Chromatius of Aquileia

In his own words on Matthew

• Matthew 1:1

  Therefore St. Matthew began writing his Gospel with an introduction of this sort, saying, "This is the book of Jesus Christ, descendant of David, descendant of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob," and the rest that follows. Matthew, as I have said, tells of the second birth of the Lord into flesh and for this reason traces his family line from Abraham, treating separately the tribe of Judah, until he comes down to Joseph and Mary. Since the Evangelist begins from Abraham by succession of birth and recounts in order the names of all, one may wonder why he calls Christ our Lord only the descendant of David and the descendant of Abraham in saying, "This is the book of the lineage of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham." At any rate, we know that the Evangelist did not say this without reason and in this order. Each of them, both Abraham and David, whether by the promise of the Lord or rank of birth, lived as a worthy predecessor in the line of Jesus Christ as to his existence in flesh. For the Lord had promised to Abraham, who by right of circumcision was the founding patriarch of the Jewish people, that from his seed all nations would be blessed. This was realized in Christ, who received his body from the line of Abraham. The apostle made an interpretation for the Galatians about this, saying, "Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, 'And to offsprings,' referring to many; but, referring to one, 'And to your offspring,' which is Christ." So also is David first among the tribe of Judah in the rank of king. And likewise God promised to this very tribe that the eternal king, Christ the Lord, would be born from the fruit of its womb. For David was the first king from the tribe of Judah, from which the Son of God received his flesh. Thus Matthew rightly counted Christ our Lord as the descendant of David and Abraham, because both Joseph and Mary are descended from these regal origins, the line of David, who himself descended from Abraham, who in faith lived as the father of nations and in flesh was the first of the Jewish people.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 1.1

• Matthew 1:1

  § 1 The sacrament of our salvation and faith, though in all the divine scriptures, is especially contained in the evangelical preaching, in which the secret of the heavenly sanctuary is revealed to us even as the mystery of the Lord's passion and resurrection is revealed to everyone. However, the transcribers the gospel (as it is divided into four books) are: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who once had been prefigured and predestined to the duty of this divine work, as the blessed Luke reported: Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compose a narrative of the things that have been fulfilled among us. (Luke 1:1)  For Matthew is appointed by the divine authority and grace of the holy spirit to be the first to write down the gospel, then Mark and Luke, most recently of all John, after he came back, upon the death of Domitian Caesar, from Patmos, the island where he had been bound.  After he had been posted on this island and written the Revelation, he was disclosed the gospel he was to write on account of the different heresies instigated by the devil that by then were beginning to spring up. § 2 Matthew certainly and John too belong to the number of the twelve apostles, who not only were with the Lord before the passion but also kept company with him after the resurrection for forty days.  They carefully recounted everything they saw and heard according to what John testified in his epistle, saying: as we have heard and saw with our eyes and by our hand have been examined, these things we declare to you.  (1 John 1:1-3) But Mark was Peter's disciple and interpreter.  He did not see the Lord in the flesh but he wrote the gospel, filled full of heavenly grace and the holy spirit.  Luke also did not see the Lord in the flesh, but, because he was very educated in the law (since he was a companion of Paul in everything), he wrote down the gospel carefully in his own name, expounding from the very beginning everything in the order of the matters as he learned with respect to the apostles, as he himself testified, saying: as those who have been there all along and those who had been ministers of the message handed down to us. (Luke 1:2) § 3 Therefore, the authority of these four evangelists is firm and steadfast, because they all composed by one principle. Of course, various principles are taught in their sure foundation, but they do not disagree among themselves on anything, because every one of them perceived the same thing by faith concerning the Lord's incarnation, nativity, passion, resurrection, and also his twin advent. And because we endeavor to say some things about the gospels, the responsibility and situation of the matter advise us to test also the truth of the gospels prefigured from the law of the Old Testament, as surely the Apostle says:  the law was a shadow of things to come (Heb 10:1), because neither can the new stand without the old nor could the old have any stability without the new.  It is said that everything about them is more complete in their place when the message is to be from the two testaments. § 4 Thus, both the type and the number of the four gospels are clearly described in the law and the prophets, as in the four rivers that flow from one source in Eden, or in the four rows of stones that Aaron wore woven in the priestly garment on his chest, or in the fourfold row of twelve calves that Solomon set up under the bronze sea in the temple.  In all of these, the expressedexamples of the future truth cannot be doubted.  Hence also Elijah the Tishbite----not unknowing by the holy Spirit of the evangelical sacrament of the preaching to come, when he freed the people from error and turned them from idols to God----poured four jugs of water in the sacrifice he offered when he put the burnt offering on the wood and made it three times in number.  And fire came down from the sky, as he openly declared even then the image of the coming hope, that is the sacrament of the cross and the number of the gospels and the grace of baptism and the faith in the Trinity, in which we are baptized and made a worthy sacrifice for God, coming upon us with fire from the sky, that is, his holy Spirit presented to us as a gift. § 5 But even clearer and plainer we find that through Ezekiel the prophet these gospels are depicted in the four living things whose appearance and shape are both described.  Their likeness, he says, is the appearance of a human and the appearance of a lion and the appearance of a calf and the appearance of a flying eagle. (Ezek 1:10)  Evident among these is certainly the form of the evangelists.  Although they are depicted in different appearances for each changing principle, their preaching is nonetheless not different.  In fact, the prophet, when he said that the appearances are specific to each, related that each of their four appearances is heavenly, that is, each living thing has the four appearances.  The reason for this is not obscure, because it is meant that they are one, both individually and collectively.  While he certainly distinguishes and separates them in connection with their appearances or number, the unity of preaching still makes them inseparable and whole, because you will find everything in each and the whole in all.  But we must understand and get to know just this difference among the appearances.  The appearance, he says, of a human, and the appearance of a lion and the appearance of a calf and the appearance of a flying eagle.  The appearance of a human is understood as the gospel according to Matthew, a human since he began from the bodily birth of the Lord to make the introduction, saying: The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham, (Matt 1:1) etc.  He announces his birth by this human origin.  Because of that, it is thus described as the appearance of a human.  Now, the appearance of a lion is understood to be the gospel according to John, because, when the other evangelists had said that Christ our God is made human according to the assumption of flesh and born of the virgin, he revealed his timeless and divine birth in just the beginning of his message, saying: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and God as the Word, (John 1:1) etc.  With this voice, the preacher of such divinity roared like a lion to frighten off the heresies. § 6 The Apocalypse also mentioned these living things, but we must carefully examine why, when the prophet had said that the first appearance was of a human, then of a lion, did the Apocalypse put the appearance of the lion earlier in reversed order, saying The appearance of a lion and the appearance of a human (Rev 4:7), because we must point out it is so, not accidentally but for a particular reason.  For Matthew has thus been described first in order in with the prophet in the appearance of a human, because he was to write down the first gospel.  But John is brought earlier for this reason in the Apocalypse, because he surpassed everyone in preaching the timeless and coeternal Son of the Father by the excellent beginning of his preaching.  Thus, he is placed later as to time or order, but he is regarded first as to faith since he would know the secret, divine mysteries from reclining on the Lord's bosom.  But the fact that John is preferred in connection with faith does not detract from the other evangelists since they all were directed by one and the same Spirit to the complete instruction of the Church and wrote about the Lord necessarily and completely.  For, because many different heresies were to come, the holy spirit so impacted the writing of each as to expound the complete and perfect sacrament of the heavenly faith through all of them, by which it confuted all enemies of the truth together.  Finally, the Holy Spirit at once opposes those wretched people who deny that the Son of God was born of a virgin for our salvation, judging this as unworthy for God, through Matthew and Luke.  Through them, it clearly discloses both the birth of the Lord according to the flesh and the conception and labor of the virgin.  However, those who dared blaspheme the true divinity of the Son of God and the unlimited nature of his eternity, denying in particular that he was born of the Father and is true God and had always been with the Father, St. John and Mark nonetheless oppose at once, condemning the infidelity of their blasphemy, testifying in the beginning of his gospel that the only-begotten Son of God is God. § 7 But as we are all carefully following this along, I seem to have gone on longer than I intended to.  Let us now go back to the order.  Thus, St. John is described in the appearance of the lion, as best comprehended. The gospel according to Luke, however, is recognized in the appearance of the calf, because he wrote according to the law as he began from the priesthood of Zacharias saying: In the days of Herod the king of Judea, there was a certain by the name of Zacharias from the order of Abijah and his wife of the sons of Aaron, etc. For that reason, however, he has been represented by the person of the calf, because the law he wrote according to had decreed for a type of a future truth that, among other sacrifices, a calf be offered for the sins of the people.  Hence, not undeservedly, only this evangelist made mention of this fattened calf, which was killed for the salvation and return of the lost son in the joy of the exulting father, because St. Luke so made mention as he declared that our Lord and Savior has suffered for the sins of the human race according to the preceding form of the law. To be sure, the appearance of the flying eagle is understood as the gospel according to Mark, who began with a prophetic testimony saying: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ Son of God, as is written in Isaiah: Behold I send my angel before my appearance.  A voice crying in the wilderness: Prepare the ways of the Lord, make our God's paths straight. (Mark 1:1-3) And because the eagle is often described as the form of the holy spirit, who has been spoken in the prophets, he is thus depicted in the appearance of an eagle.  For also only he reported that our Lord and Savior flew away to heaven, that is, wetn back to the Father, as David had said: He ascended above the Cherubim and flew; he flew above the feathers of the wind. (Ps 17:11 [18:10]) § 8 Finally, as we know that the reason for such a sacrament is arranged in each of the evangelists by the Holy Spirit, the same appearances also combine in the person of our Lord and God.  For, he is understood to be a human because of the flesh that he took on from the virgin, and the calf because of what he himself offered as a sacrifice worthy of God for our sins, and a lion for the power of the virtue that defeated death in triumph, allowing in himself none of the brunt of outside fears, and an eagle because, when the mystery of the passion was completed as an eagle flew to heaven, the booty of human flesh it snatched from our jaws has been taken with him. § 9 For the same reason in the prophet Zechariah we also read the foretold number of the evangelists, reported by the prophet like this: I saw, he said, four chariots going out of two mountains ,and these mountains, he said, were mountains of bronze.  In the first chariot were red horses, and in the second chariot were black horsed, and in the third chariot were white horses, and in the fourth chariot were different and dappled horses.  And I said to the angel who was speaking to me: What are these, lord?  Responding he said to me: Do you not know what these are?  And I said: No, lord.  And he told me: These are the four winds of the sky that stand with God before the whole earth.  (Zech 6:1-5) And so this is the number of the chariots. In fact the following rationale, promulgated by prophetic reason, teaches us to perceive a type of the gospel truth: we notice that the gospels have also been clearly designated in these chariots.  He declared that the four horses are described in four parts, as we best recall, because each of the gospels must be understood in the four and the four in each.  Although the preaching of the evangelists would rightly seem to be in four portions, they still are undividedly of one mind for the unity of the faith.  In fact, we know that the gospels were clearly prefigured in these chariots, because the prophet asked the angel speaking to him about what these were and he was told this: These are the four winds of the sky that stand with God before all the earth, which he reported by God's command to have circled all the earth.  And if we have not considered the saying about these winds (which blow through the lands and generate waves or brew up storms), it is simple enough to understand that, when they have been described in the prophets desiring only the divine and eternal heavenly things, the Lord deservedly adds more: These are the ones that circle the earth; they soften my fury (Zech 6:8).  As we perceptively have recognized, the divine wrath, which was over people's sins, cannot otherwise be appeased except through the gospel's preaching, which runs throughout the globe and gives both the remission of sins and salvation to the human race. § 10  Yet the arrangement of the world rests upon the rationale for this evangelical number: for we recognize the four seasons that the year progresses through and the four corners of the earth that the four guardian angels are assigned to, referring to the Apocalypse. § 11 And although there are said to be four gospels because of the number of the evangelists, even though there is only gospel among them all, as the Lord said: And this gospel will be preached through the whole globe (Matt 24:14).  He did not say gospels but gospel.  The apostle described this too when he says: If anyone has preached to you a gospel other than what you have received, let them be accursed.  (Gal 1:9)  Hence, it is plain that there are certain four books of the gospels, but one gospel is counted in these four books.  And for that reason one must not be prejudiced should we sometimes say "gospels" because of the number of evangelists or when we name the gospels in this way as the most important books or when we designate the number of the evangelists according to the usual custom of the majority.  Indeed we both confess and believe that there is one true gospel according to the authority of the Lord or even the apostle. § 12 Although we have wanted to establish the number of evangelists from a painstaking study of the various testimonies of the prophets, I have extended the sermon longer than I have intended to.  But we strive to investigate the order of the gospel according to Matthew, even with little insight and a mediocre sermon.

  Sermons on the Gospel of Matthew - Prologue

• Matthew 1:18

  For blessed Matthew, after enumerating the genealogy of Christ, added the following regarding hope for our salvation: "After Mary, mother of Jesus, had been betrothed to Joseph, she was found to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit before they were married." This is the heavenly mystery, this sacrament obscured and hidden by the Holy Spirit. Luke describes in greater detail the manner of the Lord's incarnation, for he recounts how an angel came to Mary and greeted her saying, "Hail woman full of grace," and the rest that follows. And when Mary asked him how what he had been proclaiming to her could take place—because she had never had relations with a man—he said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And thus what is born from you will be called the Son of God." It was right that holy Mary, who was about to conceive the Lord of glory in her womb, be informed about the Holy Spirit and the excellence of the Most High when she received into her blessed womb the Creator of the world. Indeed, both Matthew and Luke began their narratives with the corporeal birth of the Lord. John, however, addresses the issue of Jesus' divine birth in the preface to his Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. This was with God in the beginning. All things were made through him and without him nothing was made." The Evangelists help us to recognize both the divine and corporeal birth of the Lord, which they describe as a twofold mystery and a kind of double path. Indeed, both the divine and the bodily birth of the Lord are indescribable, but that from the Father vastly exceeds every means of description and wonder. The bodily birth of Christ was in time; his divine birth was before time. The one in this age, the other before the ages. The one from a virgin mother, the other from God the Father. Angels and men stood as witnesses at the corporeal birth of the Lord, yet at his divine birth there was no witness except the Father and the Son, because nothing existed before the Father and the Son. But because the Word could not be seen as God in the glory of his own divinity, he assumed visible flesh to demonstrate his invisible divinity. He took from us what is ours in order to give generously what is his.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 2.1.13

