1 And it came to pass that as he was in a certain place praying, when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him: Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
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VERS. 1.-- *And it came to pass.* After the history of the sisters (who signify the two lives) he brings in the Lord as having prayed, and as having instructed the disciples to pray, because both the prayer which he taught contains in itself the mystery of either life, and the perfection of those lives is to be obtained not by our own strength but by prayers. *When he ceased.* For this reason the Saviour is often brought in praying, that he may lead the disciples on to the pursuit of prayer. Whence, the prayer being ended, he is asked by the disciples, that he may teach how they ought to pray.
2 And he said to them: When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.
3 Give us this day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.
5 And he said to them: Which of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and shall say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves,
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VERS. 5.-- *Which of you hath a friend.* After he had set forth the form of prayer to those who asked, he lays upon them also instancy and frequency in praying, so that prayer may be offered not only by day but also by night; for he who at midnight asks loaves of his friend, and persists in the intention of asking, is not cheated of his prayer.
6 Because a friend of mine is come off his journey to me and I have not what to set before him.
7 And he from within should answer and say: Trouble me not; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee.
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VERS. 7.-- *Trouble me not.* He does not take away the hope of obtaining, but the more vehemently kindles the desire of praying, by showing the difficulty of obtaining. *The door is now.* The door which Paul asks to be opened to him for the speaking of the mystery of Christ, and which John saw opened to him, is the understanding of the divine word, which is shut in the time of a famine of the word of God, when understanding is not given. And the children, that is, those who, dealing out evangelical wisdom like bread, preached it through the whole world, are now with the Lord in eternal rest; and yet by praying it is brought about that he who prays receives understanding from the Lord himself, even if there be lacking a man through whom wisdom may be preached. *I cannot rise.* No one fears that he may waken a sleeper, whom he knows to be always watching in prayer.
8 Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
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VERS. 8.-- *Yet because of his importunity,* etc. Many are the snares, and heavy is the sleep of the body, because if the mind begins to sleep, it loses the vigour of its own strength. Shake off therefore thy sleep, that thou mayest knock at the door of Christ, that when thou hast entered there may be opened to thee the treasures hidden and in darkness in Christ Jesus.
9 And I say to you: Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.
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VERS. 9.-- *Ask, and it shall be given you.* If a man who is a friend rises and gives, compelled not by friendship but by weariness, how much more does God give, who without weariness most bountifully bestows what is asked. Lest therefore the soul, turned back from the vanity of error, waste away any longer in spiritual want, let us ask the banquet of the word, let us seek the friend who may give, let us knock at the door where hidden things are kept. For he gives great hope, who in promising does not deceive. *For every one that asketh receiveth.* There is need of perseverance, that we may obtain. But if it is given to him that asks, and he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it is opened, then as for him to whom it is not given, and who does not find, and to whom it is not opened, it appears that he has not sought and asked and knocked well.
10 For every one that asketh receiveth: and he that seeketh findeth: and to him that knocketh it shall be opened:
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VERS. 10.-- *Seek, and you shall find.--The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him in truth, and he will do the will of them that fear him*. Others, who do not so ask, James rebukes, saying: *You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss*, because you persevere in your sins.
11 And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? Or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
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VERS. 11.-- *And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone,* etc. Mystically. Bread signifies charity, on account of the greater appetite for it and its necessary use, etc., *as far as* let him stretch himself forth to those things which are before.
12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion?
13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?
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VERS. 13.-- *How much more.* An open comparison. For if a sinful man, still weighed down with frail flesh, does not refuse to give temporal things to his sons when they ask, much more does the heavenly Father bestow in heaven goods that do not fail upon sons endowed with his fear and his love.
14 And he was casting out a devil: and the same was dumb. And when he had cast out the devil, the dumb spoke: and the multitudes, were in admiration at it.
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VERS. 14.-- *And he was casting out.* After the words of preaching which he set before the humble, he works miracles also, so that those who do not believe him preaching may believe when they have seen miracles. Matthew says that this demoniac was blind as well. In whom three miracles are wrought by the Lord: he sees, he speaks, he is freed from the demon. And what was then done carnally in one man is done daily in the conversion of the Gentiles, so that first, the demon being cast out along with all the filth of idolatry, they may see the light of faith, and then mouths that were silent before may be loosed to the praise of God.
