Commentary on Matthew

Chapter Four

59 CHAPTER FOUR hen a great crowd had assembled together, he then climbed up and taught them from the mountain. In other words, having situated himself on the height of the Father’s majesty, he laid down the precepts of heavenly life. For he could not have delivered eternal principles had he not been situated in eternity. And so it is written: He opened his mouth and began to teach them.1 It would have been easier to say that he was the one to speak, but because he dwelt2 in the glory of the Father’s majesty and taught about eternity, it is clear that he had yielded the service of his human mouth over to the movement of the Spirit’s eloquence.3 2. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.4 The Lord had taught by his example that we should forsake the glory of human ambition when he said, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve.5 And when he had announced through the prophets that he was going to choose a lowly people who trembled at his words,6 he laid the foundations for this perfect beatitude in the humility of spirit. He has placed in possession of his heavenly Kingdom those who possess the character of humility, that is, those who remember that they are but men.7 They are conscious that they have been formed by him from the lowest and most insignificant elements , yet fashioned and created into the form of a perfect 1. Mt. 5.2. 2. institerat. 3. ... ad motum Spiritus eloquentis oboedisse ostenditur humani oris officium. Cf. Lk 4.18; Mt 12.18. 4. Mt 5.3. 5. Supra, 3.5 (Mt 4.10). 6. Is 66.2. 7. What follows in the text is a sketch of the creation of mankind in Gn 2 designed to reinforce our dependent and therefore humble condition before God. 60 HILARY OF POITIERS body.8 As they progressed under God’s direction, they came to have the capacity of feeling, thinking, discerning, and acting. They are conscious that there is nothing which belongs to anyone , nothing of one’s own, but to each one the gift of one Parent9 is offered in the same way, both in bestowing the origins of life and for enjoying the means of this life.10 Through the example of that greatest blessing11 that is abundantly given to us, we ought to be emulators of the goodness12 he has displayed in us. Let us show goodness to all and consider that everything is common to all lest anything corrupt us; neither the insolence of the world’s arrogance, nor the desire of wealth, nor the ambition of vainglory. Rather, let us be subject to God, and on account of a common nature13 of our being, let us embrace a common life of love toward all people. Let us recognize that we are born into that greatness14 along with future prospects of divine goodness and that we must merit this reward and honor by our works in the present life. Through this humility of spirit, therefore, as we remember what God has done for us—endowed with all things and with the hope of greater things to come—the Kingdom of heaven will be ours. 3. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.15 To the meek the inheritance of the land is promised, that is, the inheritance of his body, which the Lord himself assumed as his dwelling. Because Christ will have dwelt in us through the gentleness of our disposition,16 we also will be clothed in the glory of his bodily splendor.17 8. Cf. Gn 2.7. Perhaps an echo of Tertullian’s contrast between homo and humilitas; see Apol. 18.2. 9. parentis unius. 10. ea substantiam ministrari. 11. optimi illius. 12. Following the reading of PL 9:932B: esse aemulos oportere. 13. communia. 14. magnum. 15. Mt 5.4. In accord with several Latin readings available to him, Hilary interposes the order of vv. 4 and 5. 16. mentis. 17. clarificati eius corporis. Cf. 1 Cor 15.40, 53. ON MATTHEW, CHAP. 4 61 4. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.18 For those who are mourning, the comfort of eternal consolation is offered. We do not lament over losses or...