Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 30.1–30.3

“[And as] Jesus [passed on] from there, he saw a man sitting at the tax office, called Matthew; and he says [to him, ‘Follow me.’]” For, having worked the miracle, he did not stay, so as not to kindle their jealousy further by being seen, but grants them this favor by withdrawing and soothing their passion. Let us too do this: not closing with those who plot against us, but soothing their wound, giving way and slackening their tension. But why did he not call him with Peter and John and the others? Just as there he came at the time when he knew the men would obey, so he called Matthew too at the time when he knew he would yield. For this reason he also caught Paul, like a fisherman, after the resurrection. For he who knows the hearts and the secrets of each one’s mind knew also when each of them would obey. That is why he did not call him at the beginning, when he was still rather hard, but after his countless miracles and the great fame about him, when he knew he had become more fit for obedience. And it is worth marveling at the evangelist’s philosophy too: how he does not hide his own former life, but even sets down his name, though the others concealed him under another name. And why did he say that he was sitting at the tax office? Showing the power of the one who called him: that it was not when he had stopped, nor when he had left this wicked trade, but out of the midst of his evils that he drew him up; just as he also changed the blessed Paul while he was raging and mad and breathing fire; which Paul himself sets forth as proof of the power of the one who called him, saying to the Galatians, “You have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, that I persecuted the church of God beyond measure.” And he called the fishermen too while they were in the midst of their work. But that was a trade not of ill repute, though belonging to men of rather rustic disposition, unsociable and very simple; while this was a pursuit full of shamelessness and effrontery, a gain with no reasonable excuse, a shameless traffic, robbery with a lawful appearance; but nevertheless the one who called him was ashamed of none of these things. And why do I say that he was not ashamed of a tax collector, when he was not ashamed not only to call a harlot, but even to let her kiss his feet and wet them with her tears? For this is why he came: not only to heal bodies, but also to cure the wickedness of the soul. This he did with the paralytic too; and having shown clearly that he can forgive sins, then he comes to this man, so that they might no longer be disturbed at seeing a tax collector enrolled in the company of the disciples. For since he has authority to loose all offenses, why do you wonder if he makes this man an apostle too? But as you have seen the power of the one who called, so learn also the obedience of the one called. For he did not resist, nor say in doubt, “What is this? Is he not calling me, such as I am, with a deceitful call?” For that humility too would have been untimely. But he obeyed at once, and did not even think fit to go home and share this with his own people, just as the fishermen did not either; but as they left the net and the boat and their father, so this man too left the tax office and the gain and followed, displaying a mind prepared for everything; and tearing himself away all at once from all worldly things, he bore witness by his complete obedience to the fitness of the time chosen by the one who called him. “And why,” someone says, “did he not tell us also about the others, how and in what manner they were called, but only about Peter and James and John and Philip, and nowhere about the others?” Because these especially were in strange and lowly occupations. For there is nothing worse than tax collecting, nor more paltry than fishing. And that Philip too was one of the very obscure is clear from his homeland. That is why they proclaim these especially to us together with their occupations, showing that we must believe them in the glorious parts of their narratives too. For those who choose to leave out nothing of what seems disgraceful, but proclaim these things with exactness before the others, both about the Teacher and about the disciples, how could they be suspected in what is venerable? Especially when they pass over many signs and miracles, but cry aloud with exactness what seem to be the reproaches of the cross, and uncover with a loud voice the occupations and failings of the disciples, and the Teacher’s ancestors who were notorious for sins? From which it is clear that they took great account of truth and wrote nothing to please or for display.

