Concerning the worthy reward of the obedient, it is said in Esther 16: "Let all know that those who obey the Persians faithfully receive a worthy reward for their fidelity."
Concerning the full reward of the contemplatives, it is said to Ruth, in chapter 2, who bears the type of contemplatives who relinquish all things for God, and is also interpreted as sheep, or seeing , so that the contemplative soul may be called sheep on account of the gentleness of affection, but seeing on account of the illumination of the intellect; whence Boaz says to her: "May you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, to whom you have come and under whose wings you have taken refuge."
Concerning the timely reward of workers, it is said in the last chapter of Sirach: "Work your work while there is time, and He will give you your reward in His time."
Concerning the swift reward of those making progress, it is said in Sirach 11: "The blessing of God hastens toward the reward of the just." - Concerning the faithful reward of the perfect, such as preachers and the like, it is said in Proverbs 11: "To the one sowing justice, a faithful reward."
Concerning the abundant reward of those who suffer or those who struggle, it is said here and in Matthew 5: "For behold, your reward is abundant in the heavens."
Concerning the perpetual reward indeed, which befits those who persevere, Sirach 18: "Do not be afraid to be justified even unto death, for the reward of God remains forever." - Thus therefore, according to the diversities of merits, the differences of rewards are appropriated; and so "God will render to the just the reward of their labors," Wisdom 10.
58. (Verse 24). But woe to you rich! After the promises of the beatitudes, He subjoins the threats of punishments. And because against good there is evil, He sets forth four threats corresponding to the four beatitudes, namely: desolation in the loss of temporal good, hunger, in the loss of spiritual good, weeping in the affliction of bodily evil, confusion in the suffering of everlasting reproach. And these are the four woes, which He threatens against four kinds of men opposed to the evangelical men previously determined, namely the covetous and the gluttonous, the wanton and the vainglorious .
Against the covetous, therefore, he threatens the woe of everlasting desolation, when he says: But woe to you who are rich! He speaks adversatively to the rich, that is, to those who love riches, because such people gape after accumulating riches: Habakkuk 2: "Woe to him who multiplies what is not his own"! that is, earthly goods, which are not ours, because they neither come with us nor depart with us; yet earthly men consider them to be their own: Revelation 8: "Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth"! Such are the covetous, against whom the Lord says, Matthew 6: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where rust and moth destroy."
Since upon the abundance of these riches there must follow want, and upon consolation must follow desolation, therefore, adding the reason, he says: Who have your consolation: you have it, namely in the present, but not in the future; whence James 5: "Come now, you rich, weep, howling in your miseries which shall come upon you." Therefore this consolation is vain and false, because it brings on desolation: Zechariah 10: "The dreamers have spoken in vain, and they consoled to no purpose." Truly in vain, because "the men of riches have slept their sleep and found nothing in their hands." And therefore one must say with the Prophet David: "My soul refused to be consoled: I remembered God and was delighted"; Job 6: "Let this be my consolation, that afflicting me with pain, he spare not"; so that through the desolation of the way one may arrive at the consolation of the homeland, of which the last chapter of Isaiah says: "As a mother caresses someone, so will I comfort you." This we ought to await, not to anticipate: Judith 8: "Let us humbly await his consolation."
59. (Verse 25). Against the gluttonous, he threatens the woe of perpetual hunger, when he adds: WOE to you who are filled! devoting yourselves, namely, to gluttony and drunkenness: Proverbs 23: "Who has woe? Whose father has woe? Who has quarrels and wounds without cause? Is it not those who linger over wine and are eager to drain their cups?" "Woe to you who are mighty at drinking wine and valiant men at mixing drunkenness"! And therefore it is added: Because you shall hunger. This satiety brings on perpetual hunger, according to that passage in Job 20: "When he shall have been filled, he shall be straitened; he shall burn, and every sorrow shall rush upon him"; and Isaiah 65: "Behold, my servants shall eat, and you shall hunger; behold, my servants shall drink, and you shall thirst." Whence concerning the wicked in the Psalm: "They ate and were filled," etc.
