Mark 10

3–4

(de Con. Evan. 2. 62) It makes nothing, however, to the truth of the fact, whether, as Matthew says, they themselves addressed to the Lord the question concerning the bill of divorcement, allowed to them by Moses, on our Lord's forbidding the separation, and confirming His sentence from the law, or whether it was in answer to a question of His, that they said this concerning the command of Moses, as Mark here says. For His wish was to give them no reason why Moses permitted it, before they themselves had mentioned the fact; since then the wish of the parties speaking, which is what the words ought to express, is in either way shown, there is no discrepancy, though there be a difference in the way of relating it. It may also be meant that, as Mark expresses it, the question put to them by the Lord, What did Moses command? was in answer to those who had previously asked His opinion concerning the putting away of a wife; and when they had replied that Moses permitted them to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away, (Matt. 19:4) His answer was concerning that same law, given by Moses, how God instituted the marriage of a male, and a female, saying those things which Matthew relates; on hearing which they again rejoined what they had replied to Him when He first asked them, namely, Why then did Moses command?

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

But Christ, Self-Existent Wisdom, answers them in such a way that He escapes their snares. He asks them: what did Moses command them?

Commentary on Mark

So true, moreover, is it that divorce "was not from the beginning," that among the Romans it is not till after the six hundredth year from the building of the city that this kind of "hard-heartedness" is set down as having been committed.

On Monogamy

"Whence it is impossible without His teaching to attain to saving truth, though one seek it for ever where the thing that is sought is not. But it was, and is, in the word of our Jesus. Accordingly, He, knowing the true things of the law, said to the Sadducees, asking on what account Moses permitted to marry seven, 'Moses gave you commandments according to your hard-heartedness; for from the beginning it was not so: for He who created man at first, made him male and female.' "

Homily 3

(cont. Faust. xix. 26) Moses, however, was against a man's dismissing his wife, for he interposed this delay, that a person whose mind was bent on separation, might be deterred by the writing of the bill, and desist; particularly, since, as is related, among the Hebrews, no one was allowed to write Hebrew characters but the scribes. The law therefore wished to send him, whom it ordered to give a bill of divorcement, before he dismissed his wife, to them, who ought to be wise interpreters of the law, and just opponents of quarrel. For a bill could only be written for him by men, who by their good advice might overrule him, since his circumstances and necessity had put him into their hands, and so by treating between him and his wife they might persuade them to love and concord. But if a hatred so great had arisen that it could not be extinguished and corrected, then indeed a bill was to be written, that he might not lightly put away her who was the object of his hate, in such a way as to prevent his being recalled to the love, which he owed her by marriage, through the persuasion of the wise. For this reason it is added, For the hardness of your heart, he wrote this precept; for great was the hardness of heart which could not be melted or bent to the taking back and recalling the love of marriage, even by the interposition of a bill in a way which gave room for the just and wise to dissuade them.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

"What," he said, "did Moses command you?" They replied, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away." To which Jesus responded, "It was because of the hardness of your hearts that he wrote you this, etc." What he says is this: Can God be contrary to himself, commanding one thing at first and then breaking his own decree with a new command? It should not be thought so. But Moses, when he saw that due to the desire for subsequent wives, who might be wealthier, younger, or more beautiful, the first wives were either being killed or leading a miserable life, chose to allow discord rather than for hatred and murders to continue and be perpetrated. At the same time, notice that he did not say, because of the hardness of your hearts, God permitted you, but Moses; that, according to the Apostle, it may be seen as the counsel of a man, not a command of God.

On the Gospel of Mark

5–6

(Cat. in Marc. Oxon.) Or else, it is said, For the hardness of your hearts, because it is possible for a soul purged from desires and from anger to bear the worst of women; but if those passions have a redoubled force over the mind, many evils will arise from hatred in marriage. (Chrys. ubi sup.). Thus then, He saves Moses, who had given the law, from their accusation, and turns the whole upon their head. But since what He had said was grievous to them, He at once brings back the discourse to the old law, saying, But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

I will call your attention to the law of monogamy. The very origin of the human race sanctions it. It is abundantly clear that God ordained it at the beginning as a pattern for posterity. For after he had made Adam, and had foreseen the necessity of providing a helpmate for him, he borrowed from his loins one alone. One woman only did he design for man.

Exhortation to Chastity 5

(cont. Faust. xix. 29) Behold the Jews are convinced out of the books of Moses, that a wife is not to be put away, while they fancied that in putting her away, they were doing the will of Moses. In like manner from this place, from the witness of Christ Himself, we know this, that God made and joined male and female, for denying which the Manichees are condemned, resisting now not the books of Moses, but the Gospel of Christ.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. This is written in the beginning of Genesis. By saying male and female, He showed that second marriages are to be avoided. For He did not say male and females, as was sought from a prior divorce, but male and female, so that they might be bound in the companionship of one spouse.

On the Gospel of Mark

(ubi sup.) He says not male and females, which the sense would have required had it referred to the divorce of former wives, but male and female, so that they might be bound by the tie of one wife.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

But from the beginning it was not so: God joins two persons in the bond of marriage so that they become one, even leaving their own parents. Note that the Lord says: God does not permit polygamy, so that one wife could be divorced and another taken, and then that one abandoned and another married. If this had been pleasing to God, He would have created one husband and many wives; but it did not happen so, rather "God made them male and female," so that they would be joined — one husband with one wife.

Commentary on Mark

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife. Similarly, He said, Cleave to his wife, not to wives.

On the Gospel of Mark

(ubi sup.) And in like manner, because He says, he shall cleave to his wife, not wives. It goes on: And they twain shall be one flesh.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

7–8

In a figurative sense, this can be understood as follows: the word of Teaching, sowing good seeds in the soul of a believing person, has the significance of a husband to the soul that receives it. And it leaves its father, that is, lofty thought, and its mother, that is, embellished speech, and cleaves to its wife, that is, to the benefit of the soul, adapting itself to it and often preferring humble thoughts and simple speech. And then they both become one flesh, that is, the soul believes that "the Word of God became flesh," and no human thought can any longer separate the soul from such faith.

Commentary on Mark

Where are we to find language adequately to express the happiness of that marriage which the church cements, the oblation confirms, the benediction signs and seals, the angels celebrate, and the Father holds as approved? For all around the earth young people do not rightly and lawfully wed without their parents’ consent. What kind of yoke is that of two believers who share one hope, one desire, one discipline, one service? They enjoy kinship in spirit and in flesh. They are mutual servants with no discrepancy of interests. Truly they are “two in one flesh.” Where the flesh is one, the spirit is one as well. Together they pray, together bow down, together perform their fasts, mutually teaching, mutually entreating, mutually upholding. In the church of God they hold an equal place. They stand equally at the banquet of God, equally in crises, equally facing persecutions, and equally in refreshments. Neither hides anything from the other. Neither neglects the other. Neither is troublesome to the other.

To His Wife 2.8

For the Word of God is to be considered as being more in one flesh with the soul than a man is one flesh with his wife. But to whom is it more becoming to be also one spirit with God, than to this human soul which has so joined itself to God by love as that it may justly be said to be one spirit with God?

On First Principles 2.6.3

In his mysterious plans the Father had destined a bride for his only Son and presented her to him under the guise of prophetic images. Moses appeared and with deft hand sketched a picture of bridegroom and bride but immediately drew a veil over it. In his book he wrote that a man should leave father and mother so as to be joined to his wife, that the two might in very truth become one. The prophet Moses spoke of man and woman in this way in order to foretell Christ and his church. With a prophet’s penetrating gaze he contemplated Christ becoming one with the church through the mystery of water. He saw Christ even from the virgin’s womb drawing the church to himself, and the church in the water of baptism drawing Christ to herself. Bridegroom and bride were thus wholly united in a mystical manner, which is why Moses wrote that the two should become one.… Wives are not united to their husbands as closely as the church is to the Son of God. What husband but our Lord ever died for his wife, and what bride ever chose a crucified man as her husband? Who ever gave his blood as a gift to his wife except the one who died on the cross and sealed the marriage bond with his wounds? Who was ever seen lying dead at his own wedding banquet with his wife at his side seeking to console herself by embracing him? At what other celebration, at what other feast is the bridegroom’s body distributed to the guests in the form of bread? Death separates wives from their husbands, but in this case it is death that unites the bride to her beloved.

Homilies

And the two shall become one flesh. Therefore now they are no longer two, but one flesh. The reward of marriage is that two become one flesh. Chastity joined to the spirit becomes one spirit.

On the Gospel of Mark

(ubi sup.) The reward then of marriage is of two to become one flesh. Virginity being joined to the Spirit, becomes of one spirit.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

Thus, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an intelligent man in other matters, says that there is only a “theological” opposition to divorce, and that it is entirely founded on “certain texts” in the Bible about marriages. This is exactly as if he said that a belief in the brotherhood of men was only founded on certain texts in the Bible, about all men being the children of Adam and Eve. Millions of peasants and plain people all over the world assume marriage to be static, without having ever clapped eyes on any text. Numbers of more modern people, especially after the recent experiments in America, think divorce is a social disease, without having ever bothered about any text. It may be maintained that even in these, or in any one, the idea of marriage is ultimately mystical; and the same may be maintained about the idea of brotherhood. It is obvious that a husband and wife are not visibly one flesh, in the sense of being one quadruped. It is equally obvious that Paderewski and Jack Johnson are not twins, and probably have not played together at their mother’s knee. There is indeed a very important admission, or addition, to be realised here. What is true is this: that if the nonsense of Nietzsche or some such sophist submerged current culture, so that it was the fashion to deny the duties of fraternity; then indeed it might be found that the group which still affirmed fraternity was the original group in whose sacred books was the text about Adam and Eve. Suppose some Prussian professor has opportunely discovered that Germans and lesser men are respectively descended from two such very different monkeys that they are in no sense brothers, but barely cousins (German) any number of times removed. And suppose he proceeds to remove them even further with a hatchet; suppose he bases on this a repetition of the conduct of Cain, saying not so much “Am I my brother’s keeper?” as “Is he really my brother?” And suppose this higher philosophy of the hatchet becomes prevalent in colleges and cultivated circles, as even more foolish philosophies have done. Then I agree it probably will be the Christian, the man who preserves the text about Cain, who will continue to assert that he is still the professor’s brother; that he is still the professor’s keeper. He may possibly add that, in his opinion, the professor seems to require a keeper.

And that is doubtless the situation in the controversies about divorce and marriage to-day. It is the Christian church which continues to hold strongly, when the world for some reason has weakened on it, what many others hold at other times. But even then it is barely picking up the shreds and scraps of the subject to talk about a reliance on texts. The vital point in the comparison is this: that human brotherhood means a whole view of life, held in the light of life, and defended, rightly or wrongly, by constant appeals to every aspect of life. The religion that holds it most strongly will hold it when nobody else holds it; that is quite true, and that some of us may be so perverse as to think a point in favour of the religion. But anybody who holds it at all will hold it as a philosophy, not hung on one text but on a hundred truths. Fraternity may be a sentimental metaphor; I may be suffering a delusion when I hail a Montenegrin peasant as my long lost brother. As a fact, I have my own suspicions about which of us it is that has got lost. But my delusion is not a deduction from one text, or from twenty; it is the expression of a relation that to me at least seems a reality. And what I should say about the idea of a brother, I should say about the idea of a wife.

The Superstition of Divorce, Ch. 1

There are some who say outright that marriage is fornication and teach that it was introduced by the devil. They proudly say that they are imitating the Lord who neither married nor had any possession in this world, boasting that they understand the gospel better than anyone else. The Scripture says to them: "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." Further, they do not know the reason why the Lord did not marry. In the first place he had his own bride, the Church; and in the next place he was no ordinary man that he should also be in need of some helpmeet after the flesh. Nor was it necessary for him to beget children since he abides eternally and was born the only Son of God. It is the Lord himself who says: "That which God has joined together, let no man put asunder."

