Therefore, the Savior excuses that he has not worked any miracles of virtue in his own country, so that no one might think that he should have a lower affection for his country. For he could not fail to love his fellow citizens, since he loved all. But those who envy have cast themselves out, through their lack of love for their country. For love does not envy... does not boast (I Corinthians 13:4). However, the homeland is not devoid of divine blessings. For what greater miracle is there than that Christ was born in her? Therefore, see what evil envy brings. A homeland is judged unworthy because of envy, where a citizen works, which was worthy for the birth of the Son of God.
(Vers. 25.)
(Verse 25) Truly I say to you: There were many widows in the days of Elijah.
48. Not because there were days of Elias, but in which Elias worked: or because he made days for those who saw the light of spiritual grace in his works, and turned to the Lord. And therefore the heavens were opened to those who saw eternal and divine mysteries: they were closed when there was hunger; because there was no abundance of knowing divinity. But we have written more about this when we were writing about widows (Book on Widows).
(Vers. 27.)
(Verse 27.) And there were many lepers in Judea in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them were cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.
49. Clearly this speech informs us of the saving Word of the Lord, and encourages us to study the venerable divinity, which no one is shown to be healed from, and those afflicted with the disease of the body are freed from the blemishes, except those who have devoted themselves to religious duty. For divine blessings are not bestowed upon those who sleep, but upon those who observe. And by a fitting example of comparison, the arrogance of the citizens is refuted by the envious, and it is taught that the Lord's deed is in agreement with the ancient Scriptures, which we also read in the books of Kings, that the Gentile man Naaman, freed from the blemishes of leprosy by the prophetic oracle, devoured many of the Jews with leprosy of both body and mind (2 Kings 5:14). Indeed, history relates that those four who were the first to approach the king of Syria's camp due to the pressing famine were lepers (2 Kings 7:3). So why did he not care for his brothers, not care for his fellow citizens, not heal his prophet companions? He healed those who were strangers, healed those who did not have adherence to the Law and participation in religion. Why? Because medicine is a matter of will, not of race; and the divine gift is chosen by wishes, not conferred by the right of nature. Learn, Christian, to ask what you desire to obtain: fastidious men do not follow the progress of heavenly rewards.
50. But although a simple explanation informs the moral sense; grace is not hidden from the mystery. For just as the later things are derived from the earlier, so the earlier things are confirmed by the later (Book of Widows). For we have said in another book, that in the widow to whom Elias was sent, the type of the Church is anticipated. The people agree with the Church, so that they may follow. That people gathered from foreigners, that people previously leprous, that people previously spotted before being baptized in the mystical river, the same after the sacrament of baptism, cleansed of the blemishes of body and mind, no longer lepers, but began to be an immaculate virgin without wrinkle. Therefore Naaman rightly appears great in the sight of his Lord, and is described as admirable in appearance; for in his case the future salvation of the Gentiles is declared, who, having come under the power of the enemy as a captive, with the advice of a young girl whose strength of the citizens had been broken, was informed to hope for salvation from the prophet (2 Kings 5:2), not by the command of an earthly king, but by the liberality of divine mercy, he is healed.
51. Why is one commanded to be submerged in the mystic number? Why is the river Jordan chosen? Isn't it true that the good rivers of Abana and Pharphar in Damascus are preferred over the Jordan (Ibid., 12)? But in anger, He preferred these; meditating, He chose Jordan. For anger does not know mystery, faith knows. Learn the grace of saving baptism: one who was submerged as a leper emerges as faithful. Learn to recognize the spiritual sacraments: bodily healing is sought, spiritual transformation is acquired. The flesh is washed, the affections are washed. For I see that not only the leprosy of the body, but also that of the mind, has been cleansed; since, after baptism, the filth of former error being washed away, he denies that he will offer sacrifices to foreign gods, which he had promised to the Lord.
52. Also learn the appropriate precepts of virtue: he who refuses rewards has proven his faith. Learn from both the teaching and the deeds what you should follow. You have the commandment of the Lord, the example of the prophet, to receive freely, to give freely: not to sell the ministry, but to offer it (Matthew 10:8). For the grace of God is not assessed by a price, nor is profit sought in the sacraments, but obedience to the priest.
53. However, it is not enough if you do not seek profit for yourself: your hands must also be restrained for the sake of your family. And we do not demand only this, that you alone keep yourself chaste and undefiled. For the Apostle did not say, 'yourself alone' but 'keep yourself chaste' (I Tim. V, 22). Therefore, not only your chastity from these kinds of business dealings is sought, but also the chastity of your household. For it is necessary that a blameless priest be appointed to his own household, having obedient children, with all chastity. But if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for the Church of God? Therefore, instruct your family, encourage them, and watch over them. And if a servant deceives you (for I do not consider human ability), let him be rejected as an example of prophecy. Quickly, a shameful leprosy follows a wicked reward, and ill-gotten money stains both the body and the soul. You have received, it says, money, and you will possess from it land, vineyards, olive groves, and flocks. And Naaman's leprosy will cling to you and your descendants forever. You see that the succession of the doer is damned by the heir. For the guilt of the sold mystery is inexpiable, and the heavenly punishment of grace passes to future generations. Finally, the Moabites and others will not enter into the Church of God until the third and fourth generation (Deut. XXIII, 3): that is, until (to interpret it more simply) the succession of the guilt of the doers of many generations is abolished.
54. But when those who have erred in the error of idolatry against God seem to be punished unto the fourth generation: surely, the sentence by which the offspring of Gehazi is condemned by prophetic authority forever for the desire of possession seems to be harsh, especially since our Lord Jesus Christ has granted forgiveness of sins to all through the regeneration of baptism; unless you understand it as the seed of vices rather than of lineage. For just as those who are children of the promise are regarded as good seed, so also those who are children of error are regarded as bad seed. For even the Jews, not by the succession of the flesh but by their crimes, are children of the devil. Therefore, all the greedy, all the covetous, possess leprosy along with their riches; and with ill-gotten wages, they have accumulated not so much an inheritance of wealth as a treasury of crimes, deserving eternal punishment and short-lived gain. For since riches are temporary, the punishment is eternal; because neither the greedy, nor the drunkard, nor the idolater will inherit the kingdom of God.
(Vers. 28, 29.)
(Verse 28, 29.) And all in the synagogue were filled with anger when they heard these things: and they rose up and drove him out of the city.
55. The sacrileges of the Jews, which the Lord had predicted much earlier through the prophet, and which he had declared in a verse from the Psalms what he would suffer in his body, saying: 'They repaid me evil for good' (Psalm 35:12), he teaches in the Gospel to have been fulfilled. For when he himself was spreading benefits among the people, they were inflicting injuries upon him. It is not surprising that they lost salvation, who expelled the Savior from their own borders. For the Lord is merciful, and he who had taught by his example that his apostles should become all things to all men, neither rejects the willing nor binds the unwilling, neither resists those who reject nor fails to attend to those who ask. So the people of Gerasa could not endure his powers and he left them as if they were weak and ungrateful.
56. At the same time, understand that it was not out of necessity, but a voluntary passion of the body: not taken by the Jews, but offered by himself. For indeed, when he wants, he is captured; when he wants, he escapes; when he wants, he is suspended; when he wants, he is not held. And here, he had climbed to the brow of the mountain to be thrown down, and behold, in the midst of them, with their minds suddenly changed or astounded, he descends; for the hour of his passion had not yet come. He preferred even to heal the Jews rather than to destroy them; so that they would cease to want what they could not fulfill with the fruitless outcome of their fury. Therefore, you see here both the divine work that he performed and the human will that he was subject to. For just as he could be held by a few, who is not held by the people? But he did not want to become a sacrilege of many; so that he could direct the blame of the cross to the authors and provoke envy; and he would be crucified by a few, but endure for the whole world.
(Vers. 33, 38.)
(Verse 33, 38.) And in the synagogue there was a man with an unclean spirit. And below: But rising from the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon and Andrew. And Simon's mother-in-law was held by a great fever.
57. See the kindness of the Lord and Savior: not moved by anger, not offended by wickedness, not violated by injustice, he does not abandon the Jews; indeed, he, forgetting the injury, remembering the kindness, now by teaching, now by liberating, now by healing, soothes the hearts of the faithless people. And well did the holy Luke precede by mentioning the man freed from the unclean spirit, and he added the healing of the woman. For the Lord came to heal both sexes: and the one who was created first should have been healed first; nor should those sins be overlooked which were committed more out of the fickleness of the soul than out of wickedness.
58. (Verse 31.) The Sabbath signifies the beginning of the works of the Lord's healing; as a new creature begins where the old one ceases: not to be under the Law but to indicate above the Law in the very beginning: not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. For the world was not made through the Law, but through the Word, as we read: By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established (Psalm 32:6). Therefore, the Law is not dissolved but fulfilled, so that the renewal of fallen man may occur. And the Apostle also says: ‘Putting off the old man…put on the new, which is created according to Christ’ (Ephesians 4:22 and 24; Colossians 3:9 and 10). And He well began (His works) on the Sabbath day, in order to show that He Himself was the Creator; Who wove His works into one another, and proceeded from the work which He had begun to do: as a builder who undertakes to repair a house, begins not from the foundation, but from the roof to remove the decay: so in that case, He applies His hand again to it where He had left it off at first.
59. Then he begins with lesser things in order to reach greater things. To free people from demons is possible by the word of God; to command the resurrection of the dead is the power of God alone.
Verse 34. And it should not move anyone that the name of Jesus of Nazareth is mentioned by the devil in this book for the first time. For Christ did not receive his name from him, since an angel from heaven brought it to the Virgin (Luke 1:31). It is of this impudence that he first claims something among humans and presents it as something new to humans, in order to instill terror of his power. Finally, in Genesis, he first called God to man; thus you have it: And the serpent said to the woman: Did God indeed say, 'You shall not eat from any tree'? (Genesis 3:1). Both, therefore, were deceived by the devil and healed by Christ.
61. Follow the rest, and learn the mysteries of the Gospel reading, and recognize in the salvation sacrament of the public health of two. For as in Adam all die: so also in Christ all will be made alive (I Cor. XV, 22). Who is that one who in the Synagogue had the spirit of an unclean demon, except the Jewish people, who, bound with serpentine spirals and entangled with the snares of the devil, defiled the pretended cleanliness of the body with the filthiness of the inner mind? And well: In the synagogue there was a man who had an unclean spirit because he had lost the Holy Spirit. For the devil had entered, from where Christ had gone out. At the same time, the nature of the devil is shown to be not evil, his works wicked. For he who confesses the Lord through a superior nature denies Him through his works. And in this appears their wickedness and the wickedness of the Jews, that they so deluded the people with the madness of their blind minds, that the people deny Him whom the demons confess. Oh, the worst inheritance of the teacher of the disciples! He tempts the Lord with words, they with actions: he says, 'Throw yourself down' (Luke 4:9 above); they try to throw others down.
62. If we consider these things with a higher understanding, we must understand the health of the mind and body, so that the mind, which was troubled by the tricks of the serpent, may be set free. For the soul is never conquered by the body unless it is first tempted by the devil. For when the soul acts upon the body, enlivens it, and governs it, how could it be dragged captive into the snares of the devil unless it itself were bound by the chains of some higher power? In conclusion, Eve did not hunger until she was tempted by the cunning of the serpent; and therefore, the medicine of salvation should first work against the very author of sin.
63. Moreover, that woman, the mother-in-law of Simon and Andrew, was also wasted away by various fevers of crimes and was burning with insatiable passions of different desires. And I would not say that the fever of love was any less than the fever of heat. So, one [fever] afflicts the soul, the other inflames the body. For our fever is avarice, our fever is lust; because desires are inflamed. Hence the Apostle says: If they do not contain themselves, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn. (1 Corinthians 7:9) Our fever is lust, our fever is ambition, our fever is anger. Although these may be vices of the body, they still entangle fire in the bones, disturb the mind, soul, and senses. This primary temptation is stirred by the devil's art. Indeed, a fertile field, clothing, jewelry, the serpent's sweet words are enticing. For the sake of honors, the height of powers, the sweetness of feasts, the beauty of a prostitute is a snare of the devil, and like a kind of spiritual wickedness, he entices with seductive words that quickly soften the mind with the ease of a certain feminine levity, and also throws one's mind from its position. For the soul desires the beauty of a woman not before the eye of the body. Finally, what you have not seen, you will not love; but when the flesh desires, even the constancy of a compassionate soul weakens, and the mind is bent by the companionship of love (for two are one flesh) and thus death creeps in with the effect of wickedness, the devil tempting, the flesh persuading.