Having called him, then, he honored him with the greatest honor too, sharing his table at once; for by this he made him of good hope about the future and led him to greater boldness. For he healed his wickedness not in a long time but all at once. And he reclines not with him alone but with many others too; and yet this too seemed to be a charge against him, that he did not drive the sinners away. But they do not hide even this, what sort of things his enemies tried to find fault with in what he did. And the tax collectors come together as to a fellow tradesman; for Matthew, priding himself on Christ’s coming in, called them all together. For Christ set in motion every kind of healing, and not only by conversing, nor by healing, nor by convicting his enemies, but also by dining he set right many who were in a bad state; teaching us by this that every occasion and every action can bring us benefit. And yet what was set out then came from injustice and greed; but Christ did not refuse to share in it, since great gain was going to come from it; but he becomes one who shares the roof and table of those who had committed such offenses. For such is the physician: if he does not bear the rottenness of the sick, he does not free them from their illness. And yet he got a bad reputation from this, both from eating with him, and in his house, and with many tax collectors. See, at any rate, how they reproach him with this: “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Let those hear this who are eager to surround themselves with great glory for fasting, and let them consider that our Master was called a glutton and a drunkard and was not ashamed, but looked down on all these things, so as to accomplish what he had in view; which indeed happened. For the tax collector was changed and so became better. And that you may learn that sharing his table accomplished this great thing, hear what Zacchaeus says, another tax collector again. For when he heard Christ saying, “Today I must stay in your house,” given wings by his delight, “Half of my possessions,” he says, “I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore fourfold.” And Jesus says to him, “Today salvation has come to this house.” So it is possible to teach by all means. “And how,” someone says, “does Paul command, ‘If anyone who is called a brother is sexually immoral or greedy, with such a one do not even eat’?” First of all, it is not yet clear whether he gives this advice to teachers too, and not to brothers only. Then, these men were not yet among the perfected, nor had they become brothers. And besides this, Paul commands us to turn away even from those who have become brothers when they persist; but these had stopped and changed. But none of this shamed the Pharisees, but they charge the disciples, saying, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when the disciples themselves seem to sin, they appeal to him, saying, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath”; but here they slander him to them. All of which was the act of men acting maliciously and wishing to tear the company of disciples away from the Teacher. What then does the infinite Wisdom say? “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” See how he turned their argument to the opposite. For they made it a charge that he associated with these; but he, on the contrary, says that not associating with them would be unworthy of him and of his love for humankind; and that correcting such people is not only free from blame but his chief work, necessary and worthy of countless praises. Then, so as not to seem to shame those who had been called by saying “those who are sick,” see how he softens it again, rebuking them and saying, “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’” And he said this reproaching them for their ignorance of the Scriptures. That is why he uses rather sharp language, not because he himself was angry, God forbid, but so that those men, the guests, might not be utterly at a loss. And yet he could have said, “Did you not notice how I loosed the sins of the paralytic? How I braced his body?” But he says none of these things, but first reasons with them from common reasonings, and then from the Scriptures. For having said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick,” and having shown in a veiled way that he himself is the physician, he then said, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’” So Paul too does. Having first established his argument from common examples, and said, “Who tends a flock and does not eat of its milk?”, he then brought in the Scriptures too, saying, “For it is written in the law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox that treads out the grain’”; and again, “So the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should live by the gospel.” But to the disciples he does not speak so, but reminds them of the signs, saying, “Do you not yet remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up?”

But to these men he does not speak so, but reminds them of the common weakness, and shows that they too are among the sick, since they did not even know the Scriptures, and, neglecting all the rest of virtue, placed everything in the sacrifices. Hinting at this strongly, he sets down briefly what was said through all the prophets, saying, “Learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’” For by these words he shows that it is not he who breaks the law but they; as if he said, Why do you accuse me because I correct sinners? Then you will accuse the Father too of this. Which he also said elsewhere, establishing this: “My Father is working until now, and I am working”; and here again, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’” For as he wishes this, he says, so do I. Do you see how those things are superfluous, but these necessary? For he did not say, “I desire mercy and sacrifice,” but, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” For the one he approved and the other he cast out; and he showed that what they accused him of was not only not forbidden but even enjoined by law, and more than sacrifice; and he brings in the Old Testament itself speaking and legislating in harmony with him. Having reproved them, then, both from common examples and from the Scriptures, he adds again, “I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” And he says this to them in irony, as when it says, “Behold, Adam has become like one of us”; and again, “If I am hungry, I will not tell you.” For that there was no one righteous on earth Paul showed when he said, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And by this he also consoled those who had been called. For I am so far, he says, from loathing sinners, that I have come for their sake alone. Then, so as not to make them more careless, having said “sinners,” he was not silent, but added, “to repentance.” For I did not come that they might remain sinners, but that they might change and become better. Since, then, he had stopped their mouths on every side, both from the Scriptures and from the sequence of facts, and they had nothing to say, having been shown liable to the charges they brought against