The Stromata Book 3

But if two persons, whom God has joined together, are not to be separated; much more is it wrong to separate from Christ, the Church, which God has joined to Him.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. What God has joined, making one flesh out of man and woman, man cannot separate, except perhaps God alone. Man separates when, due to the desire for a second wife, he dismisses the first. God separates whom He has joined, when by mutual consent, for the service of God, because the time is short, thus we have wives as though we had none.

On the Gospel of Mark

(ubi sup.) What therefore God hath conjoined by making one flesh of a man and a woman, that man cannot separate, but God alone. Man separates, when we dismiss the first wife because we desire a second; but it is God who separates, when by common consent, for the sake of serving God, we so have wives as though we had none.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

They are trying to break the vow of the knight as they broke the vow of the monk. They recognise the vow as the vital antithesis to servile status; the alternative and therefore the antagonist. Marriage makes a small state within the state, which resists all such regimentation. That bond breaks all other bonds; that law is found stronger than all later and lesser laws. They desire the democracy to be sexually fluid, because the making of small nuclei is like the making of small nations. Like small nations, they are a nuisance to the mind of imperial scope. In short, what they fear, in the most literal sense, is home rule.

The Superstition of Divorce, Ch. 6: The Story of the Vow

Anyhow, to vary the legendary symbolism, it never seems to occur to the king in this fairy tale that the gold crown on his head is a less, and not a more, sacred and settled ornament than the gold ring on the woman’s finger.

The Superstition of Divorce, Ch. 4

So the unfortunate man, who cannot tolerate the woman he has chosen from all the women in the world, is not encouraged to return to her and tolerate her, but encouraged to choose another woman whom he may in due course refuse to tolerate. And in all these cases the argument is the same; that the man in the intermediate state is unhappy. Probably he is unhappy, since he is abnormal; but the point is that he is permitted to loosen the universal bond which has kept millions of others normal. Because he has himself got into a hole, he is allowed to burrow in it like a rabbit and undermine a whole countryside.

The Superstition of Divorce, Ch. 4

One word should be added to this hasty sketch of the elements of the case. I have deliberately left out the loftiest aspect and argument, that which sees marriage as a divine institution; and that for the logical reason that those who believe in this would not believe in divorce; and I am arguing with those who do believe in divorce. I do not ask them to assume the worth of my creed or any creed; and I could wish they did not so often ask me to assume the worth of their worthless, poisonous plutocratic modern society. But if it could be shown, as I think it can, that a long historical view and a patient political experience can at last accumulate solid scientific evidence of the vital need of such a vow, then I can conceive no more tremendous tribute than this, to any faith, which made a flaming affirmation from the darkest beginnings, of what the latest enlightenment can only slowly discover in the end.

The Superstition of Divorce, Ch. 4

While free love seems to me a heresy, divorce does really seem to me a superstition. It is not only more of a superstition than free love, but much more of a superstition than strict sacramental marriage; and this point can hardly be made too plain. It is the partisans of divorce, not the defenders of marriage, who attach a stiff and senseless sanctity to a mere ceremony, apart from the meaning of the ceremony. It is our opponents, and not we, who hope to be saved by the letter of ritual, instead of the spirit of reality. It is they who hold that vow or violation, loyalty or disloyalty, can all be disposed of by a mysterious and magic rite, performed first in a law-court and then in a church or a registry office. There is little difference between the two parts of the ritual; except that the law court is much more ritualistic. But the plainest parallels will show anybody that all this is sheer barbarous credulity. It may or may not be superstition for a man to believe he must kiss the Bible to show he is telling the truth. It is certainly the most grovelling superstition for him to believe that, if he kisses the Bible, anything he says will come true. It would surely be the blackest and most benighted Bible-worship to suggest that the mere kiss on the mere book alters the moral quality of perjury. Yet this is precisely what is implied in saying that formal re-marriage alters the moral quality of conjugal infidelity. It may have been a mark of the Dark Ages that Harold should swear on a relic, though he were afterwards foresworn. But surely those ages would have been at their darkest, if he had been content to be sworn on a relic and forsworn on another relic. Yet this is the new altar these reformers would erect for us, out of the mouldy and meaningless relics of their dead law and their dying religion.

The Superstition of Divorce, Ch. 2

And in the house again, His disciples asked Him about the same matter. And He said to them: Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. In Matthew, it is written more fully: Whoever divorces his wife except for fornication, and marries another, commits adultery (Matthew V).

On the Gospel of Mark

Since the disciples too were troubled regarding the divorce of husband and wife, they also approach Him and ask about the same thing. Their way of thinking was not yet completely sound.

Commentary on Mark

But the disciples were offended, as not being fully satisfied with what had been said; for this reason they again question Him, wherefore there follows, And in the house, his disciples asked him again of the same matter.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

(Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.) There is no contrariety in Matthew's relating that He spoke these words to the Pharisees, though Mark says that they were spoken to the disciples; for it is possible that He may have spoken them to both.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

This second question is said to be asked again by the Apostles, because it is on the subject of which the Pharisees had asked Him, that is, concerning the state of marriage; and this is said by Mark in his own person.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

We hold that a man should either remain as he is born or else marry only once. For a second marriage is a veiled adultery.

A Plea Regarding Christians 33

In us it is not only the spirit which ought to be sanctified, but also our behaviour, manner of life, and our body. What does the apostle Paul mean when he says that the wife is sanctified by the husband and the husband by the wife? And what is the meaning of the Lord's words to those who asked concerning divorce whether it is lawful to put away one's wife as Moses commanded? "Because of the hardness of your hearts," he says, "Moses wrote this; but have you not read that God said to the first man, You two shall be one flesh? Therefore he who divorces his wife except for fornication makes her an adulteress." But "after the resurrection," he says, "they neither marry nor are given in marriage."

The Stromata Book 3

This declaration of the Lord applies equally to man and woman. It prohibits departing from marriage except in the case of fornication.

Letter 188, to Amphilochius 9

“For a woman is bound, as long as her husband is alive.” As a consequence, therefore, the husband is also bound, as long as his wife is alive. This bond renders any further union impossible without the implication of adultery. Hence, four adulterers are produced of necessity from the two marriages, if the wife remarries and the husband marries an adulteress. However, a more infamous adultery is imputed to the one who remarries after the dismissal of his wife for other than the cause of fornication. Matthew spoke of this type of adultery. Such a one is not the only one who commits adultery, but, as we read in Mark: “Whoever puts away his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if the wife puts away her husband, and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Adulterous Marriages 2.9.8

God created marriage. As the union is from God, so divorce is from the devil. But one is allowed to divorce a wife in case of fornication for the precise reason that one never originally wished to have a wife who has not preserved conjugal fidelity to her husband.

Tractate on John 9.2.2

(ubi sup.) In Matthew it is more fully expressed, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication. (Matt. 19:9.) The only carnal cause then is fornication; the only spiritual cause is the fear of God, that a man should put away his wife to enter into religiono, as we read that many have done. But there is no cause allowed by the law of God for marrying another, during the lifetime of her who is quitted.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

11–12

The Lord answered them: whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery with this second wife; likewise a wife who has left her husband and joined with another becomes an adulteress.

Commentary on Mark

(non occ.) For a repetition of a saying of the Word, produces not weariness, but thirst and hunger; (Ecclus. 24:29) wherefore it is said, They that eat me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty; for the tasting of the honied words of wisdom yields all manner of savour to them who love her. Wherefore the Lord instructs His disciples over again; for it goes on, And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery upon her.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

11–12

(Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.) The Lord calls by the name of adultery cohabitation with her who is not a man's wife; she is not, however, a wife, whom a man has taken to him, after quitting his first; and for this reason he commits adultery upon her, that is, upon the second, whom he brings in. And the same thing is true in the case of the woman; wherefore it goes on, And if a woman shall put away her husband, and marry another, she committeth adultery; for she cannot be joined to another as her own husband, if she leave him who is really her own husband. The law indeed forbade what was plainly adultery; but the Saviour forbids this, which was neither plain, nor known to all, though it was contrary to nature.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

11–12

"After all," said Clare, "they had a right to happiness." We were discussing something that once happened in our own neighbourhood. Mr A. had deserted Mrs A. and got his divorce in order to marry Mrs B., who had likewise got her divorce in order to marry Mr A. And there was certainly no doubt that Mr A. and Mrs B. were very much in love with one another. If they continued to be in love, and if nothing went wrong with their health or their income, they might reasonably expect to be very happy.

It was equally clear that they were not happy with their old partners. Mrs B. had adored her husband at the outset. But then he got smashed up in the war. It was thought he had lost his virility, and it was known that he had lost his job. Life with him was no longer what Mrs B. had bargained for. Poor Mrs A., too. She had lost her looks — and all her liveliness. It might be true, as some said, that she consumed herself by bearing his children and nursing him through the long illness that overshadowed their earlier married life.

You mustn't, by the way, imagine that A. was the sort of man who nonchalantly threw a wife away like the peel of an orange he'd sucked dry. Her suicide was a terrible shock to him. We all knew this, for he told us so himself. "But what could I do?" he said. "A man has a right to happiness. I had to take my one chance when it came."

[...] Everyone (except Mr A. and Mrs B.) knows that Mr A. in a year or so may have the same reason for deserting his new wife as for deserting his old. He will feel again that all is at stake. He will see himself again as the great lover, and his pity for himself will exclude all pity for the woman.

We Have No Right to Happiness, from God in the Dock

Therefore, there is only one carnal cause, fornication: and one spiritual cause, the fear of God, so that a wife may be dismissed, as many are read to have done for the sake of religion. But no cause is prescribed by God’s law, for the one who is left to marry another while she lives.

On the Gospel of Mark

For why is it necessary-if (baptism itself) is not so necessary -that the sponsors likewise should be thrust into danger? Who both themselves, by reason of mortality, may fail to fulfil their promises, and may be disappointed by the development of an evil disposition, in those for whom they stood? The Lord does indeed say, "Forbid them not to come unto me." Let them "come," then, while they are growing up; let them "come" while they are learning, while they are learning whither to come; let them become Christians when they have become able to know Christ.

On Baptism

For which reason we think that no one is to be hindered from obtaining grace by that law which was already ordained, and that spiritual circumcision ought not to be hindered by carnal circumcision, but that absolutely every man is to be admitted to the grace of Christ, since Peter also in the Acts of the Apostles speaks, and says, "The Lord hath said to me that I should call no man common or unclean."8 But if anything could hinder men from obtaining grace, their more heinous sins might rather hinder those who are mature and grown up and older. But again, if even to the greatest sinners, and to those who had sinned much against God, when they subsequently believed, remission of sins is granted-and nobody is hindered from baptism and from grace-how much rather ought we to shrink from hindering an infant, who, being lately born, has not sinned, except in that, being born after the flesh according to Adam,9 he has contracted the contagion of the ancient death at its earliest birth, who approaches the more easily on this very account to the reception of the forgiveness of sins-that to him are remitted, not his own sins, but the sins of another.

Epistle LVIII.5

The apostle praised one [Timothy] who had known the holy Scripture from infancy. He also instructed that children be reared “in the discipline and correction of the Lord.” So we consider every time of life, even the very earliest, suitable for receiving persons into the community of faith.

The Long Rules 15

When Jesus saw them, He was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." He said significantly, "to such as these," not "to these," to show that it is not age that reigns, but character; and that the reward is promised to those who have similar innocence and simplicity. The Apostle also agrees with this sentiment: "Brothers, do not be children in understanding, but in malice be children, and in understanding be perfect."

