Commentary on Matthew

Chapter Twenty-Seven

259 CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN ho then is the faithful and wise servant whom the Lord places in charge over his household?1 and the rest. Al- though the Lord exhorts us generally toward tireless and focused vigilance,2 he issues a special charge to the rulers of the people, that is, the bishops, about their watching for his coming. The Lord identifies the faithful and wise servant as the one given charge3 over the household, to care for the needs and the interests of the people entrusted to him.4 If the servant hears what the Lord says and obeys his instructions, that is, if the servant has the advantage and truth of the Lord’s teaching, he will nourish the household5 by strengthening the weak, by repairing what is broken, by correcting what is perverse, and by dispensing the Word of Life6 as eternal food. If the servant does these things with perseverance, he will obtain glory from his Lord,7 just as a faithful distributor and practical manager would receive, and will be placed over all the Lord’s possessions .8 In other words, the servant will be placed in God’s glory since there is no better reward than this.9 2. Counting on the long patience of God10 —which is prolonged for the advancing of human salvation11 —the servant, however, becomes insolent toward his fellow servants12 and gives himself over to worldly evils and vices. While he is absorbed 1. Mt 24.45. 2. Lit., “preoccupation with vigilance” (vigilantiae curam). 3. praepositum. 4. Cf. Cyprian, Ep. 63.1, referring to the bishops who are given charge (praepositos) over the Lord’s churches. 5. familiae. Cf. Cyprian, Ep. 74.9.1. 6. verbum vitae. Phil 2.16. 7. Mt 24.46. 8. Mt 24.47. 9. Cf. 1 Pt 5.2–4. 10. Mt 24.48. 11. 2 Pt 3.9. 12. Mt 24.49. 260 HILARY OF POITIERS with meticulous care for satisfying13 his present appetites, the Lord will come on a day which he thought would never come.14 Instead of the servant receiving the promised possessions, his allotment is shared with the hypocrites in eternal punishment ,15 because he had not counted on the Lord’s advent; and because he did not obey the commandments, and because he became engrossed in the present life, and because he lived the life of the pagans, and because he was oblivious to judgment, he subjected the household in his care to hunger, thirst, and slaughter. 3. Then will the Kingdom of heaven be compared to ten virgins,16 and the rest. From what was said earlier, we can understand the reason for this passage. The whole has to do with the great day of the Lord, in which the secrets of human thought will be revealed by the knowledge of God’s judgment.17 Moreover, the true faith of the God for whom we wait will gain the certain benefit of hope. Clearly there is in the five wise virgins and in the five foolish ones18 a division established between believers and unbelievers.19 This is according to the example of Moses, who had received the Ten Commandments20 written on two tablets.21 It was necessary that everything be written on each. On these double-slabs22 there is signified the proper division between the right and the left,23 and between the good and bad, even though these [two sides] are joined in one testament. 4. The bridegroom and the bride is our Lord God in the body. For as the Spirit is wedded to the flesh, so the flesh is to 13. exercens. 14. Mt 24.50. 15. Mt 24.51. 16. Mt 25.1. Hilary is rightly following the wording of this verse in the Old Latin. 17. Cf. 1 Cor 3.13. 18. Mt 25.2. 19. This interpretation may stem from Hilary’s familiarity with De decem virginibus, attributed to Victorinus of Poetovio (Sur Matt. II.204, n.4). 20. decem verba. 21. Ex 32.15. 22. duplex pagina. 23. A metaphor used for distinguishing the good (right) from evil (left), since the right hand was the one of blessing. See Mt 25.32–34. ON MATTHEW, CHAP. 27 261 the Spirit.24 When the trumpet finally sounds the alert,25 we go out to meet only one spouse: the two have become one now that the humility of the flesh...