Second, how the disciples are called from the state of guilt.
63. And after these things he went out, etc. Above the Evangelist treated of the calling of the disciples from a lawful state, that is, of justice; here he treats of their calling from a perilous state, that is, of injustice, where he shows how he called Matthew sitting at the tax-collector's booth. Now this part has two sections, in the first of which he treats of the perfection of the calling; in the second, of the defense of those called, there: And it came to pass on the Sabbath, etc., in the next chapter.
Concerning the perfection of the calling, three things are introduced: the first is the calling of sinners; the second is the confutation of the proud, at the place: And the Pharisees murmured etc.; the third is the consolation of the weak, at the place: But they said to him etc.
The calling of the publican, moreover, is shown to be perfect from three aspects, namely from the part of the prevenient divine gift, from the part of the consenting free will, and from the part of the devout obedience that follows.
64. (Verse 27). First, therefore, it is shown to be perfect from the part of the prevenient divine gift, when it says: And after these things he went out and saw a publican etc. And note that he is said to go out, to see, and to call. He goes out, indeed, in order to seek; he sees, in order to draw to himself; he addresses and calls, in order to convert to himself. He went out, indeed, through solicitude for seeking his own work, as it is said in the Psalm: "Man shall go forth to his work and to his labor until the evening." Hence he is signified by the householder, of whom it is said in Matthew twenty, that "he went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard." This is truly the Lord Jesus, who says of himself in John sixteen: "I came forth from the Father and have come into the world," because from the secret bosom he came into the open. — Nor did he only go out, but he also saw the publican, so that through the gaze of mercy he might draw him to himself, just as that one was asking to be seen in the Psalm: "See my humility and my labor" etc. And in this way he saw him, because, although he was a sinner in deed, he was nevertheless chosen in the divine purpose: Wisdom four: "His regard is upon his elect." Hence it is said below in chapter twenty-two: "The Lord turned and looked upon Peter, and Peter, going out, wept bitterly."
65. With this gaze Jesus saw a publican named Levi, that is, Matthew, who, as Jerome says, had two names; but Luke and Mark, out of honor for the Evangelist, are silent about the well-known name, while Matthew, having become his own accuser at the beginning of his narrative, names himself Matthew and a publican.
And note that publicans were so called either because they sinned publicly, as is understood below in chapter eighteen: "Two men went up into the temple: one a Pharisee, and the other a publican"; or because they made goods public to all by selling them, as merchants are accustomed to do, as is understood above in chapter three; or because they collected public taxes: and this is how the term seems to be properly understood here.
66. Whence there follows: Sitting at the tax office. According to Bede, "telos in Greek is vectigal in Latin"; according to Isidore, it is a place "where the wares of ships or the earnings of sailors are rendered"; according to Ambrose, it can be taken equivocally for the tax and for the house, in which it is paid; whence he says: "He who previously extorted harsh profits from labors and greedy gains from the wages of many, called by a word, left behind his own possessions—he who had been seizing the possessions of others." "Let no one therefore, as the Gloss of Bede says, despair on account of the enormity of sins, since Matthew was changed from a tax collector into an Apostle, from a toll-gatherer into an Evangelist."
67. Nor did he only see him so as to attract him, but he also spoke to him so as to convert him, when there follows: And he said to him: Follow me, namely through the renunciation of all temporal things, because, as is said in John chapter eight, "he who follows me does not walk in darkness"; and Ecclesiasticus chapter twenty-three: "It is a great glory to follow the Lord." Follow me is said with discernment, not temporal gains: because, Ecclesiasticus chapter thirty-four, "as he who grasps at a shadow and pursues the winds, so is he who attends to lying visions."
Follow me, not carnal desires; Ecclesiasticus chapter five: "Do not follow the concupiscence of your heart in your strength"; and Proverbs chapter seven: "He follows her as an ox led to the slaughter," etc.
Follow me, not worldly shameful deeds, as those of whom it is said in Second Kings chapter fifteen: "With their whole heart all Israel follows Absalom"; Hosea chapter twelve: "Ephraim feeds on wind and follows the burning heat; all day long he multiplies lies and desolation." And such are the vainglorious, who feed on the wind of worldly vanity.
