Passage from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew 4:18–22
At that time, as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon—who is called Peter—and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishermen), and He said to them: ‘Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ And they immediately left their nets and followed him. And from there, going on a little further, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. And they, too, immediately left their nets and their father and followed Him.
1. Have you heard, beloved brothers, that Peter and Andrew, at the sound of a single command, leaving their nets behind, followed the Saviour 1, 2, 3 . Yet they had not yet seen Him perform any miracle, nor had they heard anything from Him concerning the blessings 4 of the eternal reward. And yet, at a single command from the Lord, they cast aside what they seemed to hold in their power. How many of His miracles do we see, by how many misfortunes are we afflicted, by how great a severity of perils are we terrified, and yet we neglect to follow the One who calls us! He who urges us to repentance now sits in heaven; He has now brought the nations under the yoke of faith; He has now laid low the glory of the world; He is now, by increasing its downfall, showing that the day of His severe judgement is drawing near; and yet, our proud minds refuse to willingly forsake what we lose against our will every day. So, my beloved, what shall we say at His judgement, we whom neither His commandments can turn away from the love of this age, nor His chastisements set us aright?
2. But perhaps someone says to themselves in their secret thoughts: ‘What, or how much, did these two fishermen—who had almost nothing—leave behind at the Lord’s call?’ But in this, my dearly beloved brothers, we ought to weigh the sentiment of the heart more heavily than the calculation of wealth. He has given much who has kept nothing for himself; he has given much who has forsaken everything, however little that may be. Without a doubt, we cherish with love what we have, yet we also long for what we do not have. Thus, Peter and Andrew gave up much when they both left behind even the very desire to possess. He who has left behind even his desires, along with the things he possessed, has left much behind. Therefore, those who followed Him have left behind as much as those who did not follow Him could ever have desired. So let no one say to themselves, even when they see that some have left much behind: ‘I want to follow those who disregard this world, but I have nothing to leave behind’. You leave much behind, brothers, if you renounce earthly desires. Indeed, our outward possessions, however small, are enough for the Lord. Indeed, He weighs the heart, not wealth; and He does not measure in detail how much is offered to Him as a sacrifice, but how much love is 5. For if we were to measure our external possessions 6 in minute detail, behold, our holy merchants purchased the eternal life of the angels in exchange for some fishing nets and a boat. Indeed, the Kingdom of God is priceless 7, yet it costs whatever you have. Of course, for Zacchaeus it cost half his wealth, because he kept the other half to repay fourfold what he had unjustly taken 8. For Peter and Andrew, it cost them leaving behind their nets and a boat 9; for the widow, it cost her two coins 10; for another, it cost a cup of cold water 11. Therefore, as I have said, the Kingdom of God costs as much as you have.
3. Think about it, brothers: what could be cheaper to buy, and what [could be] more precious to possess? But perhaps we do not have even a glass of cold water at hand to give to those in need: even then, the word of God assures us that we are safe from danger. Indeed, when the Saviour was born, the citizens of heaven appeared, crying out: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will’12’ (Luke 2:14). Truly, in the sight of God, a hand is never without a gift if the treasury of the heart is full of goodwill. Indeed, this is why the Psalmist says: ‘Your promises, O God, are within me; I will offer them to You as praise’ (Psalm 55:12). It is as if he were saying outright: ‘Though outwardly I have no gifts to place before You, yet I find within myself what to place in the treasury of Your praise, for You, Who do not feed on our offerings, are rather content with the offering of our hearts. Indeed, nothing more precious is given to God than a good will. But a good will means to fear another’s troubles as we fear our own, to rejoice in our neighbour’s well-being as in our own prosperity, to regard others’ losses as our own, to count others’ gains as our own, to love your friend not for the world’s sake, but for God’s sake, to bear with even your enemy whilst loving them, to do unto no one what you would not wish to suffer yourself, not to deny anyone what you yourself rightly desire to obtain, to rush to meet your neighbour’s need not only according to your abilities, but to wish to be of service even beyond your abilities. What, then, is more abundant than this all-consuming sacrifice, when the soul sacrifices itself through what it offers to God from the treasury of the heart?
4. But this sacrifice of goodwill is never fully accomplished unless the desire for this world is entirely renounced. For whatever we desire in this world, we undoubtedly envy in our neighbour. Indeed, it seems to us that we lack what another possesses. And because envy is always opposed to goodwill, as soon as it takes hold of the mind, the other departs. That is why the holy preachers strove to love their neighbours perfectly, to love nothing in this world, to covet nothing ever, to possess nothing, or to possess it without desire. Having observed them closely, Isaiah says: ‘Who are these that fly like clouds, and like doves to their windows?’ (Isaiah 60:8). Indeed, he saw that they looked down upon earthly things with contempt, that their minds were drawn to heavenly things, that words poured forth from them like rain, that they shone with miracles. And those whom holy preaching and their exalted life had raised above earthly defilements—these he calls both flying birds and clouds. As for the windows, they are our eyes, for through them the soul beholds what it desires from without. As for the dove, it is a simple creature, alien to the malice of venom. Thus, those who in this world desire nothing, who regard all things with simplicity and are not drawn by the fervour of greed towards what they see, are like doves at their windows. On the contrary, however, it is a hawk, and not a dove, at its windows, that yearns with a longing to snatch up the things it scans with its eyes.
Therefore, beloved brothers, since we are celebrating the birthday of the Blessed Apostle Andrew, we must follow what we honour. May the feast of the unchanging mind 13 demonstrate the obedience of our faith; let us regard earthly things with contempt, let us acquire the eternal, forsaking the transitory. But if we cannot yet forsake our own possessions, let us at least not covet those of others. If our minds are not yet set alight by the fire of Christian love, let them be held in check by the fear of God, so that, spurred on by the progress they make, whilst they refrain from coveting the possessions of others, they may, one day, to regard its own possessions with contempt, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, [to Whom be glory, honour and worship, for ever and ever. Amen.]
- 1
This homily has been translated from the edition in Patrologia Latina 76, 1092C–1095A; however, I have also consulted, in parallel, the more recent edition edited by Raymond Étaix, Charles Morel and Bruno Judic in the Sources Chrétiennes series, vol. 485 (Gregory the Great, Homilies on the Gospels, Book I, Paris, Les Éditions du Cerf, 2005, pp. 166–174). [The notes are by Isabela Stoian, except where the name of the reviser is expressly stated.]
- 2
In the original, dies natalis (below, towards the end, natalitia) refers to a saint’s ‘birthday’, in the sense of his ‘birth’ beyond death. Passing through death is therefore regarded as a birth in ecclesiastical Latin, naturally drawing on the meaning of γενέθλια in Greek (O. Gordon).
- 3
Strictly speaking, the more accurate equivalent of the Latin term Redemptor is ‘the Redeemer’, but, for the sake of the flow of the sentence, in the context of the verb ‘to follow’, I have rendered the term as ‘the Saviour’ (O. Gordon).
- 4
Lit., ‘on the prize’, ‘on the reward’, from praemio.
- 5
We have chosen to translate the textual variant containing the complete expression ex quanto affectu, as opposed to the reading ex quanto (‘as much as’), given in the text established by Migne (PL 76, 1093C, n. d.).
- 6
A typographical error in PL 76,1093C, which reads ‘substantia’ instead of ‘substantiam’.
- 7
Lit., ‘calculation of the price’, aestimationem... pretii.
- 8
Luke 19:8.
- 9
Matthew 4:20.
- 10
Luke 21:2.
- 11
Matthew 10:42.
- 12
It is not clear whether this reading is the one found in the manuscripts of St Gregory’s Homilies, or whether it is the editor’s choice (R. Étaix) to ‘import’ into St Gregory’s text the biblical quotations established in a particular form in the Western tradition. Be that as it may, it is worth pointing out to the reader that, at this point, the Byzantine text offers a variant—one that is, in fact, well known in the Romanian context—traditionally rendered as follows: ‘goodwill amongst men’ (ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκία). Without going into detail, we advocate this formulation, as it is supported theologically, and not merely by a significant part of the Byzantine manuscript tradition. Moreover, the following quotation from the Psalms serves to reinforce the fact that εὐδοκία is the work of God, as our colleague, Sabin Preda, demonstrates: ‘Towards a theological translation of eudokein en’, in Studii Teologice 3 (2006), pp. 7–23. It is true that Saint Gregory the Great’s commentary revolves around bona voluntas as a typically Latin expression; however, it lacks the semantic weight carried by the Greek εὐδοκία (O. Gordon).
- 13
In the sense of ‘steadfast’.