Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas
5:38–42
38. Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39. But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
41. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
42. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
GLOSS. (non occ.) The Lord having taught that we are not to offer injury to our neighbour, or irreverence to the Lord, now proceeds to shew how the Christian should demean himself to those that injure him.
AUGUSTINE. (cont. Faust. xix. 25.) This law, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, was enacted to repress the flames of mutual hate, and to be a check on their undisciplined spirits. For who when he would take revenge, was ever content to return just so much harm as he had received? Do we not see men who have suffered some trifling hurt, straightway plot murder, thirst for blood, and hardly find evil enough that they can do to their enemies for the satisfying their rage? To this immeasured and cruel fury the Law puts bounds when it enacts a lex talionis; that is, that whatever wrong or hurt any man has done to another, he should suffer just the same in return. This is not to encourage but to check rage; for it does not rekindle what was extinguished, but hinders the flames already kindled from further spread. It enacts a just retaliation, properly due to him who has suffered the wrong. But that mercy forgives any debt, does not make it unjust that payment had been sought. Since then he sins who seeks an unmeasured vengeance, but he does not sin who desires only a just one; he is therefore further from sin who seeks no retribution at all. I might state it yet thus; It was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not take unequal retaliation; But I say unto you. Ye shall not retaliate; this is a completion of the Law, if in these words something is added to the Law which was wanting to it; yea, rather that which the Law sought to do, namely, to put an end to unequal revenge, is more safely secured when there is no revenge at all.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. For without this command, the commands of the Law could not stand. For if according to the Law we begin all of us to render evil for evil, we shall all become evil, since they that do hurt abound. But if according to Christ we resist not evil, though they that are evil be not amended, yet they that are good remain good.
JEROME. Thus our Lord by doing away all retaliation, cuts off the beginnings of sin. So the Law corrects faults, the Gospel removes their occasions.
GLOSS. (non occ.) Or it may be said that the Lord said this, adding somewhat to the righteousness of the old Law.
AUGUSTINE. (Serm. in Mont. i. 19.) For the righteousness of the Pharisees is a less righteousness, not to transgress the measure of equal retribution; and this is the beginning of peace; but perfect peace is to refuse all such retribution. Between that first manner then, which was not according to the Law, to wit, that a greater evil should be returned for a less, and this which the Lord enjoins to make His disciples perfect, to wit, that no evil should be returned for evil, a middle place is held by this, that an equal evil should be returned, which was thus the passage from extremest discord to extremest peace. Whoso then first does evil to another departs furthest from righteousness; and who does not first do any wrong, but when wronged repays with a heavier wrong, has departed somewhat from extreme injustice; he who repays only what he has received, gives up yet something more, for it were but strict right that he who is the first aggressor should receive a greater hurt than he inflicted. This righteousness thus partly begun, He perfects, who is come to fulfil the Law. The two steps that intervene He leaves to be understood; for there is who does not repay so much, but less; and there is yet above him, he who repays not at all; yet this seems too little to the Lord, if you be not also ready to suffer wrong. Therefore He says not, Render not evil for evil, but, Resist not against evil, not only repay not what is offered to you, but do not resist that it should not be done to you. For thus accordingly He explains that saying, If any man smite thee on thy right cheek, offer to him the left also. Which as being a high part of mercy, is known to those who serve such as they love much; from whom, being morose, or insane, they endure many things, and if it be for their health they offer themselves to endure more. The Lord then, the Physician of souls, teaches His disciples to endure with patience the sicknesses of those for whose spiritual health they should provide. For all wickedness comes of a sickness of the mind; nothing is more innocent than he who is sound and of perfect health in virtue.
AUGUSTINE. (de Mendac. 15.) The things which are done by the Saints in the New Testament profit for examples of understanding those Scriptures which are modelled into the form of precepts. Thus we read in Luke; Whoso smiteth thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also. (Luke 6:29.) Now there is no example of patience more perfect than that of the Lord; yet He, when He was smitten, said not, ‘Behold the other cheek,’ but, If I have spoken amiss, accuse me wherein it is amiss; but if well, why smitest thou me? (John 18:23.) hereby shewing us that that turning of the other cheek should be in the heart.
AUGUSTINE. (Serm in Mont. i. 19.) For the Lord was ready not only to be smitten on the other cheek for the salvation of men, but to be crucified with His whole body. It may be asked, What does the right cheek expressly signify? As the face is that whereby any man is known, to be smitten on the face is according to the Apostle to be contemned and despised. But as we cannot say ‘right face,’ and ‘left face,’ and yet we have a name twofold, one before God, and one before the world, it is distributed as it were into the right cheek, and left cheek, that whoever of Christ’s disciples is despised for that he is a Christian, may be ready to be yet more despised for any of this world’s honours that he may have. All things wherein we suffer any wrong are divided into two kinds, of which one is what cannot he restored, the other what may be restored. In that kind which cannot be restored, we are wont to seek the solace of revenge. For what does it boot if when smitten you smite again, is the hurt done to your body thereby repaid to you? But the mind swollen with rage seeks such assuagements.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. Or has your return blow at all restrained him from striking you again? It has rather roused him to another blow. For anger is not checked by meeting anger, but is only more irritated.
AUGUSTINE. (Serm. in Mont. i. 20.) Whence the Lord judges that others’ weakness should rather be borne with compassion, than that our own should be soothed by others’ pain. For that retribution which tends to correction is not here forbidden, for such is indeed a part of mercy; nor does such intention hinder that he, who seeks to correct another, is not at the same time ready himself to take more at his hands. But it is required that he should inflict the punishment to whom the power is given by the course of things, and with such a mind as the father has to a child in correcting him whom it is impossible he should hate. And holy men have punished some sins with death, in order that a wholesome fear might be struck into the living, and so that not his death, but the likelihood of increase of his sin had he lived, was the hurt of the criminal. Thus Elias punished many with death, and when the disciples would take example from him they were rebuked by the Lord, who did not censure this example of the Prophet, but their ignorant use of it, seeing them to desire the punishment not for correction’s sake, but from angry hate. But after He had inculcated love of their neighbour, and had given them the Holy Spirit, there wanted not instances of such vengeance; as Ananias and his wife who fell down dead at the words of Peter, and the Apostle Paul delivered some to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Yet do some, with a kind of blind opposition, rage against the temporal punishments of the Old Testament, not knowing with what mind they were inflicted.
AUGUSTINE. (Epist. 185. 5.) But who that is of sober mind would say to kings, It is nothing of your concern who will live religiously, or who profanely? It cannot even be said to them, that it is not their concern who will live chastely, or who unchastely. It is indeed better that men should be led to serve God by right teaching than by penalties; yet has it benefitted many, as experience has approved to us, to be first coerced by pain and fear, that they might be taught after, or to be made to conform in deed to what they had learned in words. The better men indeed are led of love, but the more part of men are wrought on by fear. Let them learn in the case of the Apostle Paul, how Christ first constrained, and after taught him.
AUGUSTINE. (Serm. in Mont. i. 20.) Therefore in this kind of injuries which are wont to rouse vengeance Christians will observe such a mean, that hate shall not be caused by the injuries they may receive, and yet wholesome correction be not foregone by Him who has right of either counsel or power.
JEROME. Mystically interpreted; When we are smitten on the right cheek, He said not, offer to him thy left, but the other; for the righteous has not a left. That is, if a heretic has smitten us in disputation, and would wound us in a right hand doctrine, let him be met with another testimony from Scripture.
AUGUSTINE. (ubi sup.) The other kind of injuries are those in which full restitution can be made, of which there are two kinds; one relates to money, the other to work; of the first of these it is He speaks when He continues, Whoso will sue thee for thy coat, let him have thy cloak likewise. As by the cheek are denoted such injuries of the wicked as admit of no restitution but revenge, so by this similitude of the garments is denoted such injury as admits restitution. And this, as the former, is rightly taken of preparation of the heart, not of the show of the outward action. And what is commanded respecting our garments, is to be observed in all things that by any right we call our own in worldly property. For if the command be expressed in these necessary articles of life, how much more does it hold in the case of superfluities and luxuries? And when He says, He who will sue thee, He clearly intends to include every thing for which it is possible that we should be sued. It may be made a question whether it is to be understood of slaves, for a Christian ought not to possess his slave on the same footing as his horse; though it might be that the horse was worth the more money. And if your slave have a milder master in you than he would have in him who seeks to take him from you, I do not know that he ought to be given up as lightly as your coat.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. For it were an unworthy thing that a believer should stand in his cause before an unbelieving judge. Or if one who is a believer, though (as he must be) a worldly man, though he should have reverenced you for the worthiness of the faith, sues you because the cause is a necessary one, you will lose the worthiness of Christ for the business of the world. Further, every lawsuit irritates the heart and excites bad thoughts; for when you see dishonesty or bribery employed against you, you hasten to support your own cause by like means, though originally you might have intended nothing of the sort.
AUGUSTINE. (Enchir. 78.) The Lord here forbids his disciples to have lawsuits with others for worldly property. Yet as the Apostle allows such kind of causes to be decided between brethren, and before arbiters who are brethren, but utterly disallows them without the Church, it is manifest what is conceded to infirmity as pardonable.
GREGORY. (Mor. xxxi. 13.) There are, who are so far to be endured, as they rob us of our worldly goods; but there are whom we ought to hinder, and that without breaking the law of charity, not only that we may not be robbed of what is ours, but lest they by robbing others destroy themselves. We ought to fear much more for the men who rob us, than to be eager to save the inanimate things they take from us. When peace with our neighbour is banished the heart on the matter of worldly possessions, it is plain that our estate is more loved than our neighbour.
AUGUSTINE. (Serm. in Mont. i. 19.) The third kind of wrongs, which is in the matter of labour, consists of both such as admit restitution, and such as do not—or with or without revenge—for he who forcibly presses a man’s service, and makes him give him aid against his will, can either be punished for his crime, or return the labour. In this kind of wrongs then, the Lord teaches that the Christian mind is most patient, and prepared to endure yet more than is offered; If a man constrain thee to go with him a mile, go with him yet other two. This likewise is meant not so much of actual service with your feet, as of readiness of mind.
CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. xviii.) The word here used signifies to drag unjustly, without cause, and with insult.
AUGUSTINE. (ubi sup.) Let us suppose it therefore said, Go with him other two that the number three might be completed; by which number perfection is signified; that whoever does this might remember that he is fulfilling perfect righteousness. For which reason he conveys this precept under three examples, and in this third example, he adds a twofold measure to the one single measure, that the threefold number may be complete. Or we may so consider as though in enforcing this duty, He had begun with what was easiest to bear, and had advanced gradually. For first He commanded that when the right cheek was smitten we should turn the other also; therein shewing ourselves ready to endure another wrong less than that you have already received. Secondly, to him that would take your coat, he bids you part with your cloak, (or garment, as some copies read,) which is either just as great a loss, or perhaps a little greater. In the third He doubles the additional wrong which He would have us ready to endure. And seeing it is a small thing not to hurt unless you further shew kindnesses, He adds, To him that asketh of thee, give.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. Because wealth is not ours but God’s; God would have us stewards of His wealth, and not lords.
JEROME. If we understand this only of alms, it cannot stand with the estate of the most part of men who are poor; even the rich if they have been always giving, will not be able to continue always to give.
AUGUSTINE. (ubi sup.) Therefore, He says not, ‘Give all things to him that asks;’ but, Give to every one that asketh; that you should only give what you can give honestly and rightly. For what if one ask for money to employ in oppressing the innocent man? What if he ask your consent to unclean sin? We must give then only what will hurt neither ourselves or others, as far as man can judge; and when you have refused an inadmissible request, that you may not send away empty him that asked, shew the righteousness of your refusal; and such correction of the unlawful petitioner will often be a better gift than the granting his suit.
AUGUSTINE. (Epist. 93. 2.) For with more benefit is food taken from the hungry, if certainty of provision causes him to neglect righteousness, than that food should be supplied to him that he may consent to a deed of violence and wrong.
JEROME. But it maybe understood of the wealth of doctrine: wealth which never fails but the more of it is given away, the more it abounds.
AUGUSTINE. (Serm. in Mont. i. 20.) That He commands, And from him that would borrow of thee, turn not away, must be referred to the mind; for God loveth a cheerful giver. (2 Cor. 9:7.) And every one that receives, indeed borrows, though it is not he that shall pay, but God, who restores to the merciful many fold. Or, if you like to understand by borrowing, only taking with promise to repay, we must understand the Lord’s command as embracing both these kinds of affording aid; whether we give outright, or lend to receive again. And of this last kind of shewing mercy it is well said, Turn not away, that is, do not be therefore backward to lend, as though, because man shall repay you, therefore God shall not; for what you do by God’s command cannot be without fruit.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. Christ bids us lend but not on usury; for he who gives on such terms does not bestow his own, but takes of another; he looses from one chain to bind with many, and gives not for God’s righteousness sake, but for his own gain. For money taken on usury is like the bite of an asp; as the asp’s poison secretly consumes the limbs, so usury turns all our possessions into debt.
AUGUSTINE. (Epist. 138. 2.) Some object that this command of Christ is altogether inconsistent with civil life in Commonwealths; Who, say they, would suffer, when he could hinder it, the pillage of his estate by an enemy; or would not repay the evil suffered by a plundered province of Rome on the plunderers according to the rights of war? But these precepts of patience are to be observed in readiness of the heart, and that mercy, not to return evil for evil, must be always fulfilled by the will. Yet must we often use a merciful sharpness in dealing with the headstrong. And in this way, if the earthly commonwealth will keep the Christian commandments, even war will not be waged without good charities, to the establishing among the vanquished peaceful harmony of godliness and righteousness. For that victory is beneficial to him from whom it snatches licence to sin; since nothing is more unfortunate for sinners, than the good fortune of their sins, which nourishes an impunity that brings punishment after it, and an evil will is strengthened, as it were some internal enemy.
Catena Aurea Matthew 5
NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY (RSV)
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
From: 2 Corinthians 6:1-10
St Paul, a True Servant of Christ
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[1] Working together with him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. [2] For he says, "At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation." Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. [3] We put no obstacle in any one's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, [4] but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, [5] beatings, imprisonment, tumults, labors, watching, hunger; [6] by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, [7] truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; [8] in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; [9] as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; [10] as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
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Commentary:
1-10. St Paul concludes his long defense of his apostolic ministry (cf. 3:1-6:10) by saying that he has always tried to act as a worthy servant of God. First he calls on the Corinthians to have a sense of responsibility so that the grace of God be not ineffective in them (vv. 1-2), and then he briefly describes the afflictions this ministry has meant for him. Earlier, he touched on this subject (cf. 4:7-12), and he will deal with it again in 11:23-33.
1-2. St Paul exhorts the faithful not to accept the grace of God in vain-which would happen if they did not cultivate the faith and initial grace they received in Baptism and if they neglected the graces which God continues to send them. This exhortation is valid for all Christians: "We receive the grace of God in vain", St Francis de Sales points out, "when we receive it at the gate of our heart, without allowing it to enter: we receive it without receiving it; we receive it without fruit, since there is no use in feeling the inspiration if one does not consent unto it. And just as the sick man who has the medicine in his hands, if he takes only part of it, will only partially benefit from it, so too, when God sends a great and mighty inspiration to move us to embrace his love, if we do not avail of it in its entirety, we shall benefit from it only partially" ("Treatise on the Love of God", book 2, chap. 11).
The Apostle urges them to cultivate the grace they have been given, using a quotation from Isaiah (49:8): the right time has come, the day of salvation. His words recall our Lord's preaching in the synagogue of Nazareth (cf. Lk 4:16-21).
The "acceptable time" will last until Christ comes in glory at the end of the world (in the life of the individual, it will last until the hour of his death); until then, every day is "the day of salvation": "'Ecce none dies salutis', the day of salvation is here before us. The call of the good shepherd has reached us: '"ego vocavi te nomine too", I have called you by name' (Is 43:1). Since love repays love, we must reply: '"ecce ego quia vocasti me", Here I am, for you called me' (1 Sam 3:5) [...]. I will be converted, I will turn again to the Lord and love him as he wants to be loved" (St J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 59).
3. St Paul had previously warned the Corinthians of the danger of being a stumbling block for others (cf. 1 Cor 8:8-13). All Christians need to heed this warning, especially those who have positions of greater responsibility in the Church. The Apostle feels urged by this duty to live always as a "servant of God", ensuring that his conduct is always in accord with what he preaches and avoiding doing anything which could in any way be misunderstood (cf. 1 Cor 9:12; 10:32f).
4-10. In these verses the Apostle outlines what his desire to be a faithful servant of God has involved. We can distinguish four parts in this short description: first he speaks of the sufferings he has borne with great patience (vv. 4f); then of the virtues which help him overcome these severe trials (vv. 6-7a); then of the weapons which he uses in this difficult spiritual combat (vv. 7b-8a); and finally, in a series of antitheses he contrasts human judgments of himself and his co-workers, with the true facts (vv. 8b-10).
"These words of the Apostle", St J Escriva comments, "should make you happy, for they are, as it were, a ratification of your vocation as ordinary Christians in the middle of the world, sharing with others--your equals--the enthusiasms, the sorrows and the joys of human life. All this is a way to God. What God asks of you is that you should, always, act as his children and servants.
"But these ordinary circumstances of life will be a divine way only if we really change ourselves, if we really give ourselves. For St Paul uses hard words. He promises that the Christian will have a hard life, a life of risk and of constant tension. How we disfigure Christianity if we try to turn it into something nice and comfortable! But neither is it correct to think that this deep, serious way of life, which is totally bound up with all the difficulties of human existence, is something full of anguish, oppression or fear.
"The Christian is a realist. His supernatural and human realism helps him appreciate all the aspects of his life--sorrow and joy, his own and other people's suffering, certainty and doubt, generosity and selfishness. The Christian experiences all this, and he confronts it all, with human integrity and with the strength he receives from God" ("Christ Is Passing By, 60).
4-5. Patience, which enables the Apostle to endure all his difficulties, is a virtue necessary for the Christian's life, which helps him endure physical or moral pain with residence, peace and serenity. St Teresa of Avila has a poem which touches on this: "Let nothing disturb thee; let nothing dismay thee; all things pass; God never changes; patience attains all that it strives for. He who has God finds he lacks nothing: God alone suffices" ("Poems", 30).
6-7. Forbearance is a virtue which helps us to seek a very distant good, one which will take a long time to obtain, and to endure this delay without losing heart. St Paul includes it among the fruits of the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal 5:22).
"By the Holy Spirit": that is, directed in apostolic work by the Holy Spirit, who enlightens him in his preaching and moves the hearts of his hearers, preparing them to accept the Gospel.
"By truthful speech": St Paul has already spoken to the Corinthians about this, by pointing to the sincerity of his preaching, the fact that he does not mislead them or flatter them (cf. 2:17; 4:2) It is not the preacher's skill but the "power of God" that causes his message to be accepted (cf. 1 Cor 2:4f).
7-8. "The weapons of righteousness": St Paul also calls these the "armor of light" (Rom 13:12) as opposed to that of iniquity (cf. Rom 6:13) and worldly weapons (cf. 2 Cor 10:4), and he will write further about this, using the metaphor of combatants of his time: "Take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; above all taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph 6:13-17).
This reference in v. 7 to weapons for the right hand and for the left comes from the practice of soldiers, who wielded offensive weapons--lance and sword--with one hand and carried defensive weapons—the shield--in the other.
8-10. In seven antitheses the Apostle contrasts his enemies' mistaken opinions about himself and his co-workers, with the true facts. As a faithful follower of our Lord, he bears out what Jesus said would happen: "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master; it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household" (Mt 10:24f).
It is quite possible for a disciple of Christ to meet up with opposition from people who misread his actions or his intentions, for there are some who "when they discover something which is clearly good, poke at it to see if there is not something bad hidden underneath" (St Gregory the Great, "Moralia", 6, 22). As in St Paul's case, disciples should keep on working, and not let themselves become disillusioned or bitter: "With me it is a very small thing I should be judged by you" (1 Cor 4:3).
10. "Always rejoicing": even in the midst of severe difficulties St Paul always manages to remain cheerful. Joy is a Christian gift, the result of divine filiation--our realization that God is our Father, that he is all-powerful and that he has boundless love for us; it is something we should never lose: "let them be sad who are determined not to recognize that they are children of God" (St J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 108).
"As having nothing, yet possessing everything": "They have nothing and possess everything who are the lovers of God, for when they lack earthly things, they are content to say, 'My Lord, you alone are enough for me', and that leaves them fully satisfied" (St Alphonsus, "The Love of Jesus Christ Reduced to Practice", chap. 14).
