Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew

“But they are not priests.” Nay, they are greater than priests. For the Lord of the temple Himself is here: the truth, not the type. Wherefore He said also,

“But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.”

Nevertheless, great as the sayings were which they heard, they made no reply, for the salvation of men was not their object.

Then, because to the hearers it would seem harsh, He quickly draws a veil over it, giving His discourse, as before, a lenient turn, yet even so expressing Himself with a rebuke. “But if you had known what this means, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.”

Do you see how again He inclines His speech to lenity, yet again shows them to be out of the reach of lenity? “For you would not have condemned,” says He, “the guiltless.” Before indeed He inferred the same from what is said of the priests, in the words, “they are guiltless;” but here He states it on His own authority; or rather, this too is out of the law, for He was quoting a prophetic saying.

3. After this He mentions another reason likewise; “For the Son of man,” says He, “is Lord of the Sabbath day;” speaking it of Himself. But Mark relates Him to have said this of our common nature also; for He said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

Wherefore then was he punished that was gathering the sticks? Because if the laws were to be despised even at the beginning, of course they would scarcely be observed afterwards.

For indeed the Sabbath did at the first confer many and great benefits; for instance, it made them gentle towards those of their household, and humane; it taught them God's providence and the creation, as Ezekiel says; it trained them by degrees to abstain from wickedness, and disposed them to regard the things of the Spirit.

For because they could not have borne it, if when He was giving the law for the Sabbath, He had said, “Do your good works on the Sabbath, but do not the works which are evil,” therefore He restrained them from all alike for, “You must do nothing at all,” says He: and not even so were they kept in order. But He Himself, in the very act of giving the law of the Sabbath, did even therein darkly signify that He will have them refrain from the evil works only, by the saying, “You must do no work, except what shall be done for your life.” And in the temple too all went on, and with more diligence and double toil. Thus even by the very shadow He was secretly opening unto them the truth.

Did Christ then, it will be said, repeal a thing so highly profitable? Far from it; nay, He greatly enhanced it. For it was time for them to be trained in all things by the higher rules, and it was unnecessary that his hands should be bound, who was freed from wickedness, winged for all good works; or that men should hereby learn that God made all things; or that they should so be made gentle, who are called to imitate God's own love to mankind (for He says, “Be merciful, as your Heavenly Father”); or that they should make one day a festival, who are commanded to keep a feast all their life long; (“For let us keep the feast,” it is said, “not with old leaven, neither with leaven of malice and wickedness; but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”); as neither need they stand by an ark and a golden altar, who have the very Lord of all for their inmate, and in all things hold communion with Him; by prayer, and by oblation, and by scriptures, and by almsgiving, and by having Him within them. Lo now, why is any Sabbath required, by him who is always keeping the feast, whose conversation is in Heaven?

4. Let us keep the feast then continually, and do no evil thing; for this is a feast: and let our spiritual things be made intense, while our earthly things give place: and let us rest a spiritual rest, refraining our hands from covetousness; withdrawing our body from our superfluous and unprofitable toils, from such as the people of the Hebrews did of old endure in Egypt. For there is no difference between us who are gathering gold, and those that were bound in the mire, working at those bricks, and gathering stubble, and being beaten. Yea, for now too the devil bids us make bricks, as Pharaoh did then. For what else is gold, than mire? And what else is silver, than stubble? Like stubble, at least, it kindles the flame of desire; like mire, so does gold defile him that possesses it.

Wherefore He sent us, not Moses from the wilderness, but His Son from Heaven. If then, after He has come, thou abide in Egypt, you will suffer with the Egyptians: but if leaving that land thou go up with the spiritual Israel, you shall see all the miracles.

Yet not even this suffices for salvation. For we must not only be delivered out of Egypt, but we must also enter into the promise. Since the Jews too, as Paul says, both went through the Red Sea, and ate manna, and drank spiritual drink, but nevertheless they all perished.

Lest then the same befall us also, let us not be slow, neither draw back; but when you hear wicked spies even now bringing up an evil report against the strait and narrow way, and uttering the same kind of talk as those spies of old, let not the multitude, but Joshua, be our pattern, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh; and do not thou give up, until thou have attained the promise, and entered into the Heavens.

Neither account the journey to be difficult. “For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved.” “But this way,” it will be said, “is strait and narrow.” Well, but the former, through which you have come, is not strait and narrow only, but even impassable, and full of savage wild beasts. And as there was no passing through the Red Sea, unless that miracle had been wrought, so neither could we, abiding in our former life, have gone up into Heaven, but only by baptism intervening. Now if the impossible has become possible, much more will the difficult be easy.

“But that,” it will be said, “was of grace only.” Why, for this reason especially you have just cause to take courage. For if, where it was grace alone, He wrought with you; will He not much more be your aid, where ye also show forth laborious works? If He saved you, doing nothing, will He not much more help you, working?

Above indeed I was saying, that from the impossibilities you ought to take courage about the difficulties also; but now I add this, that if we are vigilant, these will not be so much as difficult. For mark it: death is trodden under foot, the devil has fallen, the law of sin is extinguished, the grace of the Spirit is given, life is contracted into a small space, the heavy burdens are abridged.

And to convince you hereof by the actual results, see how many have overshot the injunctions of Christ; and are you afraid of that which is just their measure? What plea then will you have, when others are leaping beyond the bounds, and you yourself too slothful for what is enacted?

Thus, you we admonish to give alms of such things as you have, but another has even stripped himself of all his possessions: you we require to live chastely with your wife, but another has not so much as entered into marriage: and you we entreat not to be envious, but another we find giving up even his own life for charity: you again we entreat to be lenient in judgments, and not severe to them that sin, but another, even when smitten, has turned the other cheek also.

What then shall we say, I pray you? What excuse shall we make, not doing even these things, when others go so far beyond us? And they would not have gone beyond us, had not the thing been very easy. For which pines away, he who envies other men's blessings, or he who takes pleasure with them, and rejoices? Which eyes all things with suspicion and continual trembling, the chaste man, or the adulterer? Which is cheered by good hopes, he that spoils by violence, or he that shows mercy, and imparts of his own to the needy?