Severus of Antioch

In his own words on Matthew

• Matthew 1:1

  One must bear in mind therefore that the Evangelists, or rather the Spirit speaking through them, took pains to ensure that their readers believed that Christ was truly God and truly human. Because of what they wrote, no one could possibly doubt that he is God by nature, beyond all variation, mutation or illusion, and that according to the ordered plan of God he was truly human. This is why John could say, on the one hand, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John immediately adds, "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Hence Matthew wrote appropriately, "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." On the one hand he is not able to be counted simply from natural generation among families, since it is written, "Who shall declare his generation?" He is before the centuries and of one substance with the Father himself, from the standpoint of eternity. But by this genealogy he is also numbered among the families of humanity according to the flesh. For in truth, while remaining God, Christ became man without ceasing to be God, unaltered till the end of time.This is why there is also mention of the ancient patriarchs in the lineage, the narrative and observation of the times and vicissitudes that are indeed proper to human history. Through all this Matthew made it clear that Christ participates in our human generation and in our nature. Otherwise some might claim that he appeared in illusion and in imagination only, rather than by becoming genuinely human. Think of what might have been said if none of this had been written?

  CATHEDRAL SERMONS, HOMILY 94

• Matthew 1:3

  It is for this reason [to show Christ's true humanity] that in this genealogy the Evangelist mentioned in his list even those who had shocking carnal relations that were inappropriate and outside the law. For Matthew wrote with due deliberation, "And Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar" and even more plainly "And David became the father of Solomon by Uriah's wife." These were women with whom they became united by fornication and adultery. By this means the genealogy revealed that it is our very sinful nature that Christ himself came to heal. It is that very nature which had fallen, revolted and plunged into inordinate desires. When our nature fled [from God], he took hold of it. When it dashed out and ran away in revolt, he stopped it, held onto it, enabled it to return and blocked its downward spiral. This is what the words of the apostle say in this regard: "For surely it is not with angels that he is concerned but with the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect."Christ therefore took upon himself a blood relationship to that nature which fornicated, in order to purify it. He took on that very nature that was sick, in order to heal it. He took on that nature which fell, in order to lift it up. All this occurred in a charitable, beneficial manner wholly appropriate to God. Although sinless, he became united to the flesh that is of the same essence as ours, which possesses an intelligent soul. It is with this premise that the gestation and conception from the Holy Spirit was spoken and the virgin birth occurred, the birth that knew not marriage or carnal union and that respected in an unspeakable manner the seal of virginal purity.

  CATHEDRAL SERMONS, HOMILY 94

• Matthew 1:6

  The Evangelist exposes and derides the passions of our race, its dishonors and ailments, to which the Word of God descended in his mercy. He descended to glorify them and raise them up by his charity. It in no way reflects badly upon the physician that he stoops to the level of those who are sick. Matthew could have written, "David became the father of Solomon by Bathsheba" (the name of the woman involved). In deriding, so to speak, adultery itself, he rather stated clearly, "And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah." He thus showed that Christ, who descended from such a degenerate race by generation, "took up our infirmities and bore the burden of our ills," as one of the prophets said.

  CATHEDRAL SERMONS, HOMILY 94.54

• Matthew 9:15

  When John's disciples approached … they questioned him even while he was at table, in the manner of a physician with the publicans: "Why do we and the Pharisees often fast, whereas your disciples do not fast?" Do you see how the same jealousy motivates and provokes birds of a feather and is made keen by the cruel goad of envy? On the one hand, it set the Pharisees, who boasted about being teachers, against the Teacher. For that reason they also said, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" On the other hand, envy set John's disciples against Christ's disciples. That is why they also said, "How come your disciples do not fast?"

  CATHEDRAL SERMONS, HOMILY 92

• Matthew 9:15

  It is with the words of John, your own teacher, whom you esteem so highly, that I answer you. Keep it in mind, and you will have the answer to your question. When John bore witness concerning me, he said, "He who has the bride is the bridegroom." So, if I am the bridegroom and you don't make a liar out of your own teacher, you know in advance that it is important for my disciples, while they are the children of the marriage … to be gay and joyful and not to become upset or miserable over fasting. In certain respects, fasting is a source of annoyance and can also be arduous for those without a mature disposition.

