Commentary on Matthew

Chapter Five

74 CHAPTER FIVE e are instructed to pray with the door of our room closed,1 and likewise taught to offer our prayer in every place since the prayers of the saints were undertaken in the midst of wild beasts, in prisons, within flames, from the depth of the sea, and from the belly of the monster.2 We are told to enter the secret places, not of a house, but of the room of our heart. Enclosed within the privacy of our mind, we are to pray to God, not with copious speaking, but with our understanding , because every such prayer is superior to the words of our speech. Concerning the sacrament3 of prayer, Cyprian, the man of blessed memory, has freed us from the necessity of making comment.4 And although Tertullian wrote a most competent volume on this matter,5 the subsequent error of the man has detracted from the authority of his commendable writings.6 1. Mt 6.6. 2. bestia. Probably a reference to Jonah praying from the belly of the sea monster (Jon 2.2). Cf. Tertullian, De resurr. 32.3–4, who speaks of Jonah in the fish as prefiguring the persecution of Christians. 3. sacramento. 4. The Cyprian mentioned here was the bishop of Carthage from ca. 248 to 258, martyred under the reign of Decius. Among his surviving writings is De dominica oratione, a brief and apparently well known set of observations on the Lord’s Prayer. 5. Tertullian, De oratione. Tertullian, a layman who also lived in Carthage, focuses on the Lord’s Prayer in Chapters 2–8 of this work. 6. The negative reference is to Tertullian’s embrace of the New Prophecy later in his life. By Hilary’s day, the New Prophecy, or Montanism, had become completely discredited as a heretical movement. See Jerome, De viris illust. 26, 40, 41, 53; Augustine, De haer. 26–27. Vincent of Lérins cites this passage of Hilary’s in Comm. 18.46, slightly altering it to read, “by his subsequent error he undermined the authority of his commendable writings” (PL 50:664). Hilary’s attitude toward the value of Tertullian’s contributions is probably typical. The latter’s theological and biblical work was utilized extensively, but despite its importance, the writer is never regarded in nomine as an authority. ON MATTHEW, CHAP. 5 75 2. Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men.7 He teaches us that the benefit of fasting is gained without the outward display of a weakened body, and that we should not curry the favor of the pagans by a display of deprivation. Instead, every instance of fasting should have the beauty of a holy exercise . For oil is the fruit of mercy according to the heavenly and prophetic word.8 Our head,9 that is, the rational part of our life, should be adorned with beautiful works because all understanding is in the head. Impurities on our face are washed off so that no one is appalled by its disheveled appearance. There is, however, a greater grace of [his] radiance in our encounter :10 once we are purified for the clarity of a good conscience and have been anointed with oil11 for the grace of works of mercy , our fasting commends us to God. Even when we shun the attention of others by fasting with our heads anointed, we will be more pleasing12 and be acknowledged.13 3. Do not lay up treasure for yourselves on earth,14 etc. Bypassing the concern for human glory and riches, the Lord shows that we should make every effort to please God. Because detraction by envious people distorts human glory15 as do the vices of the body, the result is that a treasury of money here on earth is in danger of being either lost or stolen. Heavenly glory, however, is eternal; it cannot be seized by robbery, nor destroyed by a moth, nor deteriorated by the rust of envy.16 Whether the locus of treasure that we seek is held in our heart17 or in the light 7. Mt 6.16. 8. Ps 44.8 Vg. (Ps 45.7). 9. The head is the part anointed with oil. 10. I.e., with God, as suggested by Coustant, PL 9:943D. Cf. Hilary, In Matt. 4.7 and Tract. Ps. 140.9. 11. delibutos. 12. ridiculi, literally meaning...