ACC ~ Matthew 13 v15

THEIR EARS REFUSE TO HEAR

HILARY: Faith perceives the mysteries of the kingdom. A person will make progress in those things he has been immersed in and will abound with an increase in that progress. But in those things he has not been immersed in, even that which he has shall be taken away from him. In other words, he suffers the loss of the law from the loss of his faith. Lacking faith, the people of the law lost even the efficacy of the law. Therefore, gospel faith receives a perfect gift, because it enriches with new fruit those things that have been undertaken. But once it is rejected, even the help of one’s former means of support is taken away. ON MATTHEW 13.2. [1]

[1] SC 254:296.

THOSE UNWILLING TO HEAR

JEROME: He gives reasons why seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear. He says, “The heart of this people has been hardened … and with their ears they have been hard of hearing.” And lest we think that their hardness of heart and hearing are natural and not voluntary, Jesus alludes to the fault of the will and says, “They have closed their eyes, lest at any time they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their mind, and be converted, and I heal them.” [1] Therefore with closed eyes they who are unwilling to perceive the truth hear in parables and in riddles. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 2.13-15. [2]

[1] Mt 13:15.

[2] CCL 77:103-4.

LEST THEY SHOULD TURN

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: To say “lest at any time they should turn and I should heal them” points to a hardened intractability. … For he speaks in this way in order to save them, since [otherwise] he ought rather to have said nothing but have been silent, except that it is not for his own glory’s sake but for their salvation that Jesus does everything. FRAGMENT 166. [1]

[1] MKGK 207.