ACC ~ Matthew 23 v13 - 28

OVERVIEW:

The priests and legalists have laid endless toil upon those for whom they should have been responsible (ORIGEN, JEROME). This should have drawn them toward being more empathic with others’ burdens. But the things that we acquire easily we care less about. So even their unfair advantages did not render them gentle. They indulged their own bellies not from the houses of the rich but from the poor. Thereby they aggravated the poverty they should have been relieving. They did not merely eat. They “devoured.” All this is for the pretense of making long prayers (CHRYSOSTOM). These imposters of holiness more easily entangled themselves with women, especially widows (INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW). They lost sight of the advent expected by the prophets. They closed the kingdom of heaven not only for themselves but also for others by hiding the truth in their interpretations of the law (HILARY OF POITIERS).

Jesus showed them that it was equally as absurd to swear by heaven as to swear by the temple or by the altar. In this way he admonished the Pharisees for adding further legalistic complications to these traditions. Spiritually understood, the temple is the Scriptures; the altar is the whole heart. One who rightly swears upon the temple swears upon all the Scriptures and upon the altar—that is, upon the whole heart, which is to say upon an understanding of the sense of the whole of the Scriptures and upon the whole heart. It is not possible for the offering of a person to be more honorable than the heart from which the offering is sent up (ORIGEN). What is lost in their legalism is the hidden dimension of the evil will. The hidden things of the mind bring about these distortions of the law (HILARY OF POITIERS). One is hardly ready to appear in the city above if one remains a sepulcher below (CHRYSOSTOM).

Beyond the plain sense of Jesus’ words, their spiritual meaning must be sought (ORIGEN, THEODORE OF HERACLEA). The cup of the soul must be cleansed from the inside to the outside (ORIGEN, APOLLINARIS). Righteousness cannot be feigned (ORIGEN). The Lord requires justice (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA), not external pretenses (INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW).

23:13 | Shutting the Kingdom of Heaven Against Humanity

CURSES AND BLESSINGS

ORIGEN: There are those who dare to say that God is not good because of the curses in his law that he places against their sin. And yet the one who is truly the Son of God who gave that same law is also the same one who put blessings into the law. The same God who provides blessings for those who are saved in a similar way applies curses which he placed in the law against sinners. “Woe,” he says. Woe to you and to those hearing these things who plead the God of the law and yet do not understand that these words were spoken by God in a kindly way. So we understand why Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees.” They believe that it is in fact a good thing to pronounce these curses against sinners. They consider the arrangement of the law’s curses to be a part of God’s design. The chiding father frequently urges his advice on his son for his improvement—advice that may seem to be a curse. He does not wish the curses to be actualized, however, but rather he desires to avert him from even more such curses. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13. [1]

[1] GCS 38.2:24-25.

WOE TO YOU SCRIBES

HILARY OF POITIERS: “Woe” is a voice of sorrowing. For this reason he says that they close the kingdom of heaven, because they hide in the law the consolation of his truth. They lost sight of the advent expected by the prophets. Through deceptive teachings, they do not allow others to go to heaven either. They do not adorn the way of eternity. ON MATTHEW 24.3. [1]

[1] SC 258:166-68.

YOU NEITHER ENTER NOR ALLOW OTHERS

JEROME: The scribes and Pharisees have the knowledge of the prophets and of the law. They know that Christ is the Son of God. They are not ignorant that he was born of the Virgin. Yet they did not seek to serve the people to whom they were accountable. They themselves were not entering the kingdom of heaven, nor did they permit others who were able to do so. Hosea the prophet declares of them, “The priests have stolen the way, they have killed the [people of] Shechem,” [1] and again, “The priests did not ask where the Lord is.” [2] Surely every teacher who misleads his students shuts the gate of the kingdom of heaven before them. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 4.23.13. [3]

[1] Hos 6:9.

[2] Jer 2:8.

[3] CCL 77:213.

