ACC ~ Matthew 18 v10 - 14

OVERVIEW:

Do not hate those who have been excommunicated, since it is possible for them to change (THEODORE OF HERACLEA). Not one of these little ones who believe in Christ should be despised. For their sake the Son of God came down from heaven and saved them by his Passion. It was for this that he took on the body of our human weakness (CHROMATIUS, CHRYSOSTOM). Though the height of the body depends on the seed, the largeness of our souls depends upon our own agency, actions and character (ORIGEN). The will in its weakness could not be safe amid so many forceful attacks of the enemy if it is not strengthened by the help of the angels (CHROMATIUS). The first man strayed from the company of the angels by sinning. Through him all people strayed from God. Our Lord seeks to recall the whole human race from death to life (EPIPHANIUS THE LATIN). The shepherd seeks the missing sheep to make the flock complete (APOLLONARIS).

18:10 | Do Not Despise These Little Ones

DO NOT HATE THOSE CUT OFF

THEODORE OF HERACLEA: But see, he says, that you do not at all despise those forced out of the church for wickedness. [1] He does not want them to be cast out with any hatred or curse. But he spares those who are guilty of some damage or disorder and often hardened in their own depravity. It is as if it were possible to see even these change again for the better. By “little ones” he means those imperfect in their knowledge or those recently baptized. He does not want these to be looked down upon as ignorant in his teaching. FRAGMENT 105. [2]

[1] Theodore here limits the meaning of little ones considerably to indicate the sinners who had been sent away from the communion of the church until repenting of their sin.

[2] MKGK 86.

LARGENESS OF SOUL

ORIGEN: The bodies of people differ from each other in size, so that some are short, some are tall, and some are in between. Again the short are different in their shortness since they are more short or less short, and the same likewise of the tall, and again of those in between. So it is also in human souls, it seems to me: There is something which distinguishes their shortness, and again, so to speak, their tallness, and, again analogous to the bodily differences, their moderateness. But the bodily difference does not depend on the individuals themselves but on the nature of the seed. So this person becomes tall, that one short and another in between. But with our souls, our own agency that is our actions and our character causes one to be large or small or belonging to those in the middle. And it is in our power whether we grow in stature and receive an increase in size or do not grow and remain small. For we must believe that to attain to manhood and mature manhood at that [1] depends on the person within: passing out of the times of childhood and advancing to manhood and putting aside the stuff of childhood and perfecting the stage of manhood. Just so we must suppose that there is still some measure of spiritual growth to which the most perfect soul can advance in glorifying the Lord and so become great. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.26. [2]

[1] Eph 4:13.

[2] GCS 40:250-51; ANF 9:490.

THE LITTLE ONES

CHROMATIUS: And rightly the Lord has said, “The Son of man has come to save what had perished,” [1] so that all the more he might show that not one of these little ones who believe in Christ should be despised. For their sake the Son of God came down from heaven and saved them by his Passion. It was for this that he took on the body of our human weakness, so that he might in every way save this one who had perished. For the elements of the world have kept the law given them by the Lord. Humanity alone has been found the transgressor. Alone we had fallen from immortality into death. And for this reason to save us the Son of God at a mature time descended from heaven according to the will of the Father. Hence, quite rightly Solomon speaks of a time of destroying and a time of saving. [2] There was a time when the devil destroyed humankind. But again there came a time when the Son of God, the only begotten Son of God, saved the human race for life. TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 57.4. [3]

[1] Cf. Lk 19:10.

[2] Eccles 3:3.

[3] CCL 9a:486.

WHO IS THE LITTLE ONE?

ORIGEN: Another may say that among these children “little” means perfect, recalling that the one who is less among you all is greater. [1] Some may argue that the child shown by Jesus is the person who humbles himself and becomes a child among the whole mass of the faithful. This is so even if he is an apostle or bishop. He may become like a nurse taking care of her children. [2] He is like an angel worthy of looking upon the face of God. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.29. [3]

[1] Lk 9:48.

[2] 1 Thess 2:7.

[3] GCS 40:259; ANF 9:492.

THEIR ANGELS BEHOLD THE FACE OF MY FATHER

CHROMATIUS: For just as the Lord commands that unbelieving and treacherous persons who are a stumbling block to the body of the church should be cut off or plucked out, so he also warns us not to despise any of the little children, that is, humble people in the laity who simply and faithfully believe in the Son of God. For it is not right to despise anyone who believes in Christ. A believer is called not only a servant of God but also a son though the grace of adoption, to whom the kingdom of heaven and the company of the angels is promised. And rightly the Lord adds, “For I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” How much grace the Lord has toward each one believing in him he himself declares when he shows their angels always beholding the face of the Father who is in heaven. Great is the grace of the angels toward all who believe in Christ. Finally, the angels carry their prayers to heaven. Hence the word of Raphael to Tobias: “When you prayed along with your daughter-in-law Sara, I offered the memory of your prayer in the sight of God.” [1] Around them there is also the strong guard of the angels; they help each of us to be free from the traps of the enemy. For a human in his weakness could not be safe amid so many forceful attacks of that enemy if he were not strengthened by the help of the angels. TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 57.1. [2]

[1] Tob 12:12.

