78. (Vers. 32.). It is rejected thirdly from the rectitude of supernal equity, by which He condescends more to the humble sinner than to the proud just person: and therefore He adds: I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance: the just, that is, those who consider themselves so: the Gloss says, "Those who trust in their own justice." Whence Bede: " Just He calls those who, being ignorant of the justice of God and seeking to establish their own, have not submitted themselves to the justice of God, Romans ten, who, presuming upon the Law, do not seek the grace of the Gospel." For the Lord did not come to call such, but rather to blind them by just judgment: whence in John nine: "For judgment I am come into this world, that they who see not may see, and they who see may become blind." But the Lord came to call all to penance, because, as it is said in Romans three and is taken from the Psalm, "there is none just, all have turned aside, they are become unprofitable together"; whence also in the same place: "All have sinned and need the glory of God." And therefore He began to preach from penance, as it is said in Matthew four. Concerning this calling it is said in Isaiah twenty-two: "The Lord God of hosts shall call in that day to weeping and to mourning, to baldness and to the girding with sackcloth." But those who consider themselves just do not hear this voice: against whom in Job nine: "If I would justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me: if I would show myself innocent, He shall prove me wicked." But humble sinners hear it: below in the seventh chapter: "And all the people hearing, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers despised the counsel of God against themselves, not being baptized by him."
And thus it is clear how in this the confutation of the proud has been accomplished: whence by divine judgment they are considered worse than those whom they despise.
79. (Vers. 33.). But they said. After the calling of sinners has been described and the confutation of the proud, here is subjoined thirdly the consolation of the weak, in that heavy burdens and difficulties of fasting are not imposed upon the disciples themselves. Therefore the consolation serving as guidance for the disciples is introduced as discordant with the severity of legal observance, as consonant with the benignity of the divine presence, as expedient for the rudeness of human imperfection.
First, therefore, it is introduced as discordant with the severity of legal observance in the question of the Pharisees, when it is said: But they said to him: Why do the disciples of John fast frequently and make supplications? And likewise those of the Pharisees, etc. It is also said in Matthew nine that the disciples of John asked this; but, as Augustine says in the book On the Harmony of the Evangelists, there is no contradiction, because both groups asked. And both were asking, but the disciples of John wished to learn the truth, while the Pharisees wished to probe their freedom, like those of whom it is said in Galatians two: "Because of false brethren secretly brought in, who crept in to spy out our freedom." They were not asking this, however, because they approved of the disciples of John, but so that by comparison with them they might reproach the disciples of Christ.
80. Whence they also add: But yours eat and drink: and therefore the Lord complained about them in Matthew eleven: "John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say: He has a demon; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say: Behold, a gluttonous man and a wine-drinker, a friend of publicans and sinners." And therefore the Pharisees spurned them as discordant from legal and popular observance; but wrongly, because in Isaiah fifty-eight: "Do not fast as you have done until this day, so that your cry may be heard on high. Is such the fast that I have chosen? For this is the fast that I have chosen: Loose the bonds of wickedness," etc.; and in Romans fourteen: "Let not him who does not eat despise him who eats," because, as is added there, "the kingdom of God is not food and drink."
81. (Vers. 34.). Second, it is introduced as befitting the kindness of the divine presence in the dissolution of the objections, when it is said: To whom he himself said: Can the children of the bridegroom fast, etc. According to Bede, however, this is the reading: Can you make the children of the bridegroom fast? This bridegroom is Christ, of whom John 3 says: "He who has the bride is the bridegroom"; and in the Psalm: "And he as a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber." The children of the bridegroom are the Apostles: whence Isaiah 8: "Behold, I and my children, whom the Lord has given me"; and in the Psalm: "Instead of your fathers, sons have been born to you; you shall make them princes," etc. These cannot nor ought to fast with the fast of sorrow and affliction, so long as the bridegroom is with them, because then is the time of joy; on account of which Song of Songs 3 says: "Daughters of Jerusalem, go forth and see King Solomon in his diadem"; and Isaiah 61: "Rejoicing I will rejoice in the Lord, and my soul will exult in my God, because the Lord has clothed me with the garment of salvation and surrounded me with the vestment of justice, as a bridegroom adorned with a crown and as a bride adorned with her jewels." Whence then was the time of joy, not of sorrow, because, as is said in John 3, "the friend of the bridegroom stands and rejoices with joy on account of the voice of the bridegroom."