  CATHEDRAL SERMONS, HOMILY 92

• Matthew 12:31

  Therefore, no matter what they say in blasphemy—even against the Son of Man when they were scandalized under the economy of law according to the flesh, as I pointed out—our Lord makes it clear they will be forgiven on the excuse of their ignorance of the mystery, his self-abasement and humility shown as a man. That is why Jesus said, "It will be forgiven humans" and did not say "you." What he was saying in effect was "It is to those who do not know the depth of my dispensation that I offer forgiveness." But in their blasphemy they heaped insults against the divine signs he manifested and the many miracles he worked through the Spirit who was in him and who is of the same essence (ousia). They exclaimed, "He casts out demons by the prince of demons." Those insults—since they smack of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and (because of the facts themselves) what is proper of God, with no room for excuse—Christ says they shall not be forgiven. They could not use ignorance as a pretext for their defense.

  CATHEDRAL SERMONS, HOMILY 98.32

• Matthew 21:4-5

  It is again a prophecy, that of Zechariah, just as that also found in the book of Matthew, which informs us that a donkey's foal was tied to its mother. For the prophecy reads, "Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, shout, daughter of Jerusalem; behold, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation; he himself is humble and mounted on a donkey and on a newly born foal." Now who doesn't, while waiting for a righteous king, immediately understand that the Christ is in view, who prefigured likewise the name of Melchizedek, whose name in translation evokes the "king of justice"? So the prophet himself does not only say "king of justice," but he added "and redeemer." He did so in order to indicate, in an additional way through this means, the name of Jesus, which when translated means "salvation of God" and "healing." And he added next, "He himself is humble and mounted on a donkey and on a newly born foal." He does so to show in advance he who is written about in the Gospels: "Learn of me, for I am gentle and humble of heart." Now there was never any king, simultaneously just, a redeemer, gentle and seated on a donkey, who came to Jerusalem, unless this is he who alone is King of kings, God and Redeemer, Jesus. He is kind, gentle and abundant in mercy for all those who call upon him, as it is written.

  CATHEDRAL SERMONS, HOMILY 20

• Matthew 21:9

  Indeed, on the one hand, the fact that the donkey walks on the branches and leaves of palm trees would make it clearly known that not only he who was mounted upon it but also those who would believe in him were going to subdue all their enemies, trample them under their feet and win a glorious victory. For the branches and leaves of palm trees are the emblems of the victory. On the other hand, the fact that the people took off their coats and threw them on the ground was a proclamation—in an immediate and manifest fashion—to speak of what appeared in reality in the events that followed.Indeed, when these believers were ridding themselves of all they possessed and even of their clothes, which is a sketch in miniature, they were following the gospel of grace. For it is written in the book of Acts that "all who were owners of land and houses, when they sold them, took the money from what had been sold and laid it at the feet of the apostles, and one gave to each according to his need." If this were not so, if there were not things mysteriously prefigured in what was coming to pass, the branches and the clothes would have even become an obstacle for the progress of this donkey, by impeding its feet like nets. "And the crowd that went ahead of him and those that followed were shouting, 'Hosanna to the Son of David.' " This phrase (namely, "Hosanna to the Son of David"), in passing from the Hebrew language to the Greek language, is translated as "praise, or a psalm, to the Son of David." As for Jesus, it does not suit a man to be honored or praised by a psalm. But such does suit him alone who is by nature God, as it is said: "He has placed in my mouth a new song, praise to our God" and "I will sing to my God, as long as I live." And those who were crying out still added this: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest." And certainly it would have been necessary that those who were praising spoke according to custom: "You are the good one who has come." He is like the one who came a first time, or like the ancients greeting the prophet Samuel, asking from the outset, "Do you come in peace, O seer?" For Jesus' part, the fact that they were crying out "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest" (Luke as well added, "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest") is the act of those who proclaim his second coming, by which he will come from the heavens with glory. After his coming "he will join by peace earthly things to heavenly things" when "he will likewise judge all the earth with justice," and he will bring into the kingdom of heaven those who have lived well. This is why indeed it was also very small children who were praising and crying out like this. They were those who entered into the temple with him, for Jesus himself says, "Truly, I say to you, unless you change and become like one of these little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." Consider still the branches as bearers of victory, by which those who were acclaiming him were honoring the one who was praised in a manner worthy of God. Therefore the Evangelists wrote that already, when he approached and was ready to descend from the Mount of Olives, the crowd began to welcome him and walk in front of him, to praise him and cut branches from the trees. The Evangelists clearly show that these branches were from olive trees. They had to be olive branches because they were growing on the mountain named the Mount of Olives. Now the olive plant indicates the reconciliation of God and his loving advent to be with us. He accomplished this not because of our righteousness, which did not even exist, but because of his mercy. In the same way indeed it is a dove holding and carrying in its beak the leaves of an olive tree who likewise signaled the end of the flood in the days of Noah and the ceasing of wrath by the mercy of peace which comes from on high.

  CATHEDRAL SERMONS, HOMILY 20.39

• Matthew 22:16

  Jesus' opponents expect that one of two outcomes must result for them from Jesus' response. They think they can show clearly that Jesus was acting wrongly against the law of Moses or against the power of the Romans. "Indeed, if he responds that it is necessary for us to pay the tribute," the Pharisees will necessarily slander him alongside those who obey the Romans, saying, "He is guiding us outside the law of Moses away from the service of God. He is leading us to a foreign power and a foreign race." That is indeed why Luke says, "They could not catch him at fault in his teaching before the people." For it is publicly, that is to say, in the midst of the people, that they are questioning him, in order to set the people against him. And if he does not permit the tax to be paid, the Herodians will immediately lay their hands on him as on one who does not submit to the Roman authorities.Observe what is the passion of hypocrisy, how it has hidden all the hostility and the homicidal thought of the Jews beneath flattery's vile veil, and how those who hate involuntarily honor as they attempt to cause a death. Indeed, those who were saying, "We are the disciples of Moses, but we don't know where that one is from" call him "Master." Those who were calling him a "deceiver" and "seducer" say, "We know that you are truthful." Those who were doing their best to resist with jealousy and with ignorance, saying, "This man does not come from God, because he does not observe the Sabbath" and "he has a demon" witness that he teaches the way of God in all truth.

  CATHEDRAL SERMONS, HOMILY 104

• Matthew 22:17-21

  What then does the Wisdom and the Word of God do? Jesus allows all their passion to appear for all to see, without them taking back the words they were speaking to no purpose. And like a skillful physician, he then lances their passion with a deep incision, when he cut with the first word. "Why are you testing me, hypocrites?" And after having shown by a reproach that the skin of deceitful hypocrisy was dead, it is gently, and to speak this way, insensibly and tranquilly that he nipped like the web of a spider their inescapable question. Indeed, he said, "Show me a denarius for the tax." And they presented a coin. And he said to them, "This image and this inscription concern whom?" They said to him, "Caesar." Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." "If the coin is Caesar's," Jesus says, "because that is what you have said—it is necessary to give it to Caesar himself.""What then! You permit us to serve a man, and not god? And how is this not a violation of the law?" It will amount to nothing. Indeed, the act of giving tax to Caesar does not prevent the service of God, although you would like to think so. This is why it is necessary for you to give to God equally what is God's, in such a manner that if what is Caesar's is kept for the service of God, it is necessary that God be preferred to him. If you remain a tributary of Caesar, you should attribute this to your sins, not to God. In the same way, Paul similarly applies himself to the same distinction. In sending a letter to the Romans he wrote, "Pay to the world, therefore, what is due to the world; to those you owe taxes, taxes; to those you owe tribute, tribute."

  CATHEDRAL SERMONS, HOMILY 104

• Matthew 28:1

  The sacred authors of the Gospels did not say whether the Savior was raised "after the sabbath," or when most of the night had passed, or at the dawn or when the sun had already begun to shine. Indeed, it would be contradictory for the authors to say that the same event transpired at different times. However, they did write that some of the women arrived at the tomb at one time and some of the women at another time, but not all at the same time—how could that be possible, since they came separately?—and that each of the women heard the angels say similar things regarding the Savior: "He is risen, he is not here," without adding when his resurrection occurred. It follows that if the resurrection had taken place on that divine night, as all of the Evangelists aver and agree, no one has specified the hour. [That hour] is unknown to the entire world except for the God who was raised and for the Father—who alone knows the Son as he is known by the Son—and except for the Spirit, who "searches everything, even the depths of God." …As for the expression "after the sabbath," it does not refer to the evening which follows the setting of the sun at the end of the sabbath, for Matthew did not use the singular opse sabbatou but the plural opse sabbatōn. The Jews were accustomed to call the entire week sabbata. Thus the Evangelists call the first day opse sabbatōn when they mean the first day of the week. We also use a colloquial expression when we call the second and third days of the week the second and third of the sabbata. Matthew then did not say opse sabbatou, that is, the evening of the sabbath, because he did not intend to denote the evening of that very day. Rather, he used opse sabbatōn so as to indicate that it was very late and well after the end of the week. Similarly, I think, we are in the habit of saying "you came opse tou kairou [well after the time], opse tēs hōras [well after the hour], opse tēs chreias [well after the need]" not in order to indicate the evening or the time after the setting of the sun but in order to suggest that the person arrived too late for the event. In a similar fashion, opse sabbatōn means that the women arrived very late and well after the end of the week. Now each week ends at the setting of the sun after the sabbath.

  CATHEDRAL SERMONS, HOMILY 77