60. To the self-indulgent he threatens the woe of eternal weeping, when he says: WOE to you who laugh now! for you shall mourn and weep, that is, in this moment of time: Job 20: "The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment"; and Proverbs 14: "Laughter shall be mingled with sorrow, and mourning takes possession of the ends of joy." It is certainly better that weeping precede laughter than the reverse; and therefore Ecclesiastes 3: "A time of weeping," namely first in time, "and a time of laughing," afterwards in eternity. But the fool does not wish now to restrain himself from laughter: Sirach 21: "A fool lifts up his voice in laughter, but a prudent man will scarcely laugh quietly"; indeed Ecclesiastes 2: "I counted laughter an error, and to joy I said: Why are you vainly deceived?" Therefore those who now laugh are fools, and those who mourn are wise, according to that passage of Ecclesiastes 7: "The heart of the wise is where sorrow is, and the heart of fools is where mirth is." On account of which it is said to the foolish and the worldly in Isaiah 65: "Behold, my servants shall praise with exultation of heart, and you shall cry out for sorrow of heart, and for grief of spirit you shall howl," namely in hell, because it is said in Matthew 13: "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
61. (Verse 26.). To the vainglorious, however, he threatens the woe of eternal contempt, when he adds: Woe to you, when all men shall bless you! namely by extolling with vain praises: Proverbs 27: "He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, shall be like one who curses"; because, as it is said in Isaiah 9, "those who call this people blessed are misleading them, and those who are called blessed are cast down headlong." For they are cast down headlong from vain praises into eternal reproach, while they are exalted by them, according to that passage of Job 30: "You lifted me up and, as it were, setting me upon the wind," namely of vain praise, "you dashed me down violently." And because it is difficult to avoid praises of this kind, he adds an example: For according to these things their fathers did to the prophets: to the prophets, I say, not true ones, but false; whence the Gloss: "They blessed the false prophets, who prophesied from their own heart to capture the favor of the crowd"; Jeremiah 5: "An astonishing and wonderful thing has been done in the land: the prophets prophesied falsehood, and the priests clapped their hands, and my people loved such things." In this, therefore, by showing that wicked men were praised by the prophets, he shows that popular favor is altogether to be despised: the Psalm: "God has scattered the bones of those who please men; they are confounded, because God has despised them." But this is said not of those who show good and praiseworthy examples to the people for the glorifying of God, since it is said in Matthew 5: "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven"; but of those who seek their own glory in pleasing men and in their praises: Galatians 1: "If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ."
62. Note here concerning the diversity between Matthew and Luke: because Luke sets down both promises and threatening woes, but Matthew sets down only promises. On account of which it seems either that one spoke deficiently, or the other superfluously.
But certainly it can be answered, as the Gloss suggests and Augustine says, that the one sermon was different from the other. The diversity of which is gathered from the places and persons and precepts.
For that one was to the disciples, this one to the crowds: that one while sitting, this one while standing: that one on the mountain, this one in a level place: that one contains more teachings than this one, because seven beatitudes, this one four: from all of which it is gathered that the one was different from the other. — Nor undeservedly, because to different persons one must speak differently. For to the disciples, as to more perfect ones, the evangelical commands ought to have been explained in a more perfect manner; but the crowd cannot ascend to lofty things, and therefore the word of God is not explained to the crowds as perfectly as to the Apostles.
And because the perfect are moved by love, but the imperfect not only by love but also by fear: therefore in the sermon to the Apostles, beatitudes are set down and not woes; in the sermon to the crowds, both beatitudes and woes.
Again, because the perfect are made conformable to Christ through the sevenfold Spirit, who rested upon him, as is said in Isaiah eleven; therefore seven beatitudes are set down, corresponding to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Here four beatitudes are noted corresponding to the four cardinal virtues, as is held in the Gloss: Poverty, to temperance; hunger for spiritual good, to justice; weeping, to prudence; suffering of evils, to fortitude or patience, as the Gloss of Bede says.
