Friday of the 20th week after Pentecost

To what, then, shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace, calling to one another and saying: We played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We wailed, and you did not weep. The generation of the Jews is compared to children sitting in the marketplace because they used to receive the prophets as teachers. Of whom it is said: Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have perfected praise (Psalm VIII). And elsewhere, The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple (Psalm CXVIII), that is, to the humble in spirit. The Lord's marketplace or the synagogue, or even Jerusalem itself is where the laws of heavenly precepts were established. Where these children, according to Matthew, spoke to their equals, because they used to reproach their people daily with their own voices, they would not listen to the Psalms, first of David, nor after being corrected by the reproaches of the prophets. Whenever victory over the enemy was foretold or commemorated, they did not rise to the works of virtue. For by the word of dance is not meant the bodily gyrations of actors with swaying movements but the devotion of a zealous heart and the piety of agile members. Whenever the prophecies of calamities caused by future or present enemies resounded, and yet the listeners did not care to take refuge in remedies for penitence. The Psalmist sings: Shout with joy to God our helper, rejoice to the God of Jacob, take up a psalm, and bring the tambourine (Psalm LXXX), and so forth. But what follows? My people did not listen to my voice, and Israel did not attend to me (Ibid.). The prophet cries out: Thus says the Lord: Turn to me with all your heart, in fasting, in weeping, and in mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments (Joel II). And again: My belly, my belly! I writhe in pain. The heart of my thoughts troubles me. I will not remain silent, for my soul has heard the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war (Jeremiah IV). And a little later: For my people are foolish, they have not known me; they are senseless children, without understanding (Ibid.).

The Jewish generation is compared to children, because formerly they had prophets for their teachers, of whom it is said, Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou perfected praise.

But the Lord said: To whom then shall I liken etc. After our Savior extolled the prerogative of virtue in John, here he rebukes the perfidy of unbelief in the people, whose unbelief he rebukes in four ways. For he charges them with infidelity, with hardness, with detraction, and with blasphemy.

First, therefore, as regards the mark of unbelief in thought, it is said: To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and to what are they like? — who, namely, refused to believe John on account of the blindness of their mind; of this, I say, unbelieving generation, according to that passage of Deuteronomy thirty-two: "For it is a perverse generation and unfaithful children"; and Mark nine: "O unbelieving generation! How long shall I be with you? How long shall I endure you?" The Psalm: "Let them not become, like their fathers, a depraved and rebellious generation, a generation that did not direct its heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful with God." And therefore Jeremiah two: "Consider earnestly whether a nation has changed its gods; but my people have changed their glory for an idol."

We therefore also, as I said, must closely examine with the discerning eye of the mind whatever is done, and search into the nature of actions, that so we may approve of that which is without blame, while we reject that which is counterfeit. But if, making no distinctions, we run the risk of passing an evil sentence upon things highly praiseworthy: and of deeming that which is evil fit for commendation and applause, the prophet's words will apply to us: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil: who call bitter sweet, and sweet bitter: who put light for darkness, and darkness for light." Such was the character of the Israelites, and especially of those whose lot it was to be their chiefs, the Scribes namely and Pharisees: of whom Christ said, "To what shall I liken the men of this generation? and so on."

Therefore he says well: We have sung to you, and you have not danced (Exodus 15:1). Moses sang indeed when he made the waves subside in the Red Sea for the crossing of the Jews, the water stood up, and it submerged the horses of the Egyptians and their riders. Isaiah sang the song of his beloved vineyard, indicating that the people, who had previously been fruitful with abundant virtues, would become rough with wickedness (Isaiah 5:1). The Hebrews sang when their feet were moistened by the touch of the roasting flame, both inside and outside, while everything else was burning; however, the fire alone licked them harmlessly and did not burn them (Daniel 3:24). Habakkuk also, with a learned song, comforted the public sorrow, and prophesied that the passion of the Lord would be sweet to the faithful (Habakkuk 3:2). Therefore, the prophets sang with spiritual melodies, resulting in public words of salvation. The prophets wept with mournful dirges, soothing the hard hearts of the Jews.

But the prophets sung, repeating in spiritual strains their oracles of the common salvation; they wept, soothing with mournful dirges the hard hearts of the Jews. The songs were not sung in the market-place, nor in the streets, but in Jerusalem. For that is the Lord's forum, in which the laws of His heavenly precepts are framed.

(de Quæst. Ev. l. ii. q. 11.) Now these words have reference to John and Christ. For when he says, We have mourned, and ye have not wept, it is in allusion to John, whose abstinence from meat and drink signified penitential sorrow; and hence he adds in explanation, For John came neither eating bread, nor drinking wine, and ye say he hath a devil.

(ubi sup.) But his words, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced, refer to the Lord Himself, who by using meats and drinks as others did, represented the joy of His kingdom. Hence it follows, The Son of man came eating and drinking, &c.

Second, as regards the mark of hardness in affection, he adds: They are like children, where he adjoins a similitude through which their hardness is shown, because they were moved neither by the song of promises nor by the lamentation of threats, just as foolish children in the marketplace do not respond to others, neither to those singing nor to those lamenting — whom he introduces by way of similitude. For which reason he says: They are like children sitting in the marketplace. Likewise it befits them to be told and reproached with what children sitting in the marketplace reproach their companions with. For which reason he adds: Speaking to one another and saying: We piped to you, and you did not dance: because thus preachers can say to them: We piped to you, namely by sounding forth the promises of God; and you did not dance, by making progress. And the comparison is fitting, because the preacher is compared to a piper, according to that passage of Isaiah fifty-eight: "Cry out, do not cease; lift up your voice like a trumpet"; and Jeremiah four: "Sound the trumpet in Zion." Nor undeservedly, because, Ecclesiasticus forty, "the pipe and the psaltery make a sweet melody, and above both a pleasant tongue." At these things the hard of heart are not moved, nor do they dance through progress in good works; concerning which leaping, Malachi four: "You shall go forth and leap like a calf from the herd, and you shall tread down the wicked." And concerning this, Ambrose says: "It is an honorable dance, because the soul elevated by good works leaps for joy"; whence those who were not moved by the song of promises are hard of heart, but harder still in deed, because they were not moved even by the threats of punishments.

For which reason he adds: We have lamented to you, namely through the threat of punishment: Ezekiel 2: "There were written in the book lamentations and song and woe"; and Jeremiah 9: "Consider and call the mourning women, and let them take up a lamentation over us"; Joel 2: "Turn to me in fasting and weeping and mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments." And yet they were not moved by this: whence he adds: And you did not weep, through the compunction of penance: Isaiah 22: "The Lord will call to weeping and mourning"; and afterward: "And behold, joy and gladness, slaughtering rams," etc.: although the Apostle says in Romans 12: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep."

There was perchance a sort of game among the Jewish children, something of this kind. A troop of youths was divided into two parts: who, making sport of the confusion in the world, and the uneven course of its affairs, and the painful and rapid change from one extreme to the other, played some of them on instruments of music: while the rest wailed. But neither did the mourners share the merriment of those who were playing music and rejoicing: nor again did those with the instruments of music join in the sorrow of those who were weeping: and finally, they reproached one another with their want of sympathy, so to speak, and absence of affection. For the one party would say, "We have played unto you, and ye have not danced:" to which the others would rejoin, "We have wailed unto you, and ye have not wept." Christ declares, therefore, that both the Jewish populace, and their rulers, were in some such state of feeling as this...

There was a certain play among the Jewish children of this kind. A company of boys were collected together, who, mocking the sudden changes in the affairs of this life, some of them sang, some mourned, but the mourners did not rejoice with those that rejoiced, nor did those who rejoiced fall in with those that wept. They then rebuked each other in turn with the charge of want of sympathy. That such were the feelings of the Jewish people and their rulers, Christ implied in the following words, spoken in the person of Christ; Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation, and to what are they like? They are like to children sitting in the market-place.

(Hom. 6. in Eccl.) But singing and lamentation are nothing else but the breaking forth, the one indeed of joy, the other of sorrow. Now at the sound of a tune played upon a musical instrument, man by the concordant beating of his feet, and motion of his body, pourtrays his inward feelings. Hence he says, We have sung, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.

People are in the habit of dancing or singing as the custom is with vows, particularly at marriages, and so we have marriages to which a vow is attached and at which we are expected to dance or sing. Our vows are celebrated when the church is united to Christ. John says, "The one who has the bride is the bridegroom." It is good for us to dance because of this marriage, for David, both king and prophet, danced before the ark of the covenant "with much singing." He broke into dancing in high rejoicing, for in the Spirit he foresaw Mary, born of his own line, brought into Christ's chamber. He says, "And he, like a bridegroom, will come forth from his chamber." He sang more than the other prophetic authors did because he was gladder than the rest of them. By these joys, he united those coming after him in marriage. By inviting us to his own vows in a more charming way than usual, having danced with such joy in front of the ark before his marriage, he taught us what we ought to do at those other vows. The prophet David danced.

