Commentarii in matthaeum (in catenis) 1 mt 1, 2 abraham was justified through faith and to him, having believed, god said: i will multiply your seed

 Having believed in god, he shone forth those, therefore, who believe in god, even if they come from obscure and lowly origins, are raised up by god a

 Despising the son of a carpenter, they clearly also considered his commandments to be cheap and despised, but for their insolence and contempt toward

 He made them so that they become imitators of him who both rains upon the just and sinners and makes the sun rise on all alike. 22 mt 6, 3 4 let not,

 Being bodiless it neither eats nor drinks, but do not be anxious for the soul about what you might eat or what you might drink for the soul puts fort

 Wanting it ready at hand. for lest someone should say, i have come to judge not wishing to reproach or grieve my brother, but taking thought to clean

 As we understand the gate and the way that leads to eternal life to be called narrow, not even my yoke is easy and my burden is light will contradic

 To them the sins, for which was the sacrifice, they both promised and seemed to accomplish, but a paralyzed man they were in no way strong enough to h

 Of grace, but they fasted according to the old custom. it was therefore unfitting and inappropriate for those appointed as lawgivers and heralds of th

 But they pursue the royal houses. since, therefore, you have supposed no such thing about the man, but you knew him to be a prophet in deeds and words

 To those who have despised wealth and renown and parents as well as children and death itself. but before the teaching of christ and the coming of joh

 You have received, or rather through which you have abundantly enjoyed the benefaction, through those things it was necessary, if you are ungrateful,

 His own creation, being led by good works to the knowledge of both himself and of his own father and of the consubstantial and co-powerful spirit. the

 Made man, and to hear the voice of god united to flesh hypostatically. 61 mt 13, 24 52 the kingdom of the heavens and the kingdom of god is said to be

 Knowledge and comprehension as he says: for this reason every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven, and so forth for through knowled

 For the children considered nothing of their own labors and resources to be their own, but they brought everything to their fathers, fearing lest they

 He awaited an opinion and testimony about him for if he had said: whom do men say that i, the son of god, am, the disciples' response would have been

 The narrative of higher and more wondrous things. but the lord does not offer to the scribes a solution appropriate to the seeming difficulty, showing

 They escaped the civil disturbances. and elijah dwelt on carmel, but john tarried in the desert, and in other respects the similarity between them was

 From there by a mist they were able to perceive none of the things being done, but later, having been freed from that confusion and having come to the

 Of evils) not only does he subtly and wisely exclude wealth from the appellation of 'good,' but also all other things, by his declaration concerning a

 They will convict the disobedient jews, but they themselves will be shining in honor and glory, while the others are in utmost disgrace and dejection.

 Unbearable, but what appeared heavy and unbearable by the judgment of those priests themselves for what they themselves do not move even with a finge

 Seek the rank of deacons and of those who are last, that is, practice humility for through this it is possible to obtain true primacy and inexpressib

 To kill the righteous. therefore you bear witness to your forefathers as impious, desiring to become like them. and you, he says, fill up the measu

 Always having the inflamed passion of avarice, he is indignant everywhere when deprived of profit. therefore the master, looking to their thought and

 Will be preached, not depriving the one reward of the other for each of the sins has found forgiveness and through the deed is preached throughout th

 He says, that before the entire first cockcrowing is completed, you will deny me three times. but when mark says, “before the cock crows twice, you wi

 This has been permitted for security, that we may always be sober, that even if we seem to do any good work, we may always consider it a gift from abo