• Matthew 1:20

  While St. Joseph, yet uninformed of so great a mystery, wanted to put away Mary quietly, he was advised in a dream by an angel who said to him, "Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of David, to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit." St. Joseph is made aware of the heavenly mystery, lest he think otherwise about Mary's virginity. He is also made aware of this that he might exclude the evil of suspicion and receive the good of the mystery. The following words were said to him: "Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of David, to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit," so he might acknowledge the integrity of his fiancée and the virgin birth. It was not appropriate for so great a mystery to be revealed to anyone other than Joseph, who was known to be Mary's fiancé, and no reproach of sin was attached to his name. In fact, Joseph translated from Hebrew into Latin means "beyond reproach." Notice here too the order of a mystery: The devil first spoke to Eve the virgin long ago, and then to a man, that he might administer to them the word of death. In the latter case, a holy angel first spoke to Mary and then to Joseph, that he might reveal to them the word of life. In the former case, a woman was chosen unto sin; in the latter case, she was chosen unto salvation. In the former case, the man fell through the woman; in the latter case, he rose through the virgin. The angel therefore said to Joseph, "Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of David, to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit."And he added, "She shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." But this name of Lord which was given to Jesus from the virgin's womb is not new to him but old. For Jesus translated from Hebrew into Latin means "Savior." This name is agreeable to God because he says through the prophet: "Just God and a Savior; there is none beside me." Lastly, when the Lord himself would speak through Isaiah about the bodily origin of his nativity, he says, "The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name." His name is certainly not strange, for Jesus was called according to the flesh (i.e., Savior, who was a Savior according to divinity). For Jesus, as we said, is rendered as "Savior." This is what he said through the prophet: "From the body of my mother he named my name." And that he might more fully show us the sacrament of his incarnation, he went on to say, "He made my mouth like a sharp sword … he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away." By the arrow he signified his divinity; by the quiver he assumed a body from the Virgin in which his divinity was covered with a garment of flesh.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 2.3-4.22

• Matthew 1:24

  Joseph therefore learns from the angel about the sacrament of the heavenly mystery and happily complies with the angel's word. Rejoicing, he abides by the divine plan. He accepts holy Mary and glories in exultant praise because he was deemed worthy to hear that the virgin mother of such great majesty was called by the angel to be his wife.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 3.1

• Matthew 1:25

  But concerning what the Evangelist said, "And he did not know her till she had borne her firstborn son," not a few careless people insist on asking whether after the Lord's birth the holy mother Mary had relations with Joseph. But this is not admissible on the grounds of either faith or truth. Far be it indeed that after the sacrament of so great a mystery and after the birth of the sublime Lord, one should believe that the Virgin Mary was intimate with a man. Remember that Miriam the prophetess of the Old Testament (the sister of Moses and Aaron) remained a virgin unsullied by man, having beheld the light of heavenly signs after the plagues of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea and the Lord's glory going in advance and seen in a pillar of fire and clouds. It is not plausible therefore that the Mary of the Gospel, a virgin bearing God, who beheld God's glory not in a cloud but was worthy of carrying him in her virginal womb, had relations with a man. Noah, who was made worthy to converse with God, declared that he would abstain from the conjugal need. Moses, after hearing God calling him from the bush, abstained from conjugal relations. Now are we to believe that Joseph, the man who always did what was right, had relations with holy Mary after the birth of the Lord?

  Tractate on Matthew 3.1

• Matthew 2:11

  Let us now observe how glorious was the dignity that attended the King after his birth, after the magi in their journey remained obedient to the star. For immediately the magi fell to their knees and adored the one born as Lord. There in his very cradle they venerated him with offerings of gifts, though Jesus was merely a whimpering infant. They perceived one thing with the eyes of their bodies but another with the eyes of the mind. The lowliness of the body he assumed was discerned, but the glory of his divinity is now made manifest. A boy he is, but it is God who is adored. How inexpressible is the mystery of his divine honor! The invisible and eternal nature did not hesitate to take on the weaknesses of the flesh on our behalf. The Son of God, who is God of the universe, is born a human being in the flesh. He permits himself to be placed in a manger, and the heavens are within the manger. He is kept in a cradle, a cradle that the world cannot hold. He is heard in the voice of a crying infant. This is the same one for whose voice the whole world would tremble in the hour of his passion. Thus he is the One, the God of glory and the Lord of majesty, whom as a tiny infant the magi recognize. It is he who while a child was truly God and King eternal. To him Isaiah pointed, saying, "For a boy has been born to you; a son has been given to you, a son whose empire has been forged on his shoulders."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 5.1.6

• Matthew 2:12

  This is an example to us of modesty and faith, that once we have come to know and adore Christ as King, we may abandon the path we were traveling before, which was the path of error. We may now proceed by the other path, on which Christ is our guide. We may return to our place, paradise, from which Adam was driven out. This place is mentioned in the psalm as one where we will please the Lord in the land of the living. Thus it was that the magi, having been advised to follow another road, frustrated the tyrant's cruel designs in their return. It was in this manner, through the magi, that the boy who was born a king became known, while at the same time the wiles of the tyrant Herod were overcome. It was predicted that our infant Lord and Savior would be triumphant even at the very beginning of his life in the flesh. This was foretold in advance by Isaiah when he said, "For before the child shall have knowledge to cry 'father' and 'mother,' the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria." By "riches of Damascus" is meant the gold that the boy, born the Son of God, received as offered to him by the magi. The "spoils of Samaria" represent the worship of idols, the superstitious error of Samaria from which he diverted those same magi. Those who previously were the prey of the devil because of their false religion became the plunder of God through their knowledge of Christ. The "king of the Assyrians" refers to Herod, or in fact to the devil, to whom the magi themselves became enemies, reverencing as they did the Son of God, our Lord and Savior.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 5.2

• Matthew 2:15

  Joseph therefore was commanded to accept this boy about whom Isaiah had said, "For a boy has been born to you; a son has been given to you, whose rule has extended over his shoulders." Now he said "a son has been given to you" because Christ the Lord was born as a boy and was counted a son of Joseph and Mary. As to his going down into Egypt, Isaiah predicted this long before the fact when he said, "Behold, the Lord sits atop a swift cloud and will come into Egypt." By this statement the promise of the Lord's incarnation was clearly revealed. Since the Lord himself is invoked as "arising from on high, the sunlight of justice," it is right that he would come on a swift cloud. By this Isaiah means he would come in a hallowed body, a body weighed down by no sin and through which he covered the light of his own majesty with the envelope of the cloud of his body. Hosea as well points to this very fact when he says, "The king of Israel has been thrown down. Because Israel was small, I took delight in him. And I called my son from Egypt."19After Egypt's ancient, grave sin, after many blows had been divinely inflicted upon it, God the omnipotent Father, moved by devotion, sent his Son into Egypt. He did so that Egypt, which had long ago paid back the penalty of wickedness owed under Moses, might now receive Christ, the hope for salvation. How great was God's compassion as shown in the advent of his Son! Egypt, which of old under Pharaoh stood stubborn against God, now became a witness to and home for Christ. God's compassion toward Egypt was like that shown toward the magi, who deserved to know Christ the Lord. For, although the magi had for a long time dared resist the divine goodness under Moses, they now, having seen but a single star in heaven, believed in the Son of God. The cavalier magicians were handed over to punishment for their lack of faith. Others were brought to glory through faith, since they believed that God had been born in the flesh—God whom the Egyptian magicians were unwilling to recognize in all his divine excellence.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 6.1

• Matthew 2:16

  For Herod, as we have said, in his desire to destroy the Savior of the world, sent word to Bethlehem and commanded that all children two years of age and under be killed, figuring the age according to the time that he had learned from the magi. He thought that his edict would reach even to the Lord himself, the source of life. The Holy Spirit had already foreseen his wickedness beforehand. Solomon, speaking for the church, had said, "Who will give to you my brother, the one who nurses at the breast of his mother?" Moreover, by saying, "Who will give to you?" he was demonstrating that Herod would have no power over him who is the Lord and Prince of all powers. Thus the Lord spoke rightly when he bore witness about himself through the same Solomon: "Evil men will seek and not find me. For they hate wisdom and moreover have not partaken of the Word of God and have had no desire for it." The Spirit also said through David: "Since you are the one who gave birth to me, you are my hope, my mother, from the time I nursed at your breast … you are my protector." The blessed Moses also relates that Christ the Lord, an infant, could not have been killed while still nursing. He gave witness to this with his words, "You will not cook a lamb in the milk of its own mother." In this exact statement Moses revealed the expectation that Christ our Lord would be the true Lamb of God who was to suffer at the appointed time.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 6.2.26

• Matthew 2:16

  In Bethlehem therefore all the babies were slain. These innocents who died then on Christ's behalf became the first martyrs of Christ. David refers to them when he says, "From the mouths of nursing babies you have perfected praise because of your enemies, that you might bring ruin to the enemy." … For in this persecution even tiny infants and nursing babies were killed on Christ's behalf and attained to the consummate praise of martyrs. Meanwhile the wicked king Herod was destroyed, he who had usurped the realm to defend himself against the king of the heavens. Thus it is that those blessed babes have deservedly lasted beyond others. They were the first who were worthy to die on Christ's behalf.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 6.2.29

• Matthew 3:3

  Hence John prepared these ways of mercy and truth, faith and justice. Concerning them, Jeremiah also declared, "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it." Because the heavenly kingdom is found along these ways, not without good reason John adds, "The kingdom of heaven is near." So do you want the kingdom of heaven to also be near for you? Prepare these ways in your heart, in your senses and in your soul. Pave within you the way of chastity, the way of faith and the way of holiness. Build roads of justice. Remove every scandal of offense from your heart. For it is written: "Remove the stones from the road." And then, indeed, through the thoughts of your heart and the very movements of your soul, Christ the King will enter along certain paths.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 8.1.14

• Matthew 3:4

  First, the heavenly life and glorious humility of John are demonstrated in his way of living. He who held the world in low regard did not seek costly attire. He who had no use for worldly delights did not have any desire for succulent foods. What need was there of fancy worldly clothing for one who was dressed with the cloak of justice? What dainty food of the earth could he desire who fed on divine discourses and whose true food was the law of Christ? Such a precursor ought to be the prophet of the Lord and the apostle of Christ who gave himself completely to his heavenly God and had contempt for the things of the world.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 9.1

• Matthew 3:6

  Therefore John exhorted those coming to him. He preached that the sins they had committed by transgressing the precepts of divine law could be cleansed by repentance. Thus by satisfying God with worthy repentance they might receive forgiveness from him who said through the prophet: "I have no pleasure in the death of anyone … so turn and live." And again: "Turn to me, says the Lord of Hosts, and I will turn to you." And again: "I am the Lord who does not remember wickedness, provided one turn from his evil ways and all his iniquities so that he may live."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 10.1.32

• Matthew 3:7

  John put it clearly to the Pharisees and Sadducees who had come to him for baptism when he said, "Brood of vipers! Who has shown you how to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, produce fruit that matches genuine repentance." Those who for a long time were called God's children are now by reason of their faults called a brood of vipers, because by doing the will of the devil, who from the beginning was called a snake, they made themselves the devil's children. "The devil is your father, and it is your will to fulfill your father's desires."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 10.2

• Matthew 3:10

  There is no doubt this axe signifies the power of the divine word, for God says through Jeremiah the prophet: "Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer which breaks the rock in pieces?" Therefore this axe which is laid at the very roots of interior faith in this forest of humanity always implies the severe threat of divine judgment. Unfruitful trees or barren people, bearing no fruit of faith, will be cut down and consigned to perpetual fire.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 11.1.32

• Matthew 3:11

  Now we must focus on what is meant by these sandals from the spiritual standpoint. We know that Moses said long ago: "Put off your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." We read that Joshua the son of Nun likewise said, "Remove the latchet from your sandal." But as to why they are ordered by the Lord to remove their sandals, we must understand this to be the type of a future truth. According to the law, if a man is unwilling to accept the wife of his brother after his brother's death, he should take off his shoes, so that another may marry her and succeed by right of law. As to the commandment prefigured in law, we find it fulfilled in Christ, who is the true bridegroom of the church. Therefore, because neither Moses the lawgiver nor Joshua the leader of the people could be the bridegroom of the church, not without good reason was it said to them that they should remove the sandals from their feet, because the true future bridegroom of the church, Christ, was to be expected. John says concerning him: "He who has the bride is the bridegroom." To bear or loosen his sandals, John professed himself to be unworthy. The Lord himself through David revealed that these sandals signify the footsteps of gospel preaching when he says, "Upon Edom I cast my shoe"; through his apostles he will take the steps of gospel teaching everywhere.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 11.4.44

• Matthew 3:14

  Jesus therefore descended to fulfill all the observances of the law, and in this context he was baptized by John in Galilee at the Jordan. But John, recognizing the Lord as his God through the Holy Spirit, declared that he was unworthy to bear his sandals. He excused himself from doing what he was directed to do, because he could not conceive that baptism was necessary for the One whom he knew had come to blot out the sins of the world. He rather pled that he himself ought to be baptized by Christ, saying, "It is I who should be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" It is as if he were saying, "I am a man. You are God. I am a sinner because I am a man. You are sinless because you are God. Why do you want to be baptized by me? I do not refuse the respect you pay me, but I am ignorant of the mystery. I baptize sinners in repentance. But you have no taint of sin. So why do you want to be baptized? Why do you want to be baptized as a sinner, who came to forgive sins?" This is what John in effect was saying to the Lord.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 12.1

• Matthew 3:15

  The Lord here is testing the faithful deference of service on the part of his servant, but he reveals the mystery of his dispensation by saying, "Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness," showing this to be true righteousness, that he the Lord and Master should fulfill in himself every sacrament of our salvation. Therefore the Lord did not want to be baptized for his own sake but for ours, in order to fulfill all righteousness. Indeed, it is only right that whatever someone instructs another to do, he should first do himself. Since the Lord and Master of the human race had come, he wanted to teach by his example what must be done for disciples to follow their Master and for servants their Lord.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 13.2-3

• Matthew 4:3

  The devil provokes that he might tempt him, and the Lord follows up that he might win. The battle over this temptation is thus engaged, as the devil says to the Lord, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." Unaware of the mystery of the divine dispensation, he frames as a question what he does not know. With the voice of a doubter, he interrogates Christ and says, "If you are the Son of God …" Now let us see why he inquires when he doubts and why he questions when he does not know. He heard that it had been announced by the angel to the Virgin that she would give birth to the Son of God. He saw the magi, who had left behind the error of their limited knowledge, in humble adoration of the Child that was born. He saw, after the baptism, the Holy Spirit descending like a dove. He also heard the Father's voice from heaven saying, "This is my Son." He heard John with a loud voice proclaiming, "This is he who takes away the sin of the world." Disturbed by so much testimony therefore and now troubled by this voice, this is what he feared most of all: that after he had filled the world with sins, he heard there would now come someone to take away the sins of the world. He was frightened indeed by all these utterances, but he did not yet fully believe that the Son of God whom he had heard, whom he now beheld as a man in the flesh, would take away the sins of the world. In a terrible state of fear he seeks to find out whether these things he had heard were true. He sees the Lord fasting "forty days and nights," but he was loath to believe that this was the Son of God. He recalled that both Moses and Elijah also fasted for forty days. And so he asked to be given some sign that this was truly the Son of God. He therefore said, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 14.2

• Matthew 4:10

  David also prefigures this rejection of temptation when he speaks of the Lord, saying, "And the scourge did not approach his tabernacle." No sin of diabolical scourge could come close to the body of the Lord. Therefore the Lord withstood temptations from the enemy that he might restore victory to humankind. He thereby made sport of the devil, according to what David also proclaimed: "That Leviathan, whom you made to sport in it." And again: "He will bring low the false accuser." And also: "You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces on the water." In the book of Job the Lord declared that this Leviathan would be made sport of and caught in this temptation, saying, "You will draw out Leviathan with a fishhook."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 14.5.62

• Matthew 4:16

  Concerning this light, the Evangelist points out in the present passage: "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." They see not with bodily contemplation—for the light is invisible—but with the eyes of faith and in the mind's eye. Therefore he says, "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned." Therefore not only to those who were in darkness did this light appear, but he says that a light has arisen for those sitting in the region and shadow of death. This shows that there were others who were sitting in darkness—established in the region and shadow of death. And what is this region and shadow of death if not the region of the infernal abode, about which David speaks: "Even though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for you are with me"? He shall not fear any evil, that is, the punishments of hell. Therefore a saving light has arisen for those who are seated in the region and shadow of death, that is, Christ the Son of God who says in the Gospel: "I am the true light. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness."He who after his venerable and life-giving passion and death went down into the region of the infernal abode suddenly introduced the light of his majesty upon those who were shrouded in death, so that he might free those who were being held among the dead in expectation of his arrival, as the Lord himself in the person of Wisdom says through Solomon: "I will go down into the depths of the earth and gaze upon all those who are asleep, and I shall enlighten those who hope in God."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 15.2.31

• Matthew 4:16

  The Evangelist commemorated in this passage the prophet's words: "Beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." In what darkness? Certainly in the profound error of ignorance. What great light did they see? The light concerning which it is written: "He was the true light that illumines every- one who comes into this world." This was the light about which the just man Simeon in the Gospel declared, "A light of revelation to the Gentiles and a glory for your people Israel." That light had arisen according to what David had announced, saying, "A light has arisen in the darkness to the upright of heart." Also, Isaiah demonstrated that light about to come for the enlightenment of the church when he said, "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." Concerning that light also Daniel noted, "It reveals the profound and hidden things, knowing those things which are in darkness and the light is with it," that is, the Son with the Father, for even as the Father is light, so too is the Son light. And David also speaks in the psalm: "In your light shall we see light," for the Father is seen in the Son, as the Lord tells us in the Gospel: "Who sees me, sees the Father." From the true light, indeed, the true light proceeded, and from the invisible the visible. "He is the image of the invisible God," as the apostle notes.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 15.1.25

• Matthew 4:17

  The voice of the Lord urging the people to repentance—the Holy Spirit made it known to the people that they might take heed, saying, "Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as in the day of testing in the wilderness." In the same psalm above, he made clear that he was urging the sinful people to repentance and showed the state of a repentant soul, saying, "Come, let us fall down before him and lament before the Lord who made us, for he is our God." The Lord urges the people to repentance, and he promises to pardon their sins, according to Isaiah's words: "I, even I, am the one who wipes out your iniquities, and I will not be mindful of your sins. But you be mindful, declare first your iniquities that you may be justified." Rightly then does the Lord urge the people to repentance when he says, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," so that through this confession of sins they may be made worthy to approach the kingdom of heaven. For no one can receive the grace of the heavenly God unless one has been cleansed of every stain of sin by the confession of repentance, through the gift of the saving baptism of our Lord and Savior.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 15.3.47

• Matthew 4:19

  Here they proved that they were true sons of Abraham, because by a similar pattern they followed the Savior on hearing God's voice. For they immediately gave up hope of material advantage that they might seek eternal rewards. They left behind their earthly father that they might have a heavenly Father, and hence not undeservedly were they chosen. So the Lord chose fishermen who in a better way of plying their fishing trade were converted from earthly to heavenly fishing, that they might catch the human race for salvation like fish from the deep waters of error, according to what the Lord himself said to them: "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." It was the very same thing he had promised through Jeremiah the prophet: "Behold, I am sending for many fishers, says the Lord, and they shall catch them; and afterward I will send for many hunters and they shall hunt them." So we see that the apostles are called not only fishermen but also hunters: fishermen, for in the nets of gospel preaching they catch all believers like fish in the world; hunters, for they catch for salvation by heavenly hunting those people who are roving in this world as though in the woods of error and who are living like wild animals.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 16.2.56

• Matthew 4:21

  Oh, blessed are those fishermen whom the Lord chose from among so many doctors of the law and scribes, from among so many sages of the world, for the task of divine preaching and the grace of the apostolate! Worthy of our Lord, indeed, and appropriate for his preaching was that choice, so that in the preaching of his name all the greater might be the wonder of praise as the humble and lowly of the age preached his word—not that they might capture the world through the wisdom of the word but that they might liberate the human race from the error of death through the simple preaching of the faith, as the apostle says: "That your faith may not be in human wisdom but in the power of God." And in another place: "But the foolish things of the world has God chosen to put to shame the wise, and the weak things of the world has God chosen to put to shame the strong, and the base things of the world and the despised has God chosen, and the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are." Therefore he has not chosen the noble of the world or the rich, lest their preaching be suspect; not the wise of the world, lest people believe that they persuaded the human race with their wisdom; but he chose illiterate, unskilled and untutored fishermen, so that the Savior's grace might be open.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 16.1

• Matthew 4:23

  Isaiah predicted this would happen when he said, "He himself took our infirmities and bore our sickness." To this end the teacher of life and heavenly physician Christ the Lord had come that by his direction he might educate people to life and with his heavenly medicine cure the sickness of body and soul, that he might free bodies beset by the devil and restore those persons afflicted by various infirmities to true and complete health. By the word of divine power he cured the weaknesses of the body, but by the medicine of heavenly teaching he healed the wounds of the soul. David clearly noted that the wounds of the soul are healed by God alone when he said, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits," to which he added, "who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases." He is the true and perfect physician therefore who gives healing to the body and restores the soul to health: our Lord and Savior.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 16.4.2

• Matthew 5:1

  From the low and humble to the high and exalted places, the Lord, ready to instruct his disciples, went up the mountain—specifically to the Mount of Olives—so that according to the very meaning of this word, he might present the gift of his divine mercy. The Lord went up the mountain that he might give the precepts of the heavenly commandments to his disciples, leaving the earthly and seeking the sublime things as though already placed on high. He went up that he might now give the divine gift of the long-promised blessing, according to what David had once declared: "For indeed he who gave the law will give blessings."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 17.1.1-2

• Matthew 5:1

  And that he might more openly show the grace of the apostles and the author of this very great blessing, he added, "They shall walk from strength to strength; God shall look down upon Zion." That is to say, the Son of God, who gave blessings to the apostles on Zion. On this mountain he also gave his apostles a blessing. He is the One who had once handed down the Mosaic law on Mt. Sinai, showing that he was the author of both laws.… When the law was first given on the mountain, the people were forbidden to draw close. But now, as the Lord was teaching on the mountain, no one is forbidden. Rather, all are invited that they may hear, because there is severity in the law and grace in the gospel. In the former case, terror is instilled in the unbelievers. In the latter case, a gift of blessings is poured out on the believers.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 17.1.3-4.13

• Matthew 5:3

  We know many poor people, indeed, who are not merely poor but blessed. For the necessity of poverty does not produce blessedness in each of us, but a devout trust sustained through poverty does. Some, having no worldly resources, continue to sin and remain without faith in God. Clearly we cannot call these people blessed. We must inquire just who are these blessed of whom the Lord says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Jesus means that those persons are truly blessed who, having spurned the riches and resources of the world to become rich in God, desire to be poor in the world. Indeed, such people seem to be poor in the sight of the world, but they are rich in God, needy in the world but wealthy in Christ.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 17.2.1-2

• Matthew 5:4

  As with Jesus' earlier teaching on the poor, here too he speaks of those who mourn. The blessed of whom he speaks are not those bereaving the death of a spouse or the loss of cherished servants. Rather, he is speaking of those blessed persons who … do not cease to mourn over the iniquity of the world or the offenses of sinners with a pious, duty-bound sentiment. To those who mourn righteously, therefore, they will receive, and not undeservedly, the consolation of eternal rejoicing promised by the Lord.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 17.3.1-2

• Matthew 5:5

  The meek are those who are gentle, humble and unassuming, simple in faith and patient in the face of every affront. Imbued with the precepts of the gospel, they imitate the meekness of the Lord, who says, "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart." Moses found the greatest favor with God because he was meek. It was written about him: "And Moses was the meekest of all people on earth." Furthermore, we read in David's psalm: "Be mindful, O Lord, of David and his great meekness."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 17.4.1-2.25

• Matthew 5:6

  Rightly then the One who is the heavenly bread and the fountain of living waters promises in return to those who thus hunger and thirst the fullness of perpetual refreshment: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." This indeed is that righteousness of faith that comes from God and Christ, of which the apostle says, "The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ in all and upon all who believe in him."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 17.5.2.51

• Matthew 5:6

  He taught that we must seek after righteousness with earnest desire, not with fainthearted energy. Indeed, he calls those persons blessed who in their search for righteousness virtually burn with passionate longing in their hunger and thirst. For if each one of us really hungers and thirsts for righteousness with eager desire, we can do nothing else but think and seek after righteousness. It is necessary that we eagerly desire that for which we hunger and thirst.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 17.5.1

• Matthew 5:7

  By a great number of witnesses indeed, just as many in the Old Testament as the New, we are called by the Lord to show compassion. But as a shortcut to faith we deem enough and more than enough what the Lord himself in the passage at hand expresses with his own voice, saying, "Blessed are the compassionate, for God will have compassion for them." The Lord of compassion says that the compassionate are blessed. No one can obtain God's compassion unless that one is also compassionate. In another passage he said, "Be compassionate, just as your Father who is in the heavens is compassionate."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 17.6.1-2.54

• Matthew 5:8

  The pure of heart are those who have gotten rid of sin's filth, have cleansed themselves of all the pollution of the flesh and have pleased God through works of faith and justice. As David testifies in a psalm, "Who will climb up the Lord's mountain, or who will stand in his holy place? The one with innocent hands and a pure heart, who has not received his soul in vain." And David, rightly knowing that God can be seen only with a pure heart, prays as follows in the psalm, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." So the Lord shows that it is pure-hearted people like this who are blessed. They are those who, living by faith in God with a pure mind and unstained conscience, will win the right to see the God of glory in the heavenly kingdom to come, "no longer in a mirror and in riddles, but face to face," as the apostle has said.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 17.6.3-4.69

• Matthew 5:9

  The peacemakers are those who, standing apart from the stumbling block of disagreement and discord, guard the affection of fraternal love and the peace of the church under the unity of the universal faith. And the Lord in the Gospel particularly urges his disciples to guard this peace, saying, "I give you my peace; I leave you my peace." David earlier testified that the Lord would give this peace to his church, saying, "I will listen to what the Lord speaks in me, for he will pronounce his peace to his people and upon his holy ones and to those who turn to him."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 17.7.1-2

• Matthew 5:10

  Not without reason did the Lord previously mention hungering and thirsting for justice. He instructs us so to thirst in our desire for justice that for its sake we should despise the world's persecutions, the punishments of the body and death itself. The martyrs above all are the epitome of those who for the righteousness of faith and the name of Christ endure persecution in this world. To them a great hope is promised, namely, the possession of the kingdom of heaven. The apostles were chief examples of this blessedness, and with them all the just people who for the sake of righteousness were afflicted with various persecutions. Due to their faith they have come into the heavenly realms.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 17.8.1-2

• Matthew 5:12

  Not only should we patiently endure all the horrible treacheries of the persecutors that can be contrived in a time of persecution for Christ's name against the just, or the various reproaches that can be heaped upon us, or the punishments that can be applied to the body, but we should even welcome them with exultation because of the coming glory. For he says, "Rejoice in that day and exult; I tell you this, because your reward is great in heaven." How glorious is the endurance of this persecution, the reward for which the Lord says is in heaven! And so, taking into account the reward of the proposed glory, we should be ready with devout faith for every endurance of suffering, so that we may be ready to be made partners in the prophets' glory.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 17.9.2-3

• Matthew 5:13

  He shows that those who have been educated for the faith and in heavenly wisdom ought to remain faithful and steadfast and not "lose their taste." If they forsake the faith and divine wisdom, they either plunge headlong into heresy or return to the folly of unbelievers. And so Jesus says, "But if the salt loses its flavor, with what will it be seasoned?" For people of this sort, made tasteless by the devil's treachery and having lost the grace of faith, are good for nothing. Though they once might have seasoned nonbelievers still foreign to the faith with the word of divine preaching, they instead showed themselves useless. Judas Iscariot deteriorated into this sort of useless salt. After he had rejected divine wisdom, having changed from an apostle into an apostate, he not only did not help others. He became wretched and useless even to himself.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 18.4.1-2

• Matthew 5:14

  The Lord has already called his disciples the "salt of the earth" because they seasoned with divine wisdom the hearts of the human race which had been made tasteless by the devil. Now he also calls them the "light of the world." For, illumined by his very own self who is the true and eternal light, they too become light within the darkness. For since he himself is the sun of righteousness, he rightly also calls his disciples "light of the world." Through them, as if through shining rays, he poured the light of his knowledge on the entire world. For by showing the light of truth, the Lord's disciples made the darkness of error flee from people's hearts.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 19.1.1-2

• Matthew 5:17

  While it is sinful to abolish the least of the commandments, all the more so the great and most important ones. Hence the Holy Spirit affirms through Solomon: "Whoever despises the little things shall gradually die."Consequently nothing in the divine commandments must be abolished, nothing altered. Everything must be preserved and taught faithfully and devotedly that the glory of the heavenly kingdom may not be lost. Indeed, those things considered least important and small by the unfaithful or by worldly people are not small before God but necessary. For the Lord taught the commandments and did them. Even small things point to the great future of the kingdom of heaven. For this reason, not only words but also deeds are important; and you should not only teach, but what you teach, you should do.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 20.2.1-3

• Matthew 5:17

  The Son of God, who is the author of the law and the prophets, did not come to abolish the law or the prophets. He gave the people the law that was to be handed down through Moses, and he imbued the prophets with the Holy Spirit for the preaching of the things to come. Therefore he said, "I have come not to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them." He fulfilled the law and the prophets in this way: He brought to pass those things that had been written about him in the law and the prophets. Hence, when he drank the vinegar offered him on the cross, he said, "It is finished," evidently to show that everything written about him in the law and the prophets had been completed, even including the drinking of vinegar. He fulfilled the law at any rate when he completed by the sacrament of his passion the once prefigured mystery of the paschal meal. Consequently the apostle says, "For Christ our paschal lamb has been sacrificed." .

• Matthew 5:18

  He fulfilled the law at the time by completing the sacrifices of the law and all the examples prefigured in himself … by accepting a body. Certainly he fulfilled the law at the time he confirmed with evangelical grace the precepts of the law he had given. He proceeds to demonstrate he had come to fulfill the law: "Until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota, not a dot, shall be lost from the law until all is accomplished." Therefore we know from Christ's teaching how true and divine is the preaching of the law. The Lord reveals that not a single iota or a dot will be lost.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 20.1.3-4

• Matthew 5:20

  He finds fault with the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, for they were not concerned with faith in the divine promise but with human praise and worldly glory. We have an example of this in the puffed-up and proud Pharisee who seemed to prefer the merits of his own righteousness and shamelessly made himself conspicuous in God's sight with his smugness and complacent words.The scribes and Pharisees therefore stressed the appearance of righteousness, not that they might please God but that they might seek the fame of human glory and acquire earthly gain and material comforts. Hence the Lord urges us to give priority to the works of heavenly righteousness and the merits of faith over that detestable righteousness of human praise.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 20.3.1-2

• Matthew 5:21

  This is what the Lord said: "I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it." In other words, to accentuate what was considered least; that is to say, to reform for the better the precepts of the law.For this reason the holy apostle says, "Do we, then, overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law." … The law commands us not to murder. The gospel commands us not to get angry without reason, that we may remove every root of sin from our hearts, because anger can even lead to homicide.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 21.1.1-2

• Matthew 5:22

  How greatly the Lord esteems fraternal love we know from this, for he makes clear that a gift offered to God is not acceptable unless the giver of a gift to his brother puts aside his anger and becomes reconciled to him.Furthermore, we learn that the gifts offered by Cain were rejected by God. He failed to observe charity toward his brother and harbored anger in his heart. Hence, not without good reason does the Lord in the Gospel indicate in many places the prime necessity of fraternal charity when he says, "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another." And again: "By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Rightly so, the Lord also spoke through Zechariah: "Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy each to his brother." Through David he likewise declared: "Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!"

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 21.3.1-3.17

• Matthew 5:25

  Others, who seem to have a more complete explanation, believe that the opponent here must be understood as the Holy Spirit, who opposes the vices and desires of the flesh. As the apostle points out,"The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you would."The Spirit indeed desires heavenly things; the flesh lusts after earthly things. The Spirit rejoices over spiritual gifts; the flesh is attracted to bodily vices. Concerning this the apostle says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you have been sealed for the day of redemption." Therefore, the Lord instructs us to listen to this adversary of sin and human error, upholding those things that are righteous and holy. We should obey him in all things while we are with him on the way, in the caravan of this present life. By doing so we will have peace and perpetual fellowship with him.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 22.3.1-2.34

• Matthew 5:27-28

  Because adultery is a serious sin and in order to uproot it, lest our conscience be defiled, he forbade even lust, which is the fuel of adultery. According to the words of blessed James in his epistle, "Lust when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death." The Holy Spirit speaks concerning this to David: "Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock." The symbolism here is that the blessed and truly evangelical person roots out the desires and lust of the flesh arising from human weakness. He does this immediately before they grow, at the onset, through faith in Christ who has been described as a rock.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 23.1.6-7.6

• Matthew 5:29

  But since the body has been mentioned, this can be understood more properly of the body of the church. In this body the eye, like a precious member, is recognized as the bishop who enlightens the entire body by the light of a divine commandment. The passage properly applies here: "If your right eye is an occasion of sin to you, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is better for you that one of your members should perish than your whole body should be thrown into hell." Hence, if this type of eye—symbolizing an unworthy bishop—through his disreputable faith and base dealings becomes a scandal to the church, Christ advises that he be plucked out, lest the people be held accountable for his sins.For it is written that "a little leaven leavens the whole lump." And again: "Keep yourself from every kind of evil." The hand is understood to signify a priest who, because of his disreputable faith or life, becomes a scandal to God's people. The Lord orders that he be cut away, that is, removed, lest the church become defiled by his sin. For the church, according to the apostle, ought to be holy and spotless.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 23.3.1-2

• Matthew 5:31

  In all things our Lord and Savior reforms for the better the justice of the ancient law. Indeed, it seems that long ago a license for divorce was granted by Moses on tenuous grounds to the Jewish people who were living licentiously and serving their pleasures. This was due not to the system of law but to the unbridled pleasure of a carnal people unable to uphold the righteousness of the law according to rigorous standards.This concession was allowed, according to what the Lord himself said in another place in his reply to the inquiring Sadducees. For when they asked why Moses had allowed a bill of divorce to be given, the Lord answered, "Moses, by reason of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to put away your wives, but it was not so from the beginning." And now, not without good reason does our Lord and Savior, with that license removed, restore the precepts of his former constitution. For he orders that chaste wedlock be preserved by indissoluble law, showing that the law of marriage was first instituted by himself. For he said, "What therefore God has joined together, let no one put asunder."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 24.1.1-3

• Matthew 5:34

  By the grace of gospel teaching, the law given by Moses acquired an advantage. The law prescribes that one must not swear falsely; but according to the gospel one must not swear at all. The Holy Spirit had seen fit to order this through Solomon when he said, "Do not accustom your mouth to oaths." And again: "Even as a well-chastised servant is not deterred from envy, whoever swears and does business will not be purged from sin." Therefore it is absolutely inappropriate for us to swear. What need is there for us to swear when we are not allowed to lie at all and our words must always be true and trustworthy, so much so that they may be taken as an oath? On this, the Lord not only forbids us to swear falsely but even to swear, lest we appear to tell the truth only when we swear and lest (while we should be truthful in our every word) we think it is all right to lie when we do not take an oath. For this is the purpose of an oath: Everyone who swears, swears to the fact what he is saying is true. Therefore the Lord does not want a gap between our oath and our ordinary speech. Even as there must be no faithlessness in an oath, in our words there must be no lie. For both false swearing and lying are punished with divine judgment, as the Scripture says: "The mouth that lies kills the soul." So whoever speaks the truth swears, for it is written: "A faithful witness will not lie."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 24.2.2-4

• Matthew 5:36

  These words of the Lord whereby he forbids us to swear by these different elements invite a double explanation.First, he wanted to draw us away from the use of oaths and the customs of human error, lest each of us through swearing by these elements accord a creature the honor of divine veneration or believe one has impunity in swearing falsely if one swears by the elements of the world.… It can also be explained in this way: When one swears by heaven and earth, one swears by him who made heaven and earth, as the Lord himself declared elsewhere: "He who swears by the altar swears by it and by all things that are on it; and he who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it." Jesus goes on to say, "nor by Jerusalem," for it is the city of the great King, that is, the symbol of Christ's body, which is the spiritual and heavenly church. "Neither shall you swear," he says, "by your head," for according to the apostle, "the head of every man is Christ." Therefore the one who swears by these things makes reference to him who is the author of all these things.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 24.3.1-4

• Matthew 5:40

  Beyond the tolerance of physical injury, the Lord wants us also to have contempt for things of this world and to be so far removed from every lawsuit or contest of judgment. If by chance a slanderer or tempter comes forward to initiate a lawsuit for the sake of testing our faith and desires to rob us of the things which are ours, the Lord orders us to offer willingly not only the things that the person goes after unjustly but even those not demanded.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 25.2.1

• Matthew 5:41

  Some believe that this section, "He who is pressed into service for one mile, let him go with that man as far as another two," is to be understood spiritually in this fashion: If a nonbeliever, or one who has not yet followed the knowledge of the truth, makes mention of the one God the Father, the founder of all things, as if coming to God by the way of the law, go with that one the second mile. That is, after his profession of God the Father, lead this same person, by the way of truth, to the knowledge of the Son and the Holy Spirit, showing that one is to believe not only in the Father but also in the Son and the Holy Spirit.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 25.3.2

• Matthew 5:48

  The Lord has shown that we cannot have the good work of perfect love if we love only those from whom in turn we know the return of mutual love will be paid in kind. For we know that love of this sort is common even to nonbelievers and sinners. Hence the Lord wishes us to overcome the common law of human love by the law of gospel love, so that we may show the affection of our love not only toward those who love us but even toward our enemies.… Thus we may imitate the example of true piety and our Father's goodness.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 21.2.1

• Matthew 6:2

  Earlier Jesus taught that the work of justice is to be done not for the sake of humans but for the sake of God. Now we are also instructed that we should not blow the trumpet when we perform acts of charity. That is, we should not broadcast what we do, because it is not the mark of a devout mind to do any of the works of God in order to anticipate the glory of human praise. Many people, you see, make a donation for the use of the poor in order to reap from the gesture the human praise and the renown of their contemporaries. The Lord shows that they have received the reward of their work in this age. For as long as they seek the glory of this age, they lose the reward of the future promise.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 26.4.2

• Matthew 6:3

  Here the Lord is not speaking literally of the hands of the human body. Hands as such cannot know, having the senses neither of seeing nor or language. Rather, "on the right hand" means righteous deeds and "on the left" signifies sinful deeds or persons. Thus we read it written in the book of Kings that "hand" means people when it says, "Do I not have ten hands in Israel?"—that is, ten tribes of Israel. Therefore, there is no doubt that "on the right hand" means "the just" and "on the left" means "sinners," according to what Solomon related: "The Lord acknowledges the divisions on the right; the perverse are those who are on the left." The Lord makes very plain the meaning of this "right" and "left" in the Gospel when he declares that the just are to be placed at the right, the sinners on the left. If something is to be accomplished according to the teaching of the Lord, then the right hand of the just must not know what the left is doing. That is, in order to labor religiously and faithfully, we should not boast in the sight of sinners and unfaithful people.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 26.5.2-4.11

• Matthew 6:6

  We find in the books of Kings that very holy woman Hannah fulfilling the precepts of this Gospel teaching. For while praying without uttering a sound, in her heart and in the sight of God, she poured out her desire in her prayers. She was immediately found worthy to be heard by the Lord. In the same way the Lord granted to Daniel, who always prayed in secret with three servants, to understand the interpretations of his dream and the secrets of revelation. Cornelius too, not yet instructed in the precepts of the gospel, prayed secretly and faithfully in his room and was found worthy to hear the voice of the angel speaking. What should we say of Jonah, who, not only in his room but trapped in the stomach of the whale, deserved so greatly to be heard through his prayers that from the depths of the sea and from the belly of so great a beast he escaped unharmed and alive?

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 27.1.4-5

• Matthew 6:7

  Nonbelievers think that they can more easily obtain from the Lord what they require by using many words, but the Lord does not expect this from us. Rather, he wants us to send up our prayers not with wordy speech but with faith that comes from the heart. By doing so we command the merits of justice to him. He surely knows better all the things of which we have need and before we speak is aware of everything that we are going to request.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 27.2.1-2