Chapter XVII.
On human piety with regard to spiritual works in three ways.
1. And he said to his disciples. After having refuted the impiety of the Jews, he invited the disciples to piety according to corporal almsgiving; here follows the second part, in which he invites to piety according to spiritual almsgiving . This part is divided into three, in the first of which he instructs the disciples by a reasonable teaching: in the second he leads them by hand through a sensible example, there: And the Apostles said to the Lord:
in the third he confirms by an admirable deed, there: And it came to pass, as Jesus was going.
Instruction through reasonable teaching.
Concerning the reasonable teaching, he first sets forth a dissuasion from spiritual impiety, which consists in the scandal of neighbors; then he adds a persuasion to spiritual piety, which consists in the remission of offenses, there: Take heed to yourselves: If he shall sin.
Concerning the dissuasion therefore from scandalizing impiety, he proceeds in this order, showing namely that passive scandal is inevitable, active scandal is damnable, and its punishment is horrible.
2. (Verse 1.). First, therefore, with regard to the inevitability of passive scandal, he says: And he said to his disciples: It is impossible that scandals should not come. For this is not said of active scandal, because that one can well avoid, but of passive scandal, which is not in the power of any man, because it sometimes takes occasion not only from evil, but even from good, as is said of the Jews in Matthew thirteen: "Who were scandalized in him"; on account of which, Matthew eleven: "Blessed is he who shall not be scandalized in me"; because, First Peter two, "to them that believe not, the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal." But God permits this to happen by just judgment for the punishment of the wicked and the testing of the just; whence Matthew eighteen: "It is necessary that scandals come." And the reason is given in First Corinthians eleven: "There must be heresies, that they also who are approved may be made manifest." Although scandals come through the wicked and from the wicked, they ought nevertheless to be avoided by just men, as much as they can, while preserving the threefold truth. Whence Bede: "Note that insofar as you can without sin, you ought to avoid the scandal of your neighbor; but if it concerns the truth, truth ought not to be abandoned on account of scandals."
3. Now there is a threefold truth that ought not to be abandoned on account of scandal, namely the truth of life, of doctrine, and of justice. Hence Jerome says: "Everything that can be done or not done, while preserving this threefold truth, should be set aside." But this is not a matter of necessity, but of perfect justice, according to which the Apostle said in First Corinthians 8: "If food scandalizes my brother, I will never eat meat, lest I scandalize my brother." Hence Romans 14: "It is good not to eat meat or drink wine, nor anything by which your brother is offended, or scandalized, or made weak." Hence if anyone is scandalized on account of works of perfection, these are nevertheless not to be abandoned; hence Jerome on the death of Blaesilla: "A darker garment scandalizes someone; John scandalizes, who was clothed in camel's hair." But we have an example of setting aside indifferent things on account of scandal in Christ, Matthew 17: "But that we may not scandalize them, go to the sea," etc.; where he paid the tribute. And yet he did not abandon the teachings of truth on account of scandal; hence Matthew 15: "Do you know that the Pharisees, when they heard this word, were scandalized?" But he said: "Let them alone: they are blind and leaders of the blind," etc.
4. Second, as regards the damnability of active scandal, he adds: But woe to him through whom they come! that is, who actively scandalizes. Now those actively scandalize who through a word or deed that is less than upright provide an occasion of ruin. For the Gloss says on Numbers thirty-one at the beginning: "Scandal is when a deception unto sinning is placed before one who walks rightly," as Balaam did to the children of Israel. On account of which it is said in Revelation two: "You have those holding the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel," namely, to eat of the sacrifices, etc. This scandal is one of spiritual impiety, when someone by evil example kills the soul of his neighbor, and therefore he himself is rendered worthy of death. As a figure of which it is said in Numbers thirty-one: "Why have you preserved the women? Are not these the ones who deceived the children of Israel at the suggestion of Balaam and caused you to transgress against the Lord?" "Therefore slay all of them, whatever is of the male sex, even the little ones, and the women who have known men in intercourse, put to death"; and in the twenty-fifth chapter: "Let the Midianites regard you as enemies, and strike them, because they too have acted with hostility against you." For he acts most hostilely who extinguishes the spirit of life in the fountain of the heart; therefore Matthew eighteen: "If your hand or your foot scandalizes you, cut it off and cast it from you; and if your eye scandalizes you, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is better to enter life with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into the gehenna of fire." Now this is not to be understood of bodily members, but of friends, who as members are carnally joined to us, from whom, if they scandalize, we ought to be separated, according to that saying in Matthew ten: "I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies shall be those of his own household." Therefore Sirach six: "Separate yourself from enemies and be on guard against friends." Chrysostom: "Nothing is so harmful as to associate with the pernicious"; and therefore he himself says: "If we cut off members when they have become incurable and have harmed the rest, much more ought we to do this with friends."
5. (Verse 2). Third, as regards the horribleness of the punishment, he adds: It is more profitable for him if a millstone were placed around his neck and he were cast into the sea. Bede: "He speaks according to the custom of the province, where this was the punishment for crimes, that one would be plunged into the deep with a stone tied to him." This, I say, he calls more profitable than that he should scandalize one of these little ones: because this punishment is far less than that which he deserves by scandalizing his neighbor. Whence Bede: "Truly it is more profitable to end life while innocent by the gravest punishment than to merit perpetual death by harming a brother." And again the same author: "For it is more profitable to receive a brief punishment for a fault than to be reserved for eternal torments."
6. The reason, moreover, why so great a punishment is owed to the one who scandalizes is that he takes from Christ that which He loves most, namely the soul, according to that passage of Wisdom 11: "All things are Yours, O Lord, who love souls." Whence also the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 8: "The weak brother shall perish by your knowledge, for whom Christ died"; and there follows: "But thus sinning against the brethren, you sin against Christ." - Another reason is that, just as a great crown is owed to works of edification, so a great punishment is owed to works of destruction; Romans 14: "Let us pursue the things that are of peace, and let us keep the things that are of mutual edification: do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God." - The third reason is,
that, just as it is great cruelty to afflict the sick, so it is great perversity to seduce the simple; on account of which, Leviticus 19: "You shall not place a stumbling block before the blind"; and therefore He says pointedly: One of these little ones. - The fourth reason is that the one who scandalizes is obligated not only to render his own soul, but also the scandalized soul; whence Exodus 21: "If anyone opens a cistern and does not cover it, and an ox or donkey falls into it, the owner of the cistern shall pay the price of the animals." - This sin, moreover, is grave in all, but especially in those whose life is taken as an example, such as prelates, such as great clerics, such as also religious and renowned men; whence Malachi 2: "The lips of the priest keep knowledge, and they seek the law from his mouth." "But you have departed from the way and have scandalized very many; you have made void the covenant of Levi. For which reason I have made you contemptible and base," etc.
7. (Verse 3). Take heed to yourselves, etc. After He dissuaded impiety, which consists in the scandal of one's neighbors, here consequently He counsels spiritual piety, which consists in the remission of injuries. And since piety ought to be exhibited according to ordered charity, which consists in vigilance with respect to oneself and in clemency with respect to one's neighbor, therefore in this part He exhorts the Apostles to the vigilance of their minds, to discipline with respect to those who err, and to indulgence with respect to the penitent.
First therefore, as regards the guarding of their minds, he says: Take heed to yourselves: as if to say: you ought first to be watchful concerning your own correction rather than concerning the sins of your neighbor: Sirach thirty: "Have mercy on your own soul, pleasing God." This the Apostle taught in First Timothy four: "Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. For in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you." And this especially belongs to prelates themselves, who ought first to be watchful concerning themselves: Acts twenty: "Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops to govern the Church of God, which he acquired with his own blood." This order, however, is necessary, lest perhaps that word of Romans two be said to one who attends to the correction of others and neglects his own: "You who teach another, do you not teach yourself?" and that of Matthew seven: "Hypocrite! First cast out the beam from your own eye, and then you will see to remove the speck from your brother's eye." And therefore that good watchman said in Isaiah twenty-one: "I stand upon the watchtower of the Lord, standing continually by day, and I am at my post, standing through all the nights." He attended to his neighbor, not like Cain: Genesis four: "Am I my brother's keeper?" He also attended to himself, lest that word above in chapter four be said: "Physician, heal yourself."
8. Second, as regards discipline with respect to sinners, he adds: If your brother sins against you, rebuke him: and this through friendly correction, according to that of Second Timothy four: "Reprove, entreat, rebuke with all patience and teaching"; and Sirach nineteen: "Correct a friend, lest perhaps he did not understand and say: 'I did not do it'; or if he did, lest he do it again." Whence this rebuke ought not to come from anger, but from clemency, not from the desire for vengeance, but from the love of justice: whence Gregory in the Moralia: "If we ought to love our neighbors as ourselves, it follows that we should be angered at their sins, just as at our own." Moreover, one is said to sin against us not only when he sins against our person, but also when he sins in our presence: whence Augustine, On the Words of the Lord: "A brother sins against us if he also sins with our knowledge," because, insofar as it lies in him, he corrupts us by his example, making us witnesses of iniquity.
9. And note that in this rebuke an order must be observed, which is expressed in Matthew eighteen: "If your brother sins against you, correct him between you and him alone." And afterwards he adds that witnesses must be brought in, then the matter must be told to the Church. For first the sinner ought to be recalled by love: which is done
when he is admonished in secret: Galatians six: "Brothers, if a man is overtaken in any fault," etc.
Second, by shame: which is done when witnesses are brought in, according to that of Leviticus nineteen: "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but reprove him publicly, lest you bear sin on his account."
Third, however, by fear: which is done in the face of the Church—First Timothy chapter five: "Rebuke the one who sins before all, so that the rest also may have fear." This order, however, is one of fittingness, not of necessity, and especially if it is perceived that the neighbor is incorrigible by the word of a brother, but only by a strong hand, according to that passage of Proverbs chapter nine: "Do not rebuke a scoffer, lest he hate you." Hence Jerome: "To strive in vain and to gain nothing else by laboring than hatred is the height of madness." On account of this, holy Joseph also did not observe this order, of whom it is said in Genesis chapter thirty-seven, that "he accused his brothers before his father of a most grievous crime." From which a pattern is given, that to a prelate, who is a person able to be of benefit, even with no preceding correction, the fault of a neighbor can and ought to be accused—outside of judgment, if it is hidden, and in judgment, if certain proof is had. Hence Bede: "He who sees one sinning and remains silent sins just as much as he who does not pardon the penitent"; which indeed is understood when by one's word the neighbor can be corrected, and no greater danger is feared. Hence on that passage of Second Corinthians chapter six: "Go out from the midst of them," the Gloss says: "To go out is to do what pertains to the correction of the wicked, as much as is permitted according to the rank of each one, with peace preserved."
10. Third, as regards indulgence with respect to the penitent, he adds: And if he shall do penance, forgive him. Bede: "We are not commanded to forgive indiscriminately the one sinning, but the one doing penance. First therefore is to rebuke the one sinning, so that afterwards we may forgive the penitent. " For the Lord established this law in the Lord's Prayer in Matthew chapter six: "Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors"; and there follows: "For if you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will forgive you your debts. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your sins." Therefore it is said in Sirach chapter twenty-eight: "Forgive your neighbor who harms you, and then when you pray, your sins will be loosed. A man harbors anger against another man, and seeks remedy from God? He has no mercy on a man like himself, and yet prays for his own sins? He himself, being flesh, stores up anger, and seeks propitiation from God?"
11. (Verse 4). And since mercy ought to exceed the offense, therefore he adds: And if he sins against you seven times in a day, through manifold injury. Bede: "Universality is customarily designated by the number seven," on account of which it is also said in Proverbs chapter twenty-four: "The just man falls seven times in a day and rises again." Moreover, through these seven occasions, sevenfold tribulations can be gathered by which someone injures a neighbor: by misleading the intellect, by corrupting the affections, by afflicting the body, by taking away his possessions, by denying what is his, by mocking his reputation with words, and by corrupting his life through example; concerning which it is said in Job chapter five: "In six tribulations he will deliver you, and in the seventh evil shall not touch you."
And all these things must be forgiven to the penitent: And if seven times in a day he turns to you, saying: I repent, through mental compunction; forgive him, through merciful pardon, lest perchance that which was said to the wicked servant in Matthew eighteen be said to you: "Wicked servant, I forgave you all your debt because you asked me; should you not then also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I also had mercy on you?" Just as therefore God grants pardon to everyone who asks, according to that passage in Ezekiel thirty-three: "The wickedness of the wicked shall not harm him, on whatever day he turns away from it," etc.: so also we ought to forgive the penitent. Hence a finite number is put here in place of an infinite one; whence Chrysostom says: "Even if you forgive seventy times seven, nevertheless, as a drop of water compared to the sea, indeed much more so, your generosity falls short of the infinite clemency of God." Therefore all offenses, however great and however many and whenever and by whomever they were committed, must be forgiven, if pardon is humbly sought through true repentance; and the offense must also be forgiven to one who does not ask, but in one way to one who asks, in another way to one who persecutes. Whence the Gloss of Bede says: "We are commanded to grant pardon in one way to a brother who asks, in another way to an enemy who persecutes. To a brother, having granted remission, we share in the fellowship of charity; to a persecutor who wishes us evil, or, if he can, does us evil, we wish good things and do what we can"; and this by the example of Christ, concerning whom below in chapter twenty-three: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"; by the example of David, who said: "If I have repaid those who rendered evil to me," etc.; by the example of the protomartyr Stephen, concerning whom in Acts seven: "And kneeling down, he cried out with a loud voice, saying: Lord, receive my spirit, and do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the Lord."
A guiding by hand through a twofold sensible example.
12. And the Apostles said to the Lord. After he instructed the disciples toward spiritual piety by a rational teaching, here secondly he guides them by hand through an example. And since the root of spiritual piety is twofold, namely fervent faith and reverent humility , according to that passage in Sirach twenty-five: "The fear of God is the beginning of his love; and the beginning of faith is to be joined fast to it": therefore here he first proposes an example through which one is guided by hand to fervent faith; and secondly, through which one is guided by hand to reverent humility, at the passage: But which of you, having a servant.