Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 40

And departing thence, He came into their synagogue;

and behold, there was a man having a withered hand.

Again He heals on the Sabbath, making a defense for what had been done by His disciples.

And the other evangelists say that He set the man in the midst and asked them whether it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

Behold the tender compassion of the Master.

He set him in the midst, that by the very sight He might bend them;

that, being broken down by the sight, they might cast out their wickedness, and, standing in awe of the man, might cease from their savagery.

But the untamed and man-hating men rather chose to injure Christ's glory than to see this man saved, in both ways displaying their wickedness—both in warring against Christ, and in doing so with such contentiousness that they grudged even the benefits done to others.

Now the other evangelists say that it was He Himself who asked;

"And they asked Him," it says, "saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? that they might accuse Him."

But it is likely that both took place.

For being defiled men, and knowing that He would by all means proceed to the healing, they hastened to forestall Him with their question, expecting by this means to hinder Him.

Wherefore they also asked, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days?—

not that they might learn, but that they might accuse.

And yet the deed would have sufficed, if indeed they wished to accuse;

but they wished to find a handle by His words as well, preparing for themselves an abundance of pretexts.

But He who loves mankind does this also, and answers, teaching His own gentleness, turning the whole matter back upon them, and showing their inhumanity.

And He sets the man in the midst;

not because He feared them, but hastening to profit them, and to cast them into pity.

But when not even thus did He bend them, then, it says, He was grieved and was angry with them for the hardness of their heart, and says:

What man shall there be among you, who shall have one sheep, and if this fall into a pit on the Sabbath days, will he not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much then does a man differ from a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.

For, that they might have no ground for shamelessness, nor again charge Him with transgression, He reasons them down by means of this example.

But consider with me how variously and suitably He everywhere brings forward His defenses concerning the loosing of the Sabbath.

For in the case of the blind man He does not even defend Himself to them, when He made the clay;

and yet then too they accused Him, but the manner of the creating sufficed to show the Master of the law.

But in the case of the paralytic, when he took up his bed and they accused Him, He defends Himself now as God, now as man;

as man, when He says, If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law be not broken (and He did not say, that a man be profited), are you angry with Me because I made a whole man sound?—and as God, when He says:

My Father works until now, and I work.

And when accused on behalf of His disciples, He said:

Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, he and they that were with him? how he entered into the house of God, and ate the shewbread? And He brings forward the priests also into the midst.

And here again, that It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or to do evil? Which of you shall have one sheep? For He knew their love of money, that they were rather this than lovers of men.

And yet the other Evangelist says that He also looked round about while asking these things, so as to draw them by His very glance;

but not even so did they become better.

And yet here He only speaks, but elsewhere in many places He uses His hands also.

But nevertheless none of these things made them meek;

rather the man was healed, but they by his healing became worse.

For He indeed wished to heal them before that man, and set in motion countless modes of healing, both by the things He did before and by the things He said;

but since they were now sick past cure, He proceeded to the deed.

And He stretched it forth, and it was restored whole, like the other.

What then did those men do? They go out, it says, and take counsel to destroy Him.

For the Pharisees, it says, went out and took counsel against Him, how they might destroy Him.

Having suffered no wrong, they set about to slay Him.

So great an evil is envy.

For it wars not only against strangers, but ever against its own as well.

And Mark says that they took this counsel together with the Herodians.

What then did the meek and gentle One do? He withdrew when He learned these things.

But Jesus, knowing their devices, withdrew, it says, from thence.

Where then are they who say that signs ought to be wrought? For by these things He showed that the ungrateful soul is not persuaded even by this means, and made it plain that they accused the disciples too without cause.

Yet this it behooves us to observe, that they are most of all made savage at the benefits done to their neighbors;

and whenever they see any one delivered either from disease or from vice, then they both accuse and are made like wild beasts.

For indeed, when He was about to save the harlot, they reviled Him;

and when He ate with publicans;

and now again, since they saw the hand restored.

But consider with me how He does not withdraw from His care for the sick, and consoles their envy.

And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all;

and He charged those who were healed that they should make Him known to no one.

For the multitudes everywhere both marvel and follow;

but those men do not desist from their wickedness.

Then, that you might not be troubled at the things that happen, and at the strangeness of their madness, He brings in the prophet also, foretelling these things.