23:14 | Receiving Greater Condemnation

CALLED TO ACCOUNT

HILARY OF POITIERS: These are the poisoners of truth. They are reluctant to undertake the salvation of others. They bolt shut the kingdom of heaven. In their ambition they “devour widows’ houses and for pretense make long prayers.” By this acquaintance with heaven (achieved with those long prayers), they expect they will persevere in the merits of grace quietly, just as a rich person expects to receive the treasure stored up for him. However, they will receive ample judgment and punishment for their particular sins. They will be called to account for their strange and ignorant practices. [1] ON MATTHEW 24.4. [2]

[1] Verse 14 is included only in a marginal note of the RSV, but is included here due to the Fathers’ comments on it.

[2] SC 258:168.

FOR A PRETENSE YOU MAKE LONG PRAYERS

CHRYSOSTOM: After this, he admonishes them for their gluttony. And it is most grievous that they indulged their own bellies not from rich men’s houses but from the poor. Thereby they aggravated the poverty of the poor, which they should have relieved. They did not merely eat. They “devoured.”

The manner of their false piety in overreaching was even yet more grievous: “for a pretense you make long prayers.”

It is just for anyone who does evil to receive just retribution. But in this case we have one who is using prayers as a cloak for his own wickedness. And he is deriving even the reason for his avarice as godliness. Sure he is justly liable to a far more grievous punishment. So why did God not stop this and depose them? Because the time had not yet come. He leaves them time for repentance for a while. But by his sayings he tries to avert his own disciples being similarly deceived or to be drawn to emulate these men because of the dignity of their positions. Earlier he said, “Observe whatever they tell you but not what they do.” [1] For they do many things amiss. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 73.1. [2]

[1] Mt 23:3.

[2] PG 58:673; NPNF 1 10:440.

YOU DEVOUR WIDOWS’ HOUSES

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: Imposters of holiness more easily entangle themselves around women. Women are less ready to stand up to such imposters in front of them. These manipulators know that they are softer and more guileless. [1] … They loiter especially with widowed ladies for two reasons. First, because women with men are less easily deceived, having the mettle of men and being less ready to give anything from her purse. Widows are in a position in which they are more easily deceived. Second, they more easily involve themselves in things not subject to anyone else’s authority. So they are taken advantage of. Jesus here confronts the priests and warns Christian leaders against these temptations. They had best not remain with widowed women any more than with others. For even if the desire to remain with widows is not ill motivated, it still may carry the suspicion of being so. HOMILY 44. [2]

[1] The author, in line with a trend then much in vogue among pagans and Christians (e.g., Augustine), contends the weakness of the female sex.

[2] PG 56:880.

23:15 | Making Proselytes

THE CORRUPTION OF THE LAITY

CHRYSOSTOM: The scribes and Pharisees have laid endless toil upon others. This should draw them toward being more empathic with others’ burdens. But the things that we acquire easily we care less about. So even their unfair advantages do not render them more gentle. Here he lays to the charge of the priests two things. First, that they have been unprofitable for the salvation of many. They have forgotten that they need much toil in order to win over even one. And second, that they were remiss in the preservation of those whom they had won. Not only were they careless but traitors. We see this from the wickedness of their lives, corruption and making others worse. When a disciple sees his teacher to be corrupt, he becomes even more so. He does not stop at his teacher’s corruption. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 73.1. [1]

[1] PG 58:673; NPNF 1 10:440.

YOU TRAVERSE SEA AND LAND

JEROME: The scribes and the Pharisees were reviewing the whole world on account of the business and diverse profits taken by their disciples. These profits were taken under the pretense of sanctity. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 4.23.15. [1]

[1] CCL 77:214.

23:16-17 | You Blind Fools!

WHICH IS GREATER?

HILARY OF POITIERS: Jesus reproached those who by their inane observances detracted from the one who rightly should be honored in worship. He himself was the ground and source of the law. The law did not of itself suffice. The ornaments of the altar and temple were not the primary object of worship but were merely pointing the way for the future of true worship. Gold, silver, bronze, brass, pearl and crystal each embrace a particular meaning from their unique natures as metals. Jesus refuted the premise that the gold of the temple or the gifts of the altar could be venerated as if something in themselves rather than the greater one whom they honor. With the coming of Christ the massive structure of legal obligations became futile. Christ was not in the law, but the law was made holy in Christ. He had placed his seat and throne on the law. One who seeks to be religious should anchor himself rightly in the truth. They were stupid and blind who venerated gifts that were sanctified while they allowed sanctity itself to pass by. ON MATTHEW 24.6. [1]

[1] SC 258:170.