On the Gospel of Mark

What then does Christ do? Teaching the disciples to be humble-minded and to reject worldly pride, He receives and embraces the children. By this He shows that He accepts the innocent; therefore He also says: "for of such is the Kingdom of God." Note, He did not say "of these children is the Kingdom," but "of such," that is, of those who have acquired the same innocence that children possess by nature. For a child does not envy, does not remember wrongs, and when punished by its mother does not run from her, but even if she wore rags, would prefer her to a queen; so also one who lives virtuously prefers his mother — I mean the Church — to all things, and is not carried away by worldly pleasures. For this reason the Lord also embraces such ones, saying: "Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden" (Matt. 11:28), and blesses them, saying: "Come, you blessed of My Father" (Matt. 25:34).

Commentary on Mark

Wherefore He says not, for of these, but of such is the kingdom of God, that is, of persons who have both in their intention and their work the harmlessness and simplicity which children have by nature. For a child does not hate, does nothing of evil intent, nor though beaten does he quit his mother; and though she clothe him in vile garments, prefers them to kingly apparel; in like manner he, who lives according to the good ways of his mother the Church, honours nothing before her, nay, not pleasure, which is the queen of many; wherefore also the Lord subjoins, Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

He actually thought that fairy tales ought not to be told to children. That is (like a belief in slavery or annexation) one of those intellectual errors which lie very near to ordinary mortal sins. There are some refusals which, though they may be done what is called conscientiously, yet carry so much of their whole horror in the very act of them, that a man must in doing them not only harden but slightly corrupt his heart. One of them was the refusal of milk to young mothers when their husbands were in the field against us. Another is the refusal of fairy tales to children.

Tremendous Trifles, The Dragon's Grandmother (1909)

Amen, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. As a child does not persist in anger, does not remember harm done, does not delight in seeing a beautiful woman, does not think one thing and speak another; so you, unless you have such innocence and purity of mind, cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Otherwise, we are commanded to receive the kingdom of God, that is, the teaching of the Gospel, like little children, because as a child does not contradict his teachers in learning, nor constructs arguments and words against them resisting, but faithfully receives what is taught, and with fear obeys and is quiet; so we too in obeying must simply and without any objection act according to the words of the Lord.

On the Gospel of Mark

(ubi sup.) That is, if ye have not innocence and purity of mind like that of children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. Or else, we are ordered to receive the kingdom of God, that is, the doctrine of the Gospel, as a little child, because as a child, when he is taught, does not contradict his teachers, nor put together reasonings and words against them, but receives with faith what they teach, and obeys them with awe, so we also are to receive the word of the Lord with simple obedience, and without any gainsaying. It goes on: And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

15–16

By the Kingdom of God He here means the preaching of the Gospel and the promise of future blessings. Therefore, whoever receives the Divine preaching as a child, that is, without any hesitation and admitting no unbelief in himself, shall enter into the Kingdom of God and inherit those blessings which he has already acquired by faith.

Commentary on Mark

Christianity, even enormous as was its revolution, did not alter this ancient and savage sanctity; it merely reversed it. It did not deny the trinity of father, mother, and child. It merely read it backwards, making it run child, mother, father. This it called, not the family, but the Holy Family, for many things are made holy by being turned upside down.

Heretics, Ch. 14: On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family (1905)

And it must be remembered that the most purely practical science does take this view of mental evil; it does not seek to argue with it like a heresy, but simply to snap it like a spell. Neither modern science nor ancient religion believes in complete free thought. Theology rebukes certain thoughts by calling them blasphemous. Science rebukes certain thoughts by calling them morbid. For example, some religious societies discouraged men more or less from thinking about sex. The new scientific society definitely discourages men from thinking about death; it is a fact, but it is considered a morbid fact. And in dealing with those whose morbidity has a touch of mania, modern science cares far less for pure logic than a dancing Dervish. In these cases it is not enough that the unhappy man should desire truth; he must desire health. Nothing can save him but a blind hunger for normality, like that of a beast. A man cannot think himself out of mental evil; for it is actually the organ of thought that has become diseased, ungovernable, and, as it were, independent. He can only be saved by will or faith. The moment his mere reason moves, it moves in the old circular rut; he will go round and round his logical circle, just as a man in a third-class carriage on the Inner Circle will go round and round the Inner Circle unless he performs the voluntary, vigorous, and mystical act of getting out at Gower Street. Decision is the whole business here; a door must be shut for ever. Every remedy is a desperate remedy. Every cure is a miraculous cure. Curing a madman is not arguing with a philosopher; it is casting out a devil. And however quietly doctors and psychologists may go to work in the matter, their attitude is profoundly intolerant--as intolerant as Bloody Mary. Their attitude is really this: that the man must stop thinking, if he is to go on living. Their counsel is one of intellectual amputation. If thy head offend thee, cut it off; for it is better, not merely to enter the Kingdom of Heaven as a child, but to enter it as an imbecile, rather than with your whole intellect to be cast into hell--or into Hanwell.

Orthodoxy, Ch. 2: The Maniac (1908)

"But," say they, "God is `good, 'and `most good, ' and `pitiful-hearted, 'and `a pitier, 'and `abundant in pitiful-heartedness, ' which He holds `dearer than all sacrifice, ' `not thinking the sinner's death of so much worth as his repentance', `a Saviour of all men, most of all of believers.

On Modesty

They affirm, then, concerning the substance of the seed which is a cause of all existent things, that it is none of these, but that it produces and forms all things that are made, expressing themselves thus: "I become what I wish, and I am what I am: on account of this I say, that what puts all things in motion is itself unmoved. For what exists remains forming all things, and nought of existing things is made." He says that this (one) alone is good, and that what is spoken by the Saviour is declared concerning this (one): "Why do you say that am good? One is good, my Father which is in the heavens, who causeth His sun to rise upon the just and unjust, and sendeth rain upon saints and sinners." But who the saintly ones are on whom He sends the rain, and the sinners on whom the same sends the rain, this likewise we shall afterwards declare with the rest. And this is the great and secret and unknown mystery of the universe, concealed and revealed among the Egyptians. For Osiris, (the Naassene) says, is in temples in front of Isis; and his pudendum stands exposed, looking downwards, and crowned with all its own fruits of things that are made. And (he affirms) that such stands not only in the most hallowed temples chief of idols, but that also, for the information of all, it is as it were a light not set under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, proclaiming its message upon the housetops, in all byways, and all streets, and near the actual dwellings, placed in front as a certain appointed limit and termination of the dwelling, and that this is denominated the good (entity) by all. For they style this good-producing, not knowing what they say. And the Greeks, deriving this mystical (expression) from the Egyptians, preserve it until this day. For we behold, says (the Naassene), statues of Mercury, of such a figure honoured among them.

Refutation of All Heresies Book 5

Marcion, adopting these sentiments, rejected altogether the generation of our Saviour. He considered it to be absurd that tinder the (category of a) creature fashioned by destructive Discord should have been the Logos that was an auxiliary to Friendship-that is, the Good Deity. (His doctrine,) however, was that, independent of birth, (the Logos) Himself descended from above in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, and that, as being intermediate between the good and bad Deity, He proceeded to give instruction in the synagogues. For if He is a Mediator, He has been, he says, liberated from the entire nature of the Evil Deity. Now, as he affirms, the Demiurge is evil, and his works. For this reason, he affirms, Jesus came down unbegotten, in order that He might be liberated from all (admixture of) evil. And He has, he says, been liberated from the nature of the Good One likewise, in order that He may be a Mediator, as Paul states, and as Himself acknowledges: "Why call ye me good? there is one good," These, then, are the opinions of Marcion, by means of which he made many his dupes, employing the conclusions of Empedocles. And he transferred the philosophy invented by that (ancient speculator) into his own system of thought, and (out of Empedocles) constructed his (own) impious heresy. But I consider that this has been sufficiently refuted by us, and that I have not omitted any opinion of those who purloin their opinions from the Greeks, and act despitefully towards the disciples of Christ, as if they had become teachers to them of these (tenets). But since it seems that we have sufficiently explained the doctrines of this (heretic), let us see what Carpocrates says.

Refutation of All Heresies Book 7

There is no other secondary goodness existing in the Son than that which is in the Father. So the Savior himself rightly says in the Gospel that “none is good save one, God the Father.” The purpose of this statement is to make it understood that the Son is not of some other ancillary “goodness,” but of that alone which is in the Father; whose image he is rightly called. For he neither springs from any other source than from original goodness itself (if that were so, there would seem to be a different goodness in the Son from that which is in the Father), nor has the goodness that is in him any dissimilarity or divergence from that of the Father. Accordingly we ought not to imagine that there is some kind of blasphemy in the saying that “none is good save one, God the Father.” These words are not to be taken as a denial that either Christ or the Holy Spirit is good. But, as we said before, the original goodness must be believed to reside in God the Father, and from him both the Son and Holy Spirit undoubtedly draw into themselves the nature of that goodness existing in the font from which the one is born and the other proceeds. If then there are any other things called good in the Scriptures such as an angel, or a man, or a servant, or a treasure, or a good heart, or a good tree, all these are so called by an inexact use of the word, since the goodness contained in them is accidental and not essential.

On First Principles 1.2.13

The good, then, is the same as the one who incomparably is. Over against good is evil or wickedness. Over against the one who incomparably is, is merely that which is not. So it follows that evil and corruption are, finally, that which becomes nothing. This, perhaps, is what has led some to affirm that the devil is not created by God. In respect that he is the devil he is not the work of God, but he who is the devil is a created being, and as a creature nonetheless remains a work of God, since there is nothing created that is not created by God. Think of it this way: A murderer is not a work of God insofar as he murders, while we may still say that insofar as he is a human being, God made him.

Commentary on John 2.7

He who is by nature God of God must possess the nature of his origin, which God possesses. The indistinguishable unity of a living nature cannot be divided by the birth of a living nature. But the troublers of church unity, under cover of the saving confession of the gospel faith, are subversively trying to take captive the truth by undermining it. By forcing their own interpretations on words spoken with other meanings and intentions, they are robbing the Son of his distinctive unity [with the Father].

On the Trinity 9.2

A complete understanding of the reply must come from the reason that prompted the question, for the answer will be directed to the matter that led to the inquiry.… He voiced his objection to the title of “good master” in such a way as to challenge the faith of the questioner rather than the designation of himself as a master or as good.

On the Trinity 9.2

The rich man called Jesus “good,” as if he were offering him a favor, just as some favor others with honorary titles. [The Lord] fled from that by which people favored him, so that he might show that he had received this goodness from the Father through nature and generation, and not [merely] in name. “Only one is good,” [he said], and did not remain silent, but added, “the Father,” so that he might show that the Son is good in just the way that the Father is good.

Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron

The words, “None is good” are a reply to the young ruler who was testing him and had borne witness to his goodness as a human being. Consummate goodness, he meant, belongs to God alone, though the word “good” can be derivatively applied to human beings.

Oration 30, on the Son 13

The question is something like a priest who, while inwardly despising his bishop, yet continues to address him openly as “bishop.” Whereupon the bishop answers, “To you I am not the bishop; you may leave my presence.”

Homily 53

God, therefore, is uniquely good, and this he cannot lose. He is good. He is not good by sharing in any other good, because the good by which he is good is himself. But, when a finite human being is good, his goodness derives from God, because he cannot be his own good. All who become good do so through his Spirit. Our nature has been created to attain to him through acts of its own will. If we are to become good, it is important for us to receive and hold what he gives, who is good in himself.