For so great was the exactness of the prophets, that they omitted not even these things, but prophesied both His journeys and His removals, and the mind with which He did these things;

that you might learn that they uttered all things by the Spirit.

For if it is impossible to know the secrets of men, much more was it impossible to learn the purpose of Christ, unless the Spirit had revealed it.

What then does the prophet say? He goes on to add:

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:

Behold My Servant, whom I have chosen; My beloved, in whom My soul is well pleased.

I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He shall declare judgment to the Gentiles.

He shall not strive, nor cry aloud, neither shall any one hear His voice in the streets;

a bruised reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory;

and in His name shall the Gentiles hope.

He extols His meekness and His unspeakable power, and opens to the Gentiles a great and effectual door, and foretells the evils that were to overtake the Jews, and shows His concord with the Father.

For behold, it says, My Servant, whom I have chosen; My beloved, in whom My soul is well pleased.

But if He chose Him, then it is not as one opposing that He looses the law, nor as being an enemy of the Lawgiver, but as being of one mind with Him and doing the same things.

Then, proclaiming His gentleness, he says:

He shall not strive, nor cry aloud.

For He indeed desired to heal them;

but when they thrust Him away, not even against this did He strive.

And showing both His own strength and their weakness, He says:

A bruised reed He shall not break.

For indeed it would have been easy to shatter them all like a reed;

and not simply a reed, but one already bruised.

And smoking flax He shall not quench.

Here He sets forth both their kindling wrath, and His own strength, which is sufficient to dissolve their wrath and to quench it with all ease;

whence His great forbearance is shown.

What then? Shall these things be forever? And will He endure to the end those who thus plot against Him and...

but when He has displayed what is His own, then He will also accomplish those other things.

For this He indicated when He said:

Until He send forth judgment unto victory;

and in His name shall the Gentiles hope;

even as Paul also says:

Being ready to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

But what does it mean, When He shall send forth judgment unto victory? When He has fulfilled all that is His own, He says, then He will also bring in vengeance, even a perfect vengeance.

Then shall they suffer dread things, when the trophy stands resplendent, and His righteous claims prevail, and He leaves them not even a shameless pretext for contradiction.

For He is wont to call righteousness 'judgment.'

But the matters of the divine economy shall not rest in this alone, namely in the punishing of those who disbelieved;

but He shall also draw the whole world unto Himself.

And in His name shall the Gentiles hope.

Then, that you may learn that this too is according to the mind of the Father, the prophet in his preface pledged this also together with the foregoing, saying:

My beloved, in whom My soul is well pleased.

For it is plain that the Beloved did these things also according to the mind of Him who loved Him.

Then was brought to Him one possessed with a demon, blind and dumb; and He healed him, so that the blind and dumb both spoke and saw.

He had blocked up each entrance through which that man was to believe, both sight and hearing;

yet nevertheless Christ opened both.

And the multitudes were amazed, saying:

Is not this the Son of David? But the Pharisees said:

This man does not cast out the demons, except by Beelzebul the prince of the demons.

And yet what great thing had they uttered? But nevertheless not even this could they bear;

so, as I said before, they are ever stung by the benefactions bestowed on their neighbors, and nothing so grieves them as the salvation of men.

And indeed He had withdrawn, and given the affliction respite;

but again the evil was kindled, since again a benefaction had been wrought;

and they were even more indignant than the demon.

For he indeed both departed from the body, and withdrew, and fled, uttering nothing;

but these men now attempted to slay Him, now to slander Him.

For since that did not succeed, they wished to injure His glory.

Such is envy, than which no wickedness could be worse.

For the adulterer at least reaps some pleasure, and in a brief time completes his own sin;

but the envious man punishes and torments himself before the one he envies, and never ceases from his sin, but is engaged in committing it continually.

For as a swine delights in mire, and demons in our hurt,

so also this man rejoices in the evils of his neighbor;

and if anything unpleasant befalls, then he takes rest and breathes again, accounting others' misfortunes as his own good cheer, and others' good things as his own evils;

and he considers not what might be sweet to himself, but what is grievous to his neighbor.

Are not such men, then, worthy to be stoned and beaten to death, like rabid dogs, like avenging demons, like the very Furies? For as beetles are nourished by dung, so also are these by others' misfortunes, being certain common enemies and foes of our nature.

And whereas others pity even an irrational beast when it is slaughtered,

you, seeing a man receiving benefaction, grow savage and tremble and turn pale? And what could be worse than this madness? For this very reason harlots and publicans were able to enter into the kingdom;

but the envious, being within, went out.

For the sons of the kingdom, He says, shall be cast out.

And those others, being delivered from the wickedness in their hands, obtained what they never expected;

but these lost even the good things they had.

For this is what makes a devil out of a man;

this fashions a savage demon.

Thus the first murder came to pass;

thus afterward the earth, opening its mouth, received alive and destroyed Dathan and Korah and Abiram, and all that whole company.

But one might say that to accuse envy is easy;

yet we must also consider how they shall be delivered from the malady.

How then shall we be delivered from this wickedness? If we consider that, just as for the...

one who has committed fornication it is not lawful to enter into the church, so neither for the envious;

and much more for this one than for that.

For now it seems even a matter of indifference;

but if it become manifest that it is wicked, we shall easily withdraw from it.

Weep therefore and groan;

lament and beseech God.

Learn to be disposed toward it as toward a grievous sin, and to repent.

And if you be thus disposed, you shall quickly be delivered from the malady.

'And who does not know,' someone says, 'that envy is an evil thing?' No one, indeed, is ignorant of it.

Yet men do not hold the same opinion concerning fornication and adultery as they do concerning this passion.

When, then, has any man ever bitterly condemned himself for having envied another? When has anyone besought God concerning this sickness, that He might become merciful to him? No one, never;

but if a man fasts and gives a little silver to a poor person, though he be envious ten thousand times over, he thinks he has done nothing dreadful, all the while held fast by the most defiling of all passions.

Whence, then, did Cain become such a man? Whence Esau? Whence the sons of Laban? Whence the sons of Jacob? Whence the company of Korah and Dathan and Abiram? Whence Miriam? Whence Aaron? Whence the devil himself? IV

Together with these things, consider this also: that you do not wrong the one you envy, but rather thrust the sword against yourself.

For in what did Cain wrong Abel? Did he not send him off the more swiftly, and against his will, into the kingdom, while he himself was pierced through with ten thousand evils?

In what did Esau harm Jacob? Did not the one grow rich and enjoy ten thousand good things, while he himself was cast out of his father's house and wandered in a foreign land after that plot? And in what did Jacob's sons make Joseph worse off, even though they went as far as bloodshed? Did not they endure famine and were brought into extreme peril, while he became king over all Egypt? For by however much you envy, by so much the more do you become the procurer of greater blessings for the one you envy.

For it is God who oversees these things;

and when He sees the one who does no wrong being wronged, He rather exalts him and makes him illustrious by this very means, while He chastises you.

For if He does not suffer those who exult over their enemies to pass unpunished — 'Rejoice not,' He says, 'over the fall of your enemies, lest the Lord see it and it displease Him' —

much more will He not suffer those who envy men that have done them no wrong.

Let us, therefore, cut off this many-headed beast.

For many indeed are the forms of envy.

For if the one who loves those who love him has nothing more than the tax-collector, where shall he stand who hates one that has done him no wrong? And how shall he escape hell, becoming worse than the heathen? For this reason I am also exceedingly grieved, that we who are commanded to imitate the angels — nay rather, the Lord of the angels — are envious like the devil.

For much envy exists even in the Church, and rather among us than among those who are under authority.

Wherefore we must reason with our very selves.

For on what account, tell me, do you envy your neighbor? Because you see him enjoying honor and kindly words? Do you then not consider how much evil honors bring to those who do not give heed to themselves — lifting them up to vainglory, to conceit, to arrogance, to disdain, making them the more slothful?

And along with these evils, they also easily wither away.

For this indeed is the most grievous thing: that the evils arising from it remain immortal,

while the pleasure, at the same moment as it appears, also flies away.

Is it, then, on account of these things that you envy? Tell me.

'But he has great authority with the ruler, and carries and conveys all things wherever he wills, and grieves those who offend him, and benefits those who flatter him, and possesses much power.'

These are the words of worldly men, and of those nailed fast to the earth.

For nothing will be able to grieve the spiritual man.

For what dreadful thing will it work against him? Will it depose him from his dignity? And what of that? For if it be done justly, he is even benefited;

for nothing so provokes God as for one to exercise the priesthood unworthily;

but if it be done unjustly, the charge again falls upon that man, not upon this one;

for he who suffers something unjustly and bears it nobly gains thereby the greater boldness toward God.

Let us therefore not look to this — how we may be in positions of power, and in honors, and in authority — but how we may be in virtue and in the love of wisdom.

For positions of authority persuade men to do many things not

pleasing to God, and there is need of a very vigorous soul so as to use authority for its proper end.

For he who is deprived of it practices the love of wisdom both willingly and unwillingly;

but he who enjoys it suffers something such as would befall a man dwelling with a comely and beautiful maiden, who received laws never to look upon her unchastely.

Wherefore it has cast many, even against their will, into insolence, and stirred up wrath, and taken away the bridle of the tongue, and torn open the door of the mouth, as though fanning the soul with a wind, and sinking the vessel into the uttermost depth of evils.

Do you then admire the man in such peril, and say he is to be envied? And of how great folly is this a mark? Consider, then, together with what has been said, how many enemies and accusers, and how many flatterers, this man has besieging him.

Are these things, then, tell me, worthy of felicitations? And who would say so? 'But he is held in good repute among the people,' someone says.

And what of that? For the people is surely not God, to whom he is about to render his account.

So that when you say 'the people,' you say nothing else than other reefs, and crags, and hidden rocks, and shoals.

For being in good repute among the multitude, by however much it makes one more brilliant, by so much the more does it bring greater dangers, cares, and despondencies.

For such a one is not able to breathe or to stand still at all, having so bitter a master.

And why do I speak of standing still and breathing? Even if such a one should have ten thousand right deeds, he enters the kingdom with difficulty.

For nothing is so wont to hurl men headlong as the glory that comes from the many, making men cowardly, ignoble, flatterers, hypocrites.

For what reason, then, did the Pharisees say that Christ had a demon? Was it not because they desired the glory that comes from the many? And whence did the many bring in the right verdict concerning Him? Was it not because they were not held fast by this sickness? For nothing, nothing so makes men lawless and senseless as to gape after the glory of the many;

and nothing so makes men of good report and adamantine as to despise it.

Wherefore there is need of a very vigorous soul in one who is going to withstand so great a current and so violent a rush of the wind.

For indeed, when he is prospering, he sets himself before all;

and when he endures the contrary, he wishes to bury himself in the ground;

and this is to him both hell and kingdom, whenever he becomes submerged beneath this passion.

Are these things, then, tell me, worthy of envy, and not rather of lamentations and tears? It is surely plain to everyone.

But you do the very same thing in envying one who is thus in good repute, as if a man, seeing another bound and scourged and dragged about by ten thousand wild beasts, should envy him his wounds and his stripes.

For however many men the populace has, so many bonds does this man also have, so many masters;

and what is indeed the more grievous, that each one of them holds a different opinion, and they all cast votes concerning the things that befall the man who is their slave, examining nothing, but ratifying for themselves whatever may seem good to this man and to that.

Of what waves, then, of what surging sea are these things not more grievous? For such a one is puffed up all at once by pleasure, and again is easily plunged under, being ever in inconstancy, and never in tranquility.

For before the theater and the contests of speaking, he is held fast in anxiety and trembling;

and after the theater, he either dies from despondency, or again rejoices without measure;

which is more grievous than grief.

For that pleasure is no lesser an evil than grief is plain from the effects it produces upon the soul;

for indeed it makes the soul light and buoyant and all a-flutter.

And this too one may see from the men of former times.

When, then, was David good? When he rejoiced, or when he was in straits? When was the people of the Jews good? When they groaned and called upon God, or when they rejoiced in the wilderness and worshipped the calf? Wherefore Solomon also, who most of all men knew what pleasure is, says:

'It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of laughter.'

Wherefore Christ also blesses some, saying, 'Blessed are they that mourn;'

and pronounces others miserable: 'For woe unto you that laugh, for you shall weep.'

For in luxury the soul is more slack and effeminate;

but in mourning it is drawn together and is sober-minded, and from the whole

swarm of the passions it is set free, and becomes loftier and stronger.

Knowing, then, all these things, let us flee the glory that comes from the many and the pleasure that arises from it, that we may attain the glory that is real and abides for ever;

which may it be granted us all to attain, by the grace and love toward mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of ages. Amen.