Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 61.1–61.5

“Then Peter came to him and said, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus says to him, ‘I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’” Peter thought he was saying something great; and so, as if being generous, he added, “up to seven times.” “For this thing,” he says, “that you commanded us to do, how often shall I do it? For if a man is always sinning, and always, when reproved, repents, how often do you bid us bear with him? For to the one who does not repent and does not condemn himself you set a limit, saying, ‘Let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector’; but to this one no longer: you commanded us to receive him. How often, then, must I bear with him when he is reproved and repents? Is seven times enough?” What then does Christ, the loving and good God, say? “I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven”: not setting down a number here, but what is endless, continual, and forever. For just as “ten thousand times” means “often,” so also here. For “the barren has borne seven,” says Scripture, meaning many. So he did not shut forgiveness up within a number, but showed that it is continual and forever. This at any rate he also showed by the parable set next. For lest he should seem to some to be enjoining great and burdensome things by saying “seventy times seven,” he added this parable, at once leading them on to what he had said, and humbling the one who thought highly of himself over it, and showing that the thing is not heavy but even very easy. For this reason he brought his own love for mankind into the middle, so that by the comparison, he says, you may learn that even if you forgive seventy times seven, even if you pardon your neighbor absolutely all his sins continually, as much as a drop of water falls short of the boundless sea, so much, or rather far more, does your love for mankind fall short of the boundless goodness of God, of which you stand in need, since you are about to be judged and to give account. Therefore he also went on to say, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man, a king, who wished to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle, one debtor of ten thousand talents was brought to him. And since he did not have the means to pay, he commanded that he be sold, and his wife and his children and all that he had.” Then, when this man had enjoyed his love for mankind, he went out and began to choke a fellow servant who owed him a hundred denarii, and by this he so moved his master that he caused him to be thrown into prison again, until he should pay the whole. Do you see how great the difference is between sins against man and sins against God? As great as the difference between ten thousand talents and a hundred denarii, or rather far more. And this comes about both from the difference of the persons and from the continuity of the sins. For when a man is looking on, we hold back and shrink from sinning; but though God sees us every day, we do not abstain, but do and say everything without fear. And not from this alone, but also from the benefits and the honor we have enjoyed, our sins become more grievous. And if you wish to learn how our sins against him are ten thousand talents, or rather even far more, I will try to show it briefly. But I fear that I may give greater license to those who incline to vice and love to sin continually, or may cast the more reasonable into despair, and they may say what the disciples said, “Who can be saved?” Yet even so I will speak, in order to make those who pay attention more secure and more reasonable. For those who are incurably diseased and past feeling do not leave their own sloth and wickedness even without these words; and if they should take from this a further occasion of carelessness, the cause is not what is said but their own insensibility; while what is said will be able to check and prick those who pay attention the more. And the more reasonable, when they see the mass of their sins and learn also the power of repentance, will cling to it the more. Therefore it is necessary to speak. I will speak, then, and set down the sins, both those we commit against God and those against men; and I will set down not our private ones but the common ones; the private ones let each add from his own conscience. And I will do this after first setting down the benefits of God. What then are the benefits? He made us when we were not, and made all visible things for our sake: heaven, sea, earth, air, all that is in them, animals, plants, seeds (for we must cut it short because of the boundless sea of his works). He breathed into us a soul, into us alone of the things on earth, and such a soul; he planted a paradise, gave a helper, set us over all the irrational creatures, crowned us with glory and honor. After this, when man had become ungrateful toward his benefactor, he counted him worthy of a greater gift.