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, "He has a demon." The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, "Behold, a glutton, and a wine-drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners." Just as (he says) then, so now you will not accept either path of salvation. For when he says, "We mourned, and you did not weep," it pertains to John, whose abstinence from food and drink signified the mourning of repentance. But when he says, "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance," it pertains to the Lord himself, who, by partaking in food and drink with others, symbolized the joy of the kingdom. But they wished neither to humble themselves with John, nor to rejoice with Christ, saying he has a demon, and calling this one a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and sinners. But what he adds:

Third, as to the mark of detraction in speech, by which they turn good into evil, it is said: John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and thus in the way of severity and justice, as is said in Matthew 21: "John came to you in the way of justice." Whence, because he came with the austerity of penance, he came as one lamenting and groaning for the salvation of the people, according to that passage of Daniel 10: "I Daniel mourned for three weeks of days; I did not eat desirable bread, and flesh and wine did not enter my mouth." But nevertheless through him their hardness was not softened to weeping, but their malice was increased to detraction.

Whence it is added: And you say: He has a demon, because he is unlike the life of others. So they said to the Savior in John 10: "He has a demon: why do you listen to him?" Whence the works of power, which are from the Holy Spirit, they out of the wickedness of their heart attributed to a demon, as they said in Matthew 9: "By the prince of demons he casts out demons." And thus was verified in them that passage of Sirach 11: "He who turns good into evil lies in wait, and upon the elect he will place a stain." And therefore woe to them, according to that passage of Isaiah 5: "Woe to you who call good evil and evil good!"

They take upon themselves to slander a man worthy of all admiration. They say that he who mortifies the law of sin which is in his members hath a devil.

Fourth, as to the mark of blasphemy in obstinacy against Christ himself, it is added: The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and thus in the way of clemency, as a physician and as a bridegroom, as above in chapter 5: "You cannot make the children of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them."

And yet they were not moved to rejoicing, but perverted to blaspheming; and therefore it is added: And you say: Behold, a man who is a glutton and a wine-drinker: they say this with regard to excess in food, as if to say: he cannot be wise, according to that passage of Proverbs 20: "Wine is a luxurious thing and drunkenness is tumultuous." A friend of tax collectors and sinners, with regard to the dishonor of his company, as if to say: he cannot be good, because, as it is said in Ecclesiasticus 13, "he who touches pitch will be defiled by it, and he who associates with the proud will put on pride." But wrongly, because in Jeremiah 15: "They shall be converted to you, and you shall not be converted to them"; and in Matthew 9: "Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners," to repentance.

But where could they point out the Lord as gluttonous? For Christ is found every where repressing excess, and leading men to temperance. But He associated with publicans and sinners. Hence they said against Him, He is a friend of Publicans and sinners, though He could in no wise fall into sin, but on the contrary was to them the cause of salvation. For the sun is not polluted though sending its rays over all the earth, and frequently falling upon unclean bodies. Neither will the Sun of righteousness be hurt by associating with the bad. But let no one attempt to place his own condition on a level with Christ's greatness, but let each considering his own infirmity avoid having dealing with such men, for "evil communications corrupt good manners." It follows, And wisdom is justified of all her children.

But further, if Christ reproves the scribes and Pharisees, sitting in the official chair of Moses, but not doing what they taught, what kind of (supposition). is it that He Himself withal should set upon His own official chair men who were mindful rather to enjoin-(but) not likewise to practise-sanctity of the flesh, which (sanctity) He had in all ways recommended to their teaching and practising?-first by His own example, then by all other arguments; while He tells (them) that "the kingdom of heavens" is "children's; " while He associates with these (children) others who, after marriage, remained (or became)virgins; " while He calls (them) to (copy) the simplicity of the dove, a bird not merely innocuous, but modest too, and whereof one male knows one female; while He denies the Samaritan woman's (partner to be) a husband, that He may show that manifold husbandry is adultery; while, in the revelation of His own glory, He prefers, from among so many saints and prophets, to have with him Moses and Elias -the one a monogamist, the other a voluntary celibate (for Elias was nothing else than John, who came "in the power and spirit of Elias" ); while that "man gluttonous and toping," the "frequenter of luncheons and suppers, in the company of publicans and sinners," sups once for all at a single marriage, though, of course, many were marrying (around Him); for He willed to attend (marriages) only so often as (He willed) them to be.

