As regards the petition for swimming creatures, he adds: Or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Men are nourished by fish; whence below in the last chapter: "Have you here anything to eat? And they offered him a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb"; but they are killed by serpents; whence Numbers twenty-one: "The Lord sent among the people fiery serpents," by whose bites, namely, they were dying.
As regards the petition for the fruit of fowls, it is added: Or if he shall ask for an egg, namely, for food: will he offer him a scorpion? for poison. For eggs sustain, but scorpions kill, as experience manifestly proves. These things indeed are plain according to the letter, and the similitude drawn from them.
31. But according to the spiritual understanding, it is given to understand here what is to be sought. Whence Augustine, in his letter to Proba on Praying to God, says that in the fish faith, in the egg hope, and in the bread charity is signified.
For rightly by the petition for bread is understood the petition for charity: whence Augustine says: "Charity is in the bread; for charity is the greatest of all goods, and among foods the usefulness of bread surpasses the rest." Or, because charity after the manner of bread nourishes and strengthens; whence Song of Songs, the last chapter: "Love is strong as death"; whence the Sacrament of charity is given under the species of bread. Or, because without bread every table is empty: so also every heart without charity; whence First Corinthians thirteen: "If I have not charity, I am nothing, and it profits me nothing." "To this, as Augustine says, is opposed the stone, because hard hearts reject charity." Whence in the stone hardness is signified, according to that word of Ezekiel thirty-six: "I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you," etc.; and Luke three: "God is able of these stones," etc.
32. Rightly also "by the fish is understood faith, as Augustine says, either on account of the water of baptism, because amid the waves of this world faith remains whole"; First John five: "This is the victory which overcomes the world, our faith"; and Hebrews eleven: "By faith they conquered kingdoms." Or, as Bede says, "because a fish is born, lives, and is nourished under the covering of the waters: so faith is drawn from the hidden things of the Scriptures and is from hidden things and is itself hidden"; whence Hebrews eleven: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
To this, as Augustine says, the serpent is contrary, who, so that God would not be believed, "persuaded by venomous deceit"; whence Ecclesiastes 10: "He who breaks through a hedge," that is, the defense of Sacred Scripture, "a serpent shall bite him," that is, the infidelity of diabolical error.
33. Rightly also by the egg is understood hope: whence Augustine: " Hope is in the egg, because the life of the chick does not yet exist, but is to come, nor is it yet seen, but is still hoped for. For hope that is seen is not hope ," as is said in Romans 8; and because in the egg the chick exists imperfectly, and while it is being perfected, the shell of the egg is broken, so the perfection of beatitude succeeds hope; whence First Corinthians 13: "When that which is perfect has come, that which is in part shall be done away."
"To this, as Augustine says, the scorpion is contrary," that is, despair, which makes one look backward and harms from that direction. "For the scorpion must be guarded against from that part which it has venomous and armed with a sting behind"; whence he who strives to overturn one from the hope of life is a scorpion; whence Ezekiel 2: "Subverters are with you, and you dwell among scorpions." - The spiritual sense of the proposed word is therefore this: that if anyone asks for the bread of charity of the Holy Spirit, the fish of faith, and the egg of hope, God will not give him, nay rather will remove from him, the stone of hardening, the serpent of infidelity, and the scorpion of despair: which through divine assistance are kept far from holy men.
34. (Verse 13.). If you then, being evil, etc. After he proposed liberality in the carnal father, he concludes from the lesser regarding the spiritual Father. For if the good is communicative, the greater good is more communicative, and the greatest good is most communicative. If therefore the carnal father communicates good to the son who asks, how much more strongly does the heavenly Father to the man who supplicates. And this is what he says: If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. Bede: "He calls evil those who are lovers of the world "; but these are evil in a twofold way by the malice of fault, because Sirach 11: "If you are rich, you will not be free from offense"; and Augustine: "Every rich man is either unjust, or the heir of an unjust man." Or, he calls the Apostles themselves evil, who in comparison with divine goodness are called evil; whence Mark 10: "No one is good except God alone"; and Isaiah 64: "We have all become as one unclean, and our justices are as the rag of a menstruous woman"; and Job 25: "The stars are not clean in his sight, how much less man," etc. Whence Gregory: "Often our justice, when brought to the examination of divine justice, is injustice, and what shines in the eyes of the doer is sordid in the severity of the Judge."
Or, they were evil on account of venial sins, without which the present life is not lived: whence it is said in Ephesians five: "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil"; because, according to what is said in Genesis forty-seven, "the days of the pilgrimage of my life are few and evil"; because, according to what is said in First John one, "if we say that we have no sin, we are liars, and the truth is not in us." It seems less likely, therefore, that good comes from an evil person than that good comes from a good person.
35. And therefore he concludes: How much more will your Father from heaven give the good spirit to those who ask him." Indeed he will certainly give, because James one: "Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above." This good spirit is the Holy Spirit, in whom all gifts are given; of whom Wisdom seven: "I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me"; and afterwards: "All good things came to me together with her"; and First Corinthians twelve: "To another is given through the Spirit," etc.; and afterwards: "All these things one and the same Spirit works, distributing to each one as he wills." This Spirit is given to those who ask and desire, according to that word of the Psalm: "I opened my mouth and drew in the spirit"; Jeremiah two: "The wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness, in the desire of its soul, drew in the wind of its love." For toward this Spirit of the Lord the spirit of the Saints sighs: Romans eight: "It is the Spirit who intercedes," etc.
36. And Jesus was casting out a demon, etc. As was stated at the beginning of the book, this book has four parts: of which the first concerns Christ's nature; the second, Christ's teaching; and this began above in the fourth chapter, and it has two parts according to the two works of the wise person, "of which the first is not to lie; the second, to be able to expose the one who lies." The first part, therefore, concerns the truth to be declared for the instruction of the disciples; the second, the falsehood to be refuted through the confutation of the opposing Jews.
Second, the falsehood of the opposing Jews is refuted in four ways.
The first part having been completed, here begins the second. This part is divided into four. In the first of these he refutes the deceitfulness of the Jews; in the second, their impiety: There were drawing near, below in the fifteenth chapter; in the third, their curiosity, below in the seventeenth chapter: And being asked by the Pharisees, etc.; in the fourth, their unbelief, below in the nineteenth chapter: And it came to pass, when Jesus had drawn near, etc.
The deceitfulness of the Jews who slander the miracles is refuted in two ways.
In refuting the deceitfulness of the Jews, he first refutes the deceitfulness of those who slander the miracles on the part of the efficient cause; in the second, on the part of time, below in the thirteenth chapter: And he was teaching in their synagogues on the Sabbaths.
First the Jews who slander the miracles are refuted on the part of the efficient cause, then the disciples are instructed.
The first is divided into two parts. In the first of these he confutes the deceitfulness and fraud of the Jews; in the second he instructs his disciples to avoid it, below in the twelfth chapter: But when many crowds, etc.
First, concerning the deceitfulness and threefold fraud of the Jews.
The first part, which contains the present chapter, is divided into three parts. In the first of these he confutes the fraud of the blasphemers; in the second, the fraud of those testing or disbelieving, below: But when the crowds were gathering; in the third, the fraud of those dissembling, at: No one lights a lamp. The first of these is in word, the second is in the mind, and the third consists in any outward sign.
The fraud of the blasphemers is confuted through three points.
For confuting the fraud of the blasphemers, three things are introduced. For first there is the disclosure of the Jewish fraud; second, the refutation of the disclosed fraud, at: But he, when he saw their thoughts, etc.; third, the commendation of the truth made manifest, at: And it came to pass, while he was saying these things, etc.
Concerning the disclosure of the Jewish fraud, the Evangelist sets forth three things: the first is the matter of divine praise, the second is the blasphemy of human fraud, the third is the controversy of the ensuing dispute.
37. (Verse 14). First, therefore, as regards the matter of divine praise, he says: And Jesus was casting out a demon, and it was mute; in which two miracles are touched upon at once, or rather even three. Whence Bede in the Gloss: "Matthew says that this demoniac was also blind, in whom three miracles are worked by the Lord: because the blind man sees, the mute speaks, and the possessed is freed from the demon." And in this there was matter for divine praise both on the part of the one healed and of those standing by. On account of which he says: And when he had cast out the demon, the mute spoke, and the crowds marveled; and thus was fulfilled that passage of Isaiah thirty-five: "Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped; then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the mute shall be loosed." Such great miracles were wrought together as a cause of wonder and praise, according to that passage of Ecclesiasticus forty-three: "The Lord is terrible and exceedingly great, and wondrous is his power"; and after: "Glorifying the Lord as much as you are able, he shall yet prevail beyond, and wondrous is his magnificence." Whence they could truly say that passage of Mark seven: "He has done all things well; he has made the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."
38. But according to the spiritual understanding, the demon is sin, which makes one deaf to hearing the truth, blind to seeing it, and mute to confessing it. Whence Chrysostom says: "O wickedness of the demon! He blocked each entrance through which man was going to believe: hearing and sight, " and the third, that is, the tongue, lest he confess. Whence it is said in Isaiah 41: "There is none who announces, and there is none who preaches, nor any who hears my words"; and again in Isaiah 42: " Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind but my servant? And who is deaf, but he to whom I have sent my messengers?" Such a one is also mute for confessing; whence Sirach 15: "Praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner."