Homily by S. Jerome: Bk. 1. Comm. on Matt. Ch. 5

 

Homily by S. Jerome: Bk. 1. Comm. on Matt. Ch. 5

 

SALT is what the Apostles and Doctors are called; for with them is the whole human race seasoned. But if the salt has lost his savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? If a doctor shall err, by what other doctor shall he be corrected? He is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. The example is taken from farm work. For although salt is necessary for seasoning food and preserving meat, it yet is of no use for anything else.

 

WE read in Scripture that certain cities were sown with salt, by avenging conquerors, so that nothing would grow in them. Then let doctors and bishops beware, and let them see that the powerful are powerfully tormented; and that there is no remedy, but that the ruin of the great leads to hell. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid; neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

 

HE teaches boldness in preaching, lest the Apostles should shrink back through timidity, and be like candles under a bushel: but let them come forth freely, and let them proclaim upon the housetops what they have heard in closets. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. Either that he would fulfil what had been prophesied of him by others; or else that he would fulfil by his preaching those things that had been incomplete and imperfect on account of the weakness of the hearers, taking away wrath, forbidding the tooth for a tooth, and condemning the hidden lust of the heart.

 

TILL heaven and earth pass. A new heaven and a new earth are promised unto us, which the Lord God will make. Then if the new ones are to be created, then it follows that the old ones will pass away. But from what follows: One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled; it is shown from the example of a letter, that even that which seems least in the law is full of spiritual mysteries, and that all is gathered up in the Gospels.