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Matthew 9
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BOOK ONE (1.1–10.42) 105 For if the souls of men and beasts are of the same substance and from the same creator, how is it that for the sake of one man’s salvation two thousand pigs are drowned?280 8.34. And behold, the whole city went out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they asked him to move on from their borders. Those who ask him to move on from their borders do this not out of pride (as some think)281 but out of humility. They judge themselves unworthy of the presence of the Lord, just as Peter did also at the catch of the fish, when he fell down at the knees of the Savior and said: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”282 Chapter 9 9.1–2. And he came to his own city. And behold, they brought to him a paralytic lying on a mat. Now when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic: “Take courage, son, your sins are forgiven you,” and the rest. By “his city” we should understand no other than Nazareth . This is why he was called a Nazarene.283 Now, as we said above,284 they carried to him a second paralytic lying on a mat, because he was not strong enough to enter. “But when Jesus saw the faith,” not of him who was being carried, but of those who were carrying him, he said to the paralytic: “Take courage, son, your sins are forgiven you.” Oh, what wonderful humility! He calls him “son,” this despised cripple, weakened in all his joints, whom the priests did not consider worthy to touch. Surely , then, he calls him “son” because his sins are forgiven him. According to a tropology,285 sometimes a soul lying in its body, with all the strength of its members weakened, is brought to be cured by the perfect doctor, the Lord. If it is healed by his mer280 . Cf. Homily 76 in FOTC 57, 142. 281. Cf. Origen, fragm. 171. Actually Origen’s interpretation is probably more justifiable than Jerome’s here. 282. Lk 5.8. 283. Cf. Mt 2.23. 284. Cf. Mt 8.23. 285. Tropology refers to a deeper and more figurative interpretation. Simonetti , Matthew 1a (ACC), 173, observes: “The term tropologia originally meant an allegorical interpretation in general. From the late fourth century, however, it came to mean specifically a moral allegory, as in this example from Jerome.” 106 ST. JEROME cy, it receives such great strength that it would immediately carry its mat.286 9.3. And behold, some of the scribes said among themselves: “This man is blaspheming.” We read that God says in the prophet: “I am he who blots out your iniquities.”287 Consequently, then, the scribes, since they were thinking that he was a man and they understood the words of God, accuse him of blasphemy. But the Lord, seeing their thoughts, shows himself to be God, who can recognize what is hidden in the heart. In a way he speaks by his silence and says: By the same majesty and power with which I perceive your thoughts, I can also forgive men their sins. Understand for yourselves what the paralytic attained. 9.5. “What is easier to say: ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say: ‘Rise and walk’?” The difference between saying and doing is great. Only he who forgave them could have known whether the paralytic’s sins had been forgiven. But the words: “rise and walk” are something that both he who got up as well as those who saw him rise could prove to be true. There is then a bodily miracle that proves the truth of the spiritual miracle. Yet the same power is needed to forgive the faults both of the body and of the soul. It is also given to us to understand that most bodily weaknesses happen on account of sins. This is perhaps why the sins are forgiven first, so that when the causes of the weakness have been taken away, wholeness might be re-established. 9.6. “Take up your mat and go to your home.” The paralyzed soul, if it gets up, if it recovers its former strength, carries its own mat on which it was lying before it had been weakened. It carries it to the home of its own virtues.288 9.9. And when Jesus passed on from there...