ACC ~ Matthew 9 v25 - 26

THE UNRULY CROWD PUT OUTSIDE

CHROMATIUS: In the flute players and bustling onlookers who laughed to scorn the Lord who said, “The girl is asleep, not dead,” we see an example of the synagogue rulers and the onlookers of Jewish people who, when they heard that the hope of eternal life had been promised by the Son of God to the Gentiles, held up to ridicule and contempt this great grace of the Lord. Not unjustly did the Lord order them to be sent outside. He showed that incredulous and unbelieving people of this kind are to be excluded from the promise of eternal life or from God’s kingdom by him who is the Author of life and the Lord of the heavenly kingdom. TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 47.7. [1]

[1] CCL 9a:434.

THE GIRL AROSE

CHROMATIUS: In the synagogue ruler we perceive a figure of the prophets or apostles, especially Peter, by whom the calling of the Gentiles was first heard; that is, the girl represented all those holy people who pleased God, not through the works of the law but through the righteousness of faith… .

Moreover, for us to understand that the entire mystery of our salvation is prefigured in this girl; after she was raised from the dead, as Luke reports, the Lord directs her to eat something. Evidently the order of our faith and salvation is here shown. For when each believer among us is freed in baptism from perpetual death and comes back to life upon acceptance of the gift of the Holy Spirit, it is necessary that the person also be directed to eat that heavenly bread about which the Lord says, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” [1] TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 47.6-7. [2]

[1] Jn 6:53.

[2] CCL 9a:433-34.