Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew

³ Having then said these words, “He came out of the house.” Do you see, how He both rebuked them, and did what they desired? Which He did also at the marriage. For there too He at once reproved her asking unseasonably, and nevertheless did not gainsay her; by the former correcting her weakness, by the latter showing His kindly feeling toward His mother. So likewise on this occasion too, He both healed the disease of vainglory, and rendered the due honor to His mother, even though her request was unseasonable. For, “in the same day,” it is said, “went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.”

Why, if you desire, says He, to see and hear, behold I come forth and discourse. Thus having wrought many miracles, He affords again the benefit of His doctrine. And He “sits by the sea,” fishing and getting into His net them that are on the land.

But He “sat by the sea,” not without a purpose; and this very thing the evangelist has darkly expressed. For to indicate that the cause of His doing this was a desire to order His auditory with exactness, and to leave no one behind His back, but to have all face to face,

“And great multitudes,” says He, “were gathered together unto Him, so that He went into a ship and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore.”

And having sat down there, He speaks by parables.

“And He spoke,” it says, “many things unto them in parables.”

And yet on the mount, we know, He did no such thing, neither did He weave His discourse with so many parables, for then there were multitudes only, and a simple people; but here are also Scribes and Pharisees.

But do thou mark, I pray you, what kind of parable He speaks first, and how Matthew puts them in their order. Which then does He speak first? That which it was most necessary to speak first, that which makes the hearer more attentive. For because He was to discourse unto them in dark sayings, He thoroughly rouses His hearers' mind first by His parable. Therefore also another evangelist says that He reproved them, because they do not understand; saying, “How knew ye not the parable?” But not for this cause only does He speak in parables, but that He may also make His discourse more vivid, and fix the memory of it in them more perfectly, and bring the things before their sight. In like manner do the prophets also.