Jerome: And how can the body be cast into prison if it agree not with the spirit, seeing soul and body must go together, and that the flesh can do nothing but what the soul shall command?
Augustine: Perhaps then it is God with whom we are here enjoined to agree. He may be said to be our adversary, because we have departed from Him by sin, and "He resisteth the proud." Whosoever then shall not have been reconciled in this life with God through the death of His Son, shall be by Him delivered to the Judge, that is, the Son, to whom He has committed all judgment. And man may be said to be "in the way with God," because He is every where.
But if we like not to say that the wicked are with God, who is every where present, as we do not say that the blind are with that light which is every where around them, there only remains the law of God which we can understand by our adversary. For this law is an adversary to such as love to sin, and is given us for this life that it may be with us in the way. To this we ought to agree quickly, by reading, hearing, and bestowing on it the summit of authority, and that when we understand it, we hate it not because it opposes our sins, but rather love it because it corrects them; and when it is obscure, pray that we may understand it.
Jerome: But from the context the sense is manifest; the Lord is exhorting us to peace and concord with our neighbour; as it was said above, Go, be reconciled to thy brother.
Pseudo-Chrysostom: The Lord is urgent with us to hasten to make friends with our enemies while we are yet in this life, knowing how dangerous for us that one of our enemies should die before peace is made with us. For if death bring us while yet at enmity to the Judge, he will deliver us to Christ, proving us guilty by his judgment. Our adversary also delivers us to the Judge, when he is the first to seek reconciliation; for he who first submits to his enemy, brings him in guilty before God.
Hilary: Or, the adversary delivers you to the Judge, when the abiding of your wrath towards him convicts you.
Augustine: by the Judge I understand Christ, for, "the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son;" [[Joh 5:22]] and by the officer, or minister, an Angel, for "Angels came and ministered unto Him;" and we believe that He will come with his Angels to judge.
Pseudo-Chrysostom: "The officer," that is, the ministering Angel of punishment, and he shall cast you into the prison of hell.
Augustine: By the prison I understand the punishment of the darkness. And that none should despise that punishment, He adds, "Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt not come out thence till thou hast paid the very last farthing."
Jerome: A farthing is a coin containing two mites. What He says then is, ’Thou shalt not go forth thence till thou hast paid for the smallest sin.’
Augustine: Or it is an expression to denote that there is nothing that shall go unpunished; as we say ’To the dregs,’ when we are speaking of any thing so emptied that nothing is left in it.Or by "the last farthing" [Source note: margin note: quadrans] may be denoted earthly sins. For the fourth and last element of this world is earth.
"Paid," that is in eternal punishment; and "until" used in the same sense as in that, "Sit thou on my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool;" [[Psa 110:1]] for He does not cease to reign when His enemies are put under His feet. So here, "until thou hast paid," is as much as to say, thou shalt never come out thence, for that he is always paying the very last farthing while he is enduring the everlasting punishment of earthly sins.
Pseudo-Chrysostom: Or, If you will make your peace yet in this world, you may receive pardon of even the heaviest offences; but if once damned and cast into the prison of hell, punishment will be exacted of you not for grievous sins only, but for each idle word, which may be denoted by "the very last farthing."
Hilary: For because "charity covereth a multitude of sins," we shall therefore pay the last farthing of punishment, unless by the expense of charity we redeem the fault of our sin.
Pseudo-Chrysostom: Or, the prison is worldly misfortune which God often sends upon sinners.
Chrysostom: Or, He here speaks of the judges of this world, of the way which leads to this judgment, and of human prisons; thus not only employing future but present inducements, as those things which are before the eyes affect us most, as St. Paul also declares, "If thou doest evil fear the power, for he beareth not the sword in vain." [[Rom 13:4]]
Ver. 27. "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, ’Thou shalt not commit adultery:’28. But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."
Chrys., Hom. xvii: The Lord having explained how much is contained in the first commandment, namely, "Thou shalt not kill," proceeds in regular order to the second.
