Fathers

Loading…

What the Fathers say

Matthew 22:13

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

Seest thou how, although the fact was so manifest, He doth not punish at once, until he himself, who has sinned, has passed the sentence? For by having nothing to reply he condemned himself, and so is taken away to the unutterable torments. For do not now, on hearing of darkness, suppose he is punished by this, by sending into a place where there is no light only, but where there is also weeping and gnashing of teeth. And this He saith, indicating the intolerable pains. …

Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 69 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

The Lord then says to His servants, the angels of punishment, "Bind his hands and feet," that is, the soul's powers of action. For in this present age is the time to act and to do, but in the age to come all of the soul's powers of action are bound, and a man cannot then do any good thing to outweigh his sins. Gnashing of teeth is the meaningless repentance that will then take place.

Commentary on Matthew ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

The garment that is required is in the heart, not on the body, for if it had been put on externally, it could not have been concealed even from the servants. But what is the wedding garment that must be put on? We learn it from these words, "May your priests be clothed with righteousness." It is of that garment of righteousness that the apostle speaks when he says, "Because when we are clothed, we are not found naked." In this way the unprepared man was discovered by the Lord of the feast, interrogated, bound and thrown out, one from …

Sermon 90.4 ↗

Jerome

Then the king said to the servants: Bind his hands and feet and send him into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The hands and feet being bound, the weeping of the eyes, and the gnashing of teeth, signify the truth of the resurrection being tested. Or certainly, the hands and feet are bound so that they may not do evil and run to shed blood. In the weeping of the eyes and the gnashing of teeth, the intensity of the torments is shown metaphorically through the limbs of the body.

Commentary on Matthew ↗

Gregory the Dialogist

The hands and feet are then bound by a severe sentence of judgment, which before refused to be bound from wicked actions by amendment of life. Or punishment binds them, whom sin had before bound from good works. (ubi sup.) By inward darkness we express blindness, of heart; outer darkness signifies the everlasting night of damnation. …

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