" Meantime they huff in our teeth the fact that Isaiah withal has authoritatively declared, "Not such a fast hath the Lord elected," that is, not abstinence from food, but the works of righteousness, which he there appends: and that the Lord Himself in the Gospel has given a compendious answer to every kind of scrupulousness in regard to food; "that not by such things as are introduced into the mouth is a man defiled, but by such as are produced out of the mouth; " while Himself withal was wont to eat and drink till He made Himself noted thus; "Behold, a gormandizer and a drinker: " (finally), that so, too, does the apostle teach that "food commendeth us not to God; since we neither abound if we eat, nor lack if we eat not.

For Christ would not abstain from this food, lest He should give a handle to heretics, who say that the creatures of God are bad, and blame flesh and wine.

(Verse 35.) Therefore Wisdom is justified by all her children. Well by all, because justice is preserved around all, so that the reception of the faithful may be, and the rejection of the unfaithful. From which the majority of Greeks have it thus: Wisdom is justified by all her works; that is, the work of justice is to preserve the measure around the merit of each individual.

The Son of God is wisdom, by nature, not by growth, which is justified by baptism, when it is not rejected through obstinacy, but through righteousness is acknowledged the gift of God. Herein then is the justification of God, if he seems to transfer His gifts not to the unworthy and guilty, but to those who are through baptism holy and just.

He well says, of all, for justice is reserved for all, that the faithful may be taken up, the unbelievers cast out.

The Lord made a truly necessary addition to these words when he said, "And wisdom is justified by her children." If you ask who those children are, read what is written, "The sons of wisdom are the church of the just."

(ubi sup.) Or, when he says, wisdom is justified of all her children, he shews that the children of wisdom understand that righteousness consists neither in abstaining from nor eating food, but in patiently enduring want. For not the use of such things, but the coveting after them, must be blamed; only let a man adapt himself to the kind of food of those with whom he lives.

"And wisdom is justified by all her children," shows that the children of wisdom understand that righteousness does not consist in abstaining or in eating, but in the equanimity of enduring lack, and in not corrupting oneself with abundance through temperance, and in suitably partaking or not partaking of those things whose misuse, not their use, is to be condemned. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy. And because people are accustomed to take much pleasure in carnal feasts, he added, "In the Holy Spirit." Otherwise. "Wisdom is justified by all her children," that is, the dispensation and doctrine of God, which resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James IV), is proved just by his faithful. Among their number are those of whom it is said above: "And all the people hearing, and the tax collectors, justified God. Amen."

And because the blasphemy of the Jews is aggravated by the true preaching of the Apostles, therefore it is added: And Wisdom is justified by all her children. For the Evangelist calls Christ Wisdom, according to that passage of First Corinthians 1: "Who was made unto us by God wisdom and righteousness." The children of this Wisdom are the Apostles, begotten through the word of this Wisdom and vivified through the Holy Spirit, according to that passage of Ecclesiasticus 4: "Wisdom breathes life into her children," that is, Christ into the Apostles. Whence also Peter said in John 6: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." These justified, that is, they esteemed Christ as righteous, inasmuch as they fulfilled his words through righteousness and obedience, according to that passage of Ecclesiasticus 3: "The children of wisdom are the assembly of the righteous, and their nation is obedience and love." By the example of these the Pharisees ought to have been moved, but on account of their obstinacy they remained in their dregs. Whence he said to them in Matthew 12: "If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges," because they are esteemed righteous by the Wisdom whom they justify, and the Pharisees are esteemed unjust and reprobate by the same Wisdom, whom they condemn on account of their obstinacy and blasphemy.

They also assert that by Anna, who is spoken of in the gospel [Luke 2:36] as a prophetess, and who, after living seven years with her husband, passed all the rest of her life in widowhood until she saw the Saviour, and recognised Him, and spoke of Him to all, was most plainly indicated Achamoth, who, having for a little while looked upon the Saviour with His associates, and dwelling all the rest of the time in the intermediate place, waited for Him till He should come again, and restore her to her proper consort. Her name, too, was indicated by the Saviour, when He said, "Yet wisdom is justified by her children." [Luke 7:35] This, too, was done by Paul in these words, "But we speak wisdom among them that are perfect." [1 Corinthians 2:6]

(Hom. in Ps. 108.) But by the children of wisdom, He means the wise. For Scripture is accustomed to indicate the bad rather by their sin than their name, but to call the good the children of the virtue which characterizes them.