Aug., Serm. ix, 3 and 10: "Thou shalt not commit adultery," that is, Thou shalt go no where but to thy lawful wife. For if you exact this of your wife, you ought to do the same, for the husband ought to go before the wife in virtue. It is a shame for the husband to say that this is impossible. Why not the husband as well as the wife? And let not him that is unmarried suppose that he does not break this commandment by fornication; you know the price wherewith you have been bought, you know what you eat and what your drink [Source note: ed. note, g: Nic. inserts here, from the original, ’immo quem manduces, quem bibas.’] therefore keep yourself from fornications. Forasmuch as all such acts of lust pollute and destroy God’s image, (which you are,) the Lord who knows what is good for you, gives you this precept that you may not pull down His temple which you have begun to be.
Aug., cont. Faust. 19, 23: He then goes on to correct the error of the Pharisees, declaring, "Whoso looketh upon a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery already with her in his heart." For the commandment of the Law, "Thou shalt not lust after thy neighbour’s wife," [[Exo 20:17]] the Jews understood of taking her away, not of committing adultery with her.
Jerome: Between and that is between actual passion and the first spontaneous movement of the mind, there is this difference: passion is at once a sin; the spontaneous movement of the mind, though it partakes of the evil of sin, is yet not held for an offence committed. [Source note: ed. note, h: In this passage S. Jerome, who seems to have introduced the word propassio, into theology, uses it somewhat in a sense of his own; viz. as involving something of the nature of sin; vid. also Comm. in Ezek. xviii, 1, 2. The word is more commonly applied to our Lord, as denoting the mode and extent in which His soul was affected by what in others became . In us passion precedes reason, in Him it followed, or was a . vid. S. Jerome in Matt. xxvi. 37. Leon. Ep. 35. Damasc. F. O. iii. 20 etc. etc.]
When then one looks upon a woman, and his mind is therewith smitten, there is propassion; if he yields to this he passes from propassion to passion, and then it is no longer the will but the opportunity to sin that is wanting. "Whosoever," then, "looketh on a woman to lust after her," that is, so looks on her as to lust, and cast about to obtain, he is rightly said to commit adultery with her in his heart.
Aug., Serm. in Mont., i, 12: For there are three things which make up a sin; suggestion either through the memory, or the present sense; if the thought of the pleasure of indulgence follows, that is an unlawful thought, and to be restrained; if you consent then, the sin is complete. For prior to the first consent, the pleasure is either none or very slight, the consenting to which makes the sin. But if consent proceeds on into overt act, then desire seems to be satiated and quenched. And when suggestion is again repeated, the contemplated pleasure is greater, which previous to habit formed was but small, but now more difficult to overcome.
Greg., Mor., xxi, 2: But whoso casts his eyes about without caution will often be taken with the pleasure of sin, and ensnared by desires begins to wish for what he would not. Great is the strength of the flesh to draw us downwards, and the charm of beauty once admitted to the heart through the eye, is hardly banished by endeavour. We must therefore take heed at the first, we ought not to look upon what it is unlawful to desire. For that the heart may be kept pure in thought, the eyes, as being on the watch to hurry us to sin, should be averted from wanton looks.
Chrysostom: If you permit yourself to gaze often on fair countenances you will assuredly be taken, even though you may be able to command your mind twice or thrice. For you are not exalted above nature and the strength of humanity. She too who dresses and adorns herself for the purpose of attracting men’s eyes to her, though her endeavor should fail, yet shall she be punished hereafter; seeing she mixed the poison and offered the cup, though none was found who would drink thereof. For what the Lord seems to speak only to the man, is of equal application to the woman; inasmuch as when He speaks to the head, the warning is meant for the whole body.
Ver. 29. "And if they right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.30. And if they right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."
Gloss., non occ.: Because we ought not only to avoid actual sin, but even put away every occasion of sin, therefore having taught that adultery is to be avoided not in deed only, but in heart, He next teaches us to cut off the occasions of sin.
Pseudo-Chrysostom: But if according to that of the Prophet, "there is no whole part in our body," [[Psa 38:3]] it is needful that we cut off every limb that we have that the punishment may be equal to the depravity of the flesh.
Is it then possible to understand this of the bodily eye or hand? As the whole man when he is turned to God is dead to sin, so likewise the eye when it has ceased to look evil is cut off from sin. But this explanation will not suit the whole; for when He says, "thy right eye offends thee," what does the left eye? Does it contradict the right eye, and it is preserved innocent?
Jerome: Therefore by the right eye and the right hand we must understand the love of brethren, husbands and wives, parents and kinsfolk; which if we find to hinder our view of the true light, we ought to sever from us.
Aug., Serm. in Mont., i, 13: As the eye denotes contemplation, so the hand aptly denotes action. By the eye we must understand our most cherished friend, as they are wont to say who would express ardent affection, ’I love him as my own eye.’ And a friend too who gives counsel, as the eye shews us our way. The "right eye," perhaps, only means to express a higher degree of affection, for it is the one which men most fear to lose.
Or, by the right eye may be understood one who counsels us in heavenly matters, and by the left one who counsels in earthly matters. And this will be the sense; Whatever that is which you love as you would your own right eye, if it "offend you," that is, if it be an hindrance to your true happiness, "cut it off and cast it from you." For if the right eye was not to be spared, it was superfluous to speak of the left. The right hand also is to be taken of a beloved assistant in divine actions, the left hand in earthly actions.
Pseudo-Chrysostom: Otherwise; Christ would have us careful not only of our own sin, but likewise that even they who pertain to us should keep themselves from evil. Have you any friend who looks to your matters as your own eye, or manages them as your own hand, if you know of any scandalous or base action that he has done, cast him from you, he is an offence; for we shall give account not only of our own sins, but also of such of those of our neighbours as it is in our power to hinder.
Hilary: Thus a more lofty step of innocence is appointed us, in that we are admonished to keep free, not only from sin ourselves, but from such as might touch us from without.
Jerome: Otherwise; As above He had placed lust in the looking on a woman, so now the thought and sense straying hither and thither He calls ’the eye.’ By the right hand and the other parts of the body, He means the initial movements of desire and affection.
Pseudo-Chrysostom: The eye of flesh is the mirror of the inward eye. The body also has its own sense, that is, the left eye, and its own appetite, that is, the left hand. But the parts of the soul are called right, for the soul was created both with free-will and under the law of righteousness, that it might both see and do rightly.
But the members of the body being not with free-will, but under the law of sin, are called the left. Yet He does not bid us cut off the sense or appetite of the flesh; we may retain the desires of the flesh, and yet not do thereafter, but we cannot cut off the having the desires. But when we wilfully purpose and think of evil, then our right desires and right will offend us, and therefore He bids us cut them off. And these we can cut off, because our will is free.
Or otherwise; Every thing, however good in itself that offends ourselves or others, we ought to cut off from us. For example, to visit a woman with religious purposes, this good intent towards her may be called a right eye, but if often visiting her I have fallen into the net of desire, or if any looking on are offended, then the right eye, that is, something in itself good, offends me. For the "right eye" is good intention, the "right hand" is good desire.
Gloss. ord.: Or, the "right eye" is the contemplative life which offends by being the cause of indolence or self-conceit, or in our weakness that we are not able to support it unmixed. The "right hand" is good works, or the active life, which offends us when we are ensnared by society and the business of life.
If then any one is unable to sustain the contemplative life, let him not slothfully rest from all action; or on the other hand while he is taken up with action, dry up the fountain of sweet contemplation.
Remigius: The reason why the right eye and the right hand are to be cast away is subjoined in that, "For it is better, etc."
Pseudo-Chrysostom: For as we are every one members one of another, it is better that we should be saved without some one of these members, than that we perish together with them. Or, it is better that we should be saved without one good purpose, or one good work, than that while we seek to perform all good works we perish together with all.
Ver. 31. "It hath been said, ’Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:’32. But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery."
Gloss., non occ.: The Lord had taught us above that our neighbour’s wife was not to be coveted, He now proceeds to teach that our own wife is not to be put away.
Jerome: For touching Moses’ allowance of divorce, the Lord and Saviour more fully explains in conclusion, that it was because of the hardness of the hearts of the husbands, not so much sanctioning discord, as checking bloodshed.