Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 49

Now when Jesus heard it, He withdrew from there in a boat to a desert place apart;

and when the crowds heard, they followed Him on foot from all the cities.

Observe how everywhere He withdraws: both when John was delivered up, and when he was slain, and when the Jews heard that He was making more disciples.

For most things He is minded to order in a more human fashion, the season not yet calling Him plainly to lay bare His Godhead.

Wherefore also to the disciples He said, that they should tell no one that He is the Christ;

for after the resurrection He wished this to become more widely known.

Hence to those of the Jews who for the time disbelieved He was not exceedingly severe, but even indulgent.

And having withdrawn, He goes not into a city, but into a desert, and in a boat, so that no one might follow.

But consider for me how the disciples of John henceforth became the more closely attached to Jesus.

For it is they who reported to Him what had happened;

for indeed, having left all, they thenceforth take refuge in Him.

Thus not a little, together with the calamity, did the things already ordered by Him through that answer accomplish. But wherefore, before they reported it, did He not withdraw, and that though He knew what had happened even before they reported it? Showing through all things the truth of the dispensation.

For He wished this to be confirmed not by sight alone, but also by deeds, because He knew the malice of the devil, and that he would work everything to destroy this belief.

He then, for this reason, withdraws;

but the crowds not even so withdraw, but follow, cleaving to Him, and not even the tragedy of John frightened them.

So great a thing is longing, so great is love;

thus it conquers and beats back all terrors.

For this very reason too they straightway received their recompense.

For, it says, Jesus went forth and saw a great crowd, and was moved with compassion toward them, and healed their sick.

For though great was their perseverance, yet nevertheless the things done by Him exceeded the recompense of all their zeal.

Wherefore also He sets down as the cause of such healing His mercy—an intense mercy;

and He requires not faith here.

For indeed by their coming to Him, and by their leaving the cities, and by their seeking Him with diligence, and by their remaining even when hunger constrained them, they display their own faith.

And He is about to feed them also.

And He does this not of Himself, but waits to be entreated—which, as I said, He observes everywhere: not to spring first upon the miracles, but being called.

And why did no one of the crowds come forward and speak on their own behalf? They stood in awe of Him beyond measure, and did not even take note of their hunger, through their longing for His presence.

But neither did His disciples come forward and say, Feed them;

for they were as yet in a more imperfect state;

but what? When it was evening, it says, His disciples came to Him, saying:

The place is desert, and the hour is already past;

dismiss the crowds, that they may go away and buy food for themselves.

For if even after the miracle they forgot what had happened, and after the baskets supposed that He was speaking about loaves, when He called the teaching of the Pharisees leaven;

much more, having as yet had no experience of such a sign, would they not have expected any such thing to be.

And yet He had beforehand healed many sick as well;

but nevertheless not even from this did they expect the matter of the loaves.

But consider for me the wisdom of the Teacher, how He plainly calls them forth to believe.

For He did not say at once, I feed them;

For neither was it likely to be well received.

But what then? 'But Jesus,' it says, 'said to them,'

'They have no need to go away.'

For they still regarded Him as a mere man.

But not even so were they roused, but they still converse with Him as with a man, saying:

'We have nothing but five loaves and two fishes.'

Wherefore Mark also says that 'they understood not what was spoken';

for indeed their heart was hardened.

Since therefore they were still creeping upon the ground, He then at last brings in what proceeds from Himself, and says:

'Even if the place is a desert, yet He who nourishes the whole world is present here;'

'and if the hour also is past, yet He who is not subject to any hour is speaking with you.'

But John says that they were even barley loaves, relating this not incidentally, but training us to trample underfoot the vainglory of extravagance.

Such also was the table of the prophets.

Taking then the five loaves and the two fishes, and having commanded the multitudes, it says, to recline upon the grass, He looked up to heaven and blessed;

and having broken them He gave to His disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes;

and they all ate, and were filled;

and they took up that which remained over of the fragments, twelve baskets full.

And those that ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Why did He look up to heaven and give thanks? It was needful that He should be believed to be from the Father, and that He is equal to Him.

But the things that established these truths seemed to be at variance with one another.

For His doing all things with authority showed His equality;

but that He is from the Father they would not otherwise have been persuaded, unless with much lowliness He acted, referring all things unto Him, and calling upon Him in the things that were being done.

For this cause He neither did these things only, nor those, that both truths might be confirmed;

and now He works miracles with authority, and now with prayer.

