16. O happy sores, which exclude perpetual pain! O abundant crumbs, which repel everlasting hunger, which satisfy the poor collector with eternal nourishment! The synagogue ruler cast you from his table, while he refuted the inner mysteries of the prophetic Scriptures and the Law (Luke 13:14), for your words are but crumbs of the Scriptures, as it is said: 'But you have rejected my words behind you' (Psalm 50:17). The scribe threw you aside, but Paul gathered diligently, reading the people in his injuries. They licked the wounds of him who had been bitten by a fearless serpent, and when the snake was shaken off, they saw and believed (Acts 28:6). The jailer who washed Paul's wounds also licked them, and believed (Acts 16:33). Blessed are the dogs into which the humor of such wounds drips, so that it may fill their hearts and fatten their throats: let them learn to guard the house, to protect the flock, and to beware of wolves.
Now place before your eyes those Arians who are devoted to secular studies, aspiring to the society of royal power, that they may attack the truth of the Church with military weapons: do they not seem to you to lie on certain purple and fine linen and on luxurious couches, defending what is false with painted falsehoods? They abound in rich speeches, boasting that the earth trembled under the body of the Lord, the sky was covered in darkness, the seas were stirred up or calmed by a word: yet they deny the Son of God. He established and that poor man, who knowing that the kingdom of God was not in words but in virtue, expressed in a few words what he felt, saying: You are the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16); do not these riches seem to you to be in need, this poverty to be overflowing? The rich heresy has composed many Gospels; the poor faith has held onto this Gospel alone, which it received. The rich philosophy has made many gods for itself; the poor Church knows only one God.
18. (Verse 24.) Between this rich man and the poor man there is a great chasm; because after death, merits cannot be changed, and therefore the rich man is led into hell, desiring to draw something of the poor man's refreshing spirit; for water is the nourishment of the soul in its afflictions, of which Isaiah says: And water will be drunk with delight from the fountains of salvation (Isaiah 12:3). But why is he tormented before judgment? Because punishment is to be deprived of luxuries for the one indulging in them. For the Lord says: There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of heaven (Luke 13:28).
19. (Verse 27.) And yet this late rich master begins to be; since he no longer has time for learning or teaching. In this place, the Lord clearly declares that the old Testament is the foundation of faith, refuting the unfaithfulness of the Jews, and excluding the wickedness of the heretics, by whom the weaker mind is deceived; for they themselves are small, who still do not know the advancements of virtue.
However, it is worth noting that in the comparison between the previous steward and the current rich man, the incentive for mercy is highlighted. Perhaps in the former case, he showed kindness to the saints whom he called friends and to whom he provided dwellings. But here, he teaches that the focus should be on helping the poor.
(Chapter 17, Verse 3) If your brother sins against you, rebuke him.
21. How good it is, after someone becomes rich and is tormented by punishments, to have the rule of granting forgiveness imposed upon them, especially those who turn away from error, so that despair does not keep them from repentance! How moderate it is, so that forgiveness is not difficult, nor indulgence lax; so that neither a harsh reprimand crushes anyone, nor leniency invites them to sin! Likewise elsewhere: If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him between you and him (Matthew 18:15). Indeed, friendly correction is more beneficial than harsh accusation: the former instills shame, while the latter provokes anger. Let what is feared to be revealed be preserved, for it is the one who is admonished. For it is good that a friend believes you who is being corrected rather than an enemy, for it is easier to accept advice than to succumb to injury. Hence, even the Apostle says: 'Rebuke, he says, as a brother, so that he may be ashamed, not so that you may consider him an enemy.' (II Thess. III, 15). For fear is a weak preserver of time: but modesty is a good teacher of duty; for he who is afraid is restrained, but not reformed; he who is ashamed to do wrong turns towards what is right by nature.
But He placed it beautifully: If he sins against you, the condition is not equal between God and man, for man is capable of sinning. Finally, the Apostle, who is the true interpreter of the divine oracle, says: Avoid the heretic after one correction (Titus 3:10), because perfidy is not equal to fault, and it is venial. And since error often arises from ignorance, he commanded that it be corrected, so that either obstinacy may be avoided, or a fall may be corrected. Verum quid est:
(Vers. 4.)
(Verse 4) If he sins against you seven times in a day, do you forgive him?
23. Is the number of forgiveness predetermined, or is it because on the seventh day God rested from all his works, after this week of the world, long-lasting rest is promised to us; so that just as the evils of this world will cease on the Sabbath, so too will the severity of vengeance rest? But the Sabbath is not only of days, but also of months; and therefore the tenth day of the seventh month is the Sabbath of Sabbaths (Lev. XXV, 9): not only of months, but also of years; not only of years, but also of generations, and finally of the world itself, which is a type of the great Sabbath; just as in the Law there is a seventh week, after which the Jubilee year is celebrated. What mystery the Lord wanted to reveal to us, when he says: Not only seven times, but also seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22). Because in the seventh generation, as you have according to Luke (Luke 3:37), Enoch was taken away, so that wickedness would not change his heart (Wisdom 4:11); and in him the sting of sorrow found rest. But in the seventieth and seventh generation, the Lord, born of Mary, taking upon himself the sins of the human race, granted the forgiveness of all offenses.
Therefore, even though you may frequently learn to forgive according to the letter, and not hold onto anger (for there is nothing by which it can be offended, to which forgiveness is customary), still understand the mystery; for the Lord did not say to the woman in vain on the Sabbath: 'You are released from your infirmity' (Luke 13:12), showing to his people, who, like the called woman, would follow him, that he had forgiven their sins by his coming. Therefore, Lamech is condemned seventy-seven times (Genesis 4:24); for he commits a greater offense, who, while punishing a crime, commits one himself. But they forgive every excess of the crime of baptism. Therefore, learn to forgive your injuries; because Christ forgave his persecutors.
25. Nor is it idle that He suffered on the great Sabbath, signifying that there would be a Sabbath in which death would be destroyed by Christ. If the Jews celebrate the Sabbath in such a way that they consider the entire month and year as a kind of Sabbath, how much more should we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord! And for this reason, our ancestors handed down to us all the fifty days of Pentecost to celebrate Easter, because Pentecost marks the beginning of the eighth week. And the Apostle, as if a disciple of Christ, who knew that there is a diversity of times, writing to the Corinthians, says: I will perhaps stay with you and spend the winter (I Cor. XVI, 6). And below: But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost; for a great door has opened for me (Ibid., 8 and 9). Therefore, he spends the winter with the Corinthians, who were troubled by their errors; their affection for the worship of God was growing cold. And he celebrates Pentecost with the Ephesians, and delivers to them the mysteries, refreshing his spirit; for he saw them fervent with the ardor of faith. Therefore, during these fifty days, the Church does not observe fasting, just as on Sunday, the day of the Lord's resurrection, and all days are like Sunday.
26. There will be another Sunday on which the Lord's body will rise again. Paul knows this, who says: But you are the body of Christ, and members each in their parts (I Cor. XII, 27). For this is the body of the Lord, and the bones will cleave to his own head: But the head of the Church is Christ (Ephes. V, 23). Then fasting will cease, for in eternal joy, fatigue, care, and weariness will cease. Then death will be destroyed: For the last enemy to be destroyed is death (I Cor. XV, 26). Although Enoch ceased to exist, and was not found because he was taken up, he was not destroyed; for he was conveyed away so that death might be escaped. (Gen. 5:24) Christ, being sacrificed, destroyed death; therefore He rightly said, 'Where is your victory, O death? Where is your sting?' (1 Cor. 15:55) Therefore, in this resurrection, Christ will rise again in His body, just as He rose as the first fruits of those who sleep. Blessed, therefore, is the one who will have a part in the First Resurrection; for just as Christ is the first fruits of those who sleep, so then the Church and His saints will be the first fruits of those who rise. (1 Cor. 15:20)
27. Peter could not know this mystery. Perhaps he knew about Enoch: but who could comprehend the hidden mystery in God with the human mind? Therefore, let the Lord come into my soul, into my mind, and subject it to Himself; so that when my mind is subjected to Him, I may say: I will not fear evils, for you are with me (Psalm 22:4).
(Vers. 6.)
(v. 6) If you have faith like a mustard seed, you will say to this mulberry tree: Be uprooted and be thrown into the sea, and it will obey you.
28. It has been said about the mustard seed, now we must discuss the tree's death. I choose the tree, but I do not trust the tree. For what reason, what progress will there be if the tree that bears fruit for the laboring farmers is uprooted and thrown into the sea? We may judge this to be possible for the sake of faith's virtue, so that nature, which is insensible to sensible commands, may obey: but what does the very nature of the tree itself mean? I have read: 'I was a shepherd of goats, picking mulberries (Amos 7:14),' and I believe that the prophet signified to us that he himself, having turned from a sinner, was seeking fruit from a flock of sinners: although it is fitting that he, who would become a prophet of the Gentiles, should seem to have sought fruit in brambles and have extracted food from thorns, but would place the bleached and foul herds of the Gentiles, the peoples of the nations, in the pastures of his own writers, so that they might become fat from spiritual nourishment; he himself, however, would milk spiritual milk from a converted sinner.
29. But when it is said in another book of the Gospel (Matth. XVII, 19), that a mountain is called, the appearance of whose species is bare, giving birth to a defect in the fruit-bearing olive trees, barren in crops, suitable for the hiding places of beasts, and restless in the paths of wild animals, and it seems to express the height of spiritual wickedness, as it is written: Behold, I am against you, corrupt mountain, you who corrupt the whole earth (Jerem. LI, 25); it is fitting that we also understand this statement in this place, since faith excludes the unclean spirit, especially when the nature of the tree supports this opinion. And its fruit at first is white in bloom, then it grows and reddens, it blackens with maturity. The devil also, once radiant with the white flower of angelic nature and power, fell by his rebellion and grew horrid with the foul odor of sin. Behold, I give you the one who bites at the tree: Uproot it, and cast it into the sea, as he cast out a legion from a man and allowed them to enter into pigs: which, tormented by the demonic spirit, threw themselves into the sea.
30. Therefore, this is an exhortative place for faith, teaching morally that even those things which are established can be dissolved by faith. From faith, however, comes charity, from charity comes hope, and again they are poured back into themselves in a holy circle.
31. (Vers. 7, 8.) It follows that no one should boast in works, because we owe obedience to the Lord by right. For if you do not say to the servant plowing or to the one tending sheep, 'Pass by, recline' (where it is understood that no one reclines unless they have passed by; moreover, even Moses passed by in order to see a great sight); therefore, if you do not say to your servant, 'Recline,' but you demand something else from him and do not give thanks to him, likewise the Lord does not allow the use of works or labor to belong to you alone; for as long as we live, we must always be working.
Verse 17. Therefore recognize yourself to be a servant overwhelmed with many acts of obedience. Do not consider yourself superior because you are called the Son of God: grace must be acknowledged, but nature must not be ignored. Do not boast if you have served well, for you should have done so. The sun obeys, the moon complies, the angels serve. You are a chosen vessel of the Gentiles by the Lord. 'I am not worthy to be called an apostle,' he says, 'because I persecuted the Church of God' (I Cor. XV, 9). Then, elsewhere, not showing himself conscious of any guilt, he added: 'But I am not justified by this' (I Cor. IV, 4). And so let us not seek praise from ourselves, nor steal God's judgment, nor prevent the judgment of God, but let us reserve it for its own time, its own judgment. After this, the ungrateful are reprehended: and thus finally comes the discussion of the future judgment.
(Vers. 31, 32.)
(v. 31, 32) In that hour, whoever is on the rooftop, and their belongings are in the house, should not go down to take them; and likewise, whoever is in the field should not turn back. Remember Lot's wife.
33. Asked by the disciples when the kingdom of God would come, the Lord said: The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21); certainly by the truth of grace, not by the servitude of sin. Therefore, whoever wants to be free, let him be a servant in the Lord; for in the part in which we participate in servitude, we also participate in the kingdom. So He said: The kingdom of God is within you; but as for when it would come, He did not want to say, but He said that the day of judgement would come; so that He would instill fear in all about the impending judgement and not bring about a false sense of security through delay.