76. (Verses 52–53). And for this reason He adds: For from this time there shall be five in one house divided, that is, separated from carnal affection; and according to that passage in the penultimate chapter of Deuteronomy: "Who said to his father and to his mother: I know you not, and to his brethren: I know them not, and they knew not their own children. These have kept your word and preserved your covenant."
And He adds the manner of the division: Three against two, and two against three shall be divided, that is, the persons who seem most closely joined by the flesh shall be severed from carnal love by the spirit of charity. Nor is it a wonder if this is accomplished through the divine word, because Hebrews 4: "The word of God is living and effective and more piercing than any two-edged sword, reaching even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints also and marrow, and a discerner of thoughts," etc.
And He adds the manner and example: Father against son, and son against father, namely, shall be divided. Chrysostom: "God alone is the father of souls. To carnal fathers one renders the service of the flesh; to the spiritual Father, the holiness of the soul." Nor shall this occur only among the male sex, but also among the female; therefore He adds: Mother against daughter, and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
77. And note that the Lord put forward five persons and set down six relationships: of father and son, mother and daughter, daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, because one person is both mother and mother-in-law at the same time. And he sets down two men and three women, either because women are more prone to division on account of their instability, or because more people are effeminate and carnal than spiritual; whence First Corinthians eleven: "Therefore among you many are weak and feeble, and many sleep." Literally, it happened just as he says, after his healing; whence the Gloss of Bede: "After the baptism of the passion, after the coming of fire, the whole world was divided against itself; each household had believers and unbelievers, the latter fighting against the faith, the former for the faith," according to that passage of Zechariah eight: "All men were divided, each one against his neighbor"; and Sirach thirty-three: "Behold all the works of the Most High: two against two, and one against one"; Matthew ten: "Brother will hand over brother to death, and father his son, and children will rise up against parents and put them to death."
78. Spiritually, "every man is a house either of God or of the devil"; insofar as there is in him an evil peace, which is that of sin, the devil is the father: John eight: "You are of your father the devil"; the flesh, however, is the daughter-in-law and the mother: Ezekiel sixteen: "Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite," that is, garrulous. Then the son is divided against the father and the mother and the mother-in-law, when he abandons the desires of the flesh and renounces the devil and his pomps and is divided from them through baptism; whence the Psalm: "For my father and my mother have abandoned me, but the Lord has taken me up." To make this division, one must be born again: John three: "Unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." For the fire of divine love and the baptism both of the Spirit and of water and of blood divides all from their domestic enemies; and this is the efficacy of the first coming.
79. (Vers. 54.). And he said also to the crowds, etc. After he invited to vigilance, here secondly he rebukes negligence, which does not care about the grace of Christ coming. And this part has two sections. In the first of which he rebukes negligence with respect to recognizing grace; and secondly, with respect to doing penance, at the passage : Now there were present at that very time some. For Christ came to confer grace and to preach penance.
He rebukes negligence, however, with respect to recognizing grace, for three reasons, namely on account of the admonition of exterior judgment, interior judgment, and superior edict.
First, therefore, as regards the admonition of external judgment, on account of which negligence in knowing is blameworthy, he says: And he said also to the crowds: When you see a cloud rising from the west, you say at once: A storm comes, that is, a shower of rain, and so it happens, because this is a sign: when the sky is covered with a cloud, rain is being prepared for the earth; Psalm: "Who covers the sky with clouds and prepares rain for the earth."
80. (Verse 55). And when you see the south wind blowing, you say: There will be heat, and so it happens: Job thirty-seven: "Are not your garments hot, when the earth has been blown through by the south wind?"
81. (Verse 56). And because from these sensible things man is led by the hand to the understanding of those things which they were neglecting to consider, therefore he adds: Hypocrites, you know how to judge the face of the sky and the earth; but how is it that you do not judge this time? Therefore he calls them hypocrites, because they professed knowledge of the Scriptures more, like Catholics, than of natures and stars, like astrologers; and yet they attended more to the latter than to the former. And this is hypocrisy in the Christian religion: to be more anxious about natural things than about things of grace. Whence Augustine: "More praiseworthy is the soul to which its own infirmity is known than the one which scrutinizes the constellations of the heavens and the foundations of the earth." Therefore Sirach three: "What God has commanded you, think on those things always, and in many of his works be not curious." Therefore those are blameworthy who are anxious to discern the time of rain clouds and neglect to discern the time of grace, when through these sensible things they could be led by the hand to spiritual things: whence they have abandoned the homeland for the road, and the face of the Lord for his footprints. Against whom Augustine in the second book of On Free Will : "Woe to those who have abandoned you as guide and wander in your footprints, who love your signs instead of you and forget what you are signifying."
82. On account of which it should be understood that the cloud intimates the flesh of Christ; Isaiah nineteen: "The Lord will ascend upon a light cloud and will enter Egypt."
The appearance of the cloud from the west designates the flesh of Christ rising and ascending; Psalm: "He who ascends above the west, the Lord is his name."
The descent of the storm and rain designates the descent of the Holy Spirit after the ascension of Christ: 3 Kings eighteen: "A little cloud like the footprint of a man was ascending from the sea." "And there was a great rain."
By the south wind blowing, the breath of the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples: Song of Songs four: "Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind, blow through my garden." This was fulfilled, Acts two, when "suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty wind approaching."
By the heat following, the fervor of charity is understood, which ripened all the harvests of the Church; Proverbs ten: "He who gathers in the harvest is a wise son; but he who sleeps in summer is a son of confusion," etc.
83. Morally, however, by the cloud coming from the west is understood the pain of compunction arising from the memory of death; by the shower is understood a rain of tears; by the south wind blowing, a gladdening devotion; by the heat, an inflaming devotion; Tobit 3: "After a storm He makes calm, and after weeping and tears He pours in exultation." - Whence here is the order of the descent of grace into our heart, because first a man considers his end and death, and then conceives sorrow, after this he bursts forth into tears, then he feels consolation, and finally he is inflamed unto love; whence above in the seventh chapter, concerning the penitent sinful woman, it is said that "standing behind at the feet of the Lord, she began to wash His feet with tears and anointed them with ointment," etc.
84. (Verse 57). Secondly, as to the admonition of the interior judgment, it is added: Why do you not even of yourselves judge what is just? As if to say: even if you neglect the exterior admonition, do not neglect the interior one. Whence Ecclesiasticus 31: "Know the things of your neighbor from yourself," that is, from your natural judgment. For there is implanted in man a natural judgment, by which he is directed to see and to choose; Psalm: "The light of Your countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us"; and Isaiah 46: "Return, transgressors, to the heart"; for there it is dictated what is just. And among all things that are just, natural reason dictates this, which even Antiochus said, 2 Maccabees 9: "It is just to be subject to God, and that a mortal man should not think himself equal to God." This therefore is most especially what is just, which everyone ought to judge, namely, that God is to be worshipped and Christ honored and the gift of the Holy Spirit received with reverence; because, John 5, "he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father," etc. It is also just to judge that "God will judge the world in equity," and to forestall that judgment by judging oneself, because, 1 Corinthians 11, "if we judged ourselves, we would certainly not be judged," etc. Whence conscience naturally protests, and it also testifies that our evils will not remain without consequence. And therefore from it we ought to be stirred to meriting divine grace; Romans 2: "When the Gentiles, who do not have the Law, do by nature the things that are of the Law, such as these, not having the Law, are a law unto themselves, because they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them," etc.
85. (Verse 58.). The third point, concerning the warning of the higher edict, he adds: When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, on the way . Bede: "Our adversary on the way is the word of God, which is contrary to our carnal desires in the present life"; our magistrate is Christ; Isaiah thirty-two: "The prince shall think the things that are worthy of a prince." To this magistrate the word of God directs us by a threefold way, namely the way of innocence, concerning which the Psalm says: "He who walks in the immaculate way, he ministered to me"; the way of penance: Exodus eight: "We shall go a journey of three days into the wilderness"; the way of wisdom; Proverbs four: "I will show you the way of wisdom, I will lead you through the paths of equity."
The Prophet asked that these ways be shown to him, saying: "Show me your ways." He showed these by example: John fourteen: "I am the way, the truth, and the life"; he showed them by word; Isaiah thirty: "You shall hear the word of your teacher: This is the good way, walk in it"; he showed them also by a divinely inspired gift; Wisdom ten: "The Lord led the just man through right ways and showed him the kingdom of God."
86. Since, therefore, the word of God directs us along the right way, along which carnality refuses to go, and reason ought to trust the word of God more than carnal suggestion, he therefore adds: Make an effort to be freed from him, by fulfilling precepts, by avoiding what is forbidden, by hoping in promises, and by fearing threats. He who does these things is safe from the adversary: Ecclesiasticus thirty-six: "Raise up the adversary and afflict the enemy." For he who exalts the divine word afflicts the enemy, that is, the flesh, the world, and the devil. Bede: "When in this life you prepare yourself to see the pleasing face of the judge, although the word of God is contrary to your flesh, nevertheless use it as a guard given to you on this journey, lest when despised it accuse you." — Therefore he adds: Lest perhaps he drag you to the judge, that is, to Christ: Acts ten: "He is the one who was appointed judge of the living and the dead," etc.
And the judge hand you over to the exactor, that is, to the devil, who will exact punishment for guilt; Job three: "They did not hear the voice of the exactor." And the exactor cast you into prison, namely hell. Isaiah twenty-four: "They shall be gathered together in the gathering of one bundle into the pit and shall be shut up there in prison"; because that punishment is irremediable.
87. (Vers. 59.). Therefore he adds: I say to you, you shall not go out from there until you have paid the last mite, that is, never, because you will never pay it back. Bede: "He always pays penalties by suffering for sins, but never by obtaining pardon." Hence until does not set a limit here, just as neither does it there: "The Lord said to my Lord, etc., until I place," etc. Augustine: " Until does not signify a limit of punishment, but you will always be paying and never finish paying." And it says to pay the last mite, because the reprobate are punished not only for great sins, but also for lesser ones. Hence Chrysostom: "If once condemned you are cast into prison, punishments will be exacted from you not only for grave sins, but even for every idle word that you have spoken." Into these punishments are cast those who do not keep the divine words, which direct man to divine grace and to Christ: hence John 5: "Search the Scriptures. They are the ones that bear witness concerning me."
88. From these things, therefore, it is apparent that man's negligence in knowing and receiving God's grace is inexcusable, because he is roused to it by a threefold admonition, namely through the book of creation, conscience, and Scripture, as if through three witnesses, of which one is exterior, another interior, and the third as it were superior. Wherefore, as it is said in Hebrews 2, "we ought more abundantly to heed the things that we have heard, lest perhaps we drift away. For if the word spoken through Angels was made firm, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation"?