Letter 153, to Macedonius

But Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone." Because he had called the teacher good and had not confessed him as God or the Son of God, he learned that, although a holy man, in comparison to God, no one is good, about whom it is said, "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good" (Psalm 106). However, the one God who is good is not to be understood as the Father alone, but also the Son who says, "I am the good shepherd" (John 10); and also the Holy Spirit, because the Father will give the good Spirit from heaven to those asking him (Luke 11), that is, the one and indivisible Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the only and one God, who is good. Therefore, the Lord does not deny that he is good, but signifies that he is God; he does not deny that he is a good teacher, but testifies that no teacher is good except God. This is the chastity of youthful innocence, which is set before us to be imitated if we want to enter the kingdom of God. It should indeed be noted that justice, kept to the time of the law, not only conferred the good things of the earth but also eternal life to its practitioners.

On the Gospel of Mark

(ubi sup.) But by this one God, who is good, we must not only understand the Father, but also the Son, who says, I am the good Shepherd; (John 10:11) and also the Holy Ghost, because it is said, The Father which is in heaven will give the good Spirit to them that ask him. (Luke 2:15. Vulg.) For the One and Undivided Trinity itself, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is the Only and One good God. The Lord, therefore, does not deny Himself to be good, but implies that He is God; He does not deny that He is good Master, but He declares that no master is good but God.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

And why did Christ answer him thus: "No one is good"? Because he approached Christ as a mere man and as one of many teachers. Christ speaks as if to say: "If you consider Me good as a mere teacher, then in comparison with God no man is good; if you acknowledge Me as good as God, then why do you call Me merely a teacher?" By such words Christ wishes to convey a higher understanding of Himself, so that the man might recognize Him as God. Moreover, for the correction of the young man, the Lord also gives him another lesson: if he wishes to converse with someone, he should speak without flattery, and should know the one root and source of goodness to be God alone, and render Him due honor.

Commentary on Mark

Therefore the Lord intended by these words to raise the mind of the young man, so that he might know Him to be God. But He also implies another thing by these words, that when you have to converse with a man, you should not flatter him in your conversation, but look back upon God, the root and fount of goodness, and do honour to Him.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

The rich man asked the good teacher what he should do to gain eternal life. He regarded the good teacher as a man and nothing more (as distinct from the assumption that He is good as God incarnate). Hear the good teacher respond to him: if he wishes to enter into life, he should keep the commandments; that he should remove from himself the bitterness of malice and wickedness; that he should not kill, or commit adultery, or steal, or bear false witness, in order that dry land may appear and bring forth the honor of mother and father and the love of our neighbor.

Confessions 13.19

(ubi sup.) But observe that the righteousness of the law, when kept in its own time, conferred not only earthly goods, but also eternal life on those who chose it. Wherefore the Lord's answer to one who enquires concerning everlasting life is, Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill; for this is the childlike blamelessness which is proposed to us, if we would enter the kingdom of heaven.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

(in Evan. tom. xv. 14) For in that He loved, or kissed him, He appears to affirm the truth of his profession, in saying that he had fulfilled all those things; for on applying His mind to him, He saw that the man answered with a good conscience.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

He exercises the duties of goodness when he opens the treasures of heaven and becomes himself a guide to them. He abhors whatever is offered to him merely as a man. Yet he makes it clear that he is no stranger to those qualities attributed to God. While recognizing the one God as good, he himself speaks of and performs those very actions which are characteristic of the incomparable power, goodness and nature of God.

On the Trinity 9.17

This is why those who are rich find it hard to enter the kingdom of heaven. For it is a kingdom which desires for its citizens a soul that soars aloft free from all ties and hindrances. “Go your way,” the Lord said, “and sell” not a part of your substance but “all that you have, and give to the poor”;46 not to your friends or kinsfolk or relatives, nor to your wife or to your children.… When once you have put your hand to the plough, you must not look back. When once you stand on the housetop, you must think no more of your clothes within. To escape your Egyptian mistress, you must abandon the cloak that belongs to this world. Even Elijah, in his quick translation to heaven could not take his mantle with him, but left in the world the garments of the world.

Letter 118, to Julian

I who write this have greatly loved the total devotion of which the Lord spoke when he once said to the rich young man: “Go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and come, follow me.” I have so loved it that I have indeed acted upon it myself, not by my own strength but by his assisting grace. The apostles were the first to follow in the practice of this complete self-giving. One who gives up both what one owns and what one desires to own, gives up the whole world.

Letter 157, to Hilarius

What that man heard, most beloved, we, too, have heard. The gospel of Christ is in heaven, but it does not cease to speak on earth. Let us not be dead to him, for he thunders. Let us not be deaf, for he shouts. If you are unwilling to commit to full obedience, do what you can. But here is the radical divine requirement: “Sell all that you have, and give to the poor; and come, follow me.” The lesser road of the law says: You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not seek false witness, you shall not steal, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Sermons 153.1

Go, sell whatever you have, and give, etc. Whoever wishes to be perfect ought to sell what he has, and not sell part of it like Ananias and Sapphira, but sell everything, and when he has sold it, give everything to the poor, and thus prepare for himself a treasure in the kingdom of heaven. Nor is this sufficient for perfection unless, after despising riches, he follows the Savior, that is, having forsaken evil, he does good. For it is easier to despise a purse than a will. Many, leaving behind riches, do not follow the Lord. However, he follows the Lord who is His imitator and walks in His footsteps. For he who says he believes in Christ ought to walk as He walked.

On the Gospel of Mark

(ubi sup.) For God loves those who keep the commandments of the law, though they be inferior; nevertheless, He shows to those who would be perfect the deficiency of the law, for He came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. Wherefore there follows: And said unto him, One thing thou lackest; go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me; (Matt. 5:17) for whosoever would be perfect ought to sell all that he has, not a part, like Ananias and Sapphira, but the whole.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

On account of this passion, having heard the Lord's words, "Go, sell... and give to the poor," he "went away sorrowful." Note here that the Lord did not say: sell what you have bit by bit and give it away, but sell it all at once and give it away, and only to the poor, not to flatterers and not to the debauched; then: "follow Me," that is, adopt every other virtue as well, for there are many who, though not covetous, are not humble, or though humble, are not sober, or have some other vice. Therefore the Lord does not say merely "sell and give to the poor," but "come, follow Me, taking up the cross," which means to be ready to die for His sake.

Commentary on Mark

And when he has sold it, to give it to the poor, not to stage-players and luxurious persons.

But because there are many poor who are not humble, but are drunkards or have some other vice, for this reason He says, And come, follow me.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

(Cat. in Marc. Oxon.) It is worthy of enquiry, however, how He loved a man, who, He knew, would not follow Him? But this is so much as to say, that since he was worthy of love in the first instance, because he observed the things of the law from his youth, so in the end, though he did not take upon himself perfection, he did not suffer a lessening of his former love. For although he did not pass the bounds of humanity, nor follow the perfection of Christ, still he was not guilty of any sin, since he kept the law according to the capability of a man, and in this mode of keeping it, Christ loved himq.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

For as it is disagreeable to walk among thistles with naked feet, so also it is hard for such to enter the kingdom of God. But by all these the repentance of the rich is rendered difficult.

Hermas, Similitude 9

Again, "Don't sail on land" is a Pythagorean saw, and shows that taxes and similar contracts, being troublesome and fluctuating, ought to be declined. Wherefore also the Word says that the tax-gatherers shall be saved with difficulty.

The Stromata Book 5

Let this teach the prosperous that they are not to neglect their own salvation, as if they had been already foredoomed, nor, on the other hand, to cast wealth into the sea, or condemn it as a traitor and an enemy to life, but learn in what way and how to use wealth and obtain life.

Who is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved?

What am I to fasten on as the cause of this madness, except the weakness of faith, ever prone, to the concupiscences of worldly joys?-which, indeed, is chiefly found among the wealthier; for the more any is rich, and inflated with the name of "matron," the more capacious house does she require for her burdens, as it were a field wherein ambition may run its course. To such the churches look paltry. A rich man is a difficult thing (to find) in the house of God; and if such an one is (found there), difficult (is it to find such) unmarried.

To His Wife Book 2

Such, O my soul, are the miseries that attend on riches. They are gained with toil and kept with fear. They are enjoyed with danger and lost with grief. It is hard to be saved if we have them; and impossible if we love them; and scarcely can we have them, but we shall love them inordinately. Teach us, O Lord, this difficult lesson: to manage conscientiously the goods we possess, and not covetously desire more than you give to us.

Letter 203

Note what kind of riches it is that God loves. Note what wealth does he demand that we should store up for children. Note what possessions he especially orders us to guard: faith, fear of God, modesty, holiness, and discipline. Nothing earthly, nothing base, nothing perishable or transitory.

The Four Books of Timothy to the Church 1.4

The rich man “went away sad,” as you have heard, and the Lord says: “With what difficulty will they who have riches enter the kingdom of God!” At length the disciples became very sad when they heard this and they said: “If this is so, who then can be saved?” Rich and poor, listen to Christ: I am speaking to God’s people. Most of you are poor, but you too must listen carefully to understand. And you had best listen even more intently if you glory in your poverty. Beware of pride, lest the humble rich surpass you. Beware of wickedness, lest the pious rich confound you. Beware of drunkenness, lest the sober excel you.

Sermons 153.2

And looking around, Jesus said to His disciples: How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom, etc. It is clear indeed that those who strive here to multiply riches neglect to seek the joys of another life: but there is much difference between having and loving riches. Many indeed, having them, do not love; many, not having them, love. Similarly, others both have and love. Others rejoice neither to have nor to love the riches of the world, whose state is safer, because they can say with the Apostle: For to us the world is crucified, and we to the world (Gal. V). Hence Solomon does not say, he who has, but he who loves riches will not enjoy their fruits (Eccl. V). And the Lord Himself, explaining to the disciples who were amazed at the words of this sentence, added saying:

On the Gospel of Mark

But there is a great difference between having riches, and loving them; wherefore also Solomon says not, He that hath silver, but, He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied, with silver. (Eccl. 5:10)

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

23–24

It is not wealth in itself that is evil, but those who hoard it are evil and worthy of condemnation, for one ought not to have it, that is, to keep it for oneself, but to put it to good use. It is called wealth precisely because it is meant for beneficial use, not for hoarding. Therefore it is difficult for those who hoard and lock it away to "enter the Kingdom of God." And the word "difficult" here means the same as impossible. It is indeed exceedingly difficult for a rich man to be saved.

Commentary on Mark

23–24

He says not here, that riches are bad, but that those are bad who only have them to watch them carefully; for He teaches us not to have them, that is, not to keep or preserve them, but to use them in necessary things.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

The Christian view is that men were created to be in a certain relationship to God (if we are in that relation to Him, the right relation to one another will follow inevitably). Christ said it was difficult for "the rich" to enter the Kingdom of Heaven,1 referring, no doubt, to "riches" in the ordinary sense. But I think it really covers riches in every sense—good fortune, health, popularity, and all the things one wants to have. All these things tend—just as money tends—to make you feel independent of God, because if you have^them you are happy already and contented in this life. You don't want to turn away to anything more, and so you try to rest in a shadowy happiness as if it could last forever. But God wants to give you a real and eternal happiness. Consequently He may have to take all these "riches" away from you: if He doesn't, you will go on relying on them. It sounds cruel, doesn't it? But I am beginning to find out that what people call the cruel doctrines are really the kindest ones in the long run. I used to think it was a "cruel" doctrine to say that troubles and sorrows were "punishments." But I find in practice that when you are in trouble, the moment you regard it as a "punishment," it becomes easier to bear. If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it's not so bad.

Imagine a set of people all living in the same building. Half of them think it is a hotel, the other half think it is a prison. Those who think it a hotel might regard it as quite intolerable, and those who thought it was a prison might decide that it was really surprisingly comfortable. So that what seems the ugly doctrine is one that comforts and strengthens you in the end. The people who try to hold an optimistic view of this world would become pessimists: the people who hold a pretty stern view of it become optimistic.

Answers to Questions on Christianity, from God in the Dock

The dangers of apparent self-sufficiency explain why Our Lord regards the vices of the feckless and dissipated so much more leniently than the vices that lead to worldly success. Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger.

The Problem of Pain, Ch. 6

(ubi sup.) But the Lord said this to His disciples, who were poor and possessed nothing, in order to teach them not to blush at their poverty, and as it were to make an excuse to them, and give them a reason, why He had not allowed them to possess any thing. It goes on: And the disciples were astonished at his words; for it is plain, since they themselves were poor, that they were anxious for the salvation of others.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

Little children, how difficult it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God. Where it must be noted that he did not say, how impossible, but how difficult it is. For what is impossible cannot be done at all. What is difficult can be done with toil. For it can indeed be done, but with great labor, with the help of God's grace, that those who have riches, or trust in riches, divesting themselves of the fetters of avarice, may enter the gate of the heavenly kingdom: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle," etc. (Matt. XIX). If it is easier for a camel, with its large and enormous limbs, to penetrate the narrow eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, then no rich man shall enter the kingdom of God. And how is it that in the Gospel, Matthew, Zacchaeus, and Joseph, or in the Old Testament, many rich men entered the kingdom of God? Unless perhaps because they learned, by the inspiration of the Lord, to consider riches as nothing or to forsake them completely from their whole heart. For did David trust in the riches of his kingdom? Who also sings of himself: "For I am poor and needy" (Psalm XXIV); and exhorts others, "If riches increase, do not set your heart on them" (Psalm LXI). I believe he did not dare to say, do not receive them. Is it believable that Abraham preferred his wealth to the Lord, for whom he did not hesitate to strike his only heir? In a higher sense, it is easier for Christ to suffer for the lovers of the world than for the lovers of the world to be converted to Christ. For by the name of the camel, he wanted himself to be understood, who willingly bore the burdens of our humility and infirmity. For in whom is it more clearly understood than in him, what is written: "The greater you are, humble yourself in all things" (Eccli. III)? By the needle he signifies the nails, by the nails the sufferings endured in his passion. Therefore, he says the eye of the needle is the straits of his passion. By which torn, he condescended to mend, that is, to restore as it were, the garments of our nature; so that after the fall, being better reformed, we may rejoice at the testimony of the Apostle saying: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. III).

On the Gospel of Mark

Therefore the Lord unfolds the words of His former saying to His astonished disciples, as follows: But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard it is for them that trust in their riches to enter the kingdom of God. Where we must observe that He says not, how impossible, but how hard; for what is impossible cannot in any way come to pass, what is difficult can be compassed, though with labour.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

The Saviour by no means has excluded the rich on account of wealth itself, and the possession of property, nor fenced off salvation against them; if they are able and willing to submit their life to God's commandments, and prefer them to transitory objects, and if they would look to the Lord with steady eye, as those who look for the nod of a good helmsman, what he wishes, what he orders, what he indicates, what signal he gives his mariners, where and whence he directs the ship's course. For what harm does one do, who, previous to faith, by applying his mind and by saving has collected a competency? Or what is much less reprehensible than this, if at once by God, who gave him his life, he has had his home given him in the house of such men, among wealthy people, powerful in substance, and pre-eminent in opulence? For if, in consequence of his involuntary birth in wealth, a man is banished from life, rather is he wronged by God, who created him, in having vouchsafed to him temporary enjoyment, and in being deprived of eternal life. And why should wealth have ever sprung from the earth at all, if it is the author and patron of death?

But if one is able in the midst of wealth to turn from its power, and to entertain moderate sentiments, and to exercise self-command, and to seek God alone, and to breathe God and walk with God, such a poor man submits to the commandments, being free, unsubdued, free of disease, unwounded by wealth. But if not, "sooner shall a camel enter through a needle's eye, than such a rich man reach the kingdom of God."

Let then the camel, going through a narrow and strait way before the rich man, signify something loftier; which mystery of the Saviour is to be learned in the "Exposition of first Principles and of Theology."

Who is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved?

(ubi sup.) Or else, after saying difficult, He then shows that it is impossible, and that not simply, but with a certain vehemence; and he shows this by an example, saying, It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

There is no compelling necessity for you to store up large earthly treasures for your children. You would do better to make your offspring treasures of God than make them richer in worldly goods.

The Four Books of Timothy to the Church 1.4

(ubi sup.) How then could either in the Gospel, Matthew and Joseph, or in the Old Testament, very many rich persons, enter into the kingdom of God, unless it be that they learned through the inspiration of God either to count their riches as nothing, or to quit them altogether. Or in a higher sense, it is easier for Christ to suffer for those who love Him, than for the lovers of this world to turn to Christ; for under the name of camel, He wished Himself to be understood, because He bore the burden of our weakness; and by the needle, He understands the prickings, that is, the pains of His Passion. By the eye of a needle, therefore, He means the straits of His Passion, by which He, as it were, deigned to mend the torn garments of our nature.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

This is evident from the example which the Lord adds, saying: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." By the name "camel" understand either the animal itself or a thick rope (cable) used on large ships. Thus, for a man, so long as he is rich, it is impossible to be saved.

Commentary on Mark

It may be that by camel, we should understand the animal itself, or else that thick cable, which is used for large vessels.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

Only the Christian Church can offer any rational objection to a complete confidence in the rich. For she has maintained from the beginning that the danger was not in man's environment, but in man. Further, she has maintained that if we come to talk of a dangerous environment, the most dangerous environment of all is the commodious environment. I know that the most modern manufacture has been really occupied in trying to produce an abnormally large needle. I know that the most recent biologists have been chiefly anxious to discover a very small camel. But if we diminish the camel to his smallest, or open the eye of the needle to its largest--if, in short, we assume the words of Christ to have meant the very least that they could mean, His words must at the very least mean this--that rich men are not very likely to be morally trustworthy. Christianity even when watered down is hot enough to boil all modern society to rags. The mere minimum of the Church would be a deadly ultimatum to the world. For the whole modern world is absolutely based on the assumption, not that the rich are necessary (which is tenable), but that the rich are trustworthy, which (for a Christian) is not tenable. You will hear everlastingly, in all discussions about newspapers, companies, aristocracies, or party politics, this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man. The whole case for Christianity is that a man who is dependent upon the luxuries of this life is a corrupt man, spiritually corrupt, politically corrupt, financially corrupt. There is one thing that Christ and all the Christian saints have said with a sort of savage monotony. They have said simply that to be rich is to be in peculiar danger of moral wreck.

Orthodoxy, Ch. VII: The Eternal Revolution

Instead of looking at books and pictures about the New Testament I looked at the New Testament. There I found an account, not in the least of a person with his hair parted in the middle or his hands clasped in appeal, but of an extraordinary being with lips of thunder and acts of lurid decision, flinging down tables, casting out devils, passing with the wild secrecy of the wind from mountain isolation to a sort of dreadful demagogy; a being who often acted like an angry god--and always like a god. Christ had even a literary style of his own, not to be found, I think, elsewhere; it consists of an almost furious use of the a fortiori. His "how much more" is piled one upon another like castle upon castle in the clouds. The diction used about Christ has been, and perhaps wisely, sweet and submissive. But the diction used by Christ is quite curiously gigantesque; it is full of camels leaping through needles and mountains hurled into the sea. Morally it is equally terrific; he called himself a sword of slaughter, and told men to buy swords if they sold their coats for them. That he used other even wilder words on the side of non-resistance greatly increases the mystery; but it also, if anything, rather increases the violence. We cannot even explain it by calling such a being insane; for insanity is usually along one consistent channel. The maniac is generally a monomaniac. Here we must remember the difficult definition of Christianity already given; Christianity is a superhuman paradox whereby two opposite passions may blaze beside each other. The one explanation of the Gospel language that does explain it, is that it is the survey of one who from some supernatural height beholds some more startling synthesis.

Orthodoxy, Ch. 9: Authority and the Adventurer (1908)

But the Lord replies, "Because what is impossible with men is possible with God." This again is full of great wisdom. For a man by himself working and toiling at freedom from passion achieves nothing. But if he plainly shows himself very desirous and earnest about this, he attains it by the addition of the power of God. For God conspires with willing souls. But if they abandon their eagerness, the spirit which is bestowed by God is also restrained. For to save the unwilling is the part of one exercising compulsion; but to save the willing, that of one showing grace.

Who is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved?

(ubi sup.) And the reason why He says that this is the work of God is, that He may show that he who is put into this path by God, has much need of grace; from which it is proved, that great is the reward of those rich men, who are willing to follow the 1discipline of Christ.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

Orthodox: The Lord God wishes nothing inconsistent with his nature, and is able to do all that he wishes, and what he wishes is appropriate and agreeable to his own nature.… Eranistes: Nothing is impossible to almighty God. Orthodox: Then according to your definition sin is possible to almighty God? Eranistes: By no means. Orthodox: Why? Eranistes: Because he does not wish it. Orthodox: Why does he not wish it? Eranistes: Because sin is foreign to his nature. Orthodox: Then there are many things which he cannot do, for there are many kinds of transgression. Eranistes: Nothing of this kind can be wished or done by God. Orthodox: Nor can those things which are contrary to the divine nature.… But not to be able in any of these respects is proof not of weakness, but of infinite power, and to be able would certainly be proof not of power but of impotence.

Dialogue 3

And Jesus, looking at them, said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God." It is not to be understood that the greedy and proud, who were signified by the name of that rich man, will enter the kingdom of heaven with their greed and pride: but it is possible for God, that through His word, as we see both to have been done and to be done daily, that they are converted from the greed for temporal things to the love of eternal things, and from pernicious pride to salutary humility.

On the Gospel of Mark

It goes on; And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God; which we must not take to mean, that covetous and proud persons can enter into the kingdom of Heaven with their covetousness and pride, but that it is possible with God that they should be converted from covetousness and pride to charity and lowliness.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

But with God this is possible. Christ said: "Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth" (Lk. 16:9). Do you see how all things become possible when we hear the Word of God? "With men this is impossible," that is, it is impossible when we reason in human terms. Some are puzzled how Christ said that "all things are possible with God." Can He then also sin? To this we answer that when Christ says "all things," He means all things that have real existence, but sin is not something that has real existence: sin is something insubstantial, inoperative, or in other words, sin belongs not to strength but to weakness, as the Apostle also says: "Christ, when we were still weak... died" (Rom. 5:6), and David says: "Their sorrows shall be multiplied" (Ps. 16:4). Therefore sin, as a weakness, is impossible for God. But can God, they ask, also make what has been as though it had not been? To this we say: God is Truth, and to make what has been as though it had not been is a lie. How then would Truth produce a lie? For this He would first have to change His own Essence. To speak in this way would be to say that God can cease to be God.

Commentary on Mark

Or we must understand that by, with man it is impossible, but not with God, He means, that when we listen to God, it becomes possible, but as long as we keep our human notions, it is impossible. There follows, For all things are possible with God; when He says all things, you must understand, that have a being; which sin has not, for it is a thing without being and substance. Or else: sin does not come under the notion of strength, but of weakness, therefore sin, like weakness, is impossible with God. But can God cause that not to have been done which has been done? To which we answer, that God is Truth, but to cause that what has been done should not have been done, is falsehood. How then can truth do what is false? He must first therefore quit His own nature, so that they who speak thus really say, Can God cease to be God? which is absurd.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

The absolutely impossible may also be called the intrinsically impossible because it carries its impossibility within itself, instead of borrowing it from other impossibilities which in their turn depend upon others. It has no unless clause attached to it. It is impossible under all conditions and in all worlds and for all agents.

