ACC ~ Matthew 23 v28

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.