Commentary on Matthew

Matthew 5

74 ST. JEROME says to the Savior: If you will fall down and worship me, he hears the contrary, that he himself ought rather to worship him, his own Lord and God. 4.11. Then the devil left him, and angels came and were ministering to him. Temptation precedes so that victory may follow. The angels minister so that the worth of the victor might be proven. 4.15. “Land of Zabulon and land of Nephthalim,” and the rest. These were the first to hear the Lord preaching, so that where the first captivity of Israel by the Assyrians had been, there the proclamation of the Redeemer might arise. 4.17. From that time Jesus began to preach and to say: “Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven will come near.” 88 When John was handed over, straight away Jesus begins to preach.89 The consequence of the Law ceasing is that the Gospel arises. But if the Savior preaches the same things that John the Baptist had previously said, he shows that he is the Son of the same God whose prophet [John] is. 4.19. “Come after me, and I shall make you become fishers of men.” These were the first ones to be called to follow the Lord. They are illiterate90 fishermen and are sent to preach, lest it be thought that the faith of believers comes from eloquence and learning rather than from the power of God.91 4.24. And he cured both lunatics and paralytics. He is not speaking of those who were truly lunatics, but of those who were thought to be lunatics due to the deception of demons. By observing lunary seasons, demons long to defame the creation in order that blasphemies redound to the Creator.92 Chapter 5 5.1. And seeing the crowds, he went up on a mountain, and when he had sat down, his disciples came to him. The Lord goes up to the mountains to draw the crowds toward deeper matters with 88. The CCSL text has the future tense here. The SC changes this to the perfect. 89. Cf. Origen, fragm. 74. 90. Cf. Acts 4.13. 91. Cf. 1 Cor 2.4–5. 92. See below on Mt 17.15–16. BOOK ONE (1.1–10.42) 75 himself,93 but the crowds are not capable of ascending. The disciples follow and he speaks to them, not standing, but sitting and drawn in. For they were unable to understand him shining in his majesty. Some of the more simple brothers think, in accordance with the letter, that it was on the Mount of Olives that he taught the Beatitudes and the other things which follow . This is hardly the case. For from what precedes and what follows, the location is shown to be in Galilee. In my opinion it is either Tabor or some other high mountain. After all, after he finished his words, it immediately follows: “Now when he had entered Capernaum.”94 5.3. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” This is what we read elsewhere : “And he will save the humble in spirit.”95 But lest anyone think that the Lord is preaching that kind of poverty that is sometimes borne by necessity, he has added “in spirit,” that you might understand humility, not indigence. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” who on account of the Holy Spirit are poor voluntarily . This is also why the Savior speaks through Isaiah concerning those who are poor in this way: “The Lord has anointed me; for this reason he sent me to evangelize the poor.”96 5.4. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land.” He does not mean the land of Judea or the land of this world, nor the accursed land that brings forth thorns and thistles.97 For the cruelest warrior can possess that land. Rather, he means the land that the Psalmist desires: “I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.”98 One who possesses land in this way and who triumphs after the victory is further described in the forty-fourth Psalm: “Set out and proceed prosperously , and reign because of truth and meekness and justice.”99 For here below people possess land not through meekness, but through arrogance. 5.5. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be consoled.” The mourning recorded here is not the mourning of those who have died in accordance...