15 But some of them said: He casteth out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils.
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VERS. 15.-- *In Beelzebub.* King Ninus, the founder of Nineveh, consecrated a statue to Belus his father, and appointed divine honours for him; and the Chaldeans, receiving the likeness of that image, called it Bel. The Palestinians, receiving it, called it Baal, the Moabites Beelphegor. But the Jews, worshippers of the one God, called it Beelzebub for a derision of the Gentiles. For Baal means man, Zebub a fly; whence Beelzebub, that is, the man of flies, or one having flies, on account of the filth of the gore that was sacrificed in his temple. The Jews also asserted that the prince of demons dwelt in this image, by whose power they said that Jesus drove out demons.
16 And others tempting, asked of him a sign from heaven.
17 But he seeing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation; and house upon house shall fall.
18 And if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because you say that through Beelzebub I cast out devils.
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VERS. 18.-- *But he, when he saw their thoughts.* This the Lord has reserved as proper to himself, that he should behold and judge thoughts. It is proper to the Jews to seek signs, whence Paul: *The Jews require signs, the Gentiles wisdom*. *But he, when he saw.* He answers not to their words but to their thoughts: in which he gives a sure sign of his own power, by which he searches out the secrets of hearts. According to the letter it is plain that every kingdom, solid and firm, if it is divided into parts, is reduced to a wilderness, emptied of its inhabitants; and house shall fall upon house, when the inhabitants of one house are either oppressed or punished by the household of another house. But whither these things tend spiritually he sets forth when he adds: *And if Satan also be divided against himself.* If I, as you say, cast out demons in the prince of demons, then the kingdom of the devil is divided against itself, and so the power of his malice cannot stand. But if a demon cannot drive out a demon, you say falsely that I cast out demons in the prince of demons. But if he can, as you say, look to yourselves, that you go out from his kingdom which is divided, lest you be involved alike in its ruin. But by what power the Lord casts out demons, lest they think him the prince of demons, let them attend to what follows.
19 Now if I cast out devils by Beelzebub, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges.
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VERS. 19.-- *But if I in Beelzebub cast out demons, your sons.* He calls the apostles the sons of the Jews, who among the other miracles they had received from the Lord drove out demons also. Which casting out they assigned not to the devil but to God, being conscious to themselves that they had learned nothing of evil arts from the Lord. Therefore they themselves, choosing the ignoble and contemptible things of the world, in which there was no crafty malice, shall sit *upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.* Or, *sons,* that is, the exorcists of that nation, who by invoking the name of the Lord drove out demons. As though he said: If the casting out of demons in them is imputed not to the devil but to God, why should not the same work in me have the same cause? *Therefore they shall be your judges.* Not by the power of judgment, but by comparison, since they assign the casting out not to the devil but to God. *But if.* As though he said: A divided kingdom cannot stand, but the kingdom of Satan is divided, as you say, in that Satan drives out Satan; therefore, etc.
20 But if I by the finger of God cast out devils, doubtless the kingdom of God is come upon you.
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VERS. 20.-- *But if by the finger.* The Son is called the hand or the arm of the Father; the Holy Ghost is called the finger, on account of the difference of the various gifts which are given to men through the Holy Ghost, as the fingers are distinct one from another; nor does the inequality of the members do harm. For although the arm is greater than the finger, yet the arm with the finger is one body. By this finger the law was written on the tables. This finger the magicians confessed in Egypt. *Assuredly is come,* etc., *the kingdom.* That is, the judiciary power *of God:* by which he will separate the good from the evil in the day of judgment. Or, *Kingdom,* that is, the beatitude above. As though he said: If I cast out demons in the Spirit of God, know without doubt that the entrance of the heavenly kingdom is laid open to them that believe.
21 When a strong man armed keepeth his court, those things are in peace which he possesseth.
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VERS. 21.-- *When the strong man his court.* As though he said: If I, as you say, were casting out demons in Beelzebub, then I should be consenting in something to the works of the devil; but in no way do I consent with him, but rather I hasten to overcome him and to cast him out from my faithful ones. *When* the devil, *the strong man,* to do harm, *armed,* with many spiritual wickednesses, *keepeth,* in his own servitude, *his court,* that is the world, which is set in wickedness, in which, until the coming of the Son of God, the devil bore rule without contradiction, and used an ill-pacified sovereignty in the hearts of the unbelieving.
22 But if a stronger than he come upon him and overcome him, he will take away all his armour wherein he trusted and will distribute his spoils.
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VERS. 22.-- *But if a stronger.* He calls himself the stronger, who laid him low not by a concordant peace and working, as they slanderously alleged, but by a mightier power, and freed the world from his dominion. The arms of the devil which he took away are the most crafty wiles of spiritual wickedness. The spoils are the souls deceived by him, which Christ the victor distributes, which is the mark of one triumphing, because *leading captivity captive, he gave gifts to men, some indeed apostles, others evangelists (Ephes, IV)*, etc..
23 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.
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VERS. 23.-- *He that is not,* etc. And truly my works do not agree with the works of Satan, because I myself in nothing agree with him, but we are altogether contrary, because I am humble, kindly, willing to save souls; he is proud, envious, desirous to destroy. I by my preaching gather in the virtues; he scatters and severs from the unity of the Church. *And he that gathereth not.* These things may over and above be understood of all heretics or schismatics, who are all shut out from the kingdom of God.
24 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through places without water, seeking rest: and not finding, he saith: I will return into my house whence I came out.
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VERS. 24.-- *When the unclean spirit.* Because you withdraw yourselves from my kingdom, attributing my works to the devil, therefore the devil dwells in you, as in his own kingdom, more grievously than at the beginning. *Is gone out.* The devil went out from the Jews, when that people received the law and the worship of the one God, and he passed over to the Gentiles, who were dry and barren of the fatness of the Holy Ghost and of the love of neighbour. In whom now he does not find rest, because now he is driven out from the hearts of the Gentiles when the faith of Christ has been received, when he says: I will go back to the Jews whom I formerly left. And he finds that people swept with brooms, that is, with the superfluous observances of the Pharisees and the ceremonies of the law, which now avail nothing after the coming of Christ. And that he may possess it the more firmly, he takes to himself the whole company of demons. And the Israelites are now worse, blaspheming Christ in their little assemblies, than they had once been in Egypt before the law was received, because it is a greater unbelief not to receive him when he comes than not to believe in him who is to come. *Seeking rest, and he findeth not.* Because he who feeds upon depraved thoughts and deeds perceives that in the minds of the faithful all his temptations come to nothing. Then he says: *I will return into my house whence I came out.* I will return to that man's conscience, whence I had been cast out in baptism, and I will subject my former possession to my accustomed lordship.
25 And when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished.
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VERS. 25.-- *And when he is come he findeth it swept with brooms.* Because when he has gone back to a reprobate of this kind, his offences compelling it, he finds the conscience of the sinner cleansed from vices in baptism, but heaped up with no good work.
26 Then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself: and entering in they dwell there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.
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VERS. 26.-- *Then he taketh seven.* The fulness of all the vices. Which spirits, namely such as these, are called *more wicked* than the devil, because, though the devil is evil, yet those who, driven on by their own deserts, are made over to vices, are not only evil, but strive besides to make a display of the appearance of goodness through hypocrisy by affected virtues. *And the last state of the man becometh.* It were better to be ignorant of the way of truth than after acknowledging it to be turned back again.
27 And it came to pass, as he spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee and the paps that gave thee suck.
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VERS. 27.-- *Blessed.* Here Mary is praised, who bore the Lord. And the perversity both of the Jews then present and of the heretics to come, who deny the true humanity of Christ, is confuted, because she confesses the true Son of God against the blaspheming Jews, and testifies him a true son of man, consubstantial with his mother. For unless he were one flesh with his mother, in vain would that womb of the Virgin and those breasts be called blessed. *And the paps.* According to the natural philosophers, from the same fount there flows both milk for children to be nourished and seed for children to be begotten; therefore he could be conceived of the seed of the Virgin who could be nourished by her milk.
28 But he said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.
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VERS. 28.-- *Yea rather.* As though he said: Not only is Mary to be praised, because she bore the Word of God in her womb, but she is most of all blessed, because she kept the precepts of God in her work. So also all are blessed who conceive the word of God by the hearing of faith, and bring forth and nourish the keeping of good work in their own heart or in their neighbours'. *Who hear.* In praise of the Church. On the contrary the Pharisees are condemned, who sought neither to hear nor to fulfil the word of God, but to blaspheme it.
29 And the multitudes running together, he began to say: This generation is a wicked generation. It asketh a sign: and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.
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VERS. 29.-- *He began to say.* Certain men were slandering his works, to whom he has replied thus far. Others, tempting him, were seeking a sign from heaven, and to these he replies here. *A sign is sought, and a sign shall not be given to it,* etc. To the disciples he gave a sign of his divinity, both when he was transfigured before on the mountain, and afterwards when, as they looked on, he was lifted up into heaven. But to unbelievers, a sign from the lower passion of his humanity.
30 For as Jonas was a sign to the Ninivites; so shall the Son of man also be to this generation.
31 The queen of the south shall rise in the judgment with the men of this generation and shall condemn them: because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold more than Solomon here.
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VERS. 31.-- *The queen of the south shall rise.* Here, the people of the Jews being condemned, the mystery of the Church is set forth, which is gathered together from all the ends of the world: in the Ninevites through penance (which does away with sin), in the queen of the south the zeal of receiving wisdom (which guards against sin), that she may know the words of the true Peaceable One. For the Church stands upon two things: that thou either cease to sin, or know not how to sin. *In the judgment.* Not a thousand years before the judgment, as the Jews feign, but in the judgment itself shall she rise. *With the men.* Behold, a common resurrection is shown, of the good as well as of the evil. *Shall condemn.* Not by the power of judgment, but by the comparison of a better deed, because, leaving her empire behind, she came into Judea to hear a man famed for wisdom, whereas the Jews do not hear but blaspheme the true Wisdom of God dwelling among them. *In the preaching.* Jonas preached for a few days, Christ for a long time. He to strangers, Christ to his own fellow-citizens. He wrought no sign, Christ wrought many.
32 The men of Ninive shall rise in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it; Because they did penance at the preaching of Jonas. And behold more than Jonas here.
33 No man lighteth a candle and putteth it in a hidden place, nor under a bushel: but upon a candlestick, that they that come in may see the light.
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VERS. 33.-- *No man.* He who in the figure of the queen and of the Ninevites set the Church before the Synagogue, etc., *as far as* they will not enter by believing the open gate of the light.
34 The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body will be lightsome: but if it be evil, thy body also will be darksome.
35 Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.
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VERS. 35.-- *Take heed therefore lest,* etc. After the instruction of right faith he instructs also concerning good works and good intention, so that not only works but also the thoughts and intentions of the heart may be made clean; as though he said: I kindle the lamp of faith in your senses and set it in the Church. But you, so far as in you lies, kindle your own lamps, that is, cleanse the intentions of your heart, that from a clean intention your works also may be pleasing. These things, spoken particularly against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who craftily sought signs, instruct us generally according to the moral sense.
36 If then thy whole body be lightsome, having no part of darkness: the whole shall be lightsome and, as a bright lamp, shall enlighten thee.
37 And as he was speaking, a certain Pharisee prayed him that he would dine with him. And he going in, sat down to eat.
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VERS. 37.-- *And as he was speaking.* He does not say, as he was speaking these things, but *as he was speaking.* In which it is intimated that he turned aside to the Pharisee not immediately when these words were finished, but with other things coming between, because when this discourse was finished, while he was still speaking, behold his mother and his brethren were seeking to speak to him. Concerning whom, after he had answered the man who announced them: *He that doth the will of my Father, he is my brother and sister and mother,* he afterwards went in to the Pharisee's banquet. *Why not washed.* The Jews frequently wash their hands before they eat, holding the tradition of the elders, and returning from the market place they do not eat unless they be washed.
38 And the Pharisee began to say, thinking within himself, why he was not washed before dinner.
39 And the Lord said to him: Now you, Pharisees, make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter: but your inside is full of rapine and iniquity.
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VERS. 39.-- *Of the cup.* Mark relates that the Jews were wont to observe the washings of cups and pitchers and beds and brazen vessels. The cup is a glass vessel; the dish is earthenware, of clay. By this is figured the frailty of the human body, in which outwardly they make a show of holiness and feign justice: what was without they washed, within most wicked. *But that which is within you.* Let no one think that fornication and bodily vices of this kind are alone grievous, and that spiritual vices are light, such as avarice, anger, pride, and the rest, as the Pharisees thought.
40 Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make also that which is within?
41 But yet that which remaineth, give alms: and behold, all things are clean unto you.
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VERS. 41.-- *But yet that which remaineth.* Now the good teacher teaches how the contagion of the body ought to be cleansed. And here is more fully set out what he had said briefly above about cleansing the eye of the heart. For this whole passage is directed to this end, that it may invite us to the pursuit of simplicity, and condemn the superfluous and earthly things of the Jews, who by understanding the law according to the body are likened to the glass and the dish because of their frailty. In which, although they sin grievously, yet to them the absolution of sin is promised, if they strive to do mercy. What remains over from necessary food and clothing, give to the poor. Or, I give counsel: what alone is left after so great crimes, give alms. The first alms is to heal your own souls by believing in me who cleanse hearts; and when hearts have been cleansed through faith, all outward things also will be clean. He who wishes to give alms in an ordered way begins from himself, and gives it first to himself. For alms is a work of mercy, whence it is said: *Have mercy on thy own soul, pleasing God.*
42 But woe to you, Pharisees, because you tithe mint and rue and every herb and pass over judgment and the charity of God. Now these things you ought to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
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VERS. 42.-- *You pass over judgment.* He has briefly touched upon many of their vices, who, intent upon tithing worthless things, have not the fear of the judgment to come nor the charity of God. They pass over judgment, because they do not refer all that they do to the judgment. They pass over charity, because they do not love God from affection. But again, lest it make you, zealous for faith, negligent of works, he sets down the perfection of the faithful man, that after faith he may work.
43 Woe to you, Pharisees, because you love the uppermost seats in the synagogues and salutations in the marketplace.
44 Woe to you, because you are as sepulchres that appear not: and men that walk over are not aware.
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VERS. 44.-- *Who are as monuments.* Here he rebukes the superstition of those same teachers, who outwardly make a show of the appearance of right doctrine, but hide the foulness which they carry within.
45 And one of the lawyers answering, saith to him: Master, in saying these things, thou reproachest us also.
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VERS. 45.-- *Answering, however.* Hearing the word of God, the Pharisee out of an evil conscience thinks that an insult is being done to him, and, the punishment of the faithless being called to mind, understands that he is to be condemned.
46 But he said: Woe to you lawyers also, because you load men with burdens which they cannot bear and you yourselves touch not the packs with one of your fingers.
47 Woe to you who build the monuments of the prophets: and your fathers killed them.
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VERS. 47.-- *Woe to you.* They are not reproved because they adorn the monuments of the prophets, but because they imitate the slayers of the prophets; by building sepulchres they accuse their fathers' crimes. But by persecuting Christ and the apostles they imitate the crimes of their fathers, and the sentence of damnation which they were pronouncing upon their fathers they turn back upon themselves.
48 Truly you bear witness that you consent to the doings of your fathers. For they indeed killed them: and you build their sepulchres.
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VERS. 48.-- *Truly.* You build for the sake of catching the favour of the common people, as though you shuddered at their crimes; but by the very work you show that you consent to their treachery, because you do not do this good thing well, but for vainglory. *But you.* For this reason: because you are imitators of them, that you may fill up what was wanting to your fathers, namely that you may persecute me and mine, whom they persecuted in the prophets.
49 For this cause also the wisdom of God said: I will send to them prophets and apostles: and some of them they will kill and persecute.
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VERS. 49.-- *Prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill, and persecute.* Heretics lie, who say that the founder of the Old Testament is one and of the New another.
50 That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation,
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VERS. 50.-- *From the generation.* All the evil are one generation, one city, one body of the devil, as all the good are called one generation and one body.
51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, who was slain between the altar and the temple. Yea I say to you: It shall be required of this generation.
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VERS. 51.-- *As far as the blood of Zacharias.* Why as far as this man, when after him many were slain before the birth of Christ, and, Christ being born, the children were straightway destroyed by this generation? But because Abel was a shepherd of sheep, and was slain in the field, and Zacharias a priest slain in the court of the temple, they signify two orders of martyrs, the laity and those who are made over to the service of the altar.
52 Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered in: and those that were entering in, you have hindered.
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VERS. 52.-- *Because you have taken away the key.* The key is the humility of Christ, and they who have it understand the Scriptures. This the lawyers neither themselves understand by the law and the prophets, nor do they wish it to be understood by others. To enter the key is not to be content with the surface of the letter but to penetrate as far as the hidden things that are to be understood. Or: a teacher, if he scandalizes by his example those whom he builds up by his word, neither himself enters the kingdom of God and shuts out those who were able to enter.
53 And as he was saying these things to them, the Pharisees and the lawyers began violently to urge him and to oppress his mouth about many things,
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VERS. 53.-- *And as he was saying these things unto them, the Pharisees and the lawyers began.* How true were the charges of their treachery and dissimulation and impiety which they heard, they themselves bear witness, who at so great a thundering whirlwind do not come to their senses, but assail the teacher of truth.
54 Lying in wait for him and seeking to catch something from his mouth, that they might accuse him.