Homily 62 — Matthew 19, verses 1 to 5

“And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.” [a]

He had constantly left Judea because of the envy of those men; but now, from this time on, he is often there, because his passion was near at hand. Even so, he does not go up to Jerusalem for a while yet, but only “into the region of Judea.”

“And when he had come, great multitudes followed him, and he healed them.” For he does not keep always to teaching in words, nor always to working wonderful signs, but does now the one and now the other, working the salvation of those who waited on him and followed him in different ways. By the miracles he would show himself a teacher worth believing in what he said, and by the teaching of his word he would increase the benefit of the miracles. And all this was to lead them by the hand to the knowledge of God.

But notice this too, I beg you: how the disciples pass over whole crowds in a single word, without naming each of those who were healed. They did not say that this man and that man were healed, but that many were, teaching us not to make a show. And Christ healed them, benefiting both them and, through them, many others; for the healing of these people’s sickness became for others a foundation for the knowledge of God.

But not so for the Pharisees. This very thing made them fiercer still, and they come to him to test him. Since they could not find fault with the works being done, they put questions to him. For they “came to him, and testing him said, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?’”

What folly! They thought they could silence him with their questions, though they had already received clear proof of his power. They had argued at length about the Sabbath; they had said, “He blasphemes”; they had said, “He has a demon”; they had found fault with his disciples as they walked through the grainfields; they had argued about unwashed hands. On every one of those occasions he stitched their mouths shut, silenced their shameless tongues, and sent them away. Yet not even so do they keep away from him. That is what wickedness is like; that is what envy is like, shameless and brazen. Silence it ten thousand times, and ten thousand times it attacks again.

But notice their craftiness too, I beg you, from the very form of their question. They did not say to him, “You commanded that a man must not divorce his wife” — for he had already spoken about this law — yet they made no mention of those words at all. Instead they took their opening from here, thinking to make their snare the bigger. Because they meant to force him into contradicting the law, they do not say, “Why did you lay down this or that?” but, as though nothing had been said, they ask, “Is it lawful?” — expecting that he had forgotten saying it. They were ready, if he said, “It is lawful to divorce,” to bring against him the things he himself had spoken, and to say, “How then did you declare the opposite?” But if he said the same things now as before, they were ready to bring the words of Moses against him.

What, then, did he say? He did not say, “Why do you test me, you hypocrites?” though later on he does say this. Here he does not speak that way. Why is that? So that together with his power he might also show his gentleness. He does not always keep silent, so that they will not think they have gone unnoticed; nor does he always rebuke them, so that he may teach us to bear everything with gentleness.

How, then, does he answer them? “Have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will cling to his wife, and the two will be one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

See a teacher’s wisdom. When he was asked, “Is it lawful?” he did not say at once, “It is not lawful,” so that they would not be upset and thrown into confusion. Before giving his ruling he made the matter plain by his argument, showing that this too is his Father’s command, and that he was not laying these things down in opposition to Moses but in full agreement with him.

But notice him arguing strongly not only from the creation but also from God’s command. He did not say only that God made one man and one woman, but that he also gave this command: that the one man should be joined to the one woman. If it had been God’s will that a man should send this woman away and bring in another, then, when he had made one man, he would have formed many women. But as it is, both by the way he created and by the way he gave the law, he showed that one man must live with one woman always, and never break away from her.

And see how he says, “He who made them at the beginning made them male and female”: that is, they sprang from one root and came together into one body, “for the two will be one flesh.” After this, to make it a fearful thing to find fault with this law, and to confirm it, he did not say, “So do not sever them or separate them,” but, “What God has joined together, let not man separate.”

“If you put Moses forward, I tell you of Moses’ Lord; and along with that, I rely on the time as well. For God at the beginning made them male and female. This law is older, though it seems to have been brought in by me just now, and it was established with great earnestness. For God did not merely bring the woman to the man, but also commanded him to leave father and mother. And he did not make it a law only for the man to come to the woman, but also ‘to cling to her,’ hinting by the very form of the words that they must not be separated. And he was not satisfied even with this, but looked for another, greater union: ‘for the two,’ he says, ‘will be one flesh.’”

Then, after reciting the ancient law, which was brought in both by deeds and by words, and showing that it deserves respect because of the one who gave it, he goes on with authority to interpret it himself and to give the law, saying, “So they are no longer two, but one flesh.” Just as it is a horrible thing to cut flesh apart, so it is unlawful to divorce a wife. And he did not stop there, but brought God in as well, saying, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” So he showed that the act was against both nature and law: against nature, because one flesh is cut apart; against law, because when God has joined them and commanded that they not be divided, you people conspire to do it.

