Chapter XIX.

63. And inasmuch as the Lord is admonishing us in this passage with respect to rash and unjust judgment,—for He wishes that whatever we do, we should do it with a heart that is single and directed toward God alone; and inasmuch as, with respect to many things, it is uncertain with what intention they are done, regarding which it is rash to judge; inasmuch, moreover, as those parties especially judge rashly respecting things that are uncertain, and readily find fault, who love rather to censure and to condemn than to amend and to improve, which is a fault arising either from pride or from envy; therefore He has subjoined the statement: “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” So that if perchance, for example, he has transgressed in anger, you should find fault in hatred; there being, as it were, as much difference between anger and hatred as between a mote and a beam. For hatred is inveterate anger, which, as it were simply by its long duration, has acquired so great strength as to be justly called a beam. Now, it may happen that, though you are angry with a man, you wish him to be turned from his error; but if you hate a man, you cannot wish to convert him.

64. “Or how wilt435    The meaning is, how wilt thou have the effrontery to say, dare to say. The precept forbids all meddling, censoriousness, and captious faultfinding, and the spirit of slander, backbiting, calumny, etc. thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye;” i.e., first cast the hatred away from thee, and then, but not before, shalt thou be able to amend him whom thou lovest.436    “Ere you remark another’s sin,   Bid your own conscience look within.” —Cowper. And He well says, “Thou hypocrite.” For to make complaint against vices is the duty of good and benevolent men; and when bad men do it, they are acting a part which does not belong to them; just like hypocrites, who conceal under a mask what they are, and show themselves off in a mask what they are not. Under the designation hypocrites, therefore, you are to understand pretenders. And there is, in fact, a class of pretenders much to be guarded against, and troublesome, who, while they take up complaints against all kinds of faults from hatred and spite, also wish to appear counsellors. And therefore we must piously and cautiously watch, so that when necessity shall compel us to find fault with or rebuke any one, we may reflect first whether the fault is such as we have never had, or one from which we have now become free; and if we have never had it, let us reflect that we are men, and might have had it; but if we have had it, and are now free from it, let the common infirmity touch the memory, that not hatred but pity may go before that fault-finding or administering of rebuke: so that whether it shall serve for the conversion of him on whose account we do it, or for his perversion (for the issue is uncertain), we at least from the singleness of our eye may be free from care. If, however, on reflection, we find ourselves involved in the same fault as he is whom we were preparing to censure, let us not censure nor rebuke; but yet let us mourn deeply over the case, and let us invite him not to obey us, but to join us in a common effort.

65. For in regard also to what the apostle says,—“Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law (not being under the law), that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might gain all,”—he did not certainly so act in the way of pretence, as some wish it to be understood, in order that their detestable pretence may be fortified by the authority of so great an example; but he did so from love, under the influence of which he thought of the infirmity of him whom he wished to help as if it were his own. For this he also lays as the foundation beforehand, when he says: “For although I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain437    Lucrifacerem; Vulgate, facerem salvos. the more.”438    1 Cor. ix. 19–22. And that you may understand this as being done not in pretence, but in love, under the influence of which we have compassion for men who are weak as if we were they, he thus admonishes us in another passage, saying, “Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”439    Gal. v. 13. And this cannot be done, unless each one reckon the infirmity of another as his own, so as to bear it with equanimity, until the party for whose welfare he is solicitous is freed from it.

66. Rarely, therefore, and in a case of great necessity, are rebukes to be administered; yet in such a way that even in these very rebukes we may make it our earnest endeavour, not that we, but that God, should be served. For He, and none else, is the end: so that we are to do nothing with a double heart, removing from our own eye the beam of envy, or malice, or pretence, in order that we may see to cast the mote out of a brother’s eye. For we shall see it with the dove’s eyes,—such eyes as are declared to belong to the spouse of Christ,440    Cant. iv. 1. whom God hath chosen for Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle,441    Eph. v. 27.i.e. pure and guileless.