him, and opposed to the law and to the Old Testament, they leave him and again transfer the charge to the disciples. And Luke says that the Pharisees said it, but this evangelist that John’s disciples did; but it is likely that both said these things. For, being at a loss, they took those men with them, as is likely, which they did later with the Herodians too. For John’s disciples were always jealous of him and spoke against him, being humbled only then, when at the beginning John lived in prison. At any rate, they came then and reported to Jesus; but after this they returned to their former envy. What then do they say? “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” This is the disease which Christ cut out long before, saying, “When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,” foreseeing the evils born of it. But he does not rebuke these men either, nor say, “O vainglorious and officious men,” but speaks to them with all gentleness, saying, “The sons of the bridechamber cannot fast as long as the bridegroom is with them.” For when the word was about others, I mean the tax collectors, to soothe their wounded soul he rebuked those who reproached them more sharply; but where they were mocking him and the disciples, he makes his answer with all gentleness. What they mean is this: Granted, he says, that you do these things as a physician; why do your disciples too give up fasting and attend to such tables? Then, to make the accusation greater, they put themselves first and then the Pharisees, wishing to increase the charge by the comparison. “For both we,” they say, “and the Pharisees fast often.” For they did fast, the one having learned it from John, the others from the law; as the Pharisee too said, “I fast twice a week.” What then does Jesus say? “Can the sons of the bridechamber fast as long as the bridegroom is with them?” Before, he called himself a physician, but here a bridegroom, uncovering by these names the unspeakable mysteries. And yet he could have spoken to them more sharply: “You are not masters of these things, to make such laws. For what is the use of fasting when the mind is full of wickedness? When you accuse others? When you condemn, carrying a beam about in your eyes, and do everything for display? For before all these things you ought to have cast out vainglory and achieved all the other things: love, meekness, brotherly love.” But he says none of these things, but with all gentleness: “The sons of the bridechamber cannot fast as long as the bridegroom is with them”; reminding them of John’s words, in which he said, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice.” What he means is this: the present time is one of joy and gladness; do not then bring in gloomy things. For fasting is a gloomy thing, not by nature, but for those who are still rather weakly disposed; since to those who wish to philosophize the thing is very sweet and desirable. For as when the body is healthy there is great gladness, so when the soul is in good condition the pleasure is greater. But he says these things with regard to their supposition. So Isaiah too, speaking about it, calls it humbling of the soul, and Moses likewise. And not only by this does he stop their mouths, but also from another side, saying, “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” For by this he shows that what happened was not a matter of gluttony but of a wonderful dispensation; and at the same time he lays down beforehand the word about his passion, teaching the disciples in his disputes with others and training them to practice already in what seem to be gloomy things. For to say this to them directly would have been burdensome and grievous, since even later, when it was said, it troubled them; but said to others, it became less offensive to them. And since it was likely that they were proud too about John’s suffering, he puts down this swelling also from here; the word about the resurrection, however, he does not yet add; for it was not yet the time. For that one who was thought to be a man should die was according to nature, but that was above nature. Then what he did before, he does here too. For just as, when they tried to show him liable to charges for eating with sinners, he persuaded them of the contrary, that what was done was not only no charge but even praiseworthy, so here too, when they wish to show that he does not know how to deal with his disciples, he shows that saying such things belongs not to those who know how to deal with followers, but to those who simply accuse. “For no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment,” he says. Again he establishes his argument from common examples. What he means is this: the disciples have not yet become strong, but still need much condescension; they have not yet been renewed through the Spirit. And upon those so disposed one must not lay a weight of commands. And he said these things laying down laws and rules for his own disciples, so that when they were about to take as disciples all from the whole world, they might deal with them with great gentleness. “Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins.” Do you see the examples resembling the Old Testament: the garment, the wineskins? For Jeremiah too calls the people a girdle, and again mentions wineskins and wine. For since the discourse was about gluttony and a table, he takes his examples from the same things. And Luke says something more, that the new too is torn if you put it on the old. Do you see that not only is there no benefit, but even greater harm? And he speaks of the present, but foretells the future: that afterward they will be new; but until this happens, nothing severe and heavy must be enjoined on them. For the one who seeks to implant the lofty teachings before the fitting time, he says, will not find them fit even when the time calls, having once made them useless. And this happens not because of the wine, nor because of the vessels that receive it, but because of the unseasonableness of those who pour it in. From here he taught us also the reason for the lowly words with which he continually spoke to them. For because of their weakness he said many things beneath his own worth; which John too showed that he said, when he says, “I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” For so that they might not think that what he said was all there was, but might imagine other things much greater too, he set their weakness in the open, promising that when they became strong he would tell them those things too; which he says here too: “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” Let us, then, not demand everything from everyone at the beginning, but what is possible; and quickly we shall come to those things too. But if you press and hurry, for this very reason do not press, since you are in a hurry. And if what has been said seems a riddle to you, learn it from the very nature of things, and then you will see its whole force. And let none of those who accuse untimely move you; since here too the accusers were Pharisees and those reproached were disciples. But nevertheless none of these things persuaded Christ to change his judgment, nor did he say, “It is a shame that these fast and those do not fast.” But as an excellent pilot attends not to the troubled waves but to his own art, so Christ too did then. For the shame was not that they did not fast, but that because of fasting they should be struck in a vital part, and split off, and torn away. Considering these things, then, let us deal in this way with all our own people. Even if you have a wife fond of finery, gaping after cosmetics, flighty, dissolved in much luxury, talkative and foolish (and yet all these things cannot meet in one woman; but let us fashion such a woman in words). “Why then,” someone says, “do you fashion a woman and not a man?” There are men too worse than this woman. But since the oversight has been entrusted to men, for this reason we fashion a woman for the time, not because wickedness abounds more there. For one can find many things among men that are not among women, such as murder, tomb-robbing, fighting with wild beasts, and many such things. Do not think, then, that we do this to belittle the sex; it is not so, it is not so; but it is useful for the time to sketch the picture in this way. Let such a woman, then, be supposed by us, and let the husband strive in every way to correct her. How then will he correct her? Not by enjoining everything at once, but the lighter things first, and those by which she is not very strongly held. For if you press her to set everything right from the beginning, you have lost everything. Do not, then, take away the gold ornaments at once, but let her have them and wear them for the time; for this seems a lesser evil than the cosmetics and paints. Let those, then, be taken away first; and not even those by fear and threat, but by persuasion and kindness, and by censuring others, and by your own verdict and opinion. And say to her continually that a face so beautified is not lovely to you, but even very unpleasant; and persuade her above all that this grieves you. And after your own verdict bring in the opinion of others too, and say that this usually ruins even the good-looking, so that you may remove the passion. And do not yet say anything about hell or about the kingdom; for you will say these things in vain; but persuade her that she delights you more by showing God’s work bare; while she who tortures her face and stretches it and … does not appear beautiful and comely even to the many. First cast out the disease by common reasonings and the verdicts of all; and when you have softened her with these words, add those others too. And if you say it once and do not persuade, say it a second time and a third, and do not grow weary of pouring on the same words many times; not, however, with any offensiveness, but with charm; and now turn away, now flatter and humor her. Do you not see painters, how many things they wipe out, how many they paint in, when they make a beautiful face? Do not, then, be worse than they. For if they, painting the image of a body, use so much zeal, how much more would it be just for us, fashioning a soul, to set every device in motion? For if you fashion well the face of this soul, you will not see the unseemly face of the body, nor blood-red lips, nor a mouth like a bear’s stained with blood, nor eyebrows blackened as if from a cooking pot, nor cheeks whitewashed like the walls of tombs. For all these are soot and ashes and dust, and marks of the utmost ugliness. But I do not know how I was carried away unawares into these words, and, while advising another to teach with gentleness, I myself rolled into anger. Let us return again, then, to the gentler exhortation, and let us bear all the failings of women, so that we may achieve what we wish. Do you not see how we bear with children crying when we wish to wean them from the breast, and endure everything for this alone, to persuade them to despise their former table? So let us do here too: let us bear with all the rest, so that we may achieve this. For when this has been corrected, you will see the other too, proceeding in due course, and you will come again to the gold ornaments, and in the same way you will speak about these likewise; and so, shaping your wife little by little, you will be an excellent painter, a faithful servant, a very good husbandman. Along with these things remind her also of the women of old, Sarah, Rebekah, both the beautiful and those who were not so, and show that all were alike chaste. For Leah too, the patriarch’s wife, not being beautiful, was not compelled to devise any such thing; but though she was plain and not much loved by her husband, she neither devised anything of the kind nor spoiled her face, but kept her features intact, and that though she was brought up among pagans. But you, a believer, who have Christ as your head, bring in upon us a satanic device? And do you not remember the water that washed over your face, the sacrifice that adorns your lips, the blood that reddened your tongue? For if you consider all these things, even if you are ten thousand times fond of finery, you will not dare nor endure to put on that dust and ashes. Learn that you have been betrothed to Christ, and keep away from this unseemliness. For he does not delight in these colors, but seeks another beauty, of which he is an ardent lover: I mean that in the soul. This the prophet too commanded you to cultivate, saying, “And the king will desire your beauty.” Let us not, then, disfigure ourselves needlessly. For none of God’s works is imperfect, nor does it need correction from you. For if someone should attempt to add his own touches to a royal image after it has been set up, the attempt is not safe, but he will incur the utmost danger. Then a man makes something and you do not add to it, but God makes something and you correct it? And do you not consider the fire of hell? Do you not consider the desolation of the soul? For this is why it is neglected, because all zeal is emptied out on the flesh. And why do I speak of the soul? For to the flesh itself everything turns out contrary to what you have striven for. Consider. Do you wish to appear beautiful? This shows you ugly. Do you wish to please your husband? This grieves him more; and not him alone, but it also makes those outside into accusers. Do you wish to appear young? This will quickly bring you to old age. Do you wish to be beautified? This makes you ashamed. For such a woman is ashamed not only before her equals, but before those of her maidservants who are in the secret and those of her servants who know, and before all, before herself. But why must I say these things? For I have now passed over what is harshest of all: that you offend God, that you undermine chastity, that you kindle the flame of jealousy, that you emulate the harlots on the housetop. Considering all these things, then, laugh at the pomp of Satan and the art of the devil; and, leaving this adornment, or rather this disorder, prepare that beauty in your own souls which is lovely to angels and desirable to God and pleasant to your husbands, so that you may obtain both the present and the future glory; which may we all obtain, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might for ever and ever. Amen.