ACC ~ Matthew 21 v14 - 17

EVEN INFANTS DELIGHTED IN CHRIST’S COMING

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: Columns of a temple that are installed in a perfectly upright manner actually grow more stable when more weight is placed on them, but columns which are at first slightly askew only move farther off center with greater weight. Likewise, if a man’s heart is upright, it will be strengthened in wisdom when he sees or hears about the good works of a just man. But the man who begins with a perverse heart will only be provoked to envy and greater perversity by the works of the righteous. In this way also, when the priests of the old covenant saw Christ healing the sick and heard children praising him, they did not thereby come to believe in Christ but were only hardened in their opposition to him, saying, “Do you hear what they are saying?” …

“But Jesus said to them, ‘Have you not read: out of the mouth of infants and sucklings you brought perfect praise?’” [1] It is as if he had asked rhetorically, “Am I to blame because the children cry out my praise, or is it my fault that the prophet foretold this event so many thousands of years ago?” If we bear in mind how the Gospel said above that “the crowds which preceded him and followed him were shouting,” [2] we can understand that they are called infants because of the simplicity of their hearts, not with respect to their age, for literal “infants and sucklings” can neither understand anything nor give praise. Similarly they were called sucklings because their cries of praise arose from the delight they took in Christ’s wondrous works, as though in the sweetest milk, for it is written, “I have lifted up my soul, like a child at its mother’s breast.” [3] Milk represents the working of miracles, but bread is the teaching of perfect justice, as the apostle says: “My preaching was not with persuasive words of wisdom but in the manifestation of the Spirit and power.” [4] And again: “I was not able to speak to you as spiritual persons but as people of the flesh; like the children in Christ you are, I gave you milk, not solid food.” [5] Every first introduction to the faith, consisting of simple doctrine, is called milk because it can be assimilated without a great deal of laborious chewing and because it tastes sweet, just like milk. Neither do miracles require much labor from those who witness them. Moreover they are sweet to behold and provide a winsome invitation to faith. Bread, on the other hand, signifies the teaching of that more perfect justice which no one can assimilate without exerting a great deal of mental effort on spiritual matters, for whoever hears it will need to meditate on it within himself and to analyze it, as though grinding it up with spiritual teeth. HOMILY 38. [6]

[1] Ps 8:2 (8:3 LXX).

[2] Mt 21:9.

[3] Ps 131:2 (130:2 LXX).

[4] 1 Cor 2:4.

[5] 1 Cor 3:1-2.

[6] PG 56:842-43.

OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES

CHRYSOSTOM: Hearing even the children proclaiming, the disciples were ready to stifle them. They remarked, “Do you hear what they are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes.” The children were singing to him as to God. Since the disciples were speaking against things being revealed, he applies his corrective more in the way of reproof: “Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and infants you have brought perfect praise’?” [1] For what the children were saying had not reached to their level of understanding. So of his power he gives articulation to their tongues, which are as yet immature.

Their voices were a prototype of the lisping of the Gentiles of the gospel. [2] They were sounding forth great things of faith. The apostles found consolation in this. For they had already been perplexed as to how even the unlearned should be able to publish the gospel. But now they were already finding that the children were anticipating them. The children removed all their anxiety, teaching them that God would grant them utterance, who made even these little ones to sing praises.

This showed that he is Creator of nature. The children, although of immature age, uttered things that had a clear meaning in accordance with testimony from above. But others thought them only to be teeming with frenzy and madness. For such is the nature of wickedness.

So his detractors found many things to provoke them: the multitude, the cleansing out of the buyers and sellers from the temple, the miracles, the children. He once again departs from them, giving room to their swelling frustration, not yet willing to begin seriously his own teaching, lest boiling with envy they should be all the more displeased at what he would say. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 67.1. [3]

[1] Cf. Ps 8:2 (8:3 LXX).

[2] This allegorical interpretation by Chrysostom is noteworthy, since he was of the Antiochene school and therefore preferred literal interpretation.

[3] PG 58:633; NPNF 1 10:409-10.