A.D. 367 – 1871 10 witnesses 12 excerpts
“He bids us when peace with our fellow-men is restored, then to return to peace with God, passing from the love of men to the love of God; then go and offer thy gift.”
“If love alone is not enough to induce us to be reconciled to our neighbour, the desire that our work should not remain imperfect, and especially in the holy place, should induce us.”
“It is not, If thou hast ought against thy brother; but, If thy brother has ought against thee, that the necessity of reconciliation may be more imperative.”
“(Serm. in Mont. i. 10.) If it be not lawful to be angry with a brother, or to say to him Racha, or Thou fool, much less is it lawful to keep in the memory any thing which might convert anger into hate.”
“(ubi sup.) And he has somewhat against us when we have wronged him; and we have somewhat against him when he has wronged us, in which case there were no need to go to be reconciled to him, seeing we had only to forgive him, as we desire the Lord to forgive us.”
“(Hom. 1. in Ezech. viii. 9.) Lo He is not willing to accept sacrifice at the hands of those who are at variance. Hence then consider how great an evil is strife, which throws away what should be the means of remission of sin.”
“"If therefore you offer." Here he forbids inveterate anger, from which hatred is born, and he argues from the greater, according to Rabanus, thus: if it is not lawful for you to be angry with your brother, much more is it not lawful to retain anger, whence hatred is born. Therefore "if you offer," that is, if you propose to offer, "at the altar." This is explained in many ways, according as "altar" is sometimes taken for the material temple, as in Psalm 25:6: "I will wash my hands among the innocent, and I will encompass your altar, O Lord." Sometimes it is taken for Christ; Lamentations 2:7: "The Lord has cast off his altar," that is, Christ, namely in the Passion. Sometimes for the devotion of the heart, and this is the interior temple, according to Augustine. As to the first, "if you offer your gift," that is, your oblation, "at the altar" — the material altar, taken literally; or the gift of a good work, according to the Gloss, "at the altar," that is, Christ. Or, according to Augustine: "your gift," that is, prayers, Psalms, hymns, and the like, "at the altar," that is, in the heart, which is the temple where you are about to offer; and "there," namely in the Church, or in the heart, "you remember that your brother has something against you." This can be understood in two ways, namely concerning the one who injures and the one who is injured. Concerning the one who injures, thus, according to Augustine: "if you remember," that is, if it comes into your mind and to your knowledge, that "your brother," whom you have injured, "has something against you" — namely on account of the disposition of an insult, of bodily injury, of the taking away of temporal goods, of the blackening of reputation — "leave there," namely before the altar, or before God, "your gift, and go": if he is absent, not with the feet of the body, as Augustine says, but you should prostrate yourself in humble mind in the sight of him to whom you are about to offer; if he is present, he must be called back to love, by seeking pardon from him. Or, if "your brother," who injured you, "has something against you," that is, whereby he is set against you, "go to be reconciled to your brother," by giving up your rancor toward him. For from the very fact that, in saying "if your brother has something against you," he does not add "justly," he gives us to understand that even the one to whom the injury was done ought to seek friendship. Hence Chrysostom says: if for the glory of your salvation the Lord commands you to make friendship, much more ought you to ask for it, so that you may attain a double glory: one, because you are innocent; the other, because you asked first. "And then, coming" — as one now pleasing to the Lord, whereas before you did not please him — "you shall offer your gift." Chrysostom: if you have offended in thought, be reconciled in thought; if in words, in words; if in deeds, in deeds. And again: unless you appease by deeds the one whom you have injured by deeds, you pray to the Lord in vain, you give alms in vain from the things by which you have despoiled others. For what does it profit if one man prays to the Lord for you, and another cries out to the Lord against you? Ecclesiasticus 34:23: "The Most High does not approve the gifts of the wicked." And note here four things which are required for the giving or offering: first, cheerfulness of mind; hence he says "if you offer"; Ecclesiasticus 35:11: "In every gift make your countenance cheerful." Second, ownership of the thing; hence he says "your gift"; Proverbs 3:9: "Honor God with your substance." Third, the fitness of the place, "at the altar." Fourth, love of neighbor; hence he says "and you remember"; 1 Corinthians 13:3: "If I distribute all my goods to feed the poor, but have not charity, it profits me nothing." He is foolish who loses an abundance of food for the sake of a penny's worth of salt, that is, of charity, which gives savor and beauty to all things, as gold does to other metals. "Be at agreement with your adversary." Above he forbade having anger, or discord, with one's brothers; here he removes having discord with an adversary, saying "be agreeing," that is, benevolent or kindly — as is gathered from the Greek, as Jerome says — "with your adversary." An objection: the Devil is an adversary; therefore one must agree with him. Response: he speaks of the one who is with us on the way; but the Devil is not on the way, nor can he be, but is in eternal straying from the way; hence "your adversary," according to Chrysostom, means a man who opposes, or literally an enemy; Romans 12:18: "If it be possible, as much as is in you, having peace with all men." "While," that is, until, "you are with him in the way," that is, in the state of meriting; John 9:4: "The time is coming when no one can work." Or our adversary is God, of whom Exodus 23:7 says: "I am the Lord, who am an adversary to the wicked." Or it is the divine word, which is opposed to those willing to sin; 2 Timothy, penultimate chapter, 16: "All Scripture, divinely inspired, is useful for teaching, for reproving." Or it is the remorseful conscience, of which Psalm 49:21 says: "I will reprove you, and set myself against your face." And thus, again, it is explained according to all these ways. Hence, "be agreeing with your adversary," that is, with God, and with the divine word, according to Augustine and Bede, with whom one must agree in the hope of the promise, in the fear of punishment, in the carrying out of the precept, in the avoidance of what is forbidden. "Quickly," that is, without delay; Ecclesiasticus 5:8: "Do not delay to be converted to the Lord." "While you are with him," that is, with him with whom you shall walk rightly "in the way," namely the way of Christ, or of penance, or of the world; Psalm 118:32: "I have run the way of your commandments, when you enlarged my heart." "Lest perhaps he deliver you." According to Augustine, "lest perhaps" means lest it become, as it were by occasion, the cause of your being delivered up. And he says "perhaps," according to the Gloss, lest the place of repentance be taken away. For if the adversary had died before he agreed — or had been well-disposed — it would seem that he would be condemned, were it said simply and without qualification, "lest the adversary" — that is, the divine word, or God, or the remorseful conscience — "deliver you to the judge." The Gloss: into the hands of Christ. John 5:22: "he has given all judgment to the Son." And "the judge" is Christ; Jeremiah 29:23: "I am the judge, and the witness." "Deliver you to the officer": the Gloss says, that is, to the Angel who gathers the tares in order to seize them, below, chapter 13; Psalm 103:4: "who makes his Angels spirits." Or "to the officer," that is, to the Devil, the exactor; Isaiah 14:4: "How has the exactor ceased?" "And you be cast into prison," that is, into the abyss of Hell; Isaiah 24:22: "they shall be shut up in prison"; Revelation 20:3: "he cast him into the abyss, and shut him up." "Amen I say to you," that is, know for certain, that you shall not go out from there, "until" — the Gloss: that is, never. Hence Augustine: "until" does not here signify the end of the punishment, but the continuation of the misery. As if he were to say: you shall always be paying, and never fully pay off; as in Psalm 109:1: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool," that is, you shall sit forever. "You pay the last farthing," that is, the smallest sins, according to Bede and Rabanus, because nothing will remain unpunished — for the farthing is a kind of coin having two mites. Or, according to Augustine and Jerome, by "farthing" he meant to signify earthly sins: for the last farthing is earth, which is the fourth part of the elements of this world, and the last from fire; as if he were to say: because you were unwilling to be fire through charity, air through the vigor of good work, water through the sanctification of Baptism, but were earthly by clinging to earthly things, you shall not go out from there, because you shall never fully pay off the sins which you contracted from the earth.”
“Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar,.... The Jews obliged such who had done any damage to their neighbours, by stealing from them, to make satisfaction before they brought their offering; concerning which they say (c), "he that brings what he has stolen, before he brings his trespass offering, is right; he that brings his trespass offering, before he brings that which he has stolen, is not right.'' Again (d), "they do not bring the trespass offering before the sum of what is stolen is returned, either to the owners, or to the priests.'' Some have thought Christ refers to this; only what they restrained to pecuniary damages, he extends to all sorts of offences. But not a trespass offering, but a freewill offering, seems to be designed by "the gift": which, when a man either intended to bring, or was going to bring, or had already brought, as a voluntary sacrifice to be offered unto God; and it came into his mind, that he had offended any man by showing any undue passion, or by any reproachful words, then he was to do what is advised in the following verse: "and there", whilst going, or when at the altar, rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee: hath anything to charge thee with; any just ground of complaint against thee; if thou hast done him any injury, or given him any offence: particularly, if he had at any time said Raca to him, or called him "fool" for those words have reference to what goes before, and are a corollary, or conclusion from them, as appears from the causal particle "therefore". (c) Misn. Bava Kama, c. 9. sect. 12. (d) Maimon. Hilch. Gezela, c. 8. sect. 13.”
“He commands us to leave unfinished any work we may have begun, though in its own nature most acceptable to God, in order to go and be reconciled to our brother; because God will have mercy and not sacrifice. Thus he in a manner seems to prefer the love of our neighbour to the love of himself. (Menochius)”
“Therefore--to apply the foregoing, and show its paramount importance. if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught--of just complaint "against thee."”
“But if it is he that hath done you the wrong, and yet you be the first to seek reconciliation, you shall have a great reward.”
“See the mercy of God, that He thinks rather of man’s benefit than of His own honour; He loves concord in the faithful more than offerings at His altar; for so long as there are dissensions among the faithful, their gift is not looked upon, their prayer is not heard. For no one can be a true friend at the same time to two who are enemies to each other. In like manner, we do not keep our fealty to God, if we do not love His friends and hate His enemies. But such as was the offence, such should also be the reconciliation. If you have offended in thought, be reconciled in thought; if in words, be reconciled in words; if in deeds, in deeds be reconciled. For so it is in every sin, in whatsoever kind it was committed, in that kind is the penance done.”
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.