Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew

But when He says, “Neither knows any man the Father, save the Son,” He means not this, that all men were ignorant of Him, but that with the knowledge wherewith He knows Him, no man is acquainted with Him; which may be said of the Son too. For it was not of some God unknown, and revealed to no man, that He was so speaking, as Marcion says; but it is the perfection of knowledge that He is here intimating, since neither do we know the Son as He should be known; and this very thing, to add no more, Paul was declaring, when he said, “We know in part, and we prophesy in part.”

3. Next, having brought them by His words to an earnest desire, and having signified His unspeakable power, He after that invites them, saying, “Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Not this or that person, but all that are in anxiety, in sorrows, in sins. Come, not that I may call you to account, but that I may do away your sins; come, not that I want your honor, but that I want your salvation. “For I,” says He, “will give you rest.” He said not, “I will save you,” only; but what was much more, “I will place you in all security.”

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Thus, “be not afraid,” says He, hearing of a yoke, for it is easy: fear not, because I said, “a burden,” for it is light.

And how said He before, “The gate is narrow and the way strait?” Whilst you are careless, while you are supine; whereas, if you duly perform His words, the burden will be light; wherefore also He has now called it so.

But how are they duly performed? If you have become lowly, and meek, and gentle. For this virtue is the mother of all strictness of life. Wherefore also, when beginning those divine laws, with this He began. And here again He does the very same, and exceeding great is the reward He appoints. “For not to another only do you become serviceable; but yourself also above all you refresh,” says He. “For you shall find rest unto your souls.”

Even before the things to come, He gives you here your recompense, and bestows the prize already, making the saying acceptable, both hereby, and by setting Himself forward as an example. For, “Of what are you afraid?” says He, “lest you should be a loser by your low estate? Look to me, and to all that is mine; learn of me, and then shall you know distinctly how great your blessing.” Do you see how in all ways He is leading them to humility? By His own doings: “Learn of me, for I am meek.” By what themselves are to gain; for, “You shall find,” says He, rest unto your souls. By what He bestows on them; for, “I too will refresh you,” says He. By rendering it light; “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” So likewise does Paul, saying, “For the present light affliction, which is but for a moment, works a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

And how, some one may say, is the burden light, when He says, “Except one hate father and mother;” and, “Whosoever takes not up his cross, and follows after me, is not worthy of me:” and, “Whosoever forsakes not all that he has, cannot be my disciple:” when He commands even to give up our very life? Let Paul teach you, saying, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” And that, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” Let those teach you, who return from the council of the Jews after plenty of stripes, and “rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ.” And if you are still afraid and tremblest at hearing of the yoke and the burden, the fear comes not of the nature of the thing, but of your remissness; since if you are prepared, and in earnest, all will be easy to you and light. Since for this cause Christ also, to signify that we too must needs labor ourselves, did not mention the gracious things only, and then hold His peace, nor the painful things only, but set down both. Thus He both spoke of “a yoke,” and called it “easy;” both named a burden, and added that it was “light;” that you should neither flee from them as toilsome, nor despise them as over easy.

But if even after all this, virtue seem to you an irksome thing, consider that vice is more irksome. And this very thing He was intimating, in that He said not first, “Take my yoke upon you,” but before that, “Come, you that labor and are heavy laden;” implying that sin too has labor, and a burden that is heavy and hard to bear. For He said not only, “You that labor,” but also, “that are heavy laden.” This the prophet too was speaking of, when in that description of her nature, “As an heavy burden they weighed heavy upon me.” And Zacharias too, describing her, says she is “A talent of lead.”

And this moreover experience itself proves. For nothing so weighs upon the soul, and presses it down, as consciousness of sin; nothing so much gives it wings, and raises it on high, as the attainment of righteousness and virtue.

And mark it: what is more grievous, I pray you, than to have no possessions? To turn the cheek, and when smitten not to smite again? To die by a violent death? Yet nevertheless, if we practise self-command, all these things are light and easy, and pleasurable.

But be not disturbed; rather let us take up each of these, and inquire about it accurately; and if you will, that first which many count most painful. Which then of the two, tell me, is grievous and burdensome, to be in care for one belly, or to be anxious about ten thousand? To be clothed with one outer garment, and seek for nothing more; or having many in one's house, to bemoan one's self every day and night in fear, in trembling, about the preservation of them, grieved, and ready to choke about the loss of them; lest one should be moth-eaten, lest a servant purloin and go off with them?

4. But whatever I may say, my speech will present no such proof as the actual trial. Wherefore I would there were present here with us some one of those who have attained unto that summit of self-restraint, and then you would know assuredly the delight thereof; and that none of those that are enamored of voluntary poverty would accept wealth, though ten thousand were to offer it.

But would these, say you, ever consent to become poor, and to cast away the anxieties which they have? And what of that? This is but a proof of their madness and grievous disease, not of anything very pleasurable in the thing. And this even themselves would testify to us, who are daily lamenting over these their anxieties, and accounting their life to be not worth living. But not so those others; rather they laugh, leap for joy, and the wearers of the diadem do not so glory, as they do in their poverty.

Again, to turn the cheek is, to him that gives heed, a less grievous thing than to smite another; for from this the contest has beginning, in that termination: and whereas by the former you have kindled the other's pile too, by the latter you have quenched even your own flames. But that not to be burnt is a pleasanter thing than to be burnt, is surely plain to every man. And if this hold in regard of bodies, much more in a soul.

And whether is lighter, to contend, or to be crowned? To fight, or to have the prize? And to endure waves, or to run into harbor? Therefore also, to die is better than to live. For the one withdraws us from waves and dangers, while the other adds unto them, and makes a man subject to numberless plots and distresses, which have made life not worth living in your account.