68. (Verse 28.) Secondly, perfection is shown on the part of the consenting free will by obeying, when there follows: And leaving all things, rising up, he followed him: in which is designated the perfect consent of free will both as regards withdrawal from evil and advancement in good and consummation in the perfect state. Therefore it is said that he left all things, that he rose up, and that he followed Christ, so that he could say that word of Peter in Matthew chapter nineteen: "Behold, we have left all things and followed you." And this is what the Apostle exhorts us to in Hebrews chapter twelve: "Laying aside every weight and the sin which surrounds us, let us run with patience," etc.
69. And note that under this distribution are included all things that hinder a person from following Christ perfectly, which are seven, namely criminal wickedness, bodily comfort, temporal business, personal strife, popular fellowship, paternal dwelling, and childish desire. Criminal wickedness must be relinquished: Proverbs twenty-eight: "He who conceals his crimes will not prosper." - Second, bodily comfort, as in Tobit two: "He left his meal and came fasting to the body." - Third, temporal business: thus Joseph left his cloak in the hand of the Egyptian woman, Genesis thirty-nine: "Leaving his cloak, he fled"; thus Elisha left his oxen and plow, Third Kings nineteen; thus the Apostles left their nets, as is said in Matthew four: "Leaving their nets, they followed him." By nets are rightly understood earthly affairs, because "those who wish to become rich fall into temptation" etc., First Timothy six. - Fourth, personal strife must be relinquished: Ecclesiasticus twenty-eight: "Forgive your neighbor who harms you, and then when you pray, your sins will be forgiven." Fifth indeed, popular fellowship: Jeremiah forty-eight: "Leave the cities and dwell in the rock." - Sixth, paternal dwelling: Jeremiah twelve: "I have left my house and abandoned my inheritance" etc.
Seventh, childish desire ; Proverbs nine: "Leave behind childishness" etc.
He who relinquishes all these things is the one who rightly rises: he is signified by the converted Paul, of whom Acts nine says: "And Saul arose from the ground, and opening his eyes, he saw nothing"; because to a person converted to Christ and illuminated by his light, nothing earthly seems to be of any worth; Ephesians five: "Arise, you who sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ will illuminate you." And he who rises thus unencumbered can follow along the way of perfection, so that he may say that word of Job twenty-three: "My foot has followed his steps."
70. And he did this swiftly, for he knew that "delay has harmed those who were prepared"; whence he did not wish to act against that word of Proverbs three: "Do not say to your friend: Go and come back, and tomorrow I will give to you, when you can give at once"; but rather that word of Proverbs twenty-two: "Have you seen a man swift in his work? He shall stand before kings."
71. Nevertheless, Porphyry the heretic reproaches him for this, because he immediately followed him without deliberation, as if a fool.
To which the Gloss responds that "he followed him not led by fickleness, but drawn by the power of his works"; for he had seen the miracles of Christ. Whence Jerome says that "the splendor of the hidden Divinity, which shone forth in the human face of Christ, was able at once to draw those who saw it to himself by its very appearance. Just as a force is said to exist in the magnet stone, such that it joins rings and straw to itself, how much more could the Lord of creatures draw to himself those whom he willed." According to what the bride says in the Song of Songs: "Draw me after you; we shall run in the fragrance of your ointments."
72. (Verse 29.). Third, the perfect calling is shown on the part of the devoted service that follows in ministering, when it says: And Levi made him a great feast in his house. Matthew was acting according to the resolve of the Wise Man, who said in Wisdom 8: "I resolved to bring wisdom to live with me, knowing that she would share with me her goods." Already in him was fulfilled the desire of Christ, according to Revelation 3: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone opens to me, I will enter to him and sup with him," etc. Already manifest is the joy of the eternal Father, of which it is said below in chapter fifteen: "It was fitting to feast and rejoice, because this son was dead and has risen again."
