I think that one of Jesus’ disciples was conscious in himself of human weakness, which falls short of knowing how we ought to pray. . . . Are we then to conclude that a man who was brought up in the instruction of the law, who heard the words of the prophets and did not fail to attend the synagogue, did not know how to pray until he saw the Lord praying in a certain place? It would certainly be foolish to say this. The disciple prayed according to the customs of the Jews, but he saw that he needed better knowledge about the subject of prayer.

For the Savior said, When you pray, say, ‘Our Father.’ And another of the holy Evangelists adds, who art in heaven.^[1] . . .

He gives his own glory to us. He raises slaves to the dignity of freedom. He crowns the human condition with such honor as surpasses the power of nature. He brings to pass what was spoken of old by the voice of the psalmist: I said, you are gods, and all of you children of the Most High.^[2] He rescues us from the measure of slavery, giving us by his grace what we did not possess by nature, and permits us to call God Father, as being admitted to the rank of sons. We received this, together with all our other privileges, from him. One of these privileges is the dignity of freedom, a gift peculiarly befitting those who have been called to be sons.

He commands us, therefore, to take boldness and say in our prayers, Our Father. We, who are children of earth and slaves and subject by the law of nature to him who created us, call him who is in heaven Father. Most fittingly, he enables those who pray to understand this also. Since we call God Father and have been counted worthy of such a distinguished honor, we must lead holy and thoroughly blameless lives. We must behave as is pleasing to our Father and not think or say anything unworthy or unfit for the freedom that has been bestowed on us. . . .

The Savior of all very wisely grants us to call God Father, that we, knowing well that we are sons of God, may behave in a manner worthy of him who has honored us. He will then receive the supplications that we offer in Christ.

Perhaps we should . . . pray . . . only to the God and Father of all, to whom even our Savior himself prayed, as we have explained, and to whom he taught us to pray. When he heard teach us to pray, he did not teach us to pray to himself but to the Father by saying Our Father in heaven and so forth. . . .

When the saints give thanks to God in their prayers, they acknowledge through Christ Jesus the favors he has done. If it is true that one who is scrupulous about prayer should not pray to someone else who prays but rather to the Father whom our Lord Jesus taught us to address in prayers, it is especially true that no prayer should be addressed to the Father without him.

What, therefore, is the meaning of hallowed be your name? . . .

When it is our settled conviction and belief that he who by nature is God over all is Holy of the Holies, we confess his glory and supreme majesty. We then receive his fear into our mind and lead upright and blameless lives. By this we become holy ourselves, and we may be able to be near unto the holy God. . . . The prayer is, therefore, May your name be kept holy in us, in our minds and wills. This is the significance of the word hallowed. If a person says, Our Father, hallowed be your name, he is not requesting any addition to be made to God’s holiness. He rather asks that he may possess such a mind and faith to feel that his name is honorable and holy. The act is the source of life and the cause of every blessing. How must being this influenced by God be worthy of the highest estimation and useful for the salvation of the soul?

God is our King before the worlds.^[1] Since God always reigns and is omnipotent, with what view do those who call God Father offer up to him their requests and say, Your kingdom come?

They seem to desire to behold Christ the Savior of all rising again upon the world. He will come. He will come and descend as judge, no longer in a lowly condition like us or in the humility of human nature. He will come in glory such as becomes God, as he dwells in the unapproachable light,^[2] and with the angels as his guards. He somewhere said, The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his holy angels.^[3] . . .

That judgment seat is terrifying. The Judge is unbiased. It is a time of pleading, or rather of trial and of retribution. The fire, enduring punishment and eternal torments are prepared for the wicked. How can men pray to behold that time? . . . The wicked and impure lead low and lewd lives and are guilty of every vice. In no way is it fitting for them in their prayers to say, your kingdom come. . . .

The saints ask that the time of the Savior’s perfect reign may come, because they have labored dutifully, have a pure conscience and look for the reward of what they have already done. Just as those who, expecting a festival and merriment about ready to come and shortly to appear, thirst for its arrival, so also do they. They trust that they will stand glorious in the presence of the Judge and hear him say, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world.^[4] . . . They fully believed what he said about the consummation of the world.

When he will appear to them again from heaven, they will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.^[5] They correctly say in their prayers, your kingdom come. For they feel confident that they will receive a reward for their bravery and attain to the consummation of the hope set before them.

Why then did he command the saints to say to God the Father in heaven, Your will be done; as in heaven, so on earth? . . . This petition is worthy of the saints and full of all praise. . . .

We request that power may be given to those on earth to do the will of God and imitate the conduct practiced above in heaven by the holy angels. . . .

The saints request that both Israel as well as the Gentiles may be counted worthy of peace from on high and be comforted since they were in misery and caught in the net of sin without possibility of escape. Having received the righteousness that is in Christ by faith, they may become pure and skillful in every good work. They pray, Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth for this reason. As I said, the will of God over all is that those on earth should live in holiness, piously, without blame, being washed from all impurity, and diligent in imitating the spiritual beauty of the spirits above in heaven. The church on earth, since it was the visible likeness and image of the church of the firstborn^[1] that is above, may please Christ.

Your kingdom come. To whom do we address this petition? Will the kingdom of God not come unless we ask for it? That kingdom will exist after the end of the world. God has a kingdom forever. He is never without a kingdom, for all creation is subject to him. Then for what kingdom do we wish? It is written in the Gospel, Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. See, that is the kingdom of which we speak when we say, Thy kingdom come. May that kingdom come within us and may we be found within that kingdom. That is our petition. Of course it will come. How will that benefit you if it finds you at the left hand? In this petition, you also wish a blessing on yourself. It is on your own behalf that you pray. In this petition, this is what you desire and long for, namely, that you may so live as to have a share in the kingdom that will be given to all the saints. When you say, Thy kingdom come, you pray for yourself, because you pray that you may lead a good life. May we partake of your kingdom. May the kingdom that is to come to your saints and your righteous ones also come to us.

Give us our constant bread of the day. Look, he has said, Seek the kingdom of God, and these things over and above will be given to you as well.^[1] He said of the day to teach us poverty in relation to the things of the world. It is sufficient for only our need, or else when we are anxious for a time, we might withdraw from intimacy with God. This bread of the day indicates necessity. He does not just give us only bread but also clothing and other things, as he said, Your Father knows what your needs are before you ask him.^[2]

Give us this day our supersubstantial bread.^[1] Another Evangelist uses the term daily.

The first expression indicates that this bread has a noble and substantial character by which its exalted splendor and holiness surpass all substances and all creatures.

With daily the Evangelist shows that without this bread we cannot live a spiritual life for even a day. When he says this day, he shows that the bread must be eaten each day. It will not be enough to have eaten yesterday unless we eat similarly today. May our daily poverty encourage us to pour out this prayer at all times, for there is no day on which it is unnecessary for us to eat this bread to strengthen the heart of the person within us.

Daily can also be understood as referring to our present life. That is, give us this bread while we linger in this present world. We know that in the time to come you will give it to whoever deserves it, but we ask that you give it to us today. He who has not received it in this life will not be able to partake of it in that next life.

Divine Wisdom arranged the order of this prayer with exquisite choice. After the matters that pertain to heaven—that is, after the name of God, the will of God and the kingdom of God—it should make a place for a petition for our earthly needs too! Our Lord taught us, Seek first the kingdom, and then these things shall be given you besides.^[1] We should rather understand give us this day our daily bread in a spiritual sense. For Christ is our bread, because Christ is life, and the life is bread. I am, he said, the bread of life.^[2] Shortly before this he said, The bread is the word of the living God who has come down from heaven.^[3] Then, because his body is considered to be in the bread, he said, This is my body.^[4] When we ask for our daily bread, we are asking to live forever in Christ and to be inseparably united with his body.

He requires his disciples to be gentle and slow to anger, so that they may be able to say blamelessly in their prayers, Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted unto us. . . . He first commands them to ask forgiveness of the sins they commit and then to confess that they entirely forgive others. If I may say so, they ask God to imitate the patience that they practice. The same gentleness that they show to their fellow servants, they pray that they may receive in equal measure from God, who gives justly, and knows how to show mercy to everyone. . . .

The Savior of all and Lord with good reason did not conclude this clause of the prayer at this point but commanded us to add, For we also ourselves have forgiven every one who is indebted to us. This is fitting to say only for those who have chosen a virtuous life and are practicing without carelessness the will of God that, as Scripture says, is good and acceptable and perfect.^[1] . . .

We must ask God for the forgiveness of the sins that we have committed. First, we must have forgiven whoever has offended us in anything. This is if their sin is against us and not against the glory of the supreme God. We are not masters over such actions but only over those that have been committed against ourselves. By forgiving the brothers what they do to us, we will then certainly find Christ, the Savior of all, gentle and ready to show us mercy.

Luke says, Forgive us our sins, since sins are associated with our debts if we have not paid them. He says the same thing as Matthew but does not seem to leave room for the person who wishes to forgive debtors only if they repent. He says that our Savior has given the law that we should add to our prayer, For we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us. Surely we all have authority to forgive sins against ourselves. This is clear from as we forgive our debtors^[1] and from for we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us. The person inspired by Jesus and known by his fruits,^[2] as the apostles were, has received the Holy Spirit. He has become spiritual by being led by the Spirit to do everything by reason as a child of God.^[3] This person forgives whatever God forgives and retains sins that cannot be healed, serving God as the prophets by not speaking his own words but those of the divine will.^[4] He also serves God who alone has authority to forgive.

To complete the prayer which was so well arranged, Christ added that we should pray not only that our sins be forgiven but also that we should completely shun them. Lead us not into temptation, that is, do not allow us to be led by the tempter. God forbid that our Lord should seem to be the tempter, as if he were not aware of one’s faith or were eager to upset it! That weakness and spitefulness belongs to the devil. Even in the case of Abraham, God ordered the sacrifice of his son not to tempt his faith but to prove it. He did this to set an example for his commandment that he was later to teach that no one should hold his loved ones dearer than God.^[1] Christ himself was tempted by the devil and pointed out the subtle director of the temptation. He confirms this passage by his words to his apostles later when he says, Pray that you may not enter into temptation.^[2] They were tempted to desert their Lord because they had indulged in sleep instead of prayer. The phrase that balances and interprets lead us not into temptation is but deliver us from evil.

When we are intent in prayer, he commands us to say, Lead us not into temptation. Luke concludes the prayer with these words, but Matthew adds, but deliver us from the evil one.^[1] There is a certain close connection in the clauses, because when people are not being led into temptation, they are also delivered from the evil one. If anyone were perhaps to say that not being led into is the same as being delivered from it, he would not err from the truth.

A man whose friend came to him from a journey had nothing to set before him. He wished to borrow three loaves from a friend. Perhaps this number symbolizes the Trinity of one substance. The man woke him as he slept in the middle of his servants. He begged insistently and importunately, so that he gave him as many as he wished. If a man awakened from sleep is forced to give unwillingly in answer to a request, God, who does not know sleep and who wakens us from sleep that we may ask, gives much more graciously.

You see that he who woke his friend at midnight demanding three loaves of bread and, persisting in his intention to receive, finds that his requests are not denied. What are those three loaves if not the nourishment of the heavenly mystery? If you love the Lord your God, you will be able to deserve this not only for yourself but also for others. Then who is a greater friend to us than he who surrendered his own body for us?^[1]

Desiring that we arrive at the joys of the heavenly kingdom, our Lord and Savior taught us to ask these joys of him and promised that he would give them to us if we asked for them. Ask, he said, and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. Dearly beloved . . . , we earnestly and with our whole heart must ponder these words of our Lord. He bears witness that the kingdom of heaven is not given to, found by and opened to those who are idle and unoccupied but to those who ask for it, seek after it and knock at its gates. The gate of the kingdom must be asked for by praying. It must be sought after by living properly. It must be knocked at by persevering.

The Bestower of divine gifts enters himself and speaks: I also say to you, ‘Seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you; for every one that asks receives; and he who seeks finds: and whosoever knocks, it shall be opened to him.’ These words have the full force of an oath, not that God is false, although the promise is not accompanied with an oath. To show that the smallness of their faith was groundless, he sometimes confirms his hearers by an oath. The Savior is also found in many places prefacing his words by saying, Truly, truly, I say to you. He makes this very promise on oath. You will not be free from guilt if you disbelieve it.

If we look into the words of our Lord and Savior that he encourages us to ask God our Father after the example of an earthly parent, we quickly recognize what is the righteousness that can open for us the way to the heavenly kingdom. Which one of you, he says, if his son asks his father for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent in place of the fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will hand him a scorpion? This is truly a clear comparison, easy for all hearers to understand. Any human, mortal, weak and still burdened with sinful flesh, does not refuse to give the good things which he possesses, although they are earthly and weak, to the children whom he loves. Our heavenly Father, even more than this man, lavishes the good things of heaven, which do not perish, on those who ask of him and are endowed with fear and love of him.

Of those three things that the apostle commends, faith is either signified by the fish, because of the water of baptism, or because it remains unharmed by the waves of this world. The Serpent is opposed to it, because it craftily and deceitfully persuaded man not to believe in God. The egg symbolizes hope, because the chick is not yet alive but will be; it is not yet seen but is hoped. Hope that is seen is not hope.^[1] The scorpion is opposed to hope, because whoever hopes for eternal life forgets the things that are behind and reaches out to those that are before.^[2] It is dangerous for him to look backward, and he is on guard against the rear of the scorpion, which has a poisoned dart in its tail. Bread symbolizes love, because the greatest of these is love,^[3] and among foods, bread certainly surpasses all others in value. The stone is opposed to it because the stonehearted cast out love. It may be that these gifts signify something more appropriate, yet he who knows how to give good gifts to his children urges us to ask, seek and knock.

He who believes that the mouth of Jesus cannot lie would hesitate a moment to be persuaded to pray, when he says, Ask, and it will be given you . . . for everyone who asks, receives. When we ask for the living bread, the good Father certainly gives him (and not the stone that his adversary wishes to give to Jesus and his disciples for food) to those who have received the Spirit of sonship from the Father.^[1] The Father gives a good gift, raining it down from heaven for those who ask him.

We sometimes come near to our bounteous God offering him petitions for various objects according to each one’s pleasure. Sometimes we pray without discernment or any careful examination of what truly is to our advantage, and if granted by God would prove a blessing or would be to our injury if we received it. Rather, by the inconsiderate impulse of our fancy, we fall into desires full of ruin that thrust the souls of those that entertain them into the snare of death and the meshes of hell. When we ask of God anything of this kind, we will by no means receive it. On the contrary, we offer a petition suitable only for ridicule. Why will we not receive it? Is the God of all weary of bestowing gifts on us? By no means. Why then, someone may say, will he not give, since he is bounteous in giving? . . .

When he says, You who are evil, he means you whose mind is capable of being influenced by evil and not uniformly inclined to good like the God of all. You know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give a good spirit to them that ask him? By a good spirit he means spiritual grace. This is good in every way. If a person receives it, he will become most blessed and worthy of admiration.

They were even grinding their teeth at Christ, the Savior of all, because he made the multitudes wonder by his many divine and astonishing miracles. The very devils cried out at his overwhelming and godlike power and authority. . . .

There was brought to him one who was possessed with a mute devil. Now mute devils are difficult for any one of the saints to rebuke. They are more obstinate than any other kind and excessively bold. There was nothing difficult to the all-powerful will of Christ, the Savior of us all. . . . Upon the accomplishment of this wonderful act, the multitude extolled him with praises and hastened to crown the worker of the miracle with godlike honor.

But certain of them, it says, being scribes and Pharisees, with hearts intoxicated with pride and envy, found in the miracle fuel for their illness. They did not praise him but even went to the very opposite extreme. Having stripped him of the godlike deeds he did, they assigned to the devil almighty power and made Beelzebub the source of Christ’s strength. They said, He casts out devils by him. Others who were afflicted with a similar wickedness ran without discernment into a disgraceful forwardness of speech. Being stung by envy, they required seeing him work a sign from heaven. They called out, as it were, and said, Even if you have expelled from a man a bitter and malicious demon, that as yet is no such great matter, nor worthy of admiration. What is done up to now is no proof of divine ability. . . . Such were their forward fault findings. The fact of their wishing to ask a sign from heaven proves nothing else than that they entertained such thoughts as these concerning him.

He proceeds to arguments drawn from common things but which have the force of truth in them. . . .

Kingdoms are established by the fidelity of subjects and the obedience of those under the royal scepter. Houses are established when those who belong to them in no way whatsoever thwart one another but, on the contrary, agree in will and deed. I suppose it would establish the kingdom too of Beelzebub, had he determined to abstain from everything contrary to himself. How then does Satan cast out Satan? It follows then that devils do not depart from people on their own accord but retire unwillingly. Satan, he says, does not fight with himself. He does not rebuke his own servants. He does not permit himself to injure his own armorbearers. On the contrary, he helps his kingdom. It remains for you to understand that I crush Satan by divine power.

By the finger of God, he means the Holy Spirit. The Son is called the hand and arm of God the Father because he does all things by the Son, and the Son in a similar way works by the Spirit. Just as the finger is attached to the hand as something not foreign from it but belonging to it by nature, so also the Holy Spirit, by reason of his being equal in substance, is joined in oneness to the Son, although he proceeds from God the Father. The Son does every thing by the consubstantial Spirit. Here he purposely says that by the finger of God he casts out devils, speaking as a man. The Jews in the infirmity and folly of their mind would not have endured it if he said, by my own Spirit I cast out devils.

Although he is by nature God and the Giver of the Spirit from God the Father to those who are worthy and employs as his own that power which is from him, he spoke as a man. He is consubstantial with him, and whatever is said to be done by God the Father, this necessarily is by the Son in the Spirit. He says, If I, being a man, and having become like you, cast out devils in the Spirit of God, human nature has in me first attained to a godlike kingdom. For it has become glorious by breaking the power of Satan and rebuking the impure and abominable spirits. This is the meaning of the words the kingdom of God has come upon you.

He has conquered the ruler of this world. Having, so to speak, hamstrung him and stripped him of the power he possessed, he has given him over for a prey to his followers. He says, The strong man, being armed, guards his house; all his goods are in peace. But when one who is stronger than he shall come on him and overcome him, he takes away all his armor wherein he trusted and divides his spoil. This is a plain demonstration and type of the matter depicted after the manner of human affairs. . . . Before the coming of the Savior, he was in great power, driving and shutting up in his own stall flocks that were not his own but belonging to God over all. He was like some voracious and most insolent robber. Since the Word of God who is above all, the Giver of all might and Lord of powers attacked him, having become man, all his goods have been plundered and his spoil divided. Those of old who had been ensnared by him into ungodliness and error have been called by the holy apostles to the acknowledgment of the truth and been brought near to God the Father by faith in his Son.

He that is not with me, he says, is against me, and he that gathers not with me, scatters. For I, he says, have come to save every man from the hands of the devil and to deliver from his deceit those whom he had ensnared. I came to set the prisoners free, to give light to those in darkness, to raise up them that had fallen, to heal the broken-spirited, and to gather together the children of God who were scattered abroad. This was the object of my coming. Satan is not with me; on the contrary he is against me. He ventures to scatter those whom I have gathered and saved. How then can he, who wars against me and sets his wickedness in array against my purposes, give me power against himself? How is it not foolish even barely to imagine the possibility of such a thing as this?

That the Jewish crowds fall into such thoughts concerning Christ he makes plain by saying, When the wicked spirit has gone out from the man, it returns with seven other spirits more bitter than itself, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. As long as they were in bondage in Egypt and lived according to the customs and laws of the Egyptians that were full of all impurity, they led polluted lives. An evil spirit dwelled in them, because it dwells in the hearts of the wicked. When in the mercy of God they had been delivered by Moses and received the law as a schoolmaster calling them to the light of the true knowledge of God, the impure and polluted spirit was driven out. Since they did not believe in Christ but rejected the Savior, the impure spirit again attacked them. He found their heart empty and devoid of all fear of God, swept and took up his dwelling in them.

The unclean spirit dwelt in us before we believed, before we came to Christ when our soul was still committing fornication against God and was with its lovers, the demons. Afterward it said, I will return to my first husband, and came to Christ, who created it from the beginning in his image. Necessarily the adulterous spirit gave up his place when it saw the legitimate husband. Christ received us, and our house has been cleansed from its former sins. It has been furnished with the furnishing of the sacraments of the faithful that they who have been initiated know. This house does not deserve to have Christ as its resident immediately unless its life and conduct are so holy, pure and incapable of being defiled that it deserves to be the temple of God. It should not still be a house, but a temple in which God dwells. If it neglects the grace that was received and entangles itself in secular affairs, immediately that unclean spirit returns and claims the vacant house for itself. It brings with it seven other spirits more wicked, so that it may not be able again to be expelled, and the last state of that kind of person is worse than the first. It would be more tolerable that the soul would not have returned to its first husband once it became a prostitute than having gone back after confession to her husband, to have become an adulteress again. There is no fellowship, as the apostle says, between the temple of God and idols, no agreement between Christ and Belial.

Mary was more blessed in accepting the faith of Christ than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. To someone who said, Blessed is the womb that bore you, he replied, Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.

Finally, for his brothers, his relatives according to the flesh who did not believe in him, of what advantage was that relationship? Even her maternal relationship would have done Mary no good unless she had borne Christ more happily in her heart than in her flesh.

Blessed is the womb that bore you. He took blessedness from the one who bore him and gave it to those who were worshiping him. It was with Mary for a certain time, but it would be with those who worshiped him for eternity. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

He will not grant you another sign, so that he may give holy things to dogs or throw pearls before swine. . . .

He said only the sign of Jonah will be given to them. This means the passion on the cross and the resurrection from the dead.

The sign of Jonah served the Ninevites in two ways. If they would have rejected it, they would have gone down to Sheol alive like Jonah, but they were raised from the dead like him because they repented. Just as in the case of our Lord, who was set for the fall and the rising of many,^[1] people either lived through his being killed or died through his death. . . . They were asking him for a sign from heaven^[2] like thunder. . . . Jonah, after he went up from within the fish, was a negative sign to the Ninevites, because he proclaimed the destruction of their city. The disciples were also this way after the resurrection of our Lord.

The Queen of the South will condemn it^[1] because she is a type of the church. Just as she came to Solomon, so too the church came to our Lord, and just as she condemned this generation, so also will the church. If she, who wished to see wisdom that passes away and a king who was mortal, was judging the synagogue, how much more the church, which desires to see a king who does not pass away and wisdom which does not go astray, will judge? If we suffer with him, we will also be glorified with him.^[2]

The mystery of the church is clearly expressed. Her flocks stretch from the boundaries of the whole world. They stretch to Nineveh through penitence^[1] and to the Queen of the South through zeal to obtain wisdom. Thus it may know the words of the peaceable Solomon.^[2] The queen’s kingdom is undivided and rises from diverse and distant peoples to one body. That great sacrament is concerning Christ and the church,^[3] but this is nevertheless greater because of what prefigured it. The mystery is now fulfilled in truth. There was the image of Solomon, but here is Christ in his own body.

He says that a lamp is always elevated and put on a stand to be of use to those who see. Let us consider the inference that follows from this. Before the coming of our Savior, the father of darkness, Satan, made the world dark and blackened all things with an intellectual gloom. In this state of affairs, the Father gave us the Son to be a lamp to the world, to illumine us with divine light and to rescue us from satanic darkness. Since you blame the lamp because it is not hidden but on the contrary is being set high on a stand and gives its light to those who see, then blame Christ for not wishing to be concealed. On the contrary, he wishes to be seen by all, illuminating those in darkness and shedding on them the light of the true knowledge of God. He did not fulfill his miracles so much in order to be wondered at or to become famous. He did miracles so we might believe that although he is God by nature, yet he became man for our sakes, but without ceasing to be what he was. The holy church is like a lampstand, shining by the doctrine he proclaims. He gives light to the minds of all by filling them with divine knowledge.

The Word of God is our faith. The Word of God is the light, and faith is the lamp. That was the true Light, that enlightens everyone that comes into this world.^[1] The lamp cannot shine unless it has received light from elsewhere. The lamp that is lit is the virtue and perception of our mind, so that the woman can find the coin that she lost.^[2] No one finds faith beneath the law, for the law is within a bushel basket. Grace is outside. The law overshadows, but faith illumines. No one conceals his faith within the bushel basket of the law but brings it to the church in which shines the sevenfold grace of the Spirit.^[3] . . . The church standing on the highest mountain of all, that is, on Christ, cannot be hidden in the darkness and ruins of this world.^[4] Shining with the splendor of the eternal Sun, it enlightens us with the light of spiritual grace.

What else does he mean by the eye than simply the mind, which will never become simple unless it contemplates the simple light? The simple light is Christ. He who has his light shining in his mind is said to have the mind of Christ.^[1] When your light is this simple, then the whole immaterial body of your soul will be full of light. If the mind is evil, that is, darkened and extinguished, then this body of yours will be full of darkness. . . .

We say, See to it, brothers, that while we seem to be in God and think that we have communion with him^[2] we should not be found excluded and separated from him, since we do not now see his light. If that light had kindled our lamps, that is, our souls, it would shine brightly in us. Our God and Lord Jesus Christ said, If your whole body is full of life, having no dark part, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light. What other witness greater than this shall we adduce to make the matter clear to you? If you disbelieve the Master, how will you, tell me, believe your fellow servant?

The Pharisee invites him to an entertainment for his own purpose. The Savior of all submits to this for providence’s sake. He made the matter an opportunity of giving instruction, not consuming the time of their meeting in the enjoyment of food and delicacies but in the task of making those who were assembled there more virtuous. The dull Pharisee himself supplied an occasion for his speech, because he wondered, it says, that he did not wash before dinner. Did he wonder at him as having done something of which he approved, as being especially worthy of the saints? This was not his view. How could it be? On the contrary, he was offended because although he had the reputation of a righteous man and a prophet, he did not conform himself to their unreasonable customs. . . .

Our argument is this. O foolish Pharisee, you boast much of your knowledge of the sacred Scriptures. You are always quoting the law of Moses. Tell us where Moses gave you this commandment? What commandment ordained by God requires people to wash before eating? The waters of sprinkling were indeed given by the command of Moses for the cleansing of bodily uncleanness, as being a type of the baptism which really is holy and cleansing, even that in Christ. Those who were called to the priesthood were also bathed in water. The divine Moses bathed Aaron and the Levites. The law thereby declared by means of the baptism enacted in type and shadow that even its priesthood did not have what is sufficient for sanctification. On the contrary, it needs divine and holy baptism for the true cleansing.

What did the Savior say? He appropriately rebuked them, saying, Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but what is in you is full of looting and wickedness. It would have been easy for the Lord to use other words with the view of instructing the foolish Pharisee, but he has found an opportunity. He connects his teaching with what was before their eyes. Since it was the time for eating and sitting at the table, he takes as a plain comparison the cup and the dish. He shows that those who sincerely serve God must be pure and clean, not only from bodily impurity but from what is hidden within in the mind. Utensils that serve the table must be cleansed from those impurities that are on the outside as well from those that are within. He says that he who made that which is on the outside also made that which is on the inside. This means that he who created the body also made the soul. Since they are both the works of one virtue-loving God, their purification must be uniform.

In what follows there is no doubt that the suffering of the body is shown by the name of cup,^[1] when the Lord says, Should I not drink the cup that my Father has given me?^[2] Whoever swallows bodily frailty in spiritual love and pours it into the mind and spirit so that the interior drains the weakness of the exterior drinks his body. You perceive that the inside, not the outside, of this cup or platter defiles us. A good teacher taught us how we should cleanse the pollution of our body, saying, Give alms, and behold, all things are clean to you.^[3] Do you see how many remedies there are? Compassion cleanses us. The Word of God cleanses us, according to what it is written: Now you are clean by reason of the word that I have spoken to you.^[4] Not only in this passage but also in others you have revealed how great grace is. Alms delivers from death.^[5] Store up alms in the heart of the poor, and it shall obtain help for you on the evil day.^[6]

What our Lord says, Give alms, and behold, all things are clean to you, applies to all useful acts of mercy. It does not apply just to the one who gives food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, hospitality to the wayfarer or refuge to the fugitive. It also applies to one who visits the sick and the prisoner, redeems the captive, bears the burdens of the weak, leads the blind, comforts the sorrowful, heals the sick, shows the erring the right way, gives advice to the perplexed, and does whatever is needful for the needy. Not only does this person give alms, but the person who forgives the trespasser also gives alms as well. He is also a giver of alms who, by blows or other discipline, corrects and restrains those under his command. At the same time he forgives from the heart the sin by which he has been wronged or offended or prays that it be forgiven the offender. Such a person gives alms not only because he forgives and prays but also because he rebukes and administers corrective punishment, since in this he shows mercy. . . .

There are many kinds of alms. When we do them, we are helped in receiving forgiveness of our own sins.

The transgression of one commandment transgresses the law. It proves the man to be without the law. When anyone disregards those commandments, which especially are important above the rest, what words will he find able to save him from deserved punishment? The Lord proved that the Pharisees merited these severe censures, saying, Woe to you, Pharisees, who tithe mint, rue and all herbs and pass over judgment and the love of God! You should have done these things and not passed by the others, that is, to leave them undone. They omitted as of no importance those duties which they were especially bound to practice, like justice and the love of God. They carefully and scrupulously observed, or rather commanded the people subject to their authority to observe, only those commandments that were means of great revenues for themselves.

He also rebukes the arrogance and showy display of the Jews when they seek the first places at feasts.^[1] The sentence of condemnation is also pronounced on those who, skilled in law, are as sepulchers that are not seen. They cheat with their show and deceive with their practice, so that when they speak fair words outwardly, they are full of foulness within.^[2] Very many teachers do this when they demand from others what they themselves cannot imitate. They are tombs, as elsewhere it says, Their throat is an open sepulcher.^[3]

Those who desire to be greeted by everyone in the marketplace and anxiously consider it a great matter to have the foremost seats in the synagogue do not differ in any way from graves that do not appear as graves. On the outside, they are beautifully decorated but are full of all impurity. See here, I pray that hypocrisy is utterly blamed. It is a hateful malady toward God and humanity. The hypocrite is not whatever he seems to be and is thought to be. He borrows the reputation of goodness and conceals his real shame. He will not practice the very thing that he praises and admires. It is impossible for you to hide your hypocrisy for long. Just as the figures painted in pictures fall off as time dries up the colors, so also hypocrisies, after escaping observation for a very little time, are soon convicted of being really nothing.

The Savior of all was rebuking the Pharisees as men who were wandering far from the right way and fallen into unbecoming practices. . . . The band of wicked lawyers was indignant at these things, and one of them stood up to contradict the Savior’s declarations. He said, Teacher, in saying these things, you reproach us also. . . . These men subject themselves to blame. Rather, the force of truth showed that they were liable to the same accusations as the Pharisees and were of one mind with them. They are partners of their evil deeds if they consider that what Christ said to the others was spoken also against them.

It is also a good argument against the vainest superstition of the Jews, who by building the tombs of the prophets condemned the actions of their ancestors. Then, by imitating their ancestors’ actions, they turned the judgment back on themselves. By building the tombs of the prophets, they accused those who had killed them of their crime. By the imitation of similar acts, they declared themselves heirs of their ancestors’ iniquity. Not the building but the imitation is an offense. Those who by crucifying the Son of God added a crime worse than their ancestors’ wrongdoing cannot be absolved of their hereditary wickedness. He fittingly added elsewhere, Fill up then the measure of your fathers,^[1] because there is no worse sin that they can commit than the assault on God. Wisdom sends the apostles and the prophets to them. Who is Wisdom if not Christ?

What wicked act were they guilty of in building the tombs of the saints? Were they not rather doing them a distinguished honor? What doubt can there be of this? It is necessary to see what Christ teaches us. From time to time, the ancestors of the Jews put to death the holy prophets who were bringing them the word of God and leading them into the right way. Their descendants, acknowledging that the prophets were holy and venerable men, built tombs over them, as bestowing on them an honor suitable to the saints. Their ancestors murdered them, but they, believing that they were prophets and holy men, became the judges of those who murdered them. By determining to pay honor to those who were killed, they accused the others of doing wrong. They, who condemned their ancestors for such cruel murders, were about to become guilty of equal crimes and commit the same, or rather more abominable, offenses. They murdered the Prince of life, the Savior and Deliverer of all. They also added to their wickedness toward him other abominable murders. They put Stephen to death, not for being accused of anything shameful but rather for admonishing them and speaking to them what is contained in the inspired Scriptures. Besides this, they committed other crimes against every saint who preached the gospel message of salvation to them.

He said, That all the blood of the just may come on you,^[1] because they killed the Avenger of the righteous ones’ deaths. The vengeance for their deaths is sought from their hands. One who kills the judge is indeed a friend of murderers, because in killing the judge, he has suppressed vengeance and opened the way for murderers. The Lord also said, From the blood of Abel, the righteous one, to the blood of Zechariah,^[2] and not only until then but even until this day. Although still among them, he did not avenge his own blood until after they killed him, lest they say that it had been predetermined that he do this. He pronounced the sentence of judgment in relation to the righteous who had gone before, so that they might respect the righteous who were to follow. He gave them an opportunity to do penance for having put him to death, although according to the law, there could be no opportunity for repentance for one who murders the prophets. The law says, Let the one who kills die,^[3] and not, See if he does penance, and then pardon him. He gave them an opportunity to do penance, if they had wished, for having put him to death.

Woe to you, lawyers, because you have hidden the keys! That is, because they had hidden the knowledge of our Lord’s manifestation which was in the prophecies. If our Lord is the door, as he has said,^[1] it is clear that the keys of knowledge belong to him. The scribes and Pharisees did not want to enter through this door of life, in keeping with what he had said, See, the kingdom is among you.^[2] [He was referring to] himself, for he was standing in their midst.

John says in the book of Revelation, He who has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts, and who shuts and no one opens.^[1] The scribes and Pharisees held this key in the law. The Lord warns them in the Gospel, Woe to you lawyers, who hold the key of the kingdom of heaven. O you Pharisees, who hold the keys of the kingdom and do not believe in Christ who is the gate of the kingdom and the door. The promise is made to you, but it is granted to us. You have the flesh, but we have the spirit. Since you deny the spirit, you have lost the flesh with the spirit.

We consider that the key of knowledge means the law itself, and by faith in him, I mean justification in Christ. Although the law was in shadow and type, yet those types show to us the truth, and those shadows depict to us in many ways the mystery of Christ. A lamb was sacrificed according to the law of Moses. They ate its flesh. They anointed the lintels with its blood and overcame the destroyer. The blood of a mere sheep could not turn away death. Christ was typified under the form of a lamb. He endures to be the victim for the life of the world and saves by his blood those who are partakers of him. One might mention many other instances as well, by means of which we can discern the mystery of Christ sketched out in the shadows of the law. When speaking to the Jews, he once said, There is one that accuses you, even Moses, whom you trusted. For if you had believed Moses, you should have also believed me, because he wrote of me.^[1] You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me.^[2] Every word of divinely inspired Scripture looks to him and refers to him. As it has been shown, if Moses speaks, he typified Christ. If the holy prophets that you name speak, they also proclaimed to us in many ways the mystery of Christ, preaching beforehand the salvation that is by him.

This key is Christ the Lord, by whom the hidden places of our hearts are unlocked to believing faith. The Pharisees lost this key, and the apostles found it. The Lord says to Peter, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The hand of the synagogue, abandoning Christ, withered up among the leaders of the Jews. The hand of the synagogue grew unhealthy, for whoever deserts the source, which is Christ, immediately gets sick and is found sicker than all the other members.