THE GOLD OR THE TEMPLE

THEODORE OF HERACLEA: Jesus is saying that the gold in the temple, the gold objects dedicated in the temple to the glory of God, whether these be the gold cherubim or the gold jar containing the manna, were considered by the Jews to be worthy of much more honor than the temple. [1] Therefore they were condemned by the Lord. … But the saying possesses a figurative meaning directed against them because they are not receiving the truth regarding Christ. Instead, they were judging Moses and the types given through him as more valuable than Christ. … They were rejecting the Christ who sanctifies Moses while simultaneously praising the law. Just as the law was praiseworthy, not because it possesses the types and the symbols but because it prefigures the true mystery of worship in Christ, in the same way the gold is precious because of the one who sanctifies the temple, and heaven is beautiful because of the God who sanctifies it and dwells within it. FRAGMENT 115. [2]

[1] Jesus’ words against swearing by the gold in the temple are also considered by Apollinaris as indicative of the end of temple worship (p. 64 n. 2), since with the coming of Christ it had exhausted its function as his symbolic preannouncement.

[2] MKGK 89.

23:18 | Bound by an Oath

THE TEMPLE OF SCRIPTURES AND THE ALTAR OF THE HEART

ORIGEN: Those who work in the fields of the gospel seek the hidden meaning of these passages of Scripture. We are not simply confiscating the higher parts of Scripture but rather looking toward its whole sense. As regards swearing, it is intended as a binding action, seeking to confirm the word concerning which something is sworn.

Consider this analogy. Think of the altar as the heart and the temple as the whole of Scripture. The temple of God’s glory, spiritually understood, is the divinely inspired Scripture. The gold refers to the meanings it conveys. To swear is to witness to the Scriptures, as a validation and confirmation of the word we speak. Therefore we ought to profess the whole sense of Scripture as a confirmation of the sense which we invoke in all of our words.

Gold found outside the temple is not sanctified. Rather, that gold which is found in the temple is the measure of that which is outside it. Similarly the meaning which is found outside of the Scriptures is not holy, but it is contained in the meaning of the Scriptures. Only that sense of Scripture is sanctified which can be seen from within the temple itself, that is, within the whole of Scripture. The temple, that is, the reading of the Scriptures, makes a great and venerable sense, just as consecrated gold is valuable. So we ought not to swear by our own intellects to confirm our beliefs, as if we were creating witnesses that could judge according to the truth. But let us explore further the analogy of the temple, the gold and the altar. The altar is the place where a vow is sanctified. The altar in this passage is the heart of a man. What happens in the heart happens deeply within a person. Vows and gifts placed on the altar are clearly those placed upon the human heart. When you begin to pray, you place the vow of your prayer upon your heart, as if you had placed something upon the altar, so that you might offer your prayer to God.

Suppose you are ready to place an offering of psalms upon your heart, so as to offer to God an offering of psalms, accompanying yourself with a harp. Or suppose you are ready to give alms. You make an offering of alms upon your heart, just as if you had placed something on the altar, as you would offer your alms to God. Suppose you have proposed to fast in order to make an offering of your fasting upon your heart, as if you had placed something upon the altar.

In this way the heart of a man makes vows in a holy and venerable way. It is from the heart, that is, the altar, that the vow is offered to God. Therefore it is not possible for the offering of a man to be more honorable than his heart from which the offering is sent up. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 18. [1]

[1] GCS 38.2:33.

23:19 | Which Is Greater?

SWEARING BY THE WHOLE SENSE OF SCRIPTURE

ORIGEN: Anyone who thinks that his own almsgiving, his own fasting, his own psalms and prayers are in themselves great and who, without good judgment, blesses them and does not reflect that it is just from such a heart that his almsgiving or psalms or prayers or fasting are offered—such a man is blind. For indeed his heart is the altar that sanctifies his offering which is the heart of the world. The heart and the conscience of such a man “do not feel remorse but have trust in God,” [1] because his own heart has been rightly formed. He does not rely on his gifts as such or the words of his prayers or of his psalms—although they may seem well composed and chosen from the Scriptures—but on the heart rightly formed. Whoever places his own witness on the altar, that is, his own conscience and the center of his heart, such a man swears by the altar, embracing everything which is contained in it. One who swears according to what we attest to by the temple, that is, “through the whole sense of Scriptures,” such a man seems to swear according to the word and the will of God which is contained in it. Such a man in this sense swears upon the temple (upon all the Scriptures) and upon the altar (upon the whole heart), that is, an understanding of the sense of the whole of the Scriptures and upon the whole heart. The temple is the glory of God, which “we see as in a mirror darkly.” [2] The heavens, however, are above the temple of God, in which sits the throne of God, on which we may look “with our face uncovered” [3] when he comes. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 18. [4]

[1] 1 Jn 3:21.

[2] 1 Cor 13:12.

[3] 2 Cor 3:16.

[4] GCS 38.2:33-34.

23:20 | Swearing by the Altar

THE TRADITION OF OATH TAKING

ORIGEN: One of the Pharisaical traditions regarded oath taking. Some were swearing by the temple, others by the gold of the temple; some by the altar, others by the gifts of the altar. The Pharisees were teaching that one who swore by the gold of the altar or by the gift of the altar was obligated, whereas one who swore by the temple or by the altar was not under obligation. Our Savior spoke against these traditions. He wished to call them back from human traditions to divine revelation. Those who hand on such traditions are blind and foolish. They do not see that what is placed in the temple is not sanctified through itself but through the Lord of the temple. That which is placed on the altar is judged already as a gift of God, which is why it is placed on the altar. It seems foolish to argue that one who swears in one way is bound and one who swears in another way is not bound. This assumes that what is sanctified is above the one who sanctifies. It seems foolish to argue that one who swears by heaven is less vulnerable than one who swears by God himself. Jesus showed them that it was equally as absurd to swear by heaven as to swear by the temple or by the altar. It is irrational to assume that one avoids punishment because he is not swearing by God but by the throne of God. Thus he spoke to the Jews prohibiting them to follow the Pharisaic tradition. Moreover, he clearly rejected the whole business of swearing at all, as if it were a superior way. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 17. [1]

[1] GCS 38.2:31-32.

23:21-24 | Neglecting Weighty Matters

YOU TITHE MINT, DILL AND CUMMIN

ORIGEN: Not only among the Jews but among ourselves as well, we find people sinning in these ways. They are swallowing camels. People of this type frequently show off their religion even in the smallest of things. They are rightly called hypocrites for wanting to exploit their religiosity before men but being unwilling to undertake that very faith which God himself has justified. Therefore the imitators of the scribes and Pharisees must be dislodged and sent away from us, lest a woe touches us in the same way it touches them. The scribes could be described as those who valued nothing found in the Scriptures except its plain sense interpreted legalistically. Meanwhile they condemn those who look into the very depths of God himself. Mint and dill and cummin are only spices for food but are not themselves substantial food. What substantive food would mean in conversion would be that which is necessary for the justification of our souls—faith and love—unlike these legalisms, which are more like condiments and flavorings. It is as if a meal might be thought to consist more of condiments and flavorings than the food itself. The seriousness of judgment is neglected while great attention is given to minor matters. Spiritual exercises which in and of themselves are hardly justice are spoken of as justice and compassion and faith. It is lacking in justice to treat these small parts as the whole. When we do not offer to God the observance of all that is necessary for worship, we fail altogether. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 19-20. [1]

[1] GCS 38.2:35-36.

WHAT THE LORD REQUIRES

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: “O Pharisees, you demand,” Jesus says, “perhaps the tithes of herbs and the smallest coins while you neglect the commandments, concerning which the violation is greater.” And what kind of commandments are these? Justice, that is, to judge uprightly and blamelessly; mercy, that is, genuineness toward God. For justice and mercy and faith toward God are better than the tithe and firstfruits. Therefore the God of all things says through the prophet, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord require from you but to do justice and to love and seek mercy and to be prepared to follow the Lord your God.” [1] For the genuine faith of those being saved is seen in their exceeding readiness to follow. FRAGMENT 258. [2]

[1] Mic 6:8.

[2] MKGK 240.