"All agents" here includes God Himself. His Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense. This is no limit to His power. If you choose to say "God can give a creature free-will and at the same time withhold free-will from it," you have not succeeded in saying anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words "God can". It remains true that all things are possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things but nonentities. It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because His power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God.

The Problem of Pain, Chapter 2: Divine Omnipotence

"And Jesus answering said, Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall leave what is his own, parents, and children, and wealth, for My sake and the Gospel's, shall receive an hundredfold." But let neither this trouble you, nor the still harder saying delivered in another place in the words, "Whoso hateth not father, and mother, and children, and his own life besides, cannot be My disciple." For the God of peace, who also exhorts to love enemies, does not introduce hatred and dissolution from those that are dearest. But if we are to love our enemies, it is in accordance with right reason that, ascending from them, we should love also those nearest in kindred. Or if we are to hate our blood-relations, deduction teaches us that much more are we to spurn from us our enemies. So that the reasonings would be shown to destroy one another. But they do not destroy each other, nor are they near doing so. For from the same feeling and disposition, and on the ground of the same rule, one loving his enemy may hate his father, in as much as he neither takes vengeance on an enemy, nor reverences a father more than Christ. For by the one word he extirpates hatred and injury, and by the other shamefacedness towards one's relations, if it is detrimental to salvation. If then one's father, or son, or brother, be godless, and become a hindrance to faith and an impediment to the higher life, let him not be friends or agree with him, but on account of the spiritual enmity, let him dissolve the fleshly relationship.

Who is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved?

" If you wish to be the Lord's disciple, it is necessary you "take your cross, and follow the Lord: " your cross; that is, your own straits and tortures, or your body only, which is after the manner of a cross. Parents, wives, children, will have to be left behind, for God's sake. Do you hesitate about arts, and trades, and about professions likewise, for the sake of children and parents? Even there was it demonstrated to us, that both "dear pledges," and handicrafts, and trades, are to be quite left behind for the Lord's sake; while James and John, called by the Lord, do leave quite behind both father and ship; while Matthew is roused up from the toll-booth; while even burying a father was too tardy a business for faith.

On Idolatry

But how can they follow Christ, who are held back by the chain of their wealth? Or how can they seek heaven, and climb to sublime and lofty heights, who are weighed down by earthly desires? They think that they possess, when they are rather possessed; as slaves of their profit, and not lords with respect to their own money, but rather the bond-slaves of their money. These times and these men are indicated by the apostle, when he says, "But they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and in perdition. For the root of all evil is the love of money, which, while some have coveted, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." But with what rewards does the Lord invite us to contempt of worldly wealth? With what compensations does He atone for the small and trifling losses of this present time? "There is no man," saith He, "that leaves house, or land, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, but he shall receive seven fold even in this time, but in the world to come life everlasting." If we know these things, and have found them out from the truth of the Lord who promises, not only is not loss of this kind to be feared, but even to be desired; as the Lord Himself again announces and warns us, "Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall cast you out, and shall speak of your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake! Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward is great in heaven."

Treatise III. On the Lapsed.

29–30

(Hom. in Matt. 64) But it seems to me that by these words He intended covertly to proclaim that there were to be persecutions, as it would come to pass that many fathers would allure their sons to impiety, and many wives their husbands. Again He delays not to say, for my name's sake and the Gospel's, as Mark says, or for the kingdom of God, as Luke says; the name of Christ is the power of the Gospel, and of His kingdom; for the Gospel is received in the name of Jesus Christ, and the kingdom is made known, and comes by His name.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

29–30

Jesus responded and said: Amen I say to you: There is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or fields for my sake, and for the sake of the Gospel, who will not receive a hundred times as much now in this time, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and fields, with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life. Some, using this kind of statement as an occasion, propagate the Jewish fable of a thousand-year reign after the resurrection of the just, during which all that we have given up for God's sake will be repaid to us a hundredfold, and eternal life will be granted besides. And the foolish do not see that, even if in other matters the promise is worthy, the remuneration of wives a hundred times over, according to other evangelists, would appear scandalous, especially since the Lord Himself testifies that in the resurrection there will be no marrying, and asserts that those things given up for His sake will be received in this present time with persecutions. But those Chiliasists confirm that all those persecutions, like other contrary things, are wholly absent from their millennium. Therefore, this is the sense: Whoever has left carnal things for the Gospel of Christ will receive spiritual goods, which, in their worth and merit, will be as if a hundredfold number were compared to a small number. Because clearly, from the brothers and associates of his purpose, who are bound to him in spiritual glue, he will receive much greater affection even in this life. Read the Acts of the Apostles, where it says that the heart and soul of the multitude of believers were one, and all things were common among them, and there was no needy person among them (Acts 4), who had left their own for the Lord's sake. Of whom also the Apostle says, "As having nothing, and yet possessing everything" (2 Cor. 6). Certainly, what he says, "He will receive a hundred times as much now in this time, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and fields with persecutions" (Mark 10), could be understood as a deeper signification. For the number one hundred, transferred from the left to the right, although it seems to hold the same figure in the bending of the fingers which ten had in the left, it greatly surpasses in magnitude. Because indeed, those who despise temporal things for the kingdom of God, even in this life full of persecutions, taste the joy of the same kingdom with certain faith, and in the expectation of the heavenly homeland (which is rightly signified in the right hand), they enjoy the most sincere love of all the elect equally. But because many do not complete the pursuit of virtues with the same intention of piety with which they begin, but either cool down after receiving the love of virtues or completely relapse into the mire of crimes, a terrifying sentence is immediately added.

On the Gospel of Mark

(ubi sup.) But while Peter asks only concerning the disciples, our Lord makes a general answer; wherefore it goes on: Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands. But in saying this, He does not mean that we should leave our fathers, without helping them, or that we should separate ourselves from our wives; but He instructs us to prefer the glory of God to the things of this world.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

Everyone who leaves wife or mother — He says this not so that we would leave our parents helpless or separate from our wives, but teaches us to prefer pleasing God above all things of the flesh. Since from the preaching of the Gospel war was to be kindled among people, so that children would have to renounce their fathers, the Lord says: whoever leaves for the sake of the Gospel fleshly kinship and in general all things of the flesh, that one will receive all this a hundredfold in this age, and in the age to come, eternal life.

Commentary on Mark

For he who for the sake of Christ’s name distances himself from his particular beloved father or mother or child, and gives himself over to the purest love of all who serve Christ, will receive a hundred times the measure of brothers and kinsfolk. Instead of but one he will begin to have so many fathers and brothers bound to him by a still more fervent and admirable affection. That this is so you can prove by your own experience, since you have each left but one father and mother and home, and as you have done so you have gained without any effort or care countless fathers and mothers and brothers, as well as houses and lands and most faithful servants, in any part of the world to which you go, who receive you as their own family, and welcome, and respect, and take care of you with the utmost attention.

Conferences 3.24.26

Some, however, taking occasion from this saying, in which it is announced that he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, teach that Jewish fable of a thousand years after the resurrection of the just, when all that we have left for the Lord's sake is to be restored with manifold usury, besides which we are to receive the crown of everlasting life. These persons do not perceive, that although the promise in other respects be honourable, yet in the hundred wives, which the other Evangelists mention, its foulness is made manifest: particularly when the Lord testifies that there shall be no marriage in the resurrection, and asserts that those things which are put away from us for His sake are to be received again in this life with persecutions, which, as they affirm, will not take place in their thousand yearss.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

(ubi sup.) This which is here said, shall receive an hundredfold, may be understood in a higher sense. For the number a hundred which is reckoned by changing from the left to the right hand, although it has the same appearance in the bending of the fingers as the ten had on the left, nevertheless is increased to a much greater quantity. This means, that all who have despised temporal things for the sake of the kingdom of heaven through undoubting faith, taste the joy of the same kingdom in this life which is full of persecutions, and in the expectation of the heavenly country, which is signified by the right hand, have a share in the happiness of all the elect.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

Therefore, will he not also receive a hundred times more wives? Yes — although the accursed Julian mocked this. For tell me, what benefit does a wife bring to her husband's household? In general, she cares for food and clothing for her husband and in this regard fully provides for him. Now look at how it was with the apostles. How many women cared for providing them with clothing and food and served them, so that they themselves had no concern for anything except the word and teaching! Likewise, the apostles had many fathers and mothers, as all those who loved them and cared for them heartily were such to them. Peter left his one house, but later had as his own all the houses of his disciples. Even now he has throughout the whole earth splendid houses — churches in his name. And what is still more important is that the saints inherited all this in exile, that is, while being persecuted for the faith of Christ, and in cruel sufferings, but their sufferings were not a disgrace to them.

Commentary on Mark

For a wife is busied in a house about her husband's food and raiment. See also how this is the case with the Apostles; for many women busied themselves about their food and their clothing, and ministered unto them. In like manner the Apostles had many fathers and mothers, that is, persons who loved them; as Peter, for instance, leaving one house, had afterwards the houses of all the disciples. And what is more wonderful, they are to be persecuted and oppressed, for it is with persecutions that the Saints are to possess all things.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

(Cat. in Marc. Oxon.) This hundredfold reward therefore must be in participation, not in possession, for the Lord fulfilled this to them not carnally, but spiritually.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

"The first shall be last, and the last first." This is fruitful in meaning and exposition, but does not demand investigation at present; for it refers not only to the wealthy alone, but plainly to all men, who have once surrendered themselves to faith.

Who is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved?

"But many that are first shall be last, and the last first. For example, see Judas, who turned from an apostle into an apostate, and you will say that many that are first shall be last; see the thief on the cross, who became a confessor, and on the same day he was crucified for his sins, rejoicing in paradise with Christ by the grace of faith, and you will say that the last shall be first. But also every day we see many in lay attire excelling in the great merits of life, and others who, from their earliest age, have been fervent in spiritual zeal, yet at the end become sluggish in idleness, growing weak, and finishing in the flesh what they began in the spirit with lazy foolishness.

On the Gospel of Mark

But because all do not accomplish a virtuous course of life with the same ardour as they began it, it is presently added, But many that are first shall be last, and the last first; for we daily see many persons who, remaining in a lay habit, are eminent for their meritorious life; but others, who from their youth have been ardent in a spiritual profession, at last wither away in the sloth of ease, and with a lazy folly finish in the flesh, what they had begun in the Spirit.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

For those who appeared last in the present age, on account of the sorrows and persecutions they endured, will be first in the age to come for their steadfast hope in God. The Pharisees, who were first, became last, and those who left everything and followed Christ became first.

Commentary on Mark

But many that are first shall be last, and the last first. For the Pharisees who were first became the last; but those who left all and followed Christ were last in this world through tribulation and persecutions, but shall be first by the hope which is in God.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

In so speaking the Lord foreshadowed those by whose hand he would die. He does not mean here the death upon the cross as such, but that the Jews would deliver him up to the Gentiles, or, in other words, to the Romans. For Pilate was a Roman, and had been sent by the Romans into Judea as governor.

Tractate on John 94.5

33–34

Everything He says in this instance, though sorrowful, He consoles them for all of it by saying that "on the third day He will rise."

Commentary on Mark

33–34

He did this to confirm the hearts of the disciples, that from hearing these things beforehand, they might the better bear them afterwards, and might not be alarmed at their suddenness, and also in order to show them that He suffered voluntarily; for he who foreknows a danger, and flies not, though flight is in his power, evidently of his own will gives himself up to suffering. But He takes His disciples apart, because it was fitting that He should reveal the mystery of His Passion to those who were more closely connected with Him.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

(interlin.) That is, He to whom suffering belongs; for the Godhead cannot suffer. Shall be delivered, that is, by Judas, unto the Chief Priests, and unto the Scribes, and they shall condemn him to death; judging Him to be guilty of death; and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, that is, to Pilate the Gentile.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

(Hom. in Matt. 65) But that when they were saddened on account of His Passion and death, they should then also look for His resurrection, He adds, And the third day he shall rise again; for since He had not hid from them the sorrows and insults which happened, it was fitting that they should believe Him on other points.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

(interlin.) And his soldiers shall mock him, and shall spit upon him, and scourge him, and put him to death.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

And he, placing his hands behind him, and being bound like a distinguished ram [taken] out of a great flock for sacrifice, and prepared to be an acceptable burnt-offering unto God, looked up to heaven, and said, "O Lord God Almighty, the Father of thy beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the knowledge of Thee, the God of angels and powers, and of every creature, and of the whole race of the righteous who live before thee, I give Thee thanks that Thou hast counted me, worthy of this day and this hour, that I should have a part in the number of Thy martyrs, in the cup of thy Christ, to the resurrection of eternal life, both of soul and body, through the incorruption [imparted] by the Holy Ghost. Among whom may I be accepted this day before Thee as a fat and acceptable sacrifice, according as Thou, the ever-truthful God, hast fore-ordained, hast revealed beforehand to me, and now hast fulfilled. Wherefore also I praise Thee for all things, I bless Thee, I glorify Thee, along with the everlasting and heavenly Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, with whom, to Thee, and the Holy Ghost, be glory both now and to all coming ages. Amen."

Martyrdom of Polycarp 14

Or sacrifice, and prepared to be an acceptable burnt-offering unto God, looked up to heaven, and said, "O Lord God Almighty, the Father of thy beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the knowledge of Thee, the God of angels and powers, and of every creature, and of the whole race of the righteous who live before thee, I give Thee thanks that Thou hast counted me, worthy of this day and this hour, that I should have a part in the number of Thy martyrs, in the cup

Moreover, they affirm that the Lord added this redemption to the sons of Zebedee, when their mother asked that they might sit, the one on His right hand, and the other on His left, in His kingdom, saying, "Can ye be baptized with the baptism which I shall be baptized with?" Paul, too, they declare, has often set forth, in express terms, the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; and this was the same which is handed down by them in so varied and discordant forms.

Against Heresies Book 1

This is, he says, the great and ineffable mystery of the Samothracians, which it is allowable, he says, for us only who are initiated to know. For the Samothracians expressly hand down, in the mysteries that are celebrated among them, that (same) Adam as the primal man. And habitually there stand in the temple of the Samothracians two images of naked men, having both hands stretched aloft towards heaven, and their pudenda erecta, as with the statue of Mercury on Mount Cyllene. And the aforesaid images are figures of the primal man, and of that spiritual one that is born again, in every respect of the same substance with that man. This, he says, is what is spoken by the Saviour: "If ye do not drink my blood, and eat my flesh, ye will not enter into the kingdom of heaven; but even though," He says, "ye drink of the cup which I drink of, whither I go, ye cannot enter there." For He says He was aware of what sort of nature each of His disciples was, and that there was a necessity that each of them should attain unto His own peculiar nature. For He says He chose twelve disciples from the twelve tribes, and spoke by them to each tribe. On this account, He says, the preachings of the twelve disciples neither did all hear, nor, if they heard, could they receive. For the things that are not according to nature, are with them contrary to nature.

Refutation of All Heresies Book 5

Do you see? They did not understand what they were asking for when they were talking to him about crowns and rewards and the privilege of the first seats and honors even before the contest had begun. Christ was communicating with them on two levels when he said: “You do not know what you are asking for.” One was that they were talking about an earthly kingdom and he had said nothing about this. There had been no announcement or promise about a visible kingdom on earth. The other was that, when they sought at this time the privilege of the first seats and the honors of heaven, when they wished to be seen as more illustrious and splendid than the others, they were not asking for these things at the right time. The timing was precisely wrong. For this was not the right time for crowns or prizes. It was the time for struggles, contests, toils, sweat, wrestling rings and battles.

On the Incomprehensible Nature of God 8.32-33

This he calls a baptism, showing that from it the whole world would receive a great purification. Then they say to him: “We can.” In the fervor of their spirit they promise immediately, not knowing what they said, but looking to obtain that which they were asking.… He foretold great things for them; that is, you shall be held worthy of martyrdom, you shall suffer the things I have suffered, you shall end your life with a death from violence, and in this also you shall be sharers with me.

The Gospel of St Matthew, Homily 65

For when we immerse our heads in the water, the old humanity is buried as in a tomb below, and wholly sunk forever. Then as we raise them again, the new humanity rises in its place. As it is easy for us to dip and to lift our heads again, so it is easy for God to bury the old humanity, and to lift up and display the new. And this is done three times, that you may learn that the power of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost fulfills all this.

Homilies on John 25.2

Here Christ was calling his crucifixion a cup and his death a baptism. He called his cross a cup because he was coming to it with pleasure. He called his death a baptism because by it he cleansed the world. Not only on this account did he call his death a baptism but also because of the ease with which he would rise again. For just as one who is baptized in water easily rises up because the nature of the water poses no hindrance, so, too, Christ rose with greater ease because he had gone down into death. And this is why he calls his death a baptism.

On the Incomprehensible Nature of God 8.35

He meant, of course, the cup of humility and suffering.

Tractate on John 28.5.2

(ubi sup.) Then the Lord both according to Mark, and to Matthew, answered them rather than their mother. For it goes on, But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

There follows: "You are my friends." O how great is the mercy of our Creator! We are not worthy to be servants, and we are called friends. How great is the dignity of men to be friends of God! But you have heard the glory of this dignity; hear also the labor of the struggle: "If you do what I command you." "You are my friends, if you do what I command you." As if He were saying openly: You rejoice at the height; consider by what labors one arrives at the height. Surely when the sons of Zebedee, through the intervention of their mother, sought that one should sit at the right hand of God and the other at the left, they heard: "Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink?" They were already seeking the place of exaltation; the Truth calls them back to the way by which they might come to exaltation. As if it were said: The place of exaltation already delights you, but first let the way of labor exercise you. Through the cup one reaches majesty. If your mind desires what pleases, first drink what causes pain. Thus, thus through the bitter cup of affliction one arrives at the joy of salvation.

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 27

You know not what you ask. Can you drink of the cup that I drink of, or be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized? And they said to him: We can. They know not what they ask, who seek from the Lord the seat of glory which they had not yet deserved. Indeed, the summit of honor was already pleasing to them, but first they had to traverse the path of labor. They desired to reign on high with Christ, but first they had to suffer humbly for Christ. For by the term of the cup or baptism, he designates the passion of martyrdom, through which it became fitting for both him and them to be perfected. Hence, elsewhere, he speaks of his passion: But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished (Luke 12)? And as he approached his passion, he prayed, saying: Father, if thou wilt, remove this cup from me (Mark 14).

On the Gospel of Mark

(ubi sup.) Or else, they know not what they ask, who seek from the Lord a seat of glory, which they do not yet merit.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

Therefore the Lord also rebukes them as not understanding what they are asking: "You do not know," He says, "what you are asking." You think that My Kingdom will be an earthly one, and therefore you ask for an earthly seat; no, it is not so: this is beyond human comprehension, and to sit at My right hand is the greatest thing, surpassing even the angelic ranks. Moreover, you dream of glory, while I am calling you to death. He calls the Cross a Cup and a Baptism — a Cup because the Cross, like a cup of wine, was soon to bring Him to the sleep of death, and He was ready to accept the cup of sufferings as a sweet drink for Himself; and a Baptism because through the Cross He accomplished the cleansing of our sins. But the disciples, not having understood the Lord's words, give their promise on their part, thinking that He was speaking of a literal cup and of the kind of baptism that the Jews practiced, who washed themselves before partaking of food.

Commentary on Mark

It will not be as ye think, that I am to reign as a temporal king in Jerusalem, but all these things, that is, these which belong to My kingdom, are beyond your understanding; for to sit on My right hand is so great a thing that it surpasses the Angelic orders.

But by the cup and baptism, He means the cross; the cup, that is, as being a potion by Him sweetly received, but baptism as the cause of the cleansing of our sins.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

But Jesus said to them, "You shall indeed drink the cup that I drink of, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you shall be baptized. The question arises, in what manner did the sons of Zebedee, that is, James and John, drink the cup of martyrdom, or how were they baptized with the baptism of the Lord, when Scripture narrates that only the Apostle James was beheaded by Herod; however, John ended his life by natural death. But if we read the ecclesiastical histories, in which it is reported that he too, for martyrdom, was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil, and then emerged as a champion to receive the crown of Christ and was immediately exiled to the island of Patmos, we will see that his spirit did not lack martyrdom, and that John drank the cup of confession, which the three youths drank in the fiery furnace, even though the persecutor did not shed his blood. But he adds:

On the Gospel of Mark

(ubi sup.) A question is raised, however, how James and John drank the cup of martyrdom, or how they were baptized with the baptism of the Lord, when the Scripture relates, that only James the Apostle was beheaded by Herod whilst John finished his life by a natural death. But if we read ecclesiastical histories, in which it is related, that he also on account of the witness which he bore was cast into a cauldron of burning oil, and was immediately sent away to the island of Patmos, we shall then see that the spirit of martyrdom was in him, and that John drank the cup of confession, which the Three Children also drank in the furnace of fire, though the persecutor did not spill their blood. It goes on: But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

39–40

You, He says, will enter into the struggle of martyrdom and will die for the truth, "but to grant the seat is not for Me to give." But here two difficulties arise. The first: has this seat been prepared for anyone? The second: can it really be that the universal Master cannot give this seat? We answer: no one will sit either on the right or on the left. And if you hear that Scripture repeatedly speaks of such a seat, understand not a seat in the literal sense, but the highest dignity. And the words "it is not for Me to give" have this meaning: it is not fitting for Me, the righteous Judge, to give you such dignity solely out of love for you; otherwise I would not be just; but such an honor has been prepared only for those who struggle. This is similar to a case where a just king seated a certain champion above others, and his favorites came and said to him: "Give us crowns"; then the king would certainly reply: "It is not for me to give," but whoever shall struggle and conquer, for him the crown has been prepared. So then, you sons of Zebedee, you can be and will be martyrs for Me; but if someone, together with martyrdom, possesses every other virtue to a greater degree than you, that person will have precedence over you.

Commentary on Mark

39–40

And they answer Him, without understanding what He had said; wherefore it goes on: And they said unto him, We can; for they thought that He spoke of a visible cup, and of the baptism of which the Jews made use, that is, the washings before their meals.

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To sit at my right hand or at my left hand is not mine to give to you, but to those for whom it is prepared, is thus to be understood: The kingdom of heaven is not for the giver, but for the receiver. For there is no respect of persons with God (Romans II), but whoever presents himself worthy of the kingdom of heaven, he will receive what is prepared not for the person, but for the life. If therefore you are such as who will attain the kingdom of heaven, which my Father has prepared for those who triumph and are victorious, you too shall receive it. Likewise, it is not mine to give to you, but to those for whom it is prepared. It is not mine to give to the proud, for this is what you still are. But if you wish to receive it, cease to be what you are. It is prepared for others, and you be those others, and it shall be prepared for you. What does it mean, be others? First humble yourselves, who now wish to be exalted.

On the Gospel of Mark

(ubi sup.) Or else, it is not mine to give to you, that is, to proud persons, for such as yet they were. It is prepared for other persons, and be ye other, that is, lowly, and it is prepared for you.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

But Jesus, calling them, said to them: You know that those who are considered to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it is not so among you, etc. Humble and meek teacher, he neither reproaches the two asking with excessive greed, nor does he rebuke the remaining ten with indignation and envy, but he sets such an example, by which he teaches that he is greater who is lesser, and that he becomes the master who is the servant of all. Therefore, in vain do those ask immoderately, or do these ones grieve over the desire for greatness, since one comes to the pinnacle of virtues not by power, but by humility. Finally, he proposes his own example, so that if his words were lightly esteemed, they might blush at his deeds. And he says:

On the Gospel of Mark

But now Christ heals them, first calming them and drawing them near to Himself — which is what is meant by the word "summoning." Then He shows that seizing honor from others and striving for preeminence is a matter of paganism. For pagan rulers forcibly subject others to their authority.

Commentary on Mark

Christ however cures them; first indeed by drawing them to Himself in order to comfort them; and this is meant, when it is said, But Jesus called them to him; then by showing them that to usurp honour, and to desire the chief place, belongs to Gentiles. Wherefore there follows: And saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship; and their great ones exercise authority over them. The great ones of the Gentiles thrust themselves into the chief place tyrannically and as lords. It goes on: But so shall it not be among you.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

43–44

(ubi sup.) In which He teaches, that he is the greater, who is the less, and that he becomes the lord, who is servant of all: vain, therefore, was it both for the one party to seek for immoderate things, aud the other to be annoyed at their desiring greater things, since we are to arrive at the height of virtue not by power but by humility.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

43–44

But My disciples, He says, are not so: rather, whoever among them wishes to be great, let him serve all, because this too is a mark of a great soul — to endure from all and to serve all.

Commentary on Mark

And in another passage He says: "And whosoever of you is the greater, shall be your servant"

He erased the curse, he triumphed over death, he opened paradise. He struck down sin, he opened wide the vaults of the sky, he lifted our first fruits to heaven, he filled the whole world with godliness. He drove out error, he led back the truth, he made our firstfruits mount to the royal throne. He accomplished so many good deeds that neither I nor all humanity together could set them before your minds in words. Before he humbled himself, only the angels knew him. After he humbled himself, all human nature knew him. You see how his humbling of himself did not make him have less but produced countless benefits, countless deeds of virtue, and made his glory shine forth with greater brightness. God wants for nothing and has need of nothing. Yet, when he humbled himself, he produced such great good, increased his household, and extended his kingdom. Why, then, are you afraid that you will become less if you humble yourself?

On the Incomprehensible Nature of God 8.46-47

Such is our Instructor, righteously good. "I came not," He says, "to be ministered unto, but to minister." Wherefore He is introduced in the Gospel "wearied," because toiling for us, and promising "to give His life a ransom for many." For him alone who does so He owns to be the good shepherd. Generous, therefore, is He who gives for us the greatest of all gifts, His own life; and beneficent exceedingly, and loving to men, in that, when He might have been Lord, He wished to be a brother man; and so good was He that He died for us.

The Instructor Book 1

He is our sanctification, as himself being purity, that the pure may be encompassed by his purity. He is our redemption, because he sets us free who were held captive under sin, giving himself as a ransom for us, the sacrifice to make expiation for the world. He is our resurrection, because he raises up, and brings to life again, those who were slain by sin.

Oration 30, on the Son 20

It is profitable to me to know that for my sake Christ bore my infirmities, submitted to the affections of my body, that for me and for all he was made sin and a curse, that for me and in me was he humbled and made subject, that for me he is the lamb, the vine, the rock, the servant, the Son of a handmaid, knowing not the day of judgment, for my sake ignorant of the day and the hour.

Exposition of the Christian Faith 2.92

He shared with us our punishment, but not our sin. Death is the punishment of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ came to die; he did not come to sin. By sharing with us the penalty without the sin, he canceled both the penalty and the sin.

Sermons on the Liturgical Seasons, for the Easter Season, Sermon 231.2

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Note what we have often said, that he who serves is called the Son of Man, and to give his life as a ransom for many; when he assumed the form of a servant, to shed his blood for the world. And he did not say, to give his life as a ransom for all, but for many, that is, for those who were willing to believe.

On the Gospel of Mark

Then He proposes an example, that if they lightly regarded His words, His deeds might make them ashamed, saying, For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

(ubi sup.) He did not say, however, that He gave His life a ransom for all, but for many, that is, for those who would believe on Him.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

And there is an example of this close at hand: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His soul as a ransom for many." And this is more than service. Indeed, not only to serve but also to die for the one whom you serve — what could be higher and more wondrous than this? But such service and humility of the Lord was exaltation and glory both for Himself and for all. For before the Incarnation He was known to Angels alone, but having become man and endured the Crucifixion, He not only has that glory (the heavenly one) but also received another, and reigns over the whole universe.

Commentary on Mark

Which is a greater thing than to minister. For what can be greater or more wonderful than that a man should die for him to whom he ministers? Nevertheless, this serving and condescension of humility was His glory, and that of all; for before He was made man, He was known only to the Angels; but now that He has become man and has been crucified, He not only has glory Himself, but also has taken up others to a participation in His glory, and ruled by faith over the whole world.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

And now, what was the purpose of it all? What did he come to do? Well, to teach, of course; but as soon as you look into the New Testament or any other Christian writing you will find they are constantly talking about something different—about His death and His coming to life again. It is obvious that Christians think the chief point of the story lies there. They think the main thing He came to earth to do was to suffer and be killed.

Mere Christianity, Book 2, Chapter 4: The Perfect Penitent

He will save assuredly; yet he will do so just in the way he has promised. But in what way has he promised? On our willing it, and on our hearing him. For he does not make a promise to blocks of wood.

Homily on 2 Thessalonians 3.4

And it should be noted what He says to the blind man as he approaches: "What do you want Me to do for you?" Did He who was able to restore light not know what the blind man wanted? But He wishes to be asked for that which He foreknows both that we will ask and that He will grant. For He urges us persistently to prayer, and yet says: "For your heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask Him." Therefore He requires to be asked for this reason: He requires it in order to arouse the heart to prayer. Behold, the blind man seeks from the Lord not gold, but light. He considers it worthless to seek anything apart from light, because even if a blind man can possess anything whatsoever, without light he cannot see what he has.

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 2

And Jesus, responding, said to him: What do you want me to do for you? The blind man said to him: Rabboni, that I may see. Did the one who could restore light not know what the blind man wanted? But he wants this to be requested, which he foresees that we should ask and that he should grant. For he persistently urges us to prayer and says: For your Father knows what you need before you ask him (Matthew 6:8). Therefore, for this reason, he requires that it be asked; for this, he requires that the heart be stirred to prayer. Hence also the blind man immediately adds: Rabboni, that I may see. Behold, the blind man asks light from the Lord, not gold. He considers it of little value to seek anything outside the light, for even if a blind man can possess anything, without light he cannot see what he has. Let us imitate him whom we have heard to be saved both in body and mind. Let us not seek false riches, not earthly gifts, not transient honors from the Lord, but light. Indeed, that light which we can see with the holy angels, which neither a beginning initiates nor an end confines. To that light indeed the way is faith. Hence rightly and by illuminating the blind man, the response is given at once.

On the Gospel of Mark

(ubi sup.) Could He who was able to restore sight be ignorant of what the blind man wanted? His reason then for asking is that prayer may be made to Him; He puts the question, to stir up the blind man's heart to pray.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

For the blind man looks down upon every gift except light, because, whatever a blind man may possess, without light he cannot see what he possesses.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

And Jesus asks the blind man so that they would not say that He gives something other than what the blind man wanted.

Commentary on Mark

The commandment of the Lord is far-shining, "enlightening the eyes." Receive Christ, receive sight, receive thy light, "In order that you may know well both God and man." Praise and declare to me Thy Father God; Thy utterances save; Thy hymn teaches that hitherto I have wandered in error. But since Thou leadest me to the light, O Lord, and I find God through Thee, and receive the Father from Thee, I become "Thy fellow-heir," since Thou "wert not ashamed of me as Thy brother." Let us put away, then, let us put away oblivion of the truth, viz., ignorance; and removing the darkness which obstructs, as dimness of sight, let us contemplate the only true God, first raising our voice in this hymn of praise: Hail, O light! For in us, buried in darkness, shut up in the shadow of death, light has shone forth from heaven, purer than the sun, sweeter than life here below.

Exhortation to the Heathen

Now, whether they were baptized in any manner whatever, or whether they continued unbathed to the end-so that even that saying of the Lord touching the "one bath" does, under the person of Peter, merely regard us-still, to determine concerning the salvation of the apostles is audacious enough, because on them the prerogative even of first choice, and thereafter of undivided intimacy, might be able to confer the compendious grace of baptism, seeing they (I think) followed Him who was wont to promise salvation to every believer. "Thy faith," He would say, "hath saved thee; " and, "Thy sins shall be remitted thee," on thy believing, of course, albeit thou be not yet baptized.

On Baptism

(ubi sup.) Again, it is more worthy to say Rabboni, or, as it is in other places, Master, than to say Son of David; wherefore He gives him health, not on his saying, Son of David, but when he said Rabboni. Wherefore there follows: And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed him in the way.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

To this light, indeed, faith is the way. Hence rightly it is immediately answered to the blind man as he is enlightened: "Receive your sight, your faith has saved you." He sees and follows who puts into practice the good that he understands. But he sees and does not follow who indeed understands the good, but disdains to do good works. If therefore, dearest brothers, we now recognize the blindness of our pilgrimage, if by believing in the mystery of our Redeemer we sit by the wayside, if by praying daily we seek light from our Creator, if having been illuminated after our blindness we now see that same light through understanding, let us follow in our works the Jesus whom we perceive in our mind.

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 2

Go, your faith has made you well. And immediately, he said, he saw, and followed him on the way. He sees and follows, who does what he understands to be good. He sees, however, but does not follow, who understands the good indeed, but disregards doing it well. For he follows Jesus the Lord, who imitates. Hence He says: If anyone serves me, let him follow me (John XII). Therefore, let us consider the path He walks, so that we may deserve to follow. Behold, although He is the Lord and creator of angels, about to assume our nature which He created, He came into the womb of a virgin. Nevertheless, He did not wish to be born in this world among the rich, He chose poor parents, and thus the lamb which was to be offered for Him was absent, the mother found young doves and a pair of turtledoves for the sacrifice. He wished to prosper in this world, endured reproaches and mockery, spits, lashes, slaps, a crown of thorns, and the cross. And because we fell from internal joy through the delight of corporeal things, He showed with what bitterness we may return there.

On the Gospel of Mark

(ubi sup.) Therefore let us also imitate him, let us not seek for riches, earthly goods, or honours from the Lord, but for that Light, which we alone with the Angels can see, the way to which is faith; wherefore also Christ answers to the blind man, Thy faith hath saved thee. But he sees and follows who works what his understanding tells him is good; for he follows Jesus, who understands and executes what is good, who imitates Him, who had no wish to prosper in this world, and bore reproach and derision. And because we have fallen from inward joy, by delight in the things of the body, He shows us what bitter feelings the return thither will cost us.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas

And the soul of the blind man was prudent, for after his healing he did not leave Jesus, but followed Him. And allegorically one may understand this as follows: Jericho signifies a low place, that is, the world; the blind man sitting here is an image of human nature, which was once adopted by God, above every earthly honor; and it cried out to Christ as He passed through Jericho, that is, this world. And Christ had mercy on it and saved it by its faith, when it cast off the old garment of sin. And upon receiving salvation, it followed Him, fulfilling the commandments on its path, that is, in this life. For only in this life is it possible to follow Christ, and after it the doors of salvation are shut, and there will no longer be time for the fulfillment of God's commandments.

Commentary on Mark

The mind of the blind man is grateful, for when he was made whole, he did not leave Jesus, but followed Him.

Further, it says that he followed the Lord in the way, that is, in this life, because after it all are excluded who follow Him not here, by working His commandments.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas