfy the other’s desire, so that you may not even seem to have endured the first unwillingly. For in this way you will be able to strike even a shameless man with a deadlier blow than if you had struck him with your hand, and you will make him gentler instead of more shameless.

“To the one who wants to go to law with you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.” For he wants such forbearance shown not only in the case of blows but also in that of money. That is why he again sets down the same intensity. For as there he bids us conquer by suffering, so here too by being robbed of more than the covetous man expected. However, he did not put it simply, but with an addition. For he did not say, “Give your cloak to the one who asks,” but, “to the one who wants to go to law with you,” that is, if he drags you into court and gives you trouble. And as, having said not to call anyone a fool nor to be angry without cause, as he went on he demanded more when he bade us offer the right cheek too, so here, having said to be well disposed toward the adversary, he again intensifies the command. For he bids us not only give what he wants to take, but show greater generosity besides. “What then,” someone says, “am I to go about naked?” We would not be naked if we obeyed these things with precision; rather, we would be clothed with much more than all. For first, no one would attack people so disposed; and second, even if someone were so savage and wild as to go so far, far more people would appear who would clothe the man who practices such philosophy, not only with garments but even with their own flesh, if it were possible.

[And if] one had to go about naked for such philosophy, not even so would it be shameful. For Adam too was naked in paradise and was not ashamed; and Isaiah was naked and barefoot, and more illustrious than all the Jews; and Joseph too shone most when he was stripped. For it is not being naked in this way that is evil, but being clothed as we now are with costly garments; this is both shameful and ridiculous. That is why God praised them, but accuses these, through prophets and apostles. Let us not, then, think the commands impossible. For together with their usefulness they are very easy, if we are sober; and they bring so great a gain as to benefit greatly not only us but also those who abuse us. And this is above all their special excellence, that in persuading us to suffer ill, by the same means they teach those who do it to practice philosophy too. For when he thinks it a great thing to take what belongs to others, and you show him that it is easy for you to give even what he does not ask, and bring in a generosity to counterbalance his poverty and a philosophy to counterbalance his covetousness, consider how great a lesson he will enjoy, taught not by words but by deeds themselves to despise vice and to long for virtue. For God wants us to be useful not to ourselves only, but to all our neighbors. If, then, you give and do not go to law, you have sought your own advantage only; but if you give another thing besides, you have sent him away better too. Such is the salt which he wants them to be; for it both holds itself together and preserves the other bodies with which it mingles. Such is the light; for it shines both for itself and for others. Since, then, he has set you in the rank of these, help the one who sits in darkness, and teach him that he did not take even the first thing by force; persuade him that he did not abuse you. For so you yourself too will be more respected and revered, if you show that you gave freely and were not robbed. Make his sin, then, your generosity by your gentleness.

And if you think this a great thing, wait, and you will see clearly that you have not yet reached perfection. For he who lays down the laws of forbearance does not stop for you here, but goes further, saying, “If anyone compels you to go one mile, go with him two.” Do you see the height of philosophy? After giving the tunic and the cloak, he says, not even if the enemy wants to use your naked body for hardships and toils should you hinder him even so. For he wants us to hold all things in common, both bodies and money, both with those in need and with those who insult us; for the one belongs to courage, the other to love for mankind. That is why he said, “If anyone compels you to go one mile, go with him two,” leading you again higher, and bidding you show the same generosity. For if what he said at the beginning, which is much less than these, has so many beatitudes, consider what kind of lot awaits those who achieve these things, and what they become even before the prizes, achieving complete freedom from passion in a human and passible body. For when they are bitten neither by insults and blows nor by being robbed of money, nor yield to anything else of the kind, but even give more lavishly to the suffering, consider what kind of soul is being formed in them. That is why what he commanded in the case of blows and of money, he commanded to be done here too. “For why do I speak,” he says, “of insult and money? Even if he wants to use your very body for toil and labor, and that unjustly, again conquer and surpass his unjust desire.” For “compelling” means this: dragging unjustly, without any reason, and by way of abuse. But nevertheless be prepared for this too, so as to suffer more than he wants to inflict.

“Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” These things are less than those; but do not wonder, for he is accustomed always to do this, mingling small things with great. And if these are small compared with those, let those hear who take what belongs to others, who distribute their own to harlots and kindle a double fire for themselves, both by their unjust income and by their ruinous spending. By a loan he does not mean here the contract with interest, but simply the use. And elsewhere he even intensifies it, telling us to give to those from whom we do not expect to receive back.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who abuse you; bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, so that you may become like your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” See how he set the capstone of good things last. For this is why he teaches us not only to bear being struck but to offer the right cheek too, and not only to add the cloak to the tunic but also to go two miles with the one who compels us, so that we may accept with all ease what is much more than these. “And what is more than these?” someone says. That the one who does these things should not even be an enemy; or rather, something more than this. For he did not say, “Do not hate,” but “Love”; he did not say, “Do not wrong,” but “Do good.”

And if one examines it precisely, he will see another addition to these very things, much greater than they. For he did not simply command us to love, but also to pray. Do you see how many steps he has climbed, and how he has set us on the very summit of virtue? Consider, counting from below. The first step is not to begin wrongdoing; the second, after another has begun, to retaliate with what is equal; the third, not to do to the abuser what one has suffered, but to keep quiet; the fourth, even to offer oneself to suffer ill; the fifth, even to offer more than the one who did it wants; the sixth, not to hate the one who has done these things; the seventh, even to love him; the eighth, even to do him good; the ninth, even to entreat God for him. Do you see the height of philosophy? That is why it also has a splendid prize. For since the command was great and needed a youthful soul and much zeal, he sets for it such a reward as for none of the former. For here he does not mention the earth, as with the meek; nor comfort and mercy, as with those who mourn and the merciful; nor the kingdom of heaven; but what was more awesome than all these, to become like God, as far as it is possible for men to become so. “So that you may become,” he says, “like your Father in heaven.” But observe, I beg you, how neither here nor in what came before does he call him his own Father, but there “God” and “great King,” when he was speaking about oaths, and here “their Father.” And he does this keeping the words about these things for the fitting time. Then, bringing in the likeness, he says, “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” “For he himself,” he says, “not only does not hate but even does good to those who insult him.” And yet the case is nowhere equal, not only because of the excess of the benefit but also because of the superiority of dignity. For you are despised by a fellow servant, but he by a servant who has received countless benefits; and you bestow words when you pray for him, but he bestows things very great and wonderful, kindling the sun and giving the yearly rains. But nevertheless, even so I grant you to be equal, as far as it is possible for a man to be.

Do not, then, hate the one who does you ill, since he is the procurer of such good things for you and leads you to so great an honor. Do not curse the one who abuses you; for then you have undergone the toil but been deprived of the fruit; and you will bear the loss but lose the reward; which is the height of folly, having endured the harder thing, not to bear what is less than it. “And how is it possible,” someone says, “for this to happen?” When you have seen God become man, and descend so far, and suffer so much for your sake, do you still ask and doubt how it is possible to forgive your fellow servants their wrongs? Do you not hear him saying on the cross, “Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”? Do you not hear Paul saying that he who went up on high and sits at the right hand intercedes for us? Do you not see that even after the cross and after the ascension he sent the apostles to the Jews who had killed him, to bring them countless good things, and that when they were going to suffer countless terrible things from them? “But you have been greatly wronged.” And what have you suffered like your Master: bound, scourged, struck, spat upon by servants, enduring death, and the most shameful of all deaths, after countless benefits? And if you have been greatly wronged, for this very reason above all do good, so that you may make your crown more splendid and free your brother from the extreme of sickness. For physicians too, when they are kicked and insulted by madmen, then pity them most and prepare for their cure, knowing that the insult comes from the excess of the disease. You too, then, have this mind about those who plot against you, and treat those who wrong you so; for they are the ones who are sick and suffer all the violence. Free him, then, from this grievous abuse, and grant him to let go his anger, and set him free from a grievous demon, rage. For when we see demoniacs, we weep; we are not eager to be possessed ourselves. Let us do this now too in the case of those who are angry; for the enraged are like them, or rather more wretched than they, since they rave while in their senses. That is why their madness is beyond pardon. Do not, then, trample on one who is down, but even pity him. For if we see someone troubled by bile, dizzy and straining to vomit this evil humor, we stretch out a hand and hold him up as he retches, and even if we soil our garment, we do not turn away, but seek one thing only, how to free him from this grievous distress. Let us do this, then, in the case of these too; let us hold them up as they vomit and retch, and not let go of them until they have put away all their bitterness. And then he will be most grateful to you; when he has stopped, then he will know clearly from how great a disturbance you have freed him. And why do I speak of his gratitude? For God will crown you at once and repay you with countless good things, because you freed your brother from a grievous sickness; and he will honor you as a master, revering your gentleness forever. Do you not see women in labor, how they bite the women standing by, and these do not feel the pain, or rather they feel it but bear it nobly and share the suffering of those in pain and torn by the travail? Emulate these too, and do not be softer than women. For when these women have given birth (for they are more faint-hearted than women), then they will know you to be [a man] in comparison.

[And if] the commands are heavy, consider that it was for this that Christ came, to plant these things in our mind, so as to make us useful to both enemies and friends. That is why he bids us take care of both: of brothers, when he says, “If you are offering your gift”; and of enemies, when he says to love them and pray for them. And he leads us to this not only from the example of God, but also from the opposite. “For if you love those who love you,” he says, “what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” Paul too says this: “You have not yet resisted to the point of blood in your struggle against sin.” If, then, you do these things, you stand with God; but if you abandon them, with the tax collectors. Do you see that the difference between the commandments is not so great as the difference between the persons? Let us not, then, reckon that the command is hard, but let us consider the prize too, and reckon whom we become like when we succeed, and whom we equal when we fail. To the brother, then, he bids us be reconciled, and not to leave off until we have removed the enmity; but when he speaks about all men, he no longer subjects us to this necessity, but demands only what is on our part, making the law easy in this way too. For since he had said that they persecuted the prophets who were before you, so that they might not on this account be ill disposed toward them, he bids them not only to bear those who do these things but even to love them.

Do you see how he pulls up by the roots anger and desire, desire for bodies, for money, for glory, for the present life? For this he did from the beginning, but much more now. For the poor in spirit, the meek, and the one who mourns empty out anger; the righteous and the merciful empty out the desire for money; the pure in heart has been freed from wicked desire; the one persecuted, bearing insults and ill spoken of, practices from then on complete disdain for present things, and is pure of conceit and [vainglory]. Having, then, freed the athlete from these bonds and anointed him for the contests, he again in another way pulls up these passions, and with greater precision. For beginning from anger, and cutting out the sinews of this passion on every side, and saying, “Let the one who is angry with his brother, and the one who calls him a fool, and the one who says ‘raca,’ be punished; and let the one offering his gift not approach the table until he has dissolved the enmity; and let the one who has an adversary make his enemy a friend before seeing the court,” he passes on again to desire, and says, “Let the one who looks with licentious eyes be punished as an adulterer; let the one caused to stumble by a licentious woman or man, or by any other of those close to him, cut them all off; let the one who holds a wife by the law of marriage never cast her out and look to another.” For by these he removed the roots of wicked desire. Then from here he restrains the love of money, bidding us neither swear nor lie, nor cling even to the tunic one happens to be wearing, but give up the cloak too to the one who wants it, and the use of the body, with great abundance removing the longing for money.

Then after all these he brings in the varied crown of these commands, saying, “Pray for those who abuse you,” leading us up to the very highest summit of philosophy. For as being struck is greater than being meek, and giving up the cloak with the tunic greater than being merciful, and bearing wrong greater than being just, and following when struck and compelled greater than being a peacemaker, so too blessing when persecuted is greater than being persecuted. Do you see how little by little he leads up to the very vaults of heaven? What then should we deserve, who are commanded to emulate God, and perhaps do not even equal the tax collectors? For if loving those who love belongs to tax collectors and sinners and Gentiles, when we do not even do this (for we do not, envying our brothers when they are well regarded), what penalty shall we not undergo, being commanded to surpass the scribes and standing lower than the Gentiles? How then shall we see the kingdom, tell me? How shall we set foot on those sacred thresholds, not becoming better even than the tax collectors? For this is what he hinted at when he said, “Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”

And this is above all to be admired in his teaching, that everywhere he sets the prizes of the contests with great abundance, such as seeing God, inheriting the kingdom of heaven, becoming sons of God and like God, obtaining mercy, being comforted, and the great reward; and if anywhere he must mention painful things, he does it with restraint. For he has put the name of hell once in so many words; and with others too he corrects the hearer in a restrained manner … , saying, “Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” and, “If the salt loses its savor,” and, “He shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” And there are places where he puts the sins themselves in place of punishment, giving the hearer to perceive the burden of the punishment, as when he says, “He has committed adultery with her in his heart,” and, “He who puts her away makes her commit adultery,” and, “What is more is from the evil one.” For to those who have understanding the greatness of the sin is enough for correction in place of the name of punishment. That is why here too he brings the Gentiles and the tax collectors into the middle, shaming the disciple by the quality of the persons. Paul too did this when he said, “Do not grieve as the rest who have no hope,” and, “as the Gentiles who do not know God.” And showing that he demands nothing excessive, but a little more than what is usual, he says, “Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” But nevertheless he does not stop his discourse here, but ends it in the prizes and the kind hopes, saying, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is.” And he scatters the name of the heavens abundantly everywhere, rousing their minds by the place too; for until then they were in a rather weak and dull state.

Considering, then, all that has been said, let us show great love toward our enemies too; and let us cast out that ridiculous custom which many of the more unreasoning observe, waiting for those they meet to greet them first, not emulating what has a great beatitude but pursuing what is ridiculous. Why will you not greet him first? “Because he is waiting for this,” he says. Then for this very reason above all you should have leapt to it, so that you may receive the crown. “No,” he says, “since he is eager for this.” And what could be worse than this unreason? “Since he is eager for this,” he says, “to become for me the procurer of a reward, I do not want to wait to be greeted, but to do this first ourselves and seize this occasion.” For if he greets you first, you gain nothing more even by greeting him in return; but if you leap first to the greeting, you have made a profit of his conceit and reaped an abundant fruit from his pride. How then is it not the height of folly, when we are going to reap so much from bare words, to betray the gain, and, while condemning him, to fall into the same things? For if you blame him for this, that he waits to be greeted first by another, why do you emulate what you accuse, and are eager to imitate as good what you said was wicked? Do you see that nothing is more senseless than a man who lives with vice? Therefore, I beg you, let us flee this wicked and ridiculous custom. For this sickness has overturned countless friendships and produced many enmities. That is why let us forestall them. For we who are commanded to be struck and compelled and stripped by enemies, and to bear it, what pardon should we deserve if we show such contentiousness over a bare greeting? “For we are despised,” he says, “and spat upon, when we grant him this.” And so that a man may not despise you, do you offend God? And so that your raving fellow servant may not despise you, do you despise the Master who has done you so much good? For if it is absurd that one of equal rank should despise you, much more that you should despise God who made you. And besides this consider this too, that when he despises you, then he becomes for you the procurer of a greater reward. For you endure these things for God’s sake, because you have listened to his laws. And what honor would this not be worth? How many diadems? May it be mine to be insulted and despised for God’s sake rather than to be honored by all kings; for nothing, nothing is equal to this glory. Let us pursue this, then, as he himself commanded, and, making no account of human things, but showing precise philosophy in everything, let us order our own life so. For we shall reap even from here and now the good things of the heavens and of the crowns there, walking among men as angels, going about on earth like the powers of the angels, and remaining outside all desire and all disturbance; and besides all these we shall receive the ineffable good things; which may we all obtain, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might and the worship, with the Father who is without beginning and the holy and good Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.