63. In these four, however, the others are contained implicitly: whence Luke does not express the spiritual sense in these promises as Matthew does. For Matthew says: "Blessed are the poor in spirit"; here only: "Blessed are the poor"; the former: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice," etc. And again, in Matthew they are proposed universally and in the third person, because he speaks to those who understand — in Luke, particularly and in the second person, because he speaks to the sensual.
From these things the reasons for the other diversities can be gathered, because according to the diversity of hearers, the manner of speech of teachers is diverse, according to that saying of the Apostle in Colossians four: "Let your speech always be in grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every one." And this that teacher of the nations did, in First Corinthians two: "When I came to you, I came not in loftiness of speech," etc., and afterward follows: "But we speak wisdom among the perfect." So did the Savior, who spoke to the crowds in parables, but apart explained all things to his disciples, as is said in Matthew thirteen, because to them it was given "to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven."
64. But I say to you who hear etc. After the promises of rewards and the threats of punishments, the Evangelist here adds thirdly the laws of precepts, or directing instructions, and this part has two sections. In the first of these he sets forth instructions that are proper and express; in the second, however, those that are similitudinary and figurative, at the place: And he spoke to them also a similitude etc.
Concerning these first instructions to be commended to the hearers, Christ's teaching proceeds in this manner. For first he promulgates them under a fitting perfection. Second, he proves them from a deficient condition, at the place: And if you love those who love you. Third, he resumes with a moving reason, at the place: But love your enemies. Fourth, he concludes with a sufficient retribution, at the place: Be therefore merciful.
Concerning the promulgation of the instructions, it should be noted that for a man to be perfect, it is necessary that he be perfectly benevolent, perfectly peaceable, and perfectly beneficent. The first regards affection, the second passion, and the third operation.
65. (Vers. 27.). He gives therefore first the commandment of perfect benevolence, when he says: But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies. For this commandment is to be set before the hearers, that is, the believing and the obedient, in whom God dwells, because it is said in 1 John 4: "He who abides in charity abides in God, and God in him." And such a one hears the commandment of charity, not only with the ear of the body, but of the heart, according to that word in John 8: "He who is of God hears the words of God." This hearing was stirred up in Isaiah 55: "Hear, you who hear me, and eat what is good, and your soul shall delight in fatness. Incline your ear and come to me; hear, and your soul shall live." It shall live indeed through the commandment of love, because, as is said in 1 John 3, "he who does not love abides in death"; and before that: "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren." To this the Apostle says in Ephesians 5: "Walk in love, as Christ also loved us and delivered himself for us"; "because, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son," Romans 5. And so we ought to love our enemies. — And since it does not suffice "to love in word or tongue alone, but in deed and in truth" — therefore he adds: Do good to those who hate you, so that there may be "love without dissimulation"; Proverbs 25: "If your enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink"; the same is said in Romans 12.
66. (Vers. 28.). And because "a word is better than a gift," and speech declares the disposition, he adds: Bless those who curse you, in public speech; and pray for those who calumniate you, in private speech. Bless, in open speech. To this the Apostle in Romans 12: "Bless those who curse you, bless and do not curse"; and 1 Peter 3: "Rendering to no one evil for evil, nor curse for curse, but on the contrary, blessing." Pray, also in secret speech. By the example of him of whom Isaiah 53 says: "He prayed for transgressors"; and by the example of that protomartyr, Acts 7: "And kneeling down, he cried out with a loud voice: Lord, do not hold this sin against them."
67. But this seems to be contradicted by the fact that Elisha, in 4 Kings 2, was angered at the mocking boys, and Elijah at the captain of fifty, in 4 Kings 1, and Paul at the high priest, in Acts 23.