 For them who are being saved, their commonwealth is on earth, but in heaven is their reward and inheritance. but since, he says, i have received autho

he made them so that they become imitators of him who both rains upon the just and sinners and makes the sun rise on all alike. 22 Mt 6, 3 4 Let not, he says, the irrationality in us know the work of the rational soul, so that it may not hinder it and that which saves what is according to the image remain incomplete. and he will repay you openly, he says, that is, at the resurrection, when not only these things, but also all hidden things will be revealed. 23 Mt 6, 17 18 Since anointing and washing were practiced by those who were merry and rejoicing according to some ancient custom, and these were considered symbols of joy and gladness, the Master, commanding us to perform the fast with joy and gladness, says, anoint your head with oil and wash your face, legislating from the symbols of joy and gladness that we should rejoice and be glad in fasting; for by disposing ourselves in this way we will be able both to hide from others that we are fasting, and we will make the struggle of the fast unoppressive for them; for where there is eagerness and joy, there even what is toilsome is light; therefore, anoint your head and wash your face is instead of: make yourself bright and cheerful from the gladness and exultation in your heart and simply, practice in every way to be unseen, so that you may have the Rewarder who sees what is secret. Both of these, anointing and washing, belonged to those who were glad. Therefore Christ also commands to undertake the fast with joy and gladness, so that we ought to rejoice and be glad, when we do good things. 24 Mt 6, 21 23 Having said, for where the treasure is, there your heart is also he explains the harm from this. And here by heart he means the ruling faculty, just as also the prophet David: Create in me a clean heart, O God . He says, therefore, that those who store up treasure on earth, there also have their mind nailed down and bound. And with this being in the state of a captive and a prisoner, what else will be left for the whole body or for the soul itself but to be enslaved along with it and even more bound? For with the helmsman sinking, what else will the ship and the sailors suffer? For he showed this in saying, the lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. And he uses the example appropriately; for as the eye is in the body, so is the mind in the soul. If therefore the mind, through which both the soul and the whole living being is illumined, has been blinded by the passion of avarice, what would the things not suffer that received their illumination through it? For this reason it is necessary in every way to keep the intellectual part of the soul free from the passion of avarice, lest, with it having been filled by the passion from there, we be unfortunate and miserably afflicted, passing our life in deep darkness. Here the Savior calls the heart the ruling mind; for so also David named it, saying: 'Create in me a clean heart, O God.' And from this, the lovers of money, having their mind bound to their money, alienate themselves from God. 25 Mt 6, 25 The do not be anxious for your soul, is not because the soul needs food. For this reason he did not say what the soul will eat or what it will drink, but what you will eat and what you will drink, that is, the living being composed of soul and body; for even if the appetitive powers proceed from the soul as from some spring and without it the living being cannot be nourished, yet it is not nourished itself, but the other. Therefore our Lord neither attributed being nourished to it, nor did he completely alienate it, but on the one hand, as it provides the impulses for appetite, do not be anxious, he says, for your soul, but on the other hand, as it is not this, but the composite being that eats and drinks, he added: what you will eat and what you will drink, but not, clearly, the soul. But if someone wishes that by the saying for your soul this is indicated, that not only in actual deeds and labors should you not show anxiety about such things, but you should not even permit it to arise in the soul and to trouble you to come to action, this too is not foreign to the evangelical exhortation. He did not say: 'what will the soul eat or what will it drink'; for every soul

ἐποίησεν ὡς γεγονότας αὐτοῦ μιμητὰς βρέχοντός τε ἐπὶ δικαίους καὶ ἁμαρτωλοὺς καὶ πᾶσιν ὁμοίως ἀνατέλλοντος τὸν ἥλιον. 22 Mt 6, 3 4 Μὴ γνώτω, φησίν, ἡ ἐν ἡμῖν ἀλογία τῆς λογικῆς ψυχῆς τὸ ἔργον, ἵνα μὴ ἐμποδίσῃ αὐτὴν καὶ μείνῃ ἀτελὴς ἡ σῴζουσα τὸ κατ' εἰκόνα. ἀποδώσει σοι δὲ ἐν τῷ φανερῷ, φησίν, ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει δηλονότι, ὅταν οὐ μόνον ταῦτα, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντα τὰ κρυπτὰ φανερωθήσονται. 23 Mt 6, 17 18 Ἐπειδὴ τὸ ἀλείφεσθαι καὶ νίπτεσθαι τοῖς εὐφραινομένοις καὶ χαίρουσι κατά τι παλαιὸν ἐπετηδεύετο ἔθος καὶ σύμβολα ταῦτα χαρᾶς ἐνομίζετο καὶ εὐφροσύνης, ὁ δεσπότης μετὰ χαρᾶς καὶ εὐφροσύνης τὴν νηστείαν κελεύων ἡμᾶς ἐπιτελεῖν, ἄλειψαί σου, φησίν, τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐλαίῳ καὶ νίψαι τὸ πρόσωπον, ἀπὸ τῶν συμβόλων τῆς χαρᾶς καὶ τῆς εὐφροσύνης χαίρειν ἡμᾶς καὶ εὐφραίνεσθαι ἐν τῷ νηστεύειν νομοθετῶν· οὕτω γὰρ ἑαυτοὺς διατιθέντες τούς τε ἄλλους λαθεῖν δυνησόμεθα, ὅτι νηστεύομεν, καὶ αὐτοῖς ἀνεπάχθητον τῆς νηστείας ἀγῶνα ἀπεργασόμεθα· ἔνθα γὰρ προθυμία καὶ χαρά, ἐκεῖ κοῦφον καὶ τὸ ἐπίπονον· ἄλειψαι οὖν σου τὴν κεφαλὴν καὶ τὸ πρόσωπόν σου νίψαι ἀντὶ τοῦ· φαίδρυνον σεαυτὸν καὶ ἱλαρὸν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ εὐθυμίας καὶ ἀγαλλιάσεως παρασκεύασον καὶ ἁπλῶς παντὶ τρόπῳ λαθεῖν ἐπιτήδευε, ἵνα μισθαποδότην ἕξῃς τὸν ἔφορον τῶν κρυφίων. Ἄμφω ταῦτα τὸ ἀλείφεσθαι καὶ νίπτεσθαι τοῖς εὐφραινομένοις ὑπῆρχε. διὸ καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς μετὰ χαρᾶς τε καὶ εὐφροσύνης κελεύει μετέρχεσθαι τὴν νηστείαν, ὥστε χαίρειν ἡμᾶς δεῖ καὶ εὐφραίνεσθαι, ὅταν τὰ καλὰ ἐργαζώμεθα. 24 Mt 6, 21 23 Εἰπὼν ὅπου γάρ ἐστιν ὁ θησαυρός, ἐκεῖ καὶ ἡ καρδία ὑμῶν ἐπεξηγεῖται τὴν ἐντεῦθεν βλάβην. καρδίαν δὲ ἐνταῦθα τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν λέγει καθὼς καὶ ὁ προφήτης ∆αβὶδ καρδίαν καθαρὰν κτίσον ἐν ἐμοί, ὁ θεός . φησὶν οὖν, ὅτι οἱ θησαυρίζοντες ἐπὶ γῆς, ἐκεῖ καὶ τὸν νοῦν ἔχουσι προσηλωμένον καὶ συνδεδεμένον. τούτου δὲ ἐν αἰχμαλώτου καὶ δεσμίου τάξει διακειμένου τί λοιπὸν ἔσται τῷ σώματι ὅλῳ ἢ καὶ αὐτῇ τῇ ψυχῇ ἀλλ' ἢ συνηνδραποδίσθαι καὶ μᾶλλον δεδέσθαι; τοῦ γὰρ κυβερνήτου βυθιζομένου τί λοιπὸν ἢ ναῦς καὶ οἱ ἐμπλέοντες πείσονται; τοῦτο γὰρ ἐδήλωσεν ἐν τῷ λέγειν ὁ λύχνος τοῦ σώματος ὁ ὀφθαλμός ἐστιν. εἰ οὖν τὸ φῶς τὸ ἐν σοὶ σκότος, τὸ σκότος πόσον. οἰκείως δὲ τῷ παραδείγματι κέχρηται· ὡς γὰρ ἐν σώματι ὀφθαλμός, οὕτω νοῦς ἐν ψυχῇ. εἰ οὖν ὁ νοῦς, δι' οὗ ἥ τε ψυχὴ καὶ ὅλον τὸ ζῷον αὐγάζεται, τῷ πάθει τῆς φιλοχρηματίας ἐτυφλώθη, τί ἂν οὐ πάθοι, ἃ δι' ἐκείνου ἐνελάμπετο τὸν φωτισμόν; διὰ τοῦτο χρὴ παντὶ τρόπῳ τὸ νοερὸν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀπὸ φιλοχρηματίας φυλάττειν ἀπαθές, ἵνα μὴ τῷ ἐκεῖθεν πάθει πληρωθέντος αὐτοῦ ἐν σκότει βαθεῖ τὸν βίον ὦμεν δυστυχοῦντες καὶ ταλαιπωρούμενοι ἀθλίως τὸν ἡμῶν. Καρδίαν ἐνταῦθα ὁ σωτὴρ τὸν ἡγεμόνα νοῦν καλεῖ· οὕτω γὰρ καὶ ὁ ∆αβὶδ αὐτὸν ὠνόμασε λέγων· καρδίαν καθαρὰν κτίσον ἐν ἐμοί, ὁ θεός . κἀντεῦθεν οἱ φιλοχρήματοι τὸν νοῦν συνδεδεμένον ἔχοντες τοῖς χρήμασιν ἀλλοτριοῦσιν ἑαυτοὺς τοῦ θεοῦ. 25 Mt 6, 25 Τὸ μὴ μεριμνήσητε τῇ ψυχῇ, οὐκ ἐπειδὴ ἡ ψυχὴ τροφῆς δεῖται. διὰ τοῦτο οὐδὲ εἶπε τί φάγεται ἢ τί πίεται ἡ ψυχή, ἀλλὰ τί φάγητε καὶ τί πίητε ὑμεῖς, δηλονότι τὸ ἐκ ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος συγκείμενον ζῷον· εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἐκ τῆς ψυχῆς προΐασιν ὥσπερ ἀπό τινος πηγῆς αἱ ὀρεκτικαὶ δυνάμεις καὶ χωρὶς αὐτῆς οὐκ ἔνι τρέφεσθαι τὸ ζῷον, ἀλλ' οὖν οὐκ αὐτὴ τρέφεται, ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνο. διὸ καὶ ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν οὔτε αὐτῇ ἀπέδωκε τὸ τρέφεσθαι οὔτε παντελῶς αὐτὴν ἀπεξένωσεν, ἀλλ' ὡς μὲν τὰς ἀφορμὰς τοῦ ὀρέγεσθαι αὐτῆς παρεχομένης μὴ μεριμνήσητε, φησίν, τῇ ψυχῇ ὑμῶν, ὡς δὲ μὴ ταύτης, ἀλλὰ τοῦ συνθέτου ἐσθίοντός τε καὶ πίνοντος, ἐπήγαγε· τί φάγητε καὶ τί πίητε ὑμεῖς, ἀλλ' οὐχ ἡ ψυχὴ δηλονότι. εἰ δέ τις διὰ τοῦ εἰπεῖν τῇ ψυχῇ ὑμῶν τοῦτο δηλοῦσθαι βούλεται, ὅτι μὴ μόνον ἐπ' αὐτοῖς τοῖς ἔργοις καὶ πόνοις τὴν περὶ τῶν τοιούτων μέριμναν μὴ ἐπιδείκνυσθε, ἀλλὰ μηδ' ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ ταύτην φῦναι καὶ ἐνοχλεῖν ὑμᾶς εἰς ἔργον ἐλθεῖν συγχωρήσατε, οὐδὲ τοῦτο τῆς εὐαγγελικῆς παραινέσεως ἀλλότριον. Οὐκ εἶπε· τί φάγεται ἡ ψυχὴ ἢ τί πίεται· ψυχὴ γὰρ πᾶσα