For do not look only at this, that he cast him out of paradise; consider also the gain that came of it. For after casting him out of paradise, and working those countless good things and carrying out his manifold dispensations, he even sent his own Son on behalf of those who had been benefited and who hated him, and opened heaven to us, and threw paradise itself wide open, and made us sons, us the enemies, the ungrateful. Therefore it is fitting now to say, “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” And he gave us also baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and release from punishment, and the inheritance of the kingdom; and he promised countless good things to those who do right, and stretched out his hand, and poured out the Spirit into our hearts. What then? After so many and so great good things, how ought we to be disposed? If we died every day for him who loves us so, would we pay what is due, or rather would we lay down the smallest part of the debt? By no means; for this too would again turn out to our own gain. How then are we disposed, we who ought to be so disposed? Every day we outrage his laws. But do not be indignant if I lay my tongue on those who sin; for I shall accuse not you only but myself also. Where then do you wish me to begin? From the slaves? From the free? From the soldiers? From private persons? From the rulers? From the ruled? From the women? From the men? From the old? From the young? From which age? From which class? From which rank? From which occupation? Do you wish me to make my beginning from the soldiers? What sins do they not commit every day, insulting, reviling, raging, making a trade of other people’s misfortunes, like wolves, never clean of offenses, unless one were to say that the sea too is without waves? For what passion does not trouble them? What disease does not besiege their soul? Toward their equals they are jealously disposed, and envious, and vainglorious; toward those under them, grasping; toward those who have lawsuits and run to them as to a harbor, hostile and perjured. How many robberies among them, how many acts of greed, how many false accusations and frauds, how many slavish flatteries! Come then, let us apply the law of Christ to each of these. “He who says to his brother, ‘Fool,’ shall be liable to the Gehenna of fire.” “He who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her.” “Unless one humbles himself like the child, he shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” But these men even cultivate arrogance, and toward those subject to them, handed over to them, trembling before them and fearing them, they become harsher than a wild beast, doing nothing for Christ’s sake but everything for the belly, for money, for vainglory. Is it possible to number in words the offense of their deeds? What could one say of their mockeries, their laughter, their untimely talk, their obscenities? As for greed, one cannot even speak of it. For as the monks in the mountains do not even know what greed is, so neither do these, but in the opposite way to them. The former do not know the passion because they are far from the disease; these do not even perceive how great the evil is because they are thoroughly drunk with it. So completely has this vice thrust out virtue and tyrannizes, that among those madmen it is not even thought to be a grave charge. But do you wish us to leave these and go to others more reasonable? Come then, let us examine the class of craftsmen and handworkers. For these above all seem to live by just labors and their own sweat. But these too, when they do not take heed to themselves, gather many evils to themselves from it. For they bring the injustice of selling and buying into the work of just labors, and often add oaths and perjuries and lies to their greed, and are occupied with worldly affairs alone and remain nailed to the earth; and they do everything in order to make money, but take no great pains to share with those in need, always wishing to increase what they have. What could one say of the revilings over such things, the insults, the loans, the interest, the contracts full of much fraud, the shameless trading? But do you wish us to leave these too and go to others, those who are thought to be more just? Who then are these? Those who own lands and reap the wealth of the earth. And what could be more unjust than these? For if one examines how they treat the wretched and miserable farmers, he will find them more savage than barbarians. On men wasting away with hunger and toiling their whole life long they lay continual and unbearable dues, and treat their bodies rather as if they were stones, not allowing them to breathe even a little; and whether the land yields or does not yield, they strain them alike and grant them no indulgence at all. What could be more pitiable than this, when, after toiling through the whole winter, worn out by frost and rain and sleepless nights, they go away with empty hands, still in debt besides, and dreading and shuddering more than at this hunger and shipwreck at the tortures of the stewards, the draggings, the demands, the arrests, and the inexorable compulsory services? What could one say of the trading they carry on with them, the frauds they practice on them, filling winepresses and vats from their labors and sweat, but not allowing them to bring home even a small measure, but drawing off the whole crop into the jars of their own lawlessness and tossing them a little silver for it? And they devise new kinds of interest, not sanctioned even by the laws of the Greeks, and draw up bonds for loans full of much cursing. For they force their way to demanding not a hundredth of the whole but half of the whole, and this from one who has a wife and is rearing children, a man, and filling both the threshing floor and the winepress by his own labors. But they consider none of these things. Therefore it is fitting now to bring forward the prophet and say, “Be astonished, O heaven, and shudder, O earth,” to what savagery the human race has run riot! I say these things not as finding fault with crafts, or farming, or soldiering, or lands, but with ourselves. For Cornelius too was a centurion, and Paul a tentmaker, and he practiced his craft even after his preaching; and David was a king, and Job enjoyed estates and much revenue; and none of these things was a hindrance to any of them with regard to virtue. Considering all these things, then, and reckoning up the ten thousand talents, let us at least from this hasten to forgive our neighbors those few and paltry debts. For we have to give account of the commandments entrusted to us, and we cannot pay everything, whatever we do. For this reason God gave us an easy and ready way to repayment, one able to cancel all those debts: I mean not bearing grudges. That we may learn this well, let us hear the whole parable, going through it in order. “There was brought to him,” it says, “one debtor of ten thousand talents. And since he had nothing to pay, he commanded that he be sold, and his wife and his children.” For what reason? Tell me. Not from cruelty or inhumanity, for the loss would come back on himself again, since she too was his slave; but from unspeakable … For he wishes to frighten him by this threat, in order to bring him to supplication, not in order that he should be sold. For if he had done it for this purpose, he would not have consented to his request, nor would he have granted him the favor. Why then did he not do this before the reckoning, and remit the debt? Wishing to teach him from how great debts he was setting him free, so that at least in this way he might become gentler toward his fellow servant. For if, even after learning the mass of his debt and the greatness of the pardon, he went on choking his fellow servant, had he not first trained him with such remedies, to what lengths of cruelty would he not have gone? What then does the man say? “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” “And the lord of that servant, moved with compassion, released him and forgave him the loan.” Do you see again the excess of his love for mankind? The servant asked only for a delay and a postponement; but he gave more than he asked, the remission and pardon of the whole loan. For he wished to give it even from the beginning; but he did not wish the gift to be his alone, but also the fruit of this man’s supplication, so that he might not go away uncrowned. For that the whole was his, even though this man fell down and begged, the cause of the pardon shows, “moved with compassion,” it says, “he forgave him.” But even so he wished him also to seem to contribute something, so that he might not be utterly put to shame, and so that, having been trained in his own misfortunes, he might become forgiving to his fellow servant.

Up to this point, then, he is good and acceptable: he confessed, and promised to pay the debt, and fell down and entreated, and condemned his own sins, and recognized the greatness of the debt. But what follows is unworthy of what went before. For going out at once, not after a long time but at once, with the benefit still ringing in his ears, he abused the gift and the freedom granted him by the master for wickedness. “For finding one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe.’” Did you see the master’s love for mankind? Did you see the servant’s cruelty? Hear, you who do these things for the sake of money. For if one must not do so for sins, much less for money. What then does the other say? “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” But he did not respect even the words by which he himself had been saved (for he too, by saying these words, was freed from the ten thousand talents), and did not recognize the harbor by which he had escaped shipwreck; the posture of supplication did not remind him of the master’s love for mankind; but casting all those things out through greed and cruelty and resentment, he was harsher than any wild beast, choking his fellow servant. What are you doing, man? Do you not perceive that you are making the demand of yourself, thrusting the sword against yourself, and revoking the sentence and the gift? But he considered none of these things, nor remembered his own case, nor gave way; and yet the supplication was not over equal sums. For the one entreated over ten thousand talents, the other over a hundred denarii; and the one entreated his fellow servant, the other his master; and the one received complete pardon, the other asked for delay. And not even this did he give, “for he threw him into prison.” “And when his fellow servants saw it, they accused him to the master.” Not even to men was this pleasing, still less to God. So those who owed nothing shared the pain. What then does the master say? “Wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you entreated me; ought not you also to have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” See again the master’s gentleness. He pleads with him and makes his defense, when he is about to overturn his gift; or rather it was not he who overturned it, but the one who received it. Therefore he says, “I forgave you all that debt because you entreated me; ought not you also to have had mercy on your fellow servant?” For even if the thing seems heavy to you, you ought to have looked at the gain too, that which had come and that which was to come. Even if the command was burdensome, you ought to have thought of the prize; not that that man had grieved you, but that you had provoked God, whom you reconciled by mere supplication. And if even so it is burdensome to you to become a friend to the one who grieved you, it is far heavier to fall into Gehenna; and if you had set this against that, then you would have known that the former is far lighter. And when he owed ten thousand talents, he did not call him wicked, nor insult him, but had mercy on him; but when he became ungrateful toward his fellow servant, then he says, “Wicked servant.” Let us hear, we who are greedy; for the word is addressed to us too. Let us hear, we who are merciless and cruel, that it is not to others that we are cruel, but to ourselves. When then you wish to bear a grudge, consider that you bear it against yourself, not against another; that you are binding fast your own sins, not your neighbor’s. For you, whatever you do to him, you do as a man, and in the present life; but God not so: he will punish you more severely, and with the punishment of the next world. “For he delivered him up until he should pay what was owed,” that is, forever, for he will never pay. For since you did not become better through the benefit, it remains for you to be corrected by punishment. And yet “the gifts and the free favors are without repentance”; but wickedness had such power as to break even this law. What then is worse than bearing grudges, when it is seen overturning so great and so divine a gift? And he did not simply deliver him up, but in anger. For when he commanded that he be sold, the words were not of anger (and so he did not even carry it out), but an occasion of the greatest love for mankind; but now the sentence is one of much indignation, and of punishment and chastisement. What then does the parable mean? “So also my Father will do to you,” he says, “if you do not each forgive your brother his trespasses from your hearts.” He does not say “your Father,” but “my Father.” For it is not fitting that God should be called the Father of one so wicked and so hateful to men.

He asks two things here, then: that we condemn our own sins, and that we forgive others; and the former for the sake of the latter, that this may be done more easily (for he who considers his own sins will be more forgiving to his fellow servant); and that we forgive not merely with the mouth, but from the heart. Let us not, then, thrust the sword against ourselves by bearing grudges. For what harm has the one who grieved you done you as great as what you will do to yourself by remembering your anger and drawing upon yourself the sentence from God that condemns you? For if you are sober and wise, the evil will come round upon his head, and it is he who will suffer harm; but if you remain indignant and resentful, then you yourself will undergo the injury, not from him but from yourself. Do not say, then, that he insulted you and slandered you and did you countless wrongs; for the more you say, the more you show him to be a benefactor. For he gave you an occasion to wash away your sins; so that the greater the wrong he has done you, the greater the forgiveness of sins he becomes the cause of for you. For if we are willing, no one will be able to wrong us; even our enemies will benefit us greatly. And why do I speak of men? What could be more wicked than the devil? Yet even from him we have a great occasion of good repute, and Job shows it. And if the devil has become an occasion of crowns, why do you fear a man who is an enemy? See then how much you gain by bearing your enemies’ abuse meekly. First and greatest, release from sins; second, endurance and patience; third, gentleness and love for mankind. For he who does not know how to be angry with those who grieve him will be far more serviceable to those who love him. Fourth, to be continually free from anger, to which nothing could be equal. For he who is free from anger is plainly delivered also from the despondency that comes of it, and will not spend his life in vain labors and pains. For he who does not know how to hate does not know how to grieve either, but will enjoy delight and countless good things. So we punish ourselves by hating others, just as we benefit ourselves by loving. Besides all this, you will be respected even by your enemies themselves, even if they are demons; or rather, so disposed, you will no longer even have an enemy. And, greatest and first of all, you gain the love of God: if you have sinned, you will obtain pardon; if you have done right, you will gain greater boldness. Let us achieve, then, not hating anyone, so that God too may love us; so that, even if we are liable for ten thousand talents, he may be moved with compassion and have mercy. But you have been wronged by him? Then pity him, do not hate him; weep and lament, do not turn away. For it is not you who have offended God, but he; you, on the other hand, have even won good repute, if you bear it. Consider that Christ, when about to be crucified, rejoiced for himself, but wept for those who were crucifying him. So we too ought to be disposed; and the more we are wronged, the more we ought to lament those who wrong us. For to us many good things come from it, but to them the opposite. But he insulted and struck you before everyone? Then before everyone he shamed and dishonored himself, and opened the mouths of countless accusers, and wove you more crowns, and gathered many heralds of your long-suffering. But he slandered you to others? And what of that, when it is God who will demand the account, and not those who heard? For he has added to himself a cause of punishment, so that he must give account not only for his own deeds but also for what he said about you. And he slandered you to men, but he himself has been slandered before God. And if this is not enough for you, consider that your Master too was slandered, both by Satan and by men, and to those who were most loved by him; and his Only-begotten again suffered the same. Therefore he said, “If they called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household.” And not only did that wicked demon slander him, but he was even believed; and he slandered him not with ordinary reproaches but with the greatest reproaches and charges. For he said that he had a demon, and was a deceiver, and an enemy of God. But did you suffer evil after doing good? For this reason above all lament and grieve for the one who did it, but rejoice for yourself, that you have become like God, “who makes his sun rise on the evil and the good.” And if imitating God is beyond you (though not even this is hard for one who is sober), yet if it seems to you too great, come, let us lead you to your fellow servants: to Joseph, who suffered countless things and did good to his brothers; to Moses, who after countless plots prayed for them; to blessed Paul, who could not even count what he suffered from them, and yet wished to be accursed for them; to Stephen, who while being stoned entreated that this sin be forgiven them. Considering all these things, cast out all anger, so that God may forgive us too all our trespasses, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, might, honor, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.