23. (Verse 11). Second, as to the severity of the long-standing disease, he adds: And behold, a woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years, as to the prolonged duration of the infirmity: Sirach 10: "A prolonged illness burdens the physician; a brief illness the physician cuts short."
And she was bent over, as to the severity of the infirmity, according to what he lamented: "I am made wretched and bent down even to the end," etc.
Nor could she at all look upward, on account of the unceasing nature of the infirmity, according to that passage in Lamentations 1: "He has given me into a hand from which I cannot rise."
24. Moreover, by this long-standing curvature can be understood the disease of avarice and cupidity, which bends the heart toward temporal things; the Psalm: "They set their eyes to turn toward the earth." And this is what the demons seek; Isaiah 51: "Bow down, that we may pass over."
This bending infirmity lasts for eighteen years, that is, through a threefold six, that is, through the whole time of life; because, as Jerome says, while other vices grow old in the elderly, avarice alone grows young; and in Ecclesiastes 2 it is said of the miser: "All his days are full of sorrows and afflictions, nor does his mind rest at night"; and Hosea 7: "Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knew it not; gray hairs also are sprinkled upon him, and he knew it not."
This infirmity also does not allow one to look upward: whence it is said in Matthew 6: "Where your treasure is, there is your heart also"; and the Psalm: "Fire fell upon them," namely of cupidity, "and they did not see the sun," lest they should remember, etc.
25. (Verse 12). Third, as to the power of the swiftly accomplished miracle, he adds: When Jesus saw her, namely with the eye of compassion: the Psalm: "For He looked down from His holy height"; "to hear the groans of the prisoners and to set free the children of the slain"; and 4 Kings 20: "I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears."
He called her to himself, through the affection of benignity: In John eleven, Martha said to Mary: "The Master is here and calls you"; and in Fourth Kings four: "Call this Shunammite woman and say to her: What do you wish that I should do for you?"
And he said to her: Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity, through the promise of truth: whence, by reason of certainty, he puts the past tense for the near future: Numbers twenty-three: "God is not as a man, that he should lie"; "has he said then, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?"
26. (Vers. 13.). And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God, as regards the effect of power: Ecclesiastes eight: "Whatsoever he wills, he shall do, and his word is full of power." Moreover, he lays on hands to show that he himself is the hand through which the Almighty works all things and through which he restores all things: Isaiah fifty-nine: "Behold, the hand of the Lord is not shortened, that it cannot save"; and in Numbers eleven the Lord said to Moses: "Is the hand of the Lord weak? Now you shall see whether my word shall be fulfilled in deed." And therefore Sirach thirty-six: "Renew signs and change wonders, glorify the hand and the right arm."
27. And note that here he says four things about the bowing down of this woman, which the Lord exercises in the salvation of any faithful soul. For first he sees by predestining: Wisdom four: "His regard is upon his elect."
Second, he calls by drawing outwardly: Matthew nine: "I came not to call the just, but sinners"; and Proverbs nine: "She sent her handmaids to call to the citadel and to the walls of the city." — Third, he lays on his hand by justifying: Ezekiel three: "I went away bitter in the indignation of my spirit, for the hand of the Lord was with me, strengthening me"; and above in chapter one: "For indeed the hand of the Lord was with him." — Fourth, he raises up by glorifying: First Kings two: "He raises up the needy from the dust and lifts the poor from the dunghill, that he may sit with princes and hold the throne of glory."
Concerning these four things it is similarly said in Romans eight: "Those whom he predestined, these he also called; and those whom he called, these he also justified; and those whom he justified, these he also glorified."
28. (Vers. 14.). But the ruler of the synagogue answering, etc. Here secondly is added the rebuke of Jewish superstition. Concerning which, first is introduced the stirring of disordered zeal in the mind; second, the pretense of ordered zeal in word.
First, therefore, as regards the stirring up of disordered zeal in the soul, he says: But the ruler of the synagogue, being indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, as if to say that his response drew its origin from indignation of soul. This indignation, moreover, arose from a presumption of justice; whence only " true justice has compassion, but false justice has indignation." This false justice, moreover, was zealous for the Law with respect to the observance of the Sabbath, but with a foolish zeal: Romans ten: "They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge; for being ignorant of the justice of God and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to the justice of God." Whence foolish presumption begets zeal, and zeal begets indignation, and indignation begets transgression of the divine law, according to that saying in Proverbs twenty-nine: "He who is quick to indignation will be more prone to sin." Whence the foolish zealot of the law is a destroyer of the law itself; on account of which, Galatians one: "Beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and laid waste to it"; "being more abundantly a zealot for the traditions of my fathers," etc.
29. Second, as regards the simulation of ordered zeal in word, he adds: He said to the crowd: There are six days in which one ought to work: behold, an allegation of truth: Exodus twenty: "Six days you shall do all your works. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord." - Come therefore on these days and be healed: behold, a simulation of piety, whence what is said in Second Timothy three concerning dissemblers applies to him: "Having an appearance of piety, but denying its power." When he says: And not on the day of the Sabbath: behold, an ostentation of holiness, because as a holy man he was showing that he wished the Sabbath day to be kept as holy, according to that saying in Leviticus twenty-three: "Six days you shall work; the seventh day, because it is the Sabbath of rest, shall be called holy. " Whence the Jews said in John nine: "This man is not from God, who does not keep the Sabbath"; but the observance of the holy day in the ruler of the synagogue was rather for the simulation of justice than for its fulfillment, according to that saying in Isaiah one: "New moon and Sabbath and other solemnities I will not endure." "Your new moons and your solemnities my soul has hated." And the reason for this is that they kept them rather for superstition than out of devotion; whence Lamentations one: "Her enemies saw her and mocked her Sabbaths."
30. (Verse 15.). But answering him, etc. Here in the third place is added the confutation of the proposed objection, concerning which he first sets forth a sensible example, then draws out a rational argument.
First, therefore, setting forth a sensible example, he says: But the Lord answering said to him: Hypocrite . As the Lord responds, because it is said in Matthew 7 that "he was teaching as one having authority." And he did this especially when he rebuked others, as he calls this one a hypocrite, because he saw his hidden things: whence 1 Corinthians 4: "He who judges me is the Lord." For he himself knows the hidden things of the heart, and especially hates the vice of hypocrisy. Therefore Sirach 1: "Do not be a hypocrite in the sight of men"; "lest God reveal your hidden things and cast you down in the midst of the assembly," as he did to this one, whom he refutes and convicts by an evident and sensible example. Therefore he adds: Does not each of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it to water ? The Gloss: "Rightly does he call the hypocrites pretenders, who, although they desire to appear as teachers of the people, do not hesitate to postpone the healing of men to the care of beasts." In these is fulfilled that word of Isaiah 57: "The just man perishes, and there is no one who considers it in his heart." And that also seems to be fulfilled today, according to that saying of Bernard: "A soul perishes, and there is no one who cares; a donkey falls, and there is someone to lift it up." Therefore he calls him a hypocrite who, feigning zeal for the Law, cares more for livestock or money than for the soul.
31. (Verse 16.). Second, drawing out a rational argument, he adds: But this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, lo, for eighteen years, to whom mercy is owed, both because she is a woman, weak by her sex; 1 Peter 3: "Bestowing honor as on the weaker, feminine vessel"; and because she is weak from the oppression of the devil: whence Matthew 15: "Have mercy on me, Son of David, for my daughter is grievously vexed by a devil"; because she was also of the seed of Abraham, whom God had chosen for himself: whence Matthew 15: "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
From these fitting reasons, therefore, it is concluded much more strongly that the healing of the woman ought not to have been deferred on account of the Sabbath. Therefore he adds: Was it not fitting that she be loosed from this bond on the day of the Sabbath? Indeed it was certainly fitting, because the opportuneness of the time required it: both because infinitely greater care ought to be given to the welfare of a human being than of a brute animal, on account of which, First Corinthians 9: "Does God have care for oxen?" Also because the Sabbath was not introduced to the detriment of man, but rather for the salvation of the human race; whence John 7: "If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the Sabbath is not broken, are you angry with me because I made an entire man whole on the Sabbath?" Also because on the Sabbath all servile works are forbidden; whence Leviticus 23: "You shall do no servile work therein," but not spiritual works: whence Matthew 12: "Have you not read that on the Sabbaths the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and are without guilt?" Nor are divine and miraculous works forbidden: whence John 5: "My Father works even until now, and I work"; and chapter 9: "I must work while it is day." Nor are works necessary for the preservation of health forbidden, such as eating and drinking: therefore neither are those directed toward healing.
32. From this it is given to understand how great the solicitude and diligence of man ought to be that the sinner be absolved from the snares of the devil, so that, if it can be done, there be not even a slight delay; Proverbs 6: "Give not sleep to your eyes, nor let your eyelids slumber; run about, make haste, rouse your friend." As a sign of which, it is said of the prodigal son returning, below in chapter 15: "While he was yet a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and running to him, fell upon his neck and kissed him." And note that for a daughter of Abraham to be loosed from the bond of Satan is nothing other than for a soul to be loosed from the guilt of sin: whence the Gloss: "A daughter of Abraham, that is, every faithful soul." Christ looses her through the ministry of priests: Matthew 18: "Amen I say to you, whatever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven." But it is necessary that man dispose himself, as it were, from within: Isaiah 52: "Loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Sion." And then God works from above: The Psalm: "You have broken my bonds; to you I shall sacrifice a sacrifice of praise." Whence in this loosing, priests work through the exterior dispensation of the Sacrament, and the sinner through the interior detestation of sin, and God through the superior infusion of the grace of the Holy Spirit.
33. (Verse 17). And when he said these things, etc. Here fourthly he subjoins the attainment of glorious victory with respect to two things that are introduced here, namely the confusion of the rebellious and the rejoicing of the faithful.
First, therefore, as regards the confusion of the rebellious, he says: And when he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame; the Gloss: " The adversaries, the scribes and Pharisees, who can neither contradict the manifest truth nor are willing to believe on account of envy." Concerning such people, Job twenty-four: "They were rebellious against the light and did not know its ways." Such people are not instructed but confounded when the truth is made manifest; Isaiah forty-one: "Behold, all who fight against you shall be confounded and put to shame; they shall be as nothing, and the men who oppose you shall perish. You shall seek them, and you shall not find the men who rebel against you," etc.
34. Second, as regards the rejoicing of the faithful, he adds: And all the people rejoiced in all the glorious things that were done by him: Bede: " The people, that is, the simple and humble, who love the words of truth and miracles." These rejoice in the manifestation of divine glory; whence Isaiah twenty-nine: "The poor among men shall exult in the Holy One of Israel"; they shall exult, I say, in all the glorious things that were done by him: Sirach forty-two: "The work of the Lord is full of his glory."
And note that the works of Christ were gracious with respect to the condescension of divine favor, and for these one must give thanks: Tobit twelve: "Bless the God of heaven, and before all the living give praise to him, because he has shown his mercy to you." They were also glorious with respect to the operation of power and the manifestation of majesty, and over these one must rejoice and exult; the Psalm: "Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; sing a psalm to his name; give glory to his praise. Say to God: How terrible are your works! In the greatness of your power your enemies shall lie to you."