[2] CCL 9a:483.

18:12 | Searching for One Stray Sheep

THE ONE LOST SHEEP

JEROME: When he said, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones,” he is calling us to be merciful. Then he adds the parable of the ninety-nine sheep left in the mountains and the one stray that because of its great weakness could not walk. The good shepherd carried it on his shoulders to the rest of the flock. This, some say, is the shepherd “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” [1] For that reason he descended to earth: to save the one sheep that had perished, that is, the human race. Others think that by the ninety-nine sheep should be understood the number of the righteous and by the one sheep the number of the sinners, according to what he said in another place: “I have come not to call the righteous but the sinners; for it is not the healthy who have need of the physician but those who are ill.” [2] COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 3.18.12. [3]

[1] Phil 2:6-8.

[2] Mt 9:13.

[3] CCL 77:160-61.

18:13 | Rejoicing About the One Sheep

HE REJOICES OVER THE ONE

CHRYSOSTOM: Do you see in how many ways he leads us to care for our worthless brothers? Don’t therefore say, “The fellow’s a smith, a cobbler, a farmer; he’s stupid,” so that you despise him. In case you suffer the same, see in how many ways the Lord urges you to be moderate and enjoins you to care for these little ones. He placed a little child in the midst and said, “Become like children,” and, “Whoever receives one such child, receives me.” But “whoever causes one of these to sin” will suffer the worst fate. And he was not even satisfied with the example of the millstone, but he also added his curse and told us to cut off such people, even though they are like a hand or eye to us. And again, through the angels to whom these small brothers are handed over, he urges that we value them, as he has valued them through his own will and passion. When Jesus says, “The Son of man came to save the lost,” [1] he points to the cross, just as Paul also says, writing about his brother for whom Christ died. [2] It does not please the Father that anyone is lost. The shepherd leaves the ones that have been saved and seeks the one lost. And when he finds the one that has gone astray, he rejoices greatly at its discovery and at its safety. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 59.4. [3]

[1] Lk 19:10.

[2] Rom 14:15.

[3] PG 58:579; NPNF 1 10:368.

ADAM’S STRAYING

EPIPHANIUS THE LATIN: For anyone who has sheep is a shepherd. No one is more truly a shepherd than Christ our God. One of his sheep has strayed. It is not the fault of the shepherd but of the sheep that had strayed from its flock. This one sheep is the man Adam, whom in the beginning the Lord had created in his image and likeness. This one strayed from the company of the angels by sinning, and through him the entire human race strayed from God. Our Lord seeks to recall all humanity from death to life. For it was for us that he went to death, so that he might make us alive, these who had died. For he rejoiced even more over the hundredth sheep that was lost than over the ninety and nine. The patriarch of a hundred years, Abraham, had faith in God, and from his faith was held righteous. He received back his one and only son Isaac. Thus Abraham was called, because of his faith, father of the nations. So he crossed from the left onto the right, the number one hundred being viewed as held on the right. [1]

Therefore, beloved, the hundredth sheep is the congregation of the nations—but only those who believed and served the Lord in the same way as Abraham did, so that they merit to be placed on the right side. This is just as the Lord himself says: “Then he will set up the sheep on the right but the goats on the left.” [2] The “goats” are in this case the unbelieving Jews or infidels and sinners. To those who will be on the left, the Lord will say, “Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels.” [3]

Thus God wills “that not one of these little ones perish.” But if your brother sins against you, rebuke him. The Lord commands us to rebuke the sinner until he is corrected. But if he cannot be corrected, he is to be considered as a heathen. For our Lord acted as he taught. In his own person he rebuked the people of the Jews straying in the desert. He rebuked them again and again through the law and the prophets. Finally, in his own person in the presence of all the congregation of the saints he chastised the Jewish people. INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPELS 27. [4]

[1] Epiphanius here alludes to the method of counting on the fingers, according to which one counted to one hundred with the fingers of the left hand and thereafter with the fingers of the right. His interpretation relies on the positive significance of the right.

[2] Mt 25:33.

[3] Mt 25:41.

[4] PL Supp 3:867-68.

18:14 | That They Not Perish

TO MAKE THE FLOCK COMPLETE

APOLLINARIS: The sheep that became lost is the sinner lost from the flock of a hundred. This could refer to the number of the heavenly powers. [1] These powers are capable of speech and reasoning. The one sheep is counted as being among the flock, a part of a great number, as if among “a hundred sheep.” His wandering is the consequence of Adam’s fall. He is searched for. He is of like nature to those who stay at God’s side. He is necessary for their full complement, so that the shepherd may not be deficient and wanting. The summing up of what Paul calls “the whole in Christ” [2] involves the regaining of the deficient part, since the composition of the whole in Christ is not complete because of the deficient and absent one. FRAGMENT 89. [3]

[1] In biblical typology, the number one hundred often symbolizes a completed cycle or a perfected number. Since the powers that comprise the heavenly hosts are such a completed cycle, they are symbolized by one hundred.

[2] Cf. 1 Cor 12:12-31.

[3] MKGK 28.