The beginning of the twenty-third chapter of Matthew's Gospel is a very joyful text. There are at least two reasons for this. The first great joy is that the power of Truth is so great that our sinfulness, which is felt especially acutely and painfully when it concerns...
The beginning of the twenty-third chapter of Matthew's Gospel is a very joyful text. There are at least two reasons for this. The first great joy is that the power of Truth is so great that our sinfulness, which is felt especially acutely and painfully when it concerns ministers of the Church, is no obstacle to it. What news could be more joyful? For what is the source of all the sorrow and anguish of atheists and apostates of every age and nation? They cannot believe what comes from the mouths of unrighteous priests, and therefore transfer their rejection from the person to what he says. This is a very powerful psychological phenomenon, and it can be simply impossible to overcome; hence anguish, disappointment, absurdity, and the rest.
But in reality this is not so. We must destroy this terrible cliché in our consciousness, the idea that priests are a kind of chosen people of God who stand higher than the angels. On the one hand, for example, Symeon the New Theologian often writes that the priest approaches a Sacrament before which even angels tremble: “this will show me like the angels of God, and perhaps make me greater than they, O my Master.” And this is so. But on the other hand, the priest pronounces very important words in the prayer of absolution after confession: “And I, though but an unworthy priest, by His authority given to me, forgive and absolve...” And this too is a prayer sanctified by the Church. In other words, the miracle of which the Gospel tells us today is that Truth is not damaged by our sinfulness. Although we are all people, all human beings, Truth sails down the river of generations as though in an ark, suffering no harm. Truly, this is a miracle and a joy.
And there is a second joy. We very often desire a “spiritual guide,” and people pray endlessly for one. But is there not in this a desire for someone finally to take upon himself our own burden of responsibility? We think ourselves so humble, ready to be disciples: let someone come and teach us how to live, and we shall obey. But the Apostle speaks against this: “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature” (1 Cor. 14:20). Be mature in your thinking; take responsibility for your own actions. This is precisely what is expressed by the very important words, “call no man your father on earth,” which the Lord says to us today. In essence, we violate them; the entire structure of the Church violates them. Let us not break the structure of the Church, but let us at least understand this.
Then there will be such joy in communion with a spiritual father: he is not your teacher or father, but your brother, perhaps an elder brother, but a brother, while your Father is in Heaven. There is so much joy in this, in everyone being equal, so that no one suppresses another's person, no one punishes anyone, no one forbids anything to anyone, but only advises and helps. Yes, we all have different experience and different wisdom, but the Lord is so much more perfect than we are that before Him we are all equal. It is impossible to understand this while remaining only on earth, but as soon as you raise your mind to Heaven, both the little houses and the tall bell towers appear almost the same from there. In the same way we are all equal before the Lord, and this is wonderful.
22
22:42 Luk 20:41.
22:43 How doth David then by the Spirit - By inspiration, call him Lord? If he be merely the son (or descendant) of David? If he be, as you suppose, a mere man, the son of a man?
22:44 The Lord said to my Lord - This his dominion, to which David himself was subject, shows both the heavenly majesty of the king, and the nature of his kingdom. Sit thou on my right hand - That is, remain in the highest authority and power. Psa 110:1.
22:46 Neither durst any question him any more - Not by way of ensnaring or tempting him.
23
23:1 Then - Leaving all converse with his adversaries, whom he now left to the hardness of their hearts.
23:2 The scribes sit in the chair of Moses - That is, read and expound the law of Moses, and are their appointed teachers.
23:3 All things therefore - Which they read out of the law, and enforce therefrom.
23:4 Luk 11:46.
23:5 Their phylacteries - The Jews, understanding those words literally, It shall he as a token upon thy hand, and as frontlets between thine eyes, Exo 13:16.And thou shalt bind these words for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, Deu 6:8;used to wear little scrolls of paper or parchment, bound on their wrist and foreheads, on which several texts of Scripture were writ. These they supposed, as a kind of charm, would preserve them from danger. And hence they seem to have been called phylacteries, or preservatives. The fringes of their garments - Which God had enjoined them towear, to remind them of doing all the commandments, Num 15:38.These, as well as their phylacteries, the Pharisees affected to wear broader and larger than other men. Mar 12:38.
23:8 The Jewish rabbis were also called father and master, by their several disciples, whom they required,
- To believe implicitly what they affirmed, without asking any farther reason;
- To obey implicitly what they enjoined, without seeking farther authority.
Our Lord, therefore, by forbidding us either to give or receivethe title of rabbi, master, or father, forbids us either to receive any such reverence, or to pay any such to any but God.23:9 See note ... Mat 23:8.
23:10 See note ... Mat 23:8.
23:11 Mat 20:26.
23:12 Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and he that shall humble himself shall he exalted - It is observable that no one sentence of our Lord's is so often repeated as this: it occurs, with scarce any variation, at least ten times in the evangelists. Luk 14:11; Luk 18:14.