What, then, should they have done after this? Should they not have held their peace and praised what he said? Should they not have marveled at his wisdom, and stood amazed at how fully he agreed with the Father? But they do none of these things. As though they were fighting for the law, they say, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” And yet it was not for them to bring this up now; it was rather for him to bring it up against them. Still, he does not take advantage of them, nor does he say to them, “I am not bound by this now.” He resolves this difficulty too. [e]

Indeed, if he had been a stranger to the old covenant, he would not have fought for Moses, nor argued firmly from the things done once for all at the beginning; he would not have taken pains to show that his own commands agreed with those of old.

Moses had given many other commandments besides, about foods and about the Sabbath. Why, then, do they nowhere bring him forward as they do here? Because they wanted to set the whole crowd of husbands against him. The Jews counted this a matter of no importance, and everyone did at least this much. That is why, though so many things had been said on the mount, only now did they remember this one commandment.

Nevertheless, his unspeakable wisdom makes a defense even for these things, and says that “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts,” made the law this way. Nor does he let Moses himself remain under accusation, since he had himself given him the law. He frees him from the charge and turns the whole of it back on their own heads, as he does everywhere.

For again, when they were blaming his disciples for plucking the heads of grain, he shows that they themselves are the guilty ones; when they were charging the disciples with a transgression for not washing their hands, he shows that they themselves are the transgressors; and so too about the Sabbath. He does it everywhere, and here in the same way.

Then, because the saying was hard to bear and brought much blame on them, he quickly turns his discourse back to that ancient law, saying, as he had said before, “But from the beginning it was not so.” That is, God by his acts at the beginning ordained the opposite. And so that they could not say, “How is it clear that Moses said this because of our hardness?”, here again he stops their mouths. For if this were the original law, and for our good, that other law would not have been given at the beginning: God, when he created, would not have created as he did, and would not have said such things.

“But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” Now that he had stopped their mouths, he gives the law on his own authority, just as he did about foods and about the Sabbath. For about foods too, when he had overcome them, then and only then did he declare to the crowd, “It is not what goes in that defiles a person”; and about the Sabbath, when he had stopped their mouths, he says, “So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day.” And here it is the very same thing.

And what happened there happened here too. For just as there, when the Jews had been silenced, the disciples were troubled and came to him with Peter and said, “Explain this parable to us,” so now too they were troubled and said, “If the case of the man is like this, it is good not to marry.”

For now they understood the saying better than before. That is why they kept silent then; but now, when there had been objection and answer, question and learning by reply, and the law had become clearer, they ask him. They do not dare to contradict him openly, but they bring forward what seemed to be its heavy and galling consequence, saying, “If the case of the man with his wife is like this, it is not good to marry.” For it seemed a very hard thing to have a wife full of every bad quality, and to put up with a wild beast shut up in the house with you for good. And so that you may learn that this troubled them greatly, Mark, to show it, said that they spoke to him privately.

But what does “If the case of the man with his wife is like this” mean? It means: if he is joined to her for this purpose, that the two should be one; or, on the other hand, if the man is going to bring blame on himself for these things, and is always breaking the law when he divorces her, then it would be easier to fight against natural desire and against oneself than against a wicked woman. [g]

What, then, does Christ say? He did not say, “Yes, it is easier, so do it,” so that they would not think the thing was a law. Instead he added, “Not everyone receives this, but only those to whom it is given.” He was raising the thing up and showing that it is great, and in this way drawing them on and urging them. But notice the contradiction here. He says it is a great thing; they say it is easier. Both needed to happen: it needed to be acknowledged by him as a great thing, to make them more eager, and it needed to be shown by their own words to be easier, so that on this ground too they would choose virginity and self-control all the more. For since talk of virginity seemed burdensome, by the pressure of this law he drove them to desire it.

Then, to show that it is possible, he says, “There are some eunuchs who were born so from their mother’s womb; there are some eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” By these words he was quietly leading them to choose the thing, and establishing that this virtue is possible, and all but saying: “Think: if you were in that condition by nature, or had suffered this very thing at the hands of those who commit such outrages, what would you have done, deprived of the enjoyment and yet with no reward? So thank God now, because you undergo with rewards and crowns what those men endure without crowns — or rather, not even that, but something much lighter, supported both by hope and by the awareness of the good you are doing, and without desire raging like waves inside you.”

For cutting off a part of the body cannot quell such waves and make a calm the way the bridle of reason can; or rather, only reason can do this. That is why he brought in those other eunuchs: to encourage these. If this was not what he was establishing, what is the point of his words about the other eunuchs? But when he says that they made themselves eunuchs, he does not mean cutting off parts of the body — far from it — but the putting away of wicked thoughts. For the man who has mutilated himself actually falls under a curse, as Paul says: “I wish those who trouble you would even cut themselves off.” And with good reason. Such a man is venturing on the deeds of murderers, giving an opening to those who slander God’s creation, opening the mouths of the Manichaeans, and committing the same unlawful acts as those among the Greeks who mutilate themselves.

For cutting off our members has been, from the beginning, the work of demons and a scheme of Satan, so that they may bring a bad name on the work of God and maim this living creature; so that people, blaming everything not on their choice but on the nature of their members, may most of them sin without a care, as though they were not responsible; and so that they may do this living creature a double harm, both by mutilating its members and by holding back the eagerness of its free choice to do good.

These are the devil’s ordinances. Besides the things we have mentioned, they bring in another wicked doctrine too. From this very starting point they prepare the way for arguments about fate and necessity, everywhere spoiling the freedom God has given us, persuading us that evil deeds come from nature, and in this way secretly planting many other wicked doctrines as well, though not openly. For such are the devil’s poisons.

So I beg you, run from this lawlessness. Besides the things I have mentioned, the force of lust does not become any milder this way, but even fiercer. For the seed within us has its source elsewhere, and its waves swell from another cause. Some say this violent impulse is born in the brain, some in the loins; but I would say it comes from nothing other than an ungoverned will and a neglected mind. If the mind is self-controlled, no evil comes of the movements of nature.

Having spoken, then, of the eunuchs who are eunuchs for nothing and without fruit unless they too practice chastity in their minds, and of those who are virgins for heaven’s sake, he goes on to say again, “Whoever is able to receive it, let him receive it.” He was making them more eager by showing how surpassingly great the good work is, and yet, in his unspeakable gentleness, he would not let the matter be locked up in the compulsion of a law. And he said this after showing it to be entirely possible, so that free choice might strive for it all the more.

“But if it is a matter of free choice, how does he say at the beginning, ‘Not everyone receives it, but only those to whom it is given’?” So that you would learn that the struggle is great — not so that you would suspect some allotment imposed by force. For it is given to those who are willing. But he spoke this way to show that whoever enters this contest needs much help from above, and whoever is willing will surely receive it. It is his custom to use this way of speaking when the good work to be done is great, as when he says, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries.”

That this is true is clear from the present case too. For if it were only a gift from above, and those who live as virgins contributed nothing themselves, he would have promised them the kingdom of heaven for nothing, and set them apart from the other eunuchs for nothing.

But notice, I beg you, how some people gain from the wicked doings of others. The Jews went away having learned nothing, for they had not asked in order to learn; but the disciples gained even from this.

“Then little children were brought to him, so that he would lay his hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. But he said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’ And he laid his hands on them, and went away from there.” [k]

And why did the disciples push the little children away? For the sake of dignity. What, then, does he do? Teaching them to be lowly and to trample worldly pride underfoot, he receives the children, takes them in his arms, and promises the kingdom to those who are like them — the kind of thing he had said before as well.

So let us too, if we want to inherit heaven, make this virtue our own with great diligence. For this is the height of true wisdom: to be simple and yet have understanding. This is the life of angels. Yes, for the soul of a little child is pure of all the passions. He bears no grudge against those who have hurt him, but goes to them as to friends, as though nothing had happened. However much his mother beats him, it is still her he looks for, and her he prefers to everyone. Show him the queen in her diadem, and he will not prefer her to his mother dressed in rags; he would rather see his mother in her rags than the queen in her splendor. For he tells what belongs to him from what is strange to him not by poverty and wealth, but by affection. He seeks nothing beyond what he needs: only to be filled at the breast, and then he stops sucking. The little child does not grieve over what we grieve over, such as loss of money and things like that; nor does he rejoice at what we rejoice at, these temporal things; he does not care about people’s good looks.

That is why he said, “The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these”: so that we would practice by choice what little children have by nature. The Pharisees did what they did out of nothing so much as craftiness and pride; so on every side he charges the disciples to be single-hearted, at once hinting at those men and instructing these. For nothing lifts people up into arrogance so much as power and precedence. Since, then, the disciples were going to enjoy great honors throughout the whole world, he forestalls their minds, not letting them feel anything the way people ordinarily do, neither demanding honors from the crowd nor having people clear the way before them.

These things seem small, but they are the cause of great evils. The Pharisees, at any rate, trained in this way, were carried on to the very peak of evil, seeking greetings, the first seats, the places in the middle. From these they ran aground on the shoal of their mad desire for glory, and from there on ungodliness. So those men went away having brought a curse on themselves by their testing, while the little children went away with a blessing, as being free of all these things.

Then let us too be like the little children, and “be infants in malice.” For it cannot be, it cannot be, that anyone will see heaven any other way; the crafty and the wicked must surely be thrown into hell.

And even before hell, we will suffer the worst of evils here. For it is said, “If you are evil, you alone will bear the evil; but if you are good, it is for yourself and for your neighbor.” See, at any rate, how this happened in earlier times too. Nobody was more wicked than Saul, and nobody more simple and single-hearted than David. Which of them, then, was the stronger? Did David not get Saul into his hands twice, and, though he had the power to kill him, hold back? Did he not have him shut up as though in a net and a prison, and spare him? And this when others were urging him on, and when he himself could have brought countless charges against him. Nevertheless he let him go away safe. And yet Saul was pursuing him with his whole army, while David, with a few desperate fugitives, was wandering and moving from place to place. Nevertheless the fugitive got the better of the king, because the one came to the contest with simplicity, and the other with wickedness. [m]

For what could be more wicked than that man? When David was leading his armies and bringing all his wars to a successful end, bearing the labors of the victories and the trophies but bringing the crowns to Saul, Saul tried to kill him.

Such is the nature of envy: it is always plotting against its own honors, wasting away the one who has it and surrounding him with countless disasters. That miserable man, for example, did not burst out in that pitiful cry, lamenting himself and saying, “I am in great distress; the Philistines are making war against me, and the Lord has departed from me,” until David had left him. While David was with him, he was not hard pressed in war, but was both safe and glorious; for the glory of the general passed to the king. [o]

For David was not inclined to seize power, nor did he try to put Saul off his throne. He did everything for Saul and was deeply devoted to him, and this is clear from what happened afterward as well. While he was under Saul’s authority, someone who did not look carefully might perhaps suppose that he acted this way out of a subject’s ordinary habit. But after he had withdrawn from Saul’s kingdom, what was there to hold him back from going so far as to kill him? Had Saul not treated him wickedly once, twice, and often? Was it not after he had received benefits from David? Was it not when he had nothing to accuse him of? Was Saul’s kingdom and safety not danger and insecurity for David himself? Did he not have to wander as a fugitive, trembling in fear of the worst, while the other was alive and reigning? Nevertheless none of these things drove him to stain his sword with blood. When he saw him asleep, and bound, and alone, in the midst of his own men, and had touched his head, and though many were stirring him up and urging him on, he held back from the murder and sent him away safe and sound. And as though he had been Saul’s bodyguard and shield-bearer rather than his enemy, he rebuked the army for its treachery toward the king.

What could equal this soul? What could equal that gentleness? We can see it from what has been said, but much more from what is done nowadays. For when we have considered our own worthlessness, then we will know more fully the virtue of those saints. So I beg you, hurry to imitate them.

For if you love glory, and plot against your neighbor for that reason, you will enjoy glory more fully when you despise it and hold back from plotting. For just as greed stands against becoming rich, so the love of glory stands against gaining glory. If you are willing, let us look into each of them. Since we have no fear of hell, and little regard for the kingdom, come, let us lead you on even from the things of this present life.

For who are the ridiculous people? Tell me. Are they not those who do what they do for the sake of glory from the crowd? And who are praised? Are they not those who despise the crowd’s praise? So if the love of empty glory brings reproach, and the man hungry for empty glory cannot hide that he loves it, he will certainly be an object of reproach, and the love of glory has become for him a cause of dishonor. And he disgraces himself not in this way only, but also because he is forced to do many shameful things, teeming with the utmost disgrace. It is like the way people suffer harm in the matter of gain more from the disease of greed than from anything else: they fall prey to many tricks, and out of small gains they make great losses, which is why this saying has even become a proverb. So too with the lover of pleasure: his passion becomes a hindrance to his enjoying his pleasure. Those at least who are deeply given over to it and are slaves of women — these above all the women carry around like servants. They never deign to treat them as men, but slap them, scorn them, lead them about, take them everywhere, give themselves airs, and in everything simply give them orders.

In the same way, nothing is lower or more dishonored than the arrogant man, mad for glory, who thinks himself high. For the human race loves a quarrel, and it sets itself against nothing so much as a boaster, a man who looks down on others, a slave of glory. And he himself, to keep up the show of his pride, behaves like a slave to the common people, flattering them and courting them, serving a slavery harsher than that of a slave bought with money. Knowing all this, then, let us lay aside these passions, so that we will not both pay the penalty here and be punished there without end. Let us become lovers of virtue. So, even before we reach the kingdom, we will reap the greatest benefits here, and when we have gone there we will share in the eternal blessings. May we all attain them, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.