Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew

⁴ After this, as He ever does, not by the honor only laid up for the good, but also by the punishment threatened against the wicked, does He correct the hearers. Wherefore also He added, “But and if the evil servant say in his heart, my Lord delays His coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and shall eat and drink with the drunken: the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for Him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and shall appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

But if any one should say, Do you see what a thought has entered into his mind, because of the day's not being known, “my Lord,” he says, “delays His coming?” we should affirm, that it was not because the day is not known, but because the servant is evil. Else wherefore came not this thought into the heart of the faithful and wise servant. For what, even though the Lord tarry, O wretched man, surely you look that He will come. Why then do you not take care?

Hence then we learn, that He does not so much as tarry. For this judgment is not the Lord's, but that of the evil servant's mind, wherefore also he is blamed for this. For in proof that He does not tarry, hear Paul saying, “The Lord is at hand, be careful for nothing;” and, “He that comes will come, and will not tarry.”

But do thou hear also what follows, and learn how continually He reminds them of their ignorance of the day, showing that this is profitable to the servants, and fitted to waken and thoroughly to rouse them. For what though some gained nothing hereby? For neither by other things profitable for them were some profited, but nevertheless He ceases not to do His part.

What then is the purport of that which follows? “For He shall come in a day when he looks not for Him, and in an hour that he is not aware of;” and shall inflict upon him extreme punishment. Do you see how even everywhere He puts this, the fact of their ignorance, indicating that it was profitable, and by this making them always earnest minded? For this is the point at which He labors, that we should be always on the watch; and since it is always in luxury that we are supine, but in afflictions we are braced up, therefore everywhere He says this, that when there is relaxation, then come the terrors. And as further back He showed this by the example of Noah, even so here He says it is, when that servant is drunken, when he is beating, and that his punishment shall be intolerable.

But let us not regard only the punishment appointed for him, but let us look to this other point too, lest we ourselves also be un awares to ourselves doing the same things. For to this servant are they like, who have money, and give not to the needy. For you too are steward of your own possessions, not less than he who dispenses the alms of the church. As then he has not a right to squander at random and at hazard the things given by you for the poor, since they were given for the maintenance of the poor; even so neither may thou squander your own. For even though you have received an inheritance from your father, and hast in this way all you possess, even thus all are God's. And then thou for your part desirest that what you have given should be thus carefully dispensed, and do you not think that God will require His own of us with greater strictness, or that He suffers them to be wasted at random? These things are not, they are not so. Because for this end, He left these things in your hand, in order “to give them their meat in due season.” But what means, “in due season?” To the needy, to the hungry. For like as you gave to your fellow-servant to dispense, even so does the Lord will you too to spend these things on what is needful. Therefore though He was able to take them away from you, He left them, that you might have opportunity to show forth virtue; that bringing us into need one of another, He might make our love for one another more fervent.

But you, when you have received, so far from giving, dost even beat. And yet if not to give be blame, what excuse is there for beating? But this, it seems to me, He speaks, hinting at the insolent, and the covetous, and indicating the charge to be heavy, when they beat them, whom they were commanded to feed.