YOU NEGLECT WEIGHTIER MATTERS OF THE LAW

HILARY OF POITIERS: What is lost is the hidden dimension of the evil will. These hidden things of the mind bring about these distortions of the law. The law prescribes that a tenth be given, so they measure out a tenth of a measure of mint and dill but only in order that they might be thought by other men to fulfill the law. They abandon mercy and justice, faith and every form of benevolence. Yet these are the true duties of man. … God laughs at the superficial diligence of those who measure cucumbers. God laughs at our attempts to swallow camels, as if the sins of avoidance were less serious than the sins of consumption. ON MATTHEW 24.7. [1]

[1] SC 258:170-72.

23:25-26 | Inner and Outer Cleansing

CONGRUENCE OF INNER AND OUTER LIFE

ORIGEN: This passage teaches us that we should hasten to be righteous, not merely to appear so. Whoever strives only to appear righteous will cleanse his exterior and will take great care of what can be seen by others but will neglect his heart and his conscience. He fails to realize that the one who is eager to purify his interior life and his thoughts will also naturally want to give a healthy outward appearance as well. Whoever works hard on the externals but neglects his interior life, however, will inevitably be filled with avarice, lust, malice, and many other kinds of evil. For the one who is solicitous of his own interior salvation also takes care of his external, public reputation. But not everyone who cares first about his public reputation is also solicitous of his interior salvation. In this connection, it is written that “whoever sees a woman and lusts after her has committed adultery with her in his heart.” [1] He who refrains from acts of fornication, therefore, but commits fornication by lusting in his heart is like the one who cleanses the outside of the cup and plate while the inside is left full of intemperance. Whoever performs acts of mercy for the purpose of earning human respect, doing his good deeds “to be seen by men,” also seems to cleanse only the exterior of the cup and plate but is full of intemperance and lust for vainglory within. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 21. [2]

[1] Mt 5:28.

[2] GCS 38.2:37.

CLEAN INSIDE THE CUP

APOLLINARIS: The law of Moses taught through the use of symbols how to maintain purity throughout life’s activities. It was the custom of the Jews, passed on to them from their ancient traditions, to wash carefully their cups and the dish that contained their food. They observed these practices to maintain their purity and to avoid contact with “sinful people.” Their aim was that they might flee from fellowship with sinners. … How much more through such practices were they preparing themselves to flee from sin itself. And yet those who were carefully observing these practices were themselves acting like robbers and violently making a profit, becoming loathsome by doing so. Therefore Jesus says this: “Flee unrighteousness, O blind Pharisee. For you fail to perceive how you are acting. For what is in the cup and dish are clean if they are not gained in an unrighteous manner. Righteousness cleanses the vessel much better than water.” FRAGMENT 117. [1]

[1] MKGK 40.

THE INWARD AND OUTWARD CUP

ORIGEN: If it is proper to regard everything in the gospel according to the moral sense … we can say that it is a sort of spiritual food and spiritual drink that we receive when we read the law and the prophets in Scripture. Indeed, the language through which we take our spiritual drink and the biblical narratives on which we are nourished are the plates and cups for our food and drink. This is why we are warned not to take as much care for their outside as we do for their inside, so that our hearts might be filled with pure understanding, not merely adorned with fine rhetoric and grammar. For “the Kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.” [1] Whoever strives harder to dress his speech in elegant composition than to fill it with saving doctrine has cleaned only the outside, but the inside remains stained with vanity… .

We can also say that the very words of the law and the prophets are the cups of spiritual drink for souls and that the plates or bowls of nourishing food for the faithful are their wise authors. The scribes and Pharisees work diligently at discerning only the external, literal meaning of these prophetic cups and plates and bowls, eager to demonstrate that the vessels themselves are pure and holy. The disciples of Christ … hasten to purify and sanctify the interior, spiritual meaning by means of knowledge and credible explanations, so that they might eat and drink the law and the prophets whose inside has been purified, desiring as they do to hear and understand the interior, mystical meaning and to go beyond the literal sense of the words. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 22-23. [2]

[1] 1 Cor 4:20.

[2] GCS 38.2:38-39.

23:27 | Whitewashed Tombs

FULL OF DEAD PEOPLE’S BONES

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: The bodies of the just are rightly called temples because their souls reign supreme within them, like God in his temple, or at least because God himself dwells in the bodies of the just. The bodies of sinners, however, are called sepulchers of the dead because their souls are dead within them. For whatever does nothing of a living or spiritual nature with the body is not to be considered truly alive. At the very least, sinners are dead because death itself dwells in their bodies. As long as a sepulcher is closed, it can have a beautiful outward appearance, but if it is opened, it looks horrifying. The case of hypocrites is similar; as long as they are not recognized for who they really are, they can be praiseworthy, but when they are found out, they appear disgusting. Tell me, hypocrite, if it is so good to be good, why do you not strive to be truly what you only appear to be? And if it is so bad to be evil, then why do you allow yourself to be in truth what you would never want to appear to be? What appears to be ugly is even uglier in truth, but what is beautiful in appearance is much more beautiful in reality. Therefore either be what you appear to be or appear to be what you are. HOMILY 45. [1]

[1] PG 56:885.

23:28 | Full of Hypocrisy and Iniquity

WASH THE CONSCIENCE

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: How men can be compared with a cup and a plate is made clear when Christ adds, “for you are full of robbery and iniquity within.” The Jews washed themselves, their clothing and their utensils as often as they entered the temple or offered sacrifices on solemnities, but they never washed themselves from sin. God neither praised cleanliness of the body nor condemned bodily filth. Nevertheless imagine for the moment that God hates filth of the body, of vessels and other such things. If he were to hate the defilement of things like this, which necessarily get soiled during their ordinary use, how much more would he abhor the defilement of the human conscience, which it is possible for us to keep clean continually? It is not the vessels that need washing with water but the conscience that needs washing with prayer.

“O blind Pharisees, first wash the inside of the cup and plate, that the outside might be made clean also.” No one notices if the bowl has been cleaned on the inside, but only if it is dirty on the outside does it get washed. A man … can never touch a drop of water and yet be perfectly clean before God if he has not been defiled by interior sin. If he were to commit a sin, however, he would be black with filth before God, even though he washes himself in the open sea and in every river of the world. HOMILY 44. [1]

[1] PG 56:885.

FEIGNING RIGHTEOUSNESS

ORIGEN: As the scribes and Pharisees were previously called “full of robbery and intemperance,” [1] likewise here they are said to be “full of hypocrisy and iniquity” and are compared with “the bones of the dead and all uncleanness.” Hypocrisy, because it is a counterfeit of the good, possesses nothing vital of the good it simulates, but is only its dead bones, so to speak. … If we listen with wisdom to what the present passage wants to tell us, we will understand that every simulated righteousness is a dead righteousness, hence no righteousness at all. Just as a dead man can still have the appearance of a man, even though he is in fact no longer a man, so also a dead chastity is no chastity. For any virtue is dead when it is not practiced for God but feigned on account of men. He who feigns righteousness can give the appearance of being righteous even though what he has is not righteousness at all but only a figment of righteousness, much like impersonators who can take on the appearance of another individual without thereby actually becoming the other person. The same is true concerning chastity. Because of this, men who do such things are appropriately compared with “whitewashed tombs which look beautiful from the outside,” for they give every external appearance of righteousness, even though they are full of “the bones of the dead” within. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 24. [2]

[1] Mt 23:25.

[2] GCS 38.2:39-40.

LIKE WHITEWASHED TOMBS

CHRYSOSTOM: You have been counted worthy to become temples of God. But you have instead suddenly become more like sepulchers, having the same sort of smell. This is dreadful. It is extreme wretchedness that one in whom Christ dwells and in whom the Holy Spirit has worked such great works should turn out to be a sepulcher, a place for death. What wretchedness is this? What mourning and lamentation does this call for! The members of the body of Christ have become a tomb of uncleanness? Remember your sonship and how you were born. Consider of what things you have been counted worthy. Recall what sort of garment you received in baptism. You were intended to be a temple without fault, beautiful, not adorned with gold or pearls but with the spirit that is more precious than these. You are hardly ready to appear in the city above if you remain a sepulcher below. For if here this is forbidden, much more there. Even here you are an object of scorn. You carry around a dead soul. You are shunned. Be honest. If anyone were to go around carrying about a dead body, wouldn’t everyone else rush for cover! Wouldn’t they all flee? But this is what you are like. You go about carrying a corpse far more grievous than this. It is a soul deadened by sins, a soul paralyzed. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 73.3. [1]

[1] PG 58:676; NPNF 1 10:442.