Seventh, by the three measures of flour can be understood the three portions of the human race dispersed throughout the whole world from the three sons of Noah; concerning whom Genesis 10: "These are the generations of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth."
In the eighth way, according to Hilary, by the flour is understood Scripture: by the three measures, the three parts of Scripture, namely the Mosaic, the prophetic, and the evangelical. And in these the wisdom of God hid charity, because, Matthew twenty-two, "on these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets."
In the ninth way, according to Ambrose, thus: "The woman is the Church: her flour is us: who hid the Lord Jesus as leaven in our inward parts, until the heat of heavenly wisdom covers them over."
In the tenth way, according to Bernard, thus: "The woman is the Virgin Mary: the three measures, the threefold nature or substance in the one person of Christ, namely flesh, soul, and Divinity. The first measure is ancient, the second is new, but the third is eternal. These, moreover, she mixed through the leaven of her faith and love." Whence Hugh: "Because love burned singularly in her mind, therefore he worked miracles in her flesh." As a figure of this it is said in Genesis eighteen: "Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said to her: Make haste, mix three measures of fine flour." And so did the blessed Virgin, because at the word of the Angel she immediately consented: "Behold," she said, "the handmaid of the Lord," etc.
46. From these things, therefore, it is apparent how from one small matter the Holy Spirit drew forth various understandings outwardly through his Saints, so that from this there might appear "the manifold wisdom of God," which after the manner of the woman hid leaven in the measures. For, as Dionysius says, the whole of mystical theology, "which is hidden in mystery," itself wholly consists in ecstatic love according to the threefold hierarchical power: purgative, illuminative, and perfective.
47. Third, as to the effect on the part of both, he adds: Until the whole was leavened: the Gloss: "Charity hidden in the mind must grow so long until it changes the whole mind into its own perfection, so that it loves nothing besides God." For just as leaven spreads more and more, so also does the charity of God. Whence Gregory: "The love of God is never idle; for it works great things, if it exists: but if it refuses to work, it is not love"; and Bernard: "Charity either advances or declines"; whence "Charity never fails," but converts the whole into its own nature after the manner of leaven and fire. Whence Exodus nineteen: "The whole of Mount Sinai smoked, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire."
For this fire and heat of charity is begun on the way, but it occupies the whole heart in the homeland: Isaiah thirty-one: "The Lord said, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem." Whence, just as from the heart, which is at the center, vital heat flows into the whole body, so from perfect charity all the assemblies of the works of the virtues receive heat and vigor, by which they tend upward. And just as it is said: "If your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light," so, if your heart is burning, your whole body will be made warm: if the heart is divine, the whole man is divine through deifying love, according to that word of the Psalm: "My flesh and my heart have failed: God of my heart, and God is my portion forever."
48. And he went through the cities etc. Above he showed that good works must be done without ceasing, through the guidance of a natural example; here he shows this same thing through the manifestation of the divine decree. Which indeed he manifests in two ways: first, with regard to the severity of divine strictness in judging; second, with regard to the sublimity of the divine disposition in redeeming, at: On that same day some drew near.
The severity of strictness in judging, however, is shown in three ways: first, with regard to the difficulty in merit; second, with regard to the rigidity in judgment, at: But when the master of the house has entered; third, with regard to the calamity in punishment, at: There will be weeping.
The difficulty which is in merit he shows in two ways, namely by example in deed and by instruction in word.
49. (Verse 22.). First therefore, with regard to the example by which he shows the difficulty of entering into heaven, he says: And he went through the cities and towns, teaching and making his journey toward Jerusalem. In this, that he went and went about, it is clear that he labored without ceasing; whence he could say that word of the Psalm: "I am poor and in labors from my youth." And he gave an example to others for laboring: Proverbs six: "Run about, make haste, rouse your friend." But in this, that he was going to Jerusalem, it is clear that he was hastening to his passion; whence Matthew twenty: "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they shall condemn him to death." And in this he gave an example to others for enduring, because, First Peter two, "Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps." Whence James five: "Take as an example, brethren, of enduring evil and of long-suffering and of labor and of patience, the Prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the end of the Lord."
From this example of the Lord, therefore, who endured so much labor and in the end his passion, it is apparent that the entrance to heaven is difficult: whence below in the last chapter: "Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer and so enter into his glory?" And hence it is that it is fitting to enter heaven through tribulations: Acts 14: "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."
50. And note that in these words three things are suggested to us by the example of the Lord, through which one arrives at the glory of paradise, namely good action, true preaching, and tranquil contemplation. Work is suggested in this, that he was going through cities and towns; preaching indeed in this, that he was going teaching; contemplation in this, that he was making his journey to Jerusalem, which is the vision of peace, according to the anagogical sense: Psalm: "Jerusalem, which is built as a city." "For there the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord." The first of these pertains to prudence, the second to understanding, and the third to wisdom. Or the first to goodness, the second to discipline, and the third to knowledge: Psalm: "Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge."
51. (Verse 23). Second, as regards the instruction in word, by which he responds to the question about the fewness of those who are saved, he adds: And a certain one said to him: Lord, are those who are saved few? This man asks this because he had not heard the divine saying, by which it is said in Matthew 20: "Many are called, but few are chosen"; as a figure of which it is said in Micah 7: "Woe is me! For I have become like one who gathers the clusters of the vintage in autumn."
Or he was posing this question in order to give an occasion for teaching by word what he was showing by example.
52. (Verses 23–24). Whence he adds: And he said to them: Strive to enter through the narrow gate: Matthew 7: "How narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leads to life, and few there are who find it!" This gate is Christ: John 10: "I am the door"; he himself is the way; John 14: "I am the way"; "no one comes to the Father except through me." This way is strait and the gate narrow, not on account of the smallness of power, but on account of the straitness of modesty and the rectitude of justice; whence Chrysostom: "The strait gate is Christ, not by smallness of power, but by reason of humility. Christ does not receive into himself except those who have stripped themselves of sins and laid down every burden of the world." And therefore Matthew 19: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." Therefore the gate of heaven is called narrow, because unless one reduces himself to smallness and austerity, he cannot enter.
53. And because few are of this kind, he therefore adds: Because many, I say to you, will seek to enter: Gloss: "Prompted by love of salvation and rewards"; and will not be able, Gloss: "Terrified by the harshness of the journey," because they do not seek with a whole and full will. For they wish to attain Christ but are unwilling to follow him, according to that saying of Proverbs thirteen: "The sluggard wills and wills not." Hence Chrysostom: "Unless someone walks along the way, he will not be able to reach the gate. If you have not been and are not on the way of justice, and you think that you know Christ, you lie: just as one who hears that honey is sweet but does not taste it knows the name of honey but is ignorant of the grace and flavor of honey"; hence the slothful, who will and will not, cannot enter; likewise neither can those who desire both the present age and God, of whom Hosea five says: "With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, and shall not find him." And of such it is said in Matthew six: "No one can serve two masters"; "you cannot serve God and mammon." These do not go straight to heaven; hence 3 Kings eighteen: "How long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, follow him." 54. Because it is impossible to enter the kingdom of heaven with desires for earthly things, and it is difficult to lay these aside, therefore one must strive against appetite; and for this reason he says: Strive to enter through the narrow gate, as if to say: it is impossible to enter with desires, which many seek to do; but at least strive, having trampled upon your desires. Hence also Matthew eleven: "From the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." Nor does it stand against this that it is said in the same place: "My yoke is sweet," because the gate and heavenly way is narrow for those beginning, but is widened for those advancing, and is broad for those arriving. For the first the Psalm said: "Because of the words of thy lips I have kept hard ways"; for the second: "I have run the way of thy commandments, when thou didst enlarge my heart"; for the third: "I have been delighted in the way of thy testimonies, as in all riches." For these three it is said in Proverbs four: "The path of the just, as a shining light, goes forward and increases even to the perfect day"; and again after: "I will lead thee by the paths of equity, which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps shall not be straitened, and running thou shalt have no stumbling block."
55. (Vers. 25.). But when the householder shall have entered. After he has aroused them to continual progress in good work on account of the difficulty in merit, here secondly he arouses them to this on account of the severity in the future judgment, which he shows in two ways, namely, because he will reject the supplication of prayers and the allegation of reasons.
First, as regards the rejection of supplication, he says: But when the master of the house has entered and shut the door, through judicial severity; Matthew twenty-five: "Those who were ready entered with him to the wedding, and the door was shut." And note that Christ is called the master of the house in respect of the just: whence Matthew twenty: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man, a master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard." He is called the master of the house because he has a large household; in whose figure, Job one: "The possession of Job was seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she-asses, and a very great household."
He is also a judge in respect of the wicked, for whom he shuts the door of mercy: whence it is said in Deuteronomy eleven: "Take heed lest you depart from the Lord, and the Lord being angry shut up heaven, and the rains not descend." This gate is open throughout the entire span of the way, but is closed at the end: Ezekiel forty-six: "But the gate shall not be shut until the evening; and the people of the land shall worship at the entrance of that gate on Sabbaths and on New Moons before the Lord."
56. And because the withdrawal of mercy leads man to the recognition of his own misery, and this in turn leads to the importunity of prayers, therefore he adds: And you shall begin to stand outside and knock at the door, through belated penitence: Wisdom five: "Seeing this, they shall be troubled with terrible fear"; "saying within themselves, repenting"; and Hebrews twelve: "He found no place of repentance, although he had sought it with tears." Saying: Open to us, Lord, through importunate supplication:
Matthew twenty-five: "Last of all the other virgins come, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us."
And he shall answer and say to you: I know you not, whence you are, through final reprobation; Proverbs one: "Then they shall cry out, and I will not hear; they shall rise early and shall not find me, because they held discipline hateful and did not receive the fear of the Lord"; whence also Proverbs six: "The jealousy and fury of the husband will not spare in the day of vengeance, nor will he yield to anyone's prayers."
And note that the Lord is said not to know us, not because he does not know us by simple knowledge, since it is said in Job twelve: "He himself knows both the deceiver and the one who is deceived"; and in the Psalm: "In your book all shall be written"; but because he does not know them with the knowledge of approbation, because it is said in Second Timothy two: "The Lord knows those who are his"; Job eight: "If it swallows him up from his place, it will deny him and say: I knew you not."
57. (Vers. 26.). Second, as to the rejection of the allegation of reasons, he adds: Then you will begin to say: We ate before you and drank: behold, the allegation of familiarity in life; and in our streets you taught, as to familiarity in doctrine. Or the first can be referred to the miracles which Christ performed among the Jews, when he multiplied the loaves, John 6, and changed water into wine, John 2: the second to teachings. For these had seen miracles and heard teachings: whence Matthew 11: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if in Tyre and Sidon had been done the mighty works that have been done in you, they would long ago have done penance in sackcloth and ashes." Thus they allege knowledge of Christ, because they knew his works and miracles, and they also knew his words and teachings. Such will be the wicked Christians at the judgment, of whom it is said in Titus 1: "They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him."