CAPUT XIX.---63. Et quoniam de temerario et iniquo judicio nos hoc loco Dominus monet: vult enim ut simplici corde et in unum Deum intento faciamus quaecumque facimus; et multa incertum est quo corde fiant, de quibus judicare temerarium est; maxime autem hi temere judicant de incertis, et facile reprehendunt, qui magis amant vituperare et damnare, quam emendare atque corrigere; quod vitium vel superbiae est, vel invidentiae: consequenter subjecit, et dicit, Quid autem vides festucam in oculo fratris tui, trabem autem in oculo tuo non vides? Ut si forte, verbi gratia, ira ille peccavit, tu odio reprehendas: quantum autem inter festucam et trabem, quasi tantum inter iram distat et odium. Odium enim est ira inveterata, quasi quae vetustate ipsa tantum robur acceperit, ut merito appelletur trabes. Fieri autem potest ut si irascaris homini, velis eum corrigi; si autem oderis hominem, non potes eum velle corrigere.

64. Quomodo enim dicis fratri tuo, Sine ejiciam festucam de oculo tuo, et ecce trabes est in oculo tuo? Hypocrita, ejice primum trabem de oculo tuo, et tunc videbis ejicere festucam de oculo fratris tui: id est, primum abs te expelle odium, et deinde poteris jam eum quem diligis, emendare. Et bene ait, Hypocrita. Accusare enim vitia, officium est bonorum virorum et benevolorum: quod cum mali faciunt, alienas partes agunt; sicut hypocritae, qui tegunt sub persona quod sunt, et ostentant in persona quod non sunt. Hypocritarum ergo nomine simulatores acceperis. Et est vere multum cavendum et molestum simulatorum genus, qui cum omnium vitiorum accusationes odio et livore suscipiant, etiam consultores videri se volunt. Et ideo pie cauteque vigilandum est, ut, cum aliquem reprehendere vel objurgare nos necessitas coegerit, primum cogitemus utrum tale sit vitium, quod nunquam habuimus, vel quo jam caruimus: et si nunquam habuimus, cogitemus nos homines esse, et habere potuisse; si vero habuimus, et non habemus, tangat memoriam communis infirmitas, ut illam reprehensionem aut objurgationem non odium, sed misericordia 1299 praecedat: ut sive ad correctionem ejus, propter quem id facimus, sive ad perversionem valuerit (nam incertus est exitus), nos tamen de simplicitate oculi nostri securi simus. Si autem cogitantes nosmetipsos invenerimus in eo esse vitio, in quo est ille quem reprehendere parabamus, non reprehendamus, neque objurgemus: sed tamen congemiscamus; et non illum ad obtemperandum nobis, sed ad pariter conandum invitemus.

65. Nam et illud quod dicit Apostolus, «Factus sum Judaeis tanquam Judaeus, ut Judaeos lucrifacerem; his qui sub Lege sunt, quasi sub Lege, cum non sim ipse sub Lege, ut eos qui sub Lege erant lucrifacerem; his qui sine Lege sunt, quasi sine Lege, cum sine lege Dei non sim, sed sim in lege Christi, ut lucrifacerem eos qui sine Lege sunt. Factus sum infirmis infirmus, ut infirmos lucrifacerem: omnibus omnia factus sum, ut omnes lucrifacerem:» non utique simulatione faciebat, quemadmodum quidam intelligi volunt, ut eorum detestanda simulatio tanti exempli auctoritate muniatur; sed hoc faciebat charitate; qua ejus infirmitatem, cui volebat subvenire, tanquam suam cogitabat. Hoc enim et praestruit dicendo: Cum enim liber sim ex omnibus, me omnium servum feci, ut plures lucrifacerem (I Cor. IX, 19-22). Quod ut intelligas non simulatione, sed charitate fieri, qua infirmis hominibus tanquam nos simus compatimur, ita monet alio loco, dicens: Vos in libertatem vocati estis, fratres; tantum ne libertatem in occasionem carnis detis, sed per charitatem servite invicem (Galat. V, 13). Quod fieri non potest, nisi alterius infirmitatem quisque habeat quasi suam, ut eam aequanimiter ferat, donec ab ea liberetur ille cujus curat salutem.

66. Raro ergo et in magna necessitate objurgationes adhibendae sunt, ita tamen ut etiam in his ipsis non nobis, sed Deo ut serviatur instemus. Ipse est enim finis: ut nihil duplici corde faciamus, auferentes trabem de oculo nostro, invidentiae, vel malitiae, vel simulationis, ut videamus ejicere festucam de oculo fratris. Videbimus enim eam oculis columbae, quales in sponsa Christi praedicantur (Cant. IV, 1), quam sibi elegit Deus gloriosam Ecclesiam, non habentem maculam neque rugam (Ephes. V, 27), id est mundam et simplicem .