Afterfeast of the Beheading of the Holy Forerunner

(ubi sup.) But Thaddæus is the same person, as Luke calls in the Gospel and in the Acts, Jude of James, for he was the brother of James, the brother of the Lord, as he himself has written in his Epistle. There follows, And Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. He has added this by way of distinction from Simon Peter, and Jude the brother of James. Simon is called the Canaanite from Cana, a village in Galilee, and Judas, Scariotes, from the village from which he had his origin, or he is so called from the tribe of Issachar.

And Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. And these he listed with an addition, to distinguish Simon Peter and Judas James. But Simon the Canaanite received his surname from the village of Cana in Galilee, which the evangelist Luke translated as Simon the Zealot. Indeed, Cana means zeal. The Canaanite is called Zealot, that is, emulator. But Judas Iscariot, either from the village where he was born or from the tribe of Issachar, took his name as a premonition of his damnation. Indeed, Issachar, which means reward, hints at the price of betrayal. Iscariot, which is interpreted as a memory of death, shows that he was not persuaded suddenly but had long contemplated the crime of betraying the Lord. He was chosen among the apostles not by imprudence, but by providence. For how great is the truth, which even the service of an adversary does not weaken? How great is the morality of the Lord, who preferred to risk His judgment among us rather than His affection? For He had taken on the fragility of man, and therefore did not refuse these parts of human weakness. He wanted to be abandoned, He wanted to be betrayed, He wanted to be handed over by His apostle, so that you, abandoned by a companion, betrayed by a companion, may bear moderately that your judgment was in error, your benefit was lost. When He had ordained the apostles on the mountain, to send them forth to preach the Gospel, He aptly added:

But Judas Iscariot is one who does not do away his sins by repentance. For Judas means 'boaster,' or vain-glorious. And Iscariot, 'the memory of death.' But many are the proud and vain-glorious confessors in the Church, as Simon Magus, and Arius, and other heretics, whose deathlike memory is celebrated in the Church, that it may be avoided.

But mystically, the house to which they came, is the early Church.

And that He also chooses Judas as an apostle, from this we should understand that God does not reject a person who is going to do evil on account of his future evil deed, but for his present virtue deems him worthy of honor, even if he should afterwards become a wicked man.

Whom he reckons amongst the Apostles, that we may learn that God does not repel any man for wickedness, which is future, but counts him worthy on account of his present virtue.

And they come to the house. For He led the apostles chosen on the mountain back to the house, as if silently admonishing them that after receiving the rank of apostleship, they should return to their conscience, and that the greater care they have taken on of teaching the people, the more diligently they should consider and penetrate the dwelling places of their own minds, and lest anything be found there that might offend the eyes of the hidden inspector, they should seek it out with diligent examination. For thus, each one rightly governs his neighbor if he first thoroughly explores and purges from his own heart whatever wickedness was within.

And again the crowd gathered, so much so that they could not even eat bread. Oh, how happy is the occupation of the Savior, how blessed is the multitude of the gathering crowd, to whom there was so much eagerness to hear the word of God, so much care to obtain salvation, that to the author of salvation and to those who were with Him, not even the hour of eating remained free from the solace of imparting life to the needy! Would that, Lord Jesus, in our times as well, you might grant as much grace to your faithful, who, by their studiousness in learning, hinder their teachers not only from the desire for carnal pleasures but sometimes also from the very reception of daily bread. But let us see how much the external crowd esteems the presence of their relatives...

(ubi sup.) The Lord leads the Apostles, when they were elected, into a house, as if admonishing them, that after having received the Apostleship, they should retire to look on their own consciences. Wherefore it is said, And they came into a house, and the multitude came together again, so that they could not eat bread.

(Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.) Ungrateful indeed were the multitudes of princes, whom their pride hinders from knowledge, but the grateful multitude of the people came to Jesus.

The crowds which prevent their eating bread are sins and vices; for he who eateth unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself. (1 Cor. 11:29)

"And hearing this," he says, "His relatives" — perhaps people from the same hometown as Him, or even His brothers — "went out to take hold of Him; for they said that He was out of His mind," that is, that He had a demon. Since they heard that He was casting out demons and healing diseases, out of envy they thought that He had a demon and "was out of His mind," which is why they wanted to seize Him, so as to bind Him as one possessed. This is what His relatives thought and intended to do with Him.

That is, He has a devil and is mad, and therefore they wished to lay hold upon Him, that they might shut Him up as one who had a devil. And even His friends wished to do this, that is, His relations, perchance His countrymen, or His brethren. 1But it was a silly insanity in them, to conceive that the Worker of such great miracles of Divine Wisdom had become mad.

And when his own people heard of it, they went out to seize him, for they said, "He is out of his mind." Truly, as he himself says elsewhere, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house." For those whom others desire to approach, see, and hear as the author of life and the wisdom of God, his relatives decide that he must be bound as if he were out of his mind. Since they could not grasp the depth of the wisdom they heard, they believed that he spoke with an alien mind: akin to the example of those who could not bear the sacrament of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, and said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" And consequently, they went away, and no longer walked with him. Allegorically, however, in that the crowd frequently convenes to him, and he is scorned by his own as if he were mad, the salvation of the believing from the Gentiles is approved, and the envy and treachery of the Jews is noted. Of whom John says, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." (John 1:11) There is indeed a great difference between those who do not understand the word of God because of the dullness of their minds and those who deliberately blaspheme and persecute what they understand. For there still remains a hope of salvation for these if perhaps they understand; but for those who are unwilling to understand to act well, and devise iniquity on their bed, what hope of salvation remains any longer, when they strive to reject by detesting and persecuting what they have rightly understood for the salvation of their souls? For consider what follows.

(ubi sup.) And blessed indeed the concourse of the crowd, flocking together, whose anxiety to obtain salvation was so great, that they left not the Author of salvation even an hour free to take food. But Him, whom a crowd of strangers loves to follow, his relations hold in little esteem: for it goes on: And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold upon him. For since they could not take in the depth of wisdom, which they heard, they thought that He was speaking in a senseless way, wherefore it continues, for they said, He is beside himself.

In the gospel we read that even his kinsfolk desired to bind him as one of weak mind. His opponents also reviled him saying, "You are a Samaritan and have a devil."

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebub," and, "By the prince of demons he casts out demons." It is not without reason that those who brought such blasphemy against the Lord are said to have come down from Jerusalem; but it surely foreshadowed that he would be persecuted by the citizens of that place unto death. Indeed, we read above that a great crowd from Galilee followed him, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea and beyond the Jordan, and those around Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, having heard what he was doing, came to him. Therefore, the crowd coming from Jerusalem followed the Lord, as also from other regions of the Jews, or even of the Gentiles. For who does not know that Idumea, Tyre, and Sidon were provinces or cities of the Gentiles? But the scribes coming down from Jerusalem persecuted him with dreadful blasphemies, because it was clearly to be in the time of his passion, that a crowd of the Jewish people would bring him to Jerusalem with palms and praises, the Gentiles would desire to see him, but the scribes and elders of the people would plot his death. Therefore, to the crowds, who seemed less instructed, always marveling at the deeds of the Lord, they endeavored to either deny these things, or to corrupt those which they could not deny with a sinister interpretation, as if these were not the works of Divinity, but of the filthiest spirit, that is Beelzebub, who was the god of Ekron. For Beel is indeed Baal, but Zebub is called a fly. Nor according to certain faulty copies is the letter k or d to be read at the end of the name, but b. Therefore Beelzebub is interpreted as Baal of the flies, that is the man of the flies, or having flies, due indeed to the filth of sacrificial blood, from whose most vile rite or name they designated the prince of demons.

(ubi sup.) Now there is a great difference between those who do not understand the word of God from slowness of intellect, such as those, who are here spoken of, and those who purposely blaspheme, of whom it is added, And the Scribes which came down from Jerusalem, &c. For what they could not deny, they endeavour to pervert by a malicious interpretation, as if they were not the works of God, but of a most unclean spirit, that is, of Beelzebub, who was the God of Ekron. For 'Beel' means Baal himself, and 'zebub' a fly; the meaning of Beelzebub therefore is the man of flies, on account of the filth of the blood which was offered, from which most unclean rite, they call him prince of the devils, adding, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.

(ubi sup.) The Scribes also coming down from Jerusalem blaspheme. But the multitude from Jerusalem, and from other regions of Judæa, or of the Gentiles, followed the Lord, because so it was to be at the time of His Passion, that a crowd of the people of the Jews should lead Him to Jerusalem with palms and praises, and the Gentiles should desire to see Him; but the Scribes and Pharisees should plot together for His death.

Likewise, the scribes from Jerusalem also said that He had a demon in Himself. Since they could not deny the miracles that had been performed before them, they revile them in another way, attributing them to demons.