Then, lest what was done should again seem to be a contradiction, in the lesser things He looks up to heaven, but in the greater He does all with authority;

that you may learn, even in the lesser things, that it is not as receiving power from elsewhere, but as honoring Him that begat Him, that He so acts.

At all events, when He forgave sins, and opened paradise, and brought in the thief, and abolished the old law with much superfluity, and raised up countless dead, and bridled the sea, and reproved the secret things of men, and created an eye—which are achievements of God alone, and of no other—nowhere does He appear to pray;

but when He caused the loaves to well forth, which was far less than all these, then He looks up to heaven;

at once establishing these truths, as I have said, and at the same time teaching us not to touch a table until we have given thanks to Him who furnishes us with this food.

And why does He not make them out of nothing? Stopping the mouth of Marcion and of Manichaeus, who alienate the creation from Him, and by His very works instructing that all things visible are His works and creatures, and showing that it is He who gives the fruits, who said from the beginning:

'Let the earth bring forth the herb of grass;'

and, 'Let the waters bring forth creeping things having living souls.'

For neither is this a lesser thing than that.

For even if those were made out of things that were not, yet nevertheless out of water;

and it is no lesser thing than to bring forth fruit from the earth, and living creeping things from the waters, to make out of five loaves so many loaves, and again out of the fishes;

which was a sign that He has dominion both over the earth and over the sea.

For since He was ever working the miracles upon the sick, He works also a universal benefit, that the multitude might not be mere spectators of what befell others, but themselves also enjoy the gift.

And that which to the Jews seemed marvelous in the wilderness (for they said, 'Can He also give bread, or prepare a table in the wilderness?'), this He demonstrates by His works.

For this reason also He leads them into a desert place, that the miracle might be beyond all suspicion, and that no one might suppose that some neighboring village lying near contributed anything to the table.

For this reason also He makes mention of the hour, and not only of the place.

And we learn yet another thing besides: the self-restraint of the disciples in matters of necessity, and how they held food in contempt.

For being twelve in number, they had only five loaves and two fishes.

So secondary to them were the things of the body, and they clung to spiritual things alone.

And they did not even cling to the little they had, but when asked for it, they gave up that also.

Whence we ought to be instructed that, even if we have but little, we must give even that to those in need.

At any rate, when commanded to bring the five loaves, they do not say:

'And from where shall we have our own sustenance? From where shall we relieve our own hunger?' but they obey at once.

As it seems to me, for this reason He works from the materials at hand: that He might lead them to faith.

for they were still rather weakly disposed.

Wherefore also He looks up to heaven.

For of the other signs they had many examples;

So then, having taken the loaves, He broke them and gave them out through the disciples, thereby honoring them;

yet not only honoring them, but so that, when the miracle should take place, they might not disbelieve, nor forget it once it had passed, their own hands bearing witness to them.

For this reason He also allows the crowds first to perceive their hunger, and He waits for these first to come to Him and ask; and through them He has them recline, and through them He distributes, wishing by their own confessions and by their deeds to secure each one beforehand.

For this reason He also takes the loaves from them, so that there might be many witnesses of what was happening, and that they might have memorials of the miracle.

For if even after these things had happened they forgot, what would they not have suffered had He not also arranged these things? And He commands them to lie down upon the grass, teaching the crowds to practice self-restraint.

For He did not wish merely to nourish their bodies, but also to instruct their soul.

And so, by the place itself, and by giving nothing more than loaves and fishes, and by setting the same before all and making them common, and by granting nothing to the one more than to the other, He was teaching humility, and self-control, and love, and the disposing of themselves alike toward one another, and the reckoning of all things as common.

And having broken them, He gave to the disciples, and the disciples to the crowds.

Having broken the five loaves, He gave them, and the five gushed forth like a spring in the hands of the disciples.

And not even at this point does He let the miracle stand, but He caused there to be a surplus as well;

and to have a surplus, not of whole loaves, but of fragments;

that He might show that these were remnants of those very loaves, and so that those who were absent might learn what had come to pass.

For this reason He also let the crowds grow hungry, lest anyone should suppose that what had happened was a mere illusion.

For this reason He also made twelve baskets to be left over, so that even Judas might carry one.

For He was indeed able to quench their hunger, but the disciples would not have come to know His power, since this very thing had also happened in Elijah's case.

Indeed, the Jews were so astounded at Him on this account that they even wished to make Him king, though on occasion of the other signs they nowhere did this.

What word, then, could set forth how the loaves gushed like a spring? How they streamed forth in the wilderness? How they sufficed for so many? (for there were five thousand, besides women and children;

which was the greatest praise of the people, that both women and men attended upon Him;) how the remnants came to be? (for this too was no less than the former;) and they came to be in such quantity that the baskets became equal in number to the disciples, being neither more nor fewer. So then, having taken the fragments, He gave them not to the crowds, but to the disciples;

for the crowds were more imperfectly disposed than the disciples.

And having wrought the sign, immediately He constrained the disciples to embark into the boat and to go before Him to the other side, until He should dismiss the crowds.

For if, while present, He seemed to be working an illusion and not to have done a true thing, surely He would not seem so while absent.

For this very reason, committing what had taken place to strict examination, He commanded those who had received the memorials and the proof of the signs to depart from Him.

And in another way too: whenever He works great things, He sends away the crowds and the disciples, teaching us nowhere to pursue the glory that comes from the many, nor to draw a multitude after us.

And when it says, 'He constrained them,' it shows the great devotion of the disciples in remaining at His side.

And He sent them away, on the pretext indeed of the crowds, but Himself wishing to go up into the mountain;

and He did this again to teach us neither to mingle with crowds continually, nor always to flee the multitude, but to do each profitably, changing from the one to the other according to what is needful.

Let us, then, also learn to attend upon Jesus, yet not for the sake of the giving of sensible things, lest we be reproached like the Jews.

For, 'You seek Me,' He says, 'not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.'

For this reason He does not even work this sign continually, but a second time only, so that they might be instructed.

that they should not be slaves to the belly, but should cleave without ceasing to the things of the Spirit.

Let us, then, also cleave to these things, and seek the bread that is from heaven; and having received it, let us cast away all worldly care.

For if those men forsook their houses and cities and kinsfolk and all things, and dwelt in the wilderness, and did not depart even when hunger pressed hard upon them,

how much more ought we, who approach such a table, to display a greater self-discipline, and to love the things of the Spirit, and to seek the things of sense only after these.

Since those men too were blamed, not because they sought Him for the sake of the bread, but because they sought Him for this reason alone, and made this their chief aim.

For if anyone despise the great gifts, but cleave to the small ones, and to those which the Giver Himself is minded to have despised, he falls away even from those.

Just as, on the other hand, if we love those great things, He adds these also.

For these are but an addition to those.

so cheap and small are these when weighed against those, even if they be great.

Let us not, therefore, be zealous about these things, but let us count both their possession and their loss to be matters of indifference,

even as Job neither clung to them when present, nor sought them when absent.

For riches are so called for this reason, not that we should bury them, but that we should use them for what is needful.

And just as each of the craftsmen has his own particular skill, so also the rich man knows not how to work in bronze, nor to build ships, nor to weave, nor to build houses, nor any other such thing.

Let him, therefore, learn to use his wealth for what is needful, and to show mercy to those in want, and he will know an art better than all those.

For this art is indeed higher than all those others.

The workshop of this art is built in the heavens.

This art has its instruments not from iron and bronze, but from goodness and from resolve of will.

The teacher of this art is Christ, and His Father.

'Be ye merciful,' He says, 'as your Father who is in the heavens.'

And what is marvelous is that, being thus better than all the rest, it requires neither toil nor time to be brought to perfection;

it suffices to will, and the whole is accomplished.

But let us see also what manner of thing its end is.

What, then, is its end? Heaven, the good things in the heavens, that ineffable glory, the spiritual bridal chambers, the shining lamps, the abiding with the Bridegroom, and the other things which no word nor mind is able to set forth.

So that in this respect also there is a great difference between it and the others.

For the greater part of the arts are useful to us for the present life, but this one is useful also for the life to come.

And if it so far surpasses the arts which are necessary to us for the present—I mean, for instance, medicine and building and the other such arts—how much more does it surpass the others, which, if one examine them accurately, one would not even call arts at all.

Wherefore, for my part, I would not even call the other, superfluous ones arts at all.

For where is the art of fine cookery and of sauce-making useful to us? Nowhere;

nay, they are exceedingly useless and harmful, ruining both body and soul, in that they bring in with much ambition luxury, the mother of all diseases and of all passions.

And not only these, but I for my part would not call painting nor embroidery an art either;

for they only involve one in superfluous expense.

But the arts ought to be such as furnish and provide the things that are necessary and that sustain our life.

For it was for this reason that God gave us wisdom, that we might find out methods by which we shall be able to hold together our life.

But to make figures of animals, whether on walls or on garments, where is that useful? Tell me.

For this very reason, much of the art of the shoemakers and of the weavers ought to be cut away.

For they have carried the greater part of it over into the tawdry and vulgar, corrupting the necessary element of it, mingling base artifice with art;

which the art of building also has suffered.

But just as I call this an art so long as it builds houses and not theatres, and works at what is necessary and not superfluous,

so also I name weaving an art so long as it makes garments and cloaks, and does not imitate the spiders, and pour out much laughter and unspeakable foppery.

So long as it makes shoes, I will not deprive it of the name of art.

But when it leads men out into the fashions of women, and makes them effeminate and soft through their footwear, we shall rank it among the harmful and superfluous things, and we shall not even call it a craft.

And I know indeed that to many I seem petty-minded for busying myself with these matters;

yet not for this reason will I desist.

For this is the cause of all our evils: that even these are thought to be but small sins, and therefore are neglected.

'And what sin,' says someone, 'could be more trifling than this—to have a shoe that is prettily adorned and gleaming and fitted to the foot—if indeed one is even inclined to call this a sin?' Do you wish, then, that I let loose my tongue against it, and show how great the unseemliness is—and will you not be angry? Or rather, even if you are angry, I make little account of it.

For you yourselves are the cause of this folly, you who do not even reckon it a sin, and thereby compel us to enter upon this indictment of such profligacy.

Come then, let us examine it, and see what kind of evil it is.

For when the silken threads, which it is not even seemly to weave into garments, you stitch into shoes, of how much scorn, of how much laughter are these things worthy? But if you despise our verdict, hear the voice of Paul, who forbids these things with great vehemence, and then you will perceive the absurdity of it.

What, then, does he say? 'Not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly apparel.'

Of what pardon, then, would you be worthy, when—though Paul does not permit even the married woman to have costly garments—you carry this foppery down even to your shoes, and contrive countless devices for the sake of this laughable extravagance? For indeed a ship is built, and rowers are enrolled, and a lookout and a helmsman, and the sail is spread, and the sea is traversed, and, leaving wife and children and homeland, the merchant gives up his very soul to the waves, and comes into the country of the barbarians, and endures countless dangers for the sake of these threads—so that you, after all that, may take them and stitch them upon your shoes, and adorn the leather.

And what could be worse than this senselessness? 'But the old ways were not such, but befitting men.'

Hence I, for my part, expect that, as time goes on, the young men among us will take to wearing women's shoes too, and will feel no shame.

And what is more grievous, the fathers, seeing these things, are not indignant, but even reckon the matter to be a thing indifferent.

Do you wish that I tell you what is yet more grievous—that these things are done while there are many poor? Do you wish that I bring into your midst Christ, who is hungry, who is naked, who wanders everywhere, who is in bonds? And of how many thunderbolts would you not be worthy, overlooking Him as He lacks even necessary food, while you deck out leather with so much zeal? And He Himself, when He laid down the law to His disciples, did not permit them even simply to have shoes;

but we not only cannot bear to walk with bare feet, but not even with feet shod as they ought to be shod.

What, then, could be worse than this indecency? What more laughable? For the thing belongs to a soul that is soft and effeminate, and harsh and cruel, and meddlesome and vainly toilsome.

For when will he who is preoccupied with these superfluities be able to attend to anything necessary? When will such a young man endure to take care of his soul, or even to consider that he has a soul at all? For he who is compelled to marvel at such things will be petty-minded, and he who for their sake neglects the poor will be cruel, and he who spends all his zeal upon them will be destitute of virtue.

For he who busies himself with the excellence of threads, and the bloom of colours, and the ivy-patterns from such weavings—when will he be able to look up to heaven? When will he marvel at the beauty there, who is fluttered with excitement over the beauty of leather, and stoops to the ground? And whereas God stretched out heaven, and kindled the sun, drawing your gaze upward,

yet you force yourself downward and toward the earth, bending like the swine, and you obey the devil.

For this wicked demon devised this unseemliness, that he might turn you away from that

For this reason he has dragged you down here, and God is outdone, showing heaven, while the devil shows leather;

for these too are works of God;

but it is effeminacy and evil artifice.

And the young man goes about bending down toward the earth—he who was bidden to seek wisdom about the things in the heavens—priding himself more upon these than if he had accomplished some great thing, walking on tiptoe in the marketplace, and begetting for himself superfluous griefs and dejections from this: lest he defile his shoes with the mire when it is winter, lest he cover them with dust when summer has come on.

What do you say, O man? You have cast your whole soul into the mire through this profligacy, and you overlook it as it is dragged along the ground, yet over shoes you have so great a struggle? Learn their use, and be ashamed of the verdict you pronounce concerning them.

For shoes came into being so that one might tread on mire and filth, and every stain upon the ground.

But if you cannot bear that, take them and hang them about your neck, or set them upon your head.

And you indeed laugh on hearing these things;

but as for me, it moves me to weep over their madness, and their zeal about these things.

For indeed these men would sooner defile their body with mire than that leather.

In this way, then, do men become petty-minded; and in another way again they become lovers of money.

For he who has been accustomed to rave and to be eager about such things needs much expense and much income for his garments and for all the rest as well.

And if he has an extravagant father, he becomes all the more a captive, straining this absurd desire to the utmost;

but if a stingy one, he is compelled to behave unseemly in other ways, so as to gather gold for such expenses.

Hence many of the young men have even sold their youthful bloom, and have become parasites of the wealthy, and have submitted to other servile menial offices, purchasing in exchange for these the fulfilling of such desires.

That such a one, then, will be both a lover of money and petty-minded, and more sluggish than all others about necessary things, and will be compelled to sin in many ways, is plain from these considerations;

and that he is cruel and vainglorious, this too no one will gainsay;

cruel, in that when he sees a poor man, out of his craving for adornment he pretends not even to have seen him, but decks these things with gold, while he overlooks the other perishing of hunger;

and vainglorious, in that even in little things he trains himself to hunt after the glory that comes from those who behold him.

For I do not think a general is so proud over his camps and trophies as are these dissolute young men over the adornment of their shoes, over their trailing garments, over the trimming of their hair;

And yet all these things are the works of other craftsmen.

But if they do not cease from their vainglory over things that belong to others, when will they ever cease over things that are their own? Shall I speak of yet other matters more grievous than these, or do even these suffice for you? It is necessary, then, to bring the discourse to a close here;

for these things too have been said by me for the sake of those contentious ones who assert that the matter is nothing improper.

And I know indeed that many of the young will not even give heed to what is said, being once for all drunk with this passion;

yet not on this account ought one to have kept silent.

For fathers who have understanding and are still sound will be able, even against the young men's will, to set them upon the seemly conduct that befits them.

Do not, therefore, say, 'It makes no difference this way, and no difference that way';

for this, this very thing, has ruined everything.

For it were fitting to train them even from these small matters, and from the things that seem to be trifling to make them dignified, magnanimous, and superior to outward appearances;

for thus we shall find them approved in great matters as well.

For what is meaner than the learning of the letters of the alphabet? Yet nevertheless from these come rhetoricians, and sophists, and philosophers;

and if they are ignorant of these, they will never come to know those higher things either.

These things have been said by us not to the young only, but also to women and to maidens.

For they too are liable to such charges, and much more so, inasmuch as decorum is especially suited to a virgin.

Consider, therefore, the things that have been said to those others as spoken to you also, that we may not take up the same matters again.

For it is now time at last to close the discourse with prayer.

All of you, then, pray together with us, that the young men of the Church especially may be enabled to live decently, and to come to old age.

Since for those who do not so live, it is not even good to reach old age;

but for those who have grown old even in their youth, I pray that they may come even to the deepest gray hairs, and become fathers of approved children, and give joy to those who begot them, and above all to God who made them, and may drive out every disease—not that which is in the shoes, nor that which is in the garments only, but every other disease as well.

For just as land left untilled, such also is youth left uncared for, bringing forth many thorns from every side.

Let us therefore apply the fire of the Spirit, and burn up these wicked desires, and break up the fallow ground, and make it ready for the reception of the seed, and prove the young men among us more temperate than the old men elsewhere.

For this is the marvelous thing, when temperance shines forth in youth; since he who is temperate in old age would have no great reward, having the exact security that comes from his age.

But the paradoxical thing is to enjoy calm amid the waves, and not to be consumed in the furnace, and not to be wanton in youth.

Considering these things, therefore, let us emulate that blessed Joseph, who shone forth through all these trials, that we too may attain the same crowns as he;

which may it be granted to us all to attain, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.