82. (Vers. 35.). And therefore the consolation of the disciples is befitting the presence of the bridegroom Christ, just as also desolation is befitting his absence. On account of which he adds: But the days will come when he will be taken away from them, namely through death and passion: Hosea 5: "They will go to seek the Lord and will not find him: for he has been taken away from them," and then they will fast in those days, namely at that time: because John 16: "You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you indeed will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy"; and then will be the time of sorrow and fasting, whence Tobit 2: "She ate her bread in grief and trembling, recalling that prophetic word: Your feast days will be turned into mourning"; Lamentations 1: "Therefore I am weeping, and my eye flows with tears, because the comforter who would restore my soul has become far from me."
83. (Vers. 36.). Third, it is introduced as expedient for the rudeness of human imperfection, when it is said: And he spoke a parable to them; where he shows that the disciples are not to be pressed to fasting, both on account of the oldness of their manner of life, and on account of the frailty of the flesh, and also on account of the unaccustomedness of their disposition, which three things he expresses under a threefold metaphor, namely of the old garment, the old wineskin, and the old wine.
Therefore it was fitting to nurture the unformed disciples, not to burden them with fasts, on account of the oldness of their manner of life, on account of which he says: Because no one puts a patch, that is, a piece which joins, taken from a new garment, onto an old garment, because a twofold unfittingness follows; and therefore he adds: Otherwise it tears even the new, which is harmful, and the patch from the new does not suit the old, which is unseemly. — Thus it is to be understood spiritually that new observances fitting for a new manner of life are not to be imposed so long as a man has not been stripped of the former, namely at the beginning of conversion. And therefore the Apostle said to the Ephesians, chapter four: "Putting off the old man according to your former manner of life, be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man, who was created according to God"; and to the Colossians, chapter three: "Stripping off the old man with his deeds, put on the new"; otherwise it will be monstrous.
And therefore in a figure of this, the mixing of diverse things was prohibited in the Law: Deuteronomy twenty-two: "You shall not wear a garment woven from wool and linen together," because thereby the Lord is despised: Jeremiah twelve: "Is my heritage unto me a speckled bird?"
84. (Verses 37–38.) This same thing was fitting on account of the weakness of the flesh, on account of which he says: And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, because from this a twofold unfittingness follows, namely the spilling of the wine, on account of which he says: Otherwise the new wine will burst the wineskins, and it will be spilled out; and the other, the destruction of the wineskin, whence he also adds: And the wineskins will perish. And therefore for new wine a new vessel also must be provided, on account of which he says: But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. — Thus spiritual observances are to be imposed on spiritual persons, not on carnal ones, who are designated by the old wineskins, according to that verse of the Psalm: "I have become like a wineskin in the frost"; whence they are designated by the wineskins of the Gibeonites, torn and loosened: Joshua nine: "We filled new wineskins with wine, which now are torn and loosened," and thus unfit for holding wine. And therefore First Corinthians, chapter three: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual persons, but as to carnal ones, as to little ones in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food." Therefore before spiritual things are enjoined upon them, it is necessary that their hearts be renewed, according to that verse of Ezekiel thirty-six: "Behold, I will give you a new heart and I will place a new spirit in the midst of you"; because the Apostle says to the Galatians, chapter six: "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." And therefore in the Psalm it is sought: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within my inmost parts"; which is accomplished in spiritual men: Second Corinthians, chapter four: "Although our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed from day to day."
85. (Verse 39.). This same thing was likewise expedient on account of the disaccustoming of affection: to designate which He says: And no one drinking the old straightway desires the new. And He gives the reason for this on account of the judgment of the senses, when He says: For he says: The old is better.
In this, through a similitude in the delight of drink, He wishes to show that our affection is not immediately delighted in observing new things, unless it is gradually led by the hand. And therefore certain persons said in Acts chapter fifteen: "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." But charity renews this affection, according to that passage in John chapter thirteen: "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another." This makes new things taste as old: whence in First John chapter two: "I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment, which you heard from the beginning." "Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which is true both in Him and in you." Truly this is a new commandment, which evacuates the old and which makes the new things savory; Second Corinthians chapter five: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away: behold, all things are made new: because, as is said in Leviticus chapter twenty-six, "when the new come upon you, you shall cast forth the old." — Thus therefore, on account of the rawness of the disciples, both on the part of their manner of life, and on the part of the flesh, and on the part of the mind, the disciples were to be treated kindly, not yet to be constrained to fasting, especially to the fasting of exultation, which is fitting only for those renewed through the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Whence from the foregoing it is gathered that the disciples of Christ were not to be constrained, neither to the fasting of sorrow on account of the presence of the Bridegroom, nor to that of exultation on account of the absence of the Holy Spirit; and thus they were to be kindly consoled as being still tender and infirm. From the foregoing, therefore, it sufficiently appears how by the Lord sinners were mercifully called, and the proud were reasonably confuted, and the infirm were gently consoled.