73. And since the greatness of the feast requires a multitude of those feasting, he therefore adds: And there was a great crowd of tax collectors and of others who were reclining at table with them. For Matthew had invited them so that, just as they had been companions in guilt, so also they might be companions in repentance, according to the last chapter of Revelation: "Let him who hears say: Come"; whence Jerome says: "They saw that the tax collector, turned from sins to better things, had found a place of repentance, and on that account they themselves also did not despair of salvation." For they considered that "it is better to be invited to vegetables with love than to a fatted calf with hatred," Proverbs 15. But this crowd of tax collectors called to the feast of Christ signifies what is to be fulfilled, which is said in Matthew 8: "Many shall come from the east and west and shall recline with Abraham in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast into the outer darkness"; whence in chapter twenty-one: "Tax collectors and sinners shall precede you." And as a figure of this, it is said below in chapter ten that "a certain woman named Martha received him into her house, and she had a sister named Mary."
74. But against this seems to stand the passage of First Corinthians 5: "If any man who is called a brother among you is a fornicator or covetous, with such a one not even to take food."
But that is said to the weak, lest they be corrupted by evil association, because it is said in Sirach thirteen: "He who associates with the proud will put on pride." Or certainly it is said concerning those who are publicly obstinate and convicted, according to what the Gloss says. But these could be moved to contrition by the presence of Christ. Hence Jerome: "Jesus went to the banquets of sinners, so that he might have an occasion for teaching and might offer spiritual food to those who invited him. Finally, although he is described as frequently going to banquets, nothing else is reported that he did there except that he taught, so that both the humility of the Lord in going to sinners and the power of his teaching in the conversion of penitents might be demonstrated."
75. And they murmured, etc. Above he treated the calling of sinners; in this part he treats the stirring up of the proud, because, as the Apostle says in First Corinthians one, "God chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong, and the ignoble and contemptible things of the world God chose, and the things that are not, to destroy the things that are, so that no flesh should glory in his sight." Therefore the refutation of the Pharisees, who were proud of their own merits and despised others, is described in this order. For first their pride is exposed; second, once exposed, it is rebuked; third, once rebuked, it is cast down.
76. (Vers. 30.). It is exposed, therefore, first from the murmuring of their own talkativeness; and this is noted when he says: And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured, against the counsel of the Wise One, Wisdom one: "Guard yourselves from murmuring, which profits nothing, and spare your tongue from detraction." Which these men did not do; hence it is added: Saying: Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Since they could not bite at any sin of his own, they bit nevertheless on account of another's; for this is the way of a wicked person; Sirach eleven: "Converting good into evil, he lies in ambush and places a stain upon the elect." In this the pride of the Pharisees is made manifest, because they did not consider themselves sinners. Hence the Gloss: "They sin doubly: both because they think themselves just, when they are proud, and because they think those others guilty, when they are already repenting." Hence they were like that Pharisee of whom it is said below in chapter eighteen: "I am not like the rest of men: robbers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector." And therefore below in chapter sixteen the Lord said to them: "You are they who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts." Concerning such people, Isaiah sixty-five: "Who say: Depart from me, do not approach me, for you are unclean." On account of the words and reproaches of such people, a person ought not to shun works of mercy; hence First Maccabees two: "Do not fear the words of a sinful man, for his glory is dung and worms." Hence Jerome: "It cannot happen that anyone should pass through the course of this life without the biting of men. It is the consolation of the wicked to criticize the life of the good, and from the multitude of sinners they think the guilt of their own sins is diminished."
77. (Vers. 31.). It is reproved secondly from the light of evident truth, when it is added: Jesus answering said to them: They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. This is self-evident, because, as it is said in Ecclesiasticus thirty-eight, "Honor the physician for the need you have of him: for the Most High has created him." If medicine exists on account of illness, then neither should the sick person be reproached for fleeing to the physician, nor the physician for approaching the sick person: but rather those should be reproached who reproach these things. Now Christ calls sinners infirm, because sin makes one infirm, according to that verse of the Psalm: "For my loins are filled with illusions, and there is no soundness in my flesh." Concerning such an infirm person it is said in Romans fourteen: "Now him that is weak in the faith, receive" etc.; and in the fifteenth chapter: "We that are stronger ought to bear the infirmities of the weak." But He calls Himself physician, because in Isaiah fifty-three, "by His bruises we are healed"; and in the sixty-first chapter: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me, to heal the contrite of heart"; and in Acts ten: "He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil."