1 And he entered again into the synagogue: and there was a man there who had a withered hand.
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VERS. 1.-- *The withered hand.* Which was stretched out to the forbidden fruit, and withered from good work, and was restored by the sap of good works through the hands of Christ stretched out upon the cross. This man signifies the covetous, who, unwilling to give, wish to receive, to plunder and not to bestow: to whom it is said that they should stretch forth their hands, that is, he who *stole, let him now steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have wherewith to give to him that suffereth need*.
2 And they watched him whether he would heal on the sabbath days, that they might accuse him.
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VERS. 2.-- *And they watched him.* Because he had plausibly excused the disciples: they watch himself, that if he heal on the sabbath they may accuse him of transgression: if he heal not, of cruelty or of weakness. *It is lawful to do good on the sabbath days.* He shows that they violate the precepts of the law by a wicked interpretation, thinking that on the sabbath one must keep holiday from good, whereas the law says, etc., *as far as* he set before them the likeness of the sheep, and concluded that *it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.* *A soul.* By the part he signifies the whole man. Either because he did this for the soul's sake, or because this healing of the hand signifies the salvation of the soul. *To destroy.* Not that he who is supremely merciful could destroy anyone, but for him not to save is to destroy. As he is said to have hardened the heart of Pharao, not that he hardened it, but that he did not soften it when it was hardened.
3 And he said to the man who had the withered hand: Stand up in the midst.
4 And he saith to them: Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? To save life, or to destroy? But they held their peace.
5 And looking round about on them with anger, being grieved for the blindness of their hearts, he saith to the man: Stretch forth thy hand. And he stretched it forth: and his hand was restored unto him.
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VERS. 5.-- *Stretch forth thy hand.* The unfruitful weakness of the soul is not better healed than by the bestowing of alms; whence: *He that hath two coats, let him give to him that hath none: and he that hath meat, let him do in like manner*. And in Ecclesiasticus: *Son, let not thy hand be stretched out to take, and shut to give*. For in vain does he spread out his hands to the Lord in prayer, who does not stretch them out to the widow that asks. *And the hand was restored unto him.* A great zeal of wickedness, they reckon it for a crime., that at his word the hand was healed. Nor even on the sabbath can he be convicted of having laboured, who spoke and they were made: whereas they themselves on the sabbath carry food, hand round cups, and the rest that is necessary for living.
6 And the Pharisees going out, immediately made a consultation with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.
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VERS. 6.-- *And going forth.* They who cannot do it by themselves seek companions of iniquity. *With the Herodians.* The ministers of Herod, because of the enmities which he himself was exercising against the man, pursued with snares and hatreds Jesus, whom John preached.
7 But Jesus retired with his disciples to the sea; and a great multitude followed him from Galilee and Judea,
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VERS. 7.-- *He retired.* He flees as man, because his hour had not yet come, and there was no place for his passion outside Jerusalem. From the synagogue he retires to the sea, etc. He leaves Judaea, he comes to the Gentiles with his disciples, that is, when the apostles preached he approached the hearts of the Gentiles: and so he received many that came to him, and gave the salvation they had desired. *And a great crowd.* The teachers of the people and the ministers of the king pursue him with hatred: the unlearned common folk follow him with love, and very many deserve to be healed.
8 And from Jerusalem, and from Idumea and from beyond the Jordan. And they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, hearing the things which he did, came to him.
9 And he spoke to his disciples that a small ship should wait on him, because of the multitude, lest they should throng him.
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VERS. 9.-- *A small ship.* The Church gathered out of the Gentiles, having passed over the waves of the world in mind: which, the more it widens the bosom of the heart for the receiving of grace, the more securely it treads upon the waves of the world. *Lest they should throng him.* They throng him who trouble the peace of the Church. They touch him who receive the faith with a true heart and with love, and they who touched him are reported to have been healed: fleeing those who thronged him, he went up into the little ship.
10 For he healed many, so that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had evils.
11 And the unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him: and they cried, saying:
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VERS. 11.-- *And the unclean spirits,* etc. Each of the two, both they that had plagues, and the unclean spirits. But the sick with a holy intention of health: the possessed, or rather the demons in them: compelled by fear not only to fall down, but also to confess his majesty. For, terrified by his presence, they could not hide him whom they now well knew to be the Son of God. Sounder than the Arians, who even to-day deny that he is the Son of God.
12 Thou art the Son of God. And he strictly charged them that they should not make him known.
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VERS. 12.-- *That they should not make him known.* Not only the demons, who confess unwillingly, or those healed by him, who confess of their own accord: but the apostles also, who were to preach in all the world after the passion, are bidden to be silent before the passion, lest, his divine majesty being preached, the passion should be deferred, and so the salvation of the world.
13 And going up into a mountain, he called unto him whom he would himself: and they came to him.
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VERS. 13.-- *And going up.* After he had forbidden unclean spirits to preach him, he chose holy men, who should preach him and cast out wicked spirits. This mountain signifies the height of justice, in which they were to be instructed and which they were to preach, by the place he admonishes them to be raised up to heavenly things, and so he gave the law also upon a mountain. It is the custom of divine Scripture to speak allegorically: but let us so apply high things to our own understandings, that the truth of the history, etc., *as far as* they are called into the mountain who are lofty both in merit and in word, that the place may accord with their high merits.
14 And he made that twelve should be with him, and that he might send them to preach.
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VERS. 14.-- *That they should be twelve.* God loved the beauty of Jacob when the Most High looked upon the nations, and divided the sons of Adam. He appointed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel, that they might be upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. To whom was given the power which the Son received from the Father according to the flesh, that they also might do the works which he himself did, and might do greater than these. He gave also the power of raising the dead, as Matthew says, that the power shown, faith, etc., *as far as* because *tongues are for a sign not to believers, but to unbelievers*.
15 And he gave them power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils.
16 And to Simon he gave the name Peter:
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VERS. 16.-- *And he imposed.* Not then for the first time, but when he said to him who had been brought by Andrew: *Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter*. But here the evangelist makes thee attentive, saying that, etc., *as far as* or hearing the sadness of death, that is, when it is said to him: *Another shall gird thee and lead thee whither thou wouldst not*.
17 And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he named them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder.
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VERS. 17.-- *And James.* Who has supplanted the desires of the flesh. And John, who received by grace what others receive by labour. *And he imposed on them the name Boanerges, which is, the sons of thunder.* Whose lofty merit deserves to hear upon the mountain the thunder of the Father thundering through the cloud concerning the Son: *This is my beloved Son*, that through the cloud of the flesh they also might scatter upon the earth the fire and the lightnings of Christ into rain. for the Lord made the lightnings into rain, that mercy might quench what judgment burns; whence: *I will sing to thee mercy and judgment, O Lord*. *James.* Who, at the Lord's calling, supplanted the care of the flesh, and, when Herod slew him, despised the flesh itself. *John.* In whom is grace, or *the grace of the Lord,* who, for the favour of that special love which he earned by the glory of virginity, reclined upon the breast of his Redeemer at the supper. *Sons.* Of whom one, thundering, uttered the theological voice (which no man before had known how to bring forth): *In the beginning was the Word,* etc. Which he left so heavy with weight, that if he had wished to thunder somewhat more, not even the world itself could have contained it.
18 And Andrew and Philip, and Bartholomew and Matthew, and Thomas and James of Alpheus, and Thaddeus and Simon the Cananean:
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VERS. 18.-- *And Andrew.* Who manfully does violence to his own perdition, that he may always have in himself the sentence of death, and his soul always in his own hands. *And Philip.* Who is *the mouth of a lamp,* who enlightens by his mouth what he has received, to whom is given the work of an enlightened mouth. This kind of speech Scripture often records, when names are set down for the sake of mysteries: which the evangelist now, earnestly aiming at it in the person of God, inserts. *And Bartholomew.* Who is the son of him that suspends the waters, of him namely who said: *I will command my clouds that they rain not*. But the name of a son of God is acquired through peace and love: for *Blessed* are *the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God*. And: *Love your enemies* that you may be *the sons of God*. *And Matthew.* Who is *given:* to whom is granted not only the remission of sins, but also to be in the number of the apostles, *that the lion and the ox may eat together, and the wolf with the lamb*. Note, that the other evangelists put Matthew before, and do not call him a publican. He himself sets himself after Thomas, and calls himself a publican. *And Thomas.* Who is *an abyss.* For many know deep things, but do not utter them. *Whence I know a man in Christ,* etc., even to: *which it is not lawful for a man to utter*. Thomas an abyss: because he penetrated the depth of the power in the resurrection. Or a twin, which in Greek is called *didymus,* that is, doubting, because of his doubting heart, since he scarcely believed the resurrection. *And James the son of Alpheus.* That is, of the learned or of the thousandth, of whom *at his side a thousand shall fall, and ten thousand at thy right hand*. James the son of Alpheus, who is also called the brother of the Lord: because Mary of Alpheus was a sister, etc., *as far as* immediately after the resurrection he is ordained bishop of Jerusalem, as being learned or the son of a learned man. *Thaddeus.* The keeper of the heart. Him Luke, in the Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles, names Jude of James, because he was the brother of James the brother of the Lord. Whence he is called the son of Mary the mother of James and Joseph and Jude and Simon. * And Thaddeus,* who is *a little heart,* that is, a tiller of the heart, who keeps his heart with all watchfulness. For by cleanness of heart God is seen, as through clean glass. *And Simon.* Simon the Cananean, from Cana a village of Galilee, who is also Simon *Zelotes,* that is, the zealous. Cana is zeal; the Cananean, Zelotes. *And Simon the Cananean.* Who is also Zelotes, Simon laying down or having sorrow. For *Blessed* are *they that mourn, for they shall be comforted*. He fulfils a threefold mourning who seeks the comfort that is to come. He weeps for his own sins with David and Mary. With Paul he weeps with them that weep. And he weeps much with John, who said: *And I wept much: because no man was found worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof*. But he is called Zelotes whom the zeal of the house of God eats up, as Phinees: *And the slaughter ceased*.
19 And Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
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VERS. 19.-- *And Judas Scariot.* Who does not blot out his sin by penance, nor is it blotted out by remembrance. Whence: *And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let it be against the Lord continually*.Judas is *confessing* or *glorious;* Scarioth, *the memory of death.* There are many confessors in the Church, proud and boastful, of whom the first is Simon Magus, and other heretics, whose deadly memory is kept in the Church: that it may be blotted out. Judas Scarioth, from the village in which he was born, or from the tribe of Issachar. Issachar is *a wage,* namely the price of perdition: Scarioth, etc., *as far as* whom the example of one humbles unto fear, as the fall of Lucifer humbled the angels, that *Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom*, but *he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord*. *And they come,* etc. They who have undertaken the care of others ought carefully to guard the gift of conscience, that they may rule first themselves, and thence others.
20 And they come to a house, and the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.
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VERS. 20.-- The house in which they come together is the primitive Church. The crowds which hinder the eating of bread are sins and vices, because *he that eateth the body of the Lord unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord*. Whence the Lord is turned into fury when he says: *Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life*.
21 And when his friends had heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him. For they said: He is become mad.
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VERS. 21.-- *And when they had heard,* etc. The crowd throngs him, his own despise him as one mad, in which the salvation of the Gentiles is marked, and the envy of the Jews is reproved, of whom: *He came unto his own, and his own received him not*.
22 And the scribes who were come down from Jerusalem, said: He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of devils he casteth out devils.
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VERS. 22.-- *And the Scribes.* If any through slowness of mind do not understand the word of God, there yet remains a hope of salvation; if perchance they should understand, none. But for those who are unwilling to understand and who pervert what they do understand, there is no hope. Whence, *Scribes,* that is, the wise, etc. *From Jerusalem.* Which signifies that he was to be persecuted by his own fellow-citizens even unto death. We read above that a crowd followed him from Galilee and Jerusalem, and from beyond Jordan and about Tyre and Sidon, which are cities of the Gentiles: and the Scribes from Jerusalem were blaspheming: because the crowd of the people of the Jews conducted him with palms and praises; the Gentiles longed for him; the Scribes and the elders of the people were treating of his murder. *He hath Beelzebub.* Man of flies, or one having flies: by which name they surnamed the prince of demons, on account of the filth of the blood of the sacrifices.
23 And after he had called them together, he said to them in parables: How can Satan cast out Satan?
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VERS. 23.-- *How can Satan,* etc. Let them choose which they will. If Satan cannot cast out Satan, they say nothing against the Lord. But if he can, let them withdraw from his kingdom, which, being divided, cannot stand.
24 And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
25 And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
26 And if Satan be risen up against himself, he is divided, and cannot stand, but hath an end.
27 No man can enter into the house of a strong man and rob him of his goods, unless he first bind the strong man, and then shall he plunder his house.
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VERS. 27.-- *And then shall he plunder his house.* He plundered the house, because he distributed all the parts of the world possessed by the devil to the apostles and to their successors, as provinces parted out among them, that they might convert the peoples to the faith.
28 Amen I say to you that all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and the blasphemies wherewith they shall blaspheme:
29 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, shall never have forgiveness, but shall be guilty of an everlasting sin.
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VERS. 29.-- *But he that shall blaspheme.* Because he does not deserve to do penance so as to be received, who, understanding Christ, was saying that he was the prince of demons, etc., *as far as: For he that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven*. Matthew says: *He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost or the word,* etc. Where he shows that certain things are revealed in the world to come. Which is to be understood of the least matters, as of an idle word, of excessive laughter; for which even this life has earned pardon. *For ever.* This against Origen, who promises pardon to all sinners after the judgment, when countless ages have passed. *He shall be guilty of an everlasting sin.* Not because [it is said] that he is not a spirit: or that he is, but is not God: or that he is God, but less than the Father and the Son: because this comes not of diabolical envy, but of human ignorance, etc.
30 Because they said: He hath an unclean spirit.
31 And his mother and his brethren came; and standing without, sent unto him, calling him.
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VERS. 31.-- *Brethren.* Not sons of Mary ever Virgin, as Helvidius lies: nor of Joseph by another wife, as others prate, but kinsmen. The mother and the brethren, the people of the Jews of whom Christ is according to the flesh, stand outside in the literal sense. The crowd within the house, the Gentiles in the spiritual mystery. The Jews wish to see Christ outside, because, not seeking the spiritual understanding, they rather compel or seek him to come out to teach carnal things.
32 And the multitude sat about him; and they say to him: Behold thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee.
33 And answering them, he said: Who is my mother and my brethren?
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VERS. 33.-- *Who is my mother.* He does not refuse obedience to a mother, who says: *Honour father and mother*: but he shows that he owes more to his Father's mysteries than to a mother's affections, and he showed by example the same thing which he says in word: *He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me*. Nor does he contemn his brethren injuriously, but he sets the spiritual work before kinship, teaching that the bond of hearts is better than the bond of bodies.
34 And looking round about on them who sat about him, he saith: Behold my mother and my brethren.
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VERS. 34.-- *Behold my mother,* etc. That we may know that we are both his brethren and his mother, if we shall have done the will of his Father, so that we may be co-heirs, because he discerns not by sexes but by deeds. Sister and brother by believing, mother by preaching, while through preaching the love of Christ, as it were Christ himself, is begotten in the heart of the hearer.
35 For whosoever shall do the will of God, he is my brother, and my sister, and mother.