Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary: Matthew
Ver. 4. Jesus seeing their thoughts. By shewing that he knew their hidden thoughts, as well as by healing the man, to confirm his words and doctrine, he gave them a proof of his divine power. (Witham) --- Not because they betrayed them by any exterior sign, but, as St. Mark says, knowing in his spirit that they so thought within themselves, because he was God, in whose hands are our hearts, (Proverbs chap. xv. and chap. xxi,) and to whose eyes all things are naked and open. (Tostatus.) --- Had not our Saviour been truly God, and equal to his Father, he would have rebuked the scribes, for attributing that to God only which he exercised. But so far from denying their assertion, he immediately admits the truth of it, and answers them by another no less wonderful act of his almighty power. He tells them publicly the evil they had thought in their hearts, whilst the Scriptures repeatedly affirm that God alone can know the secrets of hearts. Thou alone knowest the hearts of the children of men, 3 Kings, chap. viii. and 2 Paralipomenon chap. vi ver. 30. And man seeth those things that appear, but the Lord beholdeth the heart. And 1 Kings, chap. xvi, ver. 7, The searcher of reins and hearts is God. Psalm vii, ver. 10, The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable. Who can know it? I am the Lord that search the heart and prove the reins. (Jeremias, chap. xvii, ver. 9. and 10.); and innumerable other texts of Scripture might be brought to prove that God only can know the minds and thoughts of men. Our Saviour, therefore, shews himself to be equal to his Father, by thus revealing to all, the malicious murmurs of his enemies, who for fear of the multitude, dared not to publish themselves what their wicked hearts devised. (St. Chrysostom, hom. xxx.) --- Said: Why do you think, &c. Here St. Cyril exclaims, Oh! thou Pharisee, who sayest, who is able to forgive sins, except God alone! I will answer thee; who is able to search into the secrets of the heart but God alone, who calls himself, by his prophet, the searcher of the hearts and the reins of men! (St. Cyril) --- If thou art incredulous about my power of remitting sin, behold I exercise another, whilst I lay open thy interior. (St. Chrysostom)
Ver. 5. The power of working miracles, and of forgiving sins, is proper to God, but can be communicated by God to man equally in the sacraments of baptism and penance. (Haydock) --- Which is easier. It is more difficult to remit sins than restore the health of the body. St. Augustine remarks, (tract. lxxii in Joannem) it is more difficult to justify a man than to create the heavens and the earth; but Christ speaks thus, because the Pharisees might otherwise have said, that as he could not confer visible health upon the body, he had recourse to the invisible remission of sins, and that it was easy to grant in words, what no one could discern whether it was really granted or not. In this sense, therefore, the word, "Be thou healed," is more difficult than simply to say, "Thy sins are forgiven thee;" which any one could say, though he might not effect what his word implied. (Menochius) --- Doubtless the healing of the body was easier, for as much as the soul is more excellent than the body, so much is the healing of the soul more difficult and more excellent than that of the body. But since the one is visible, the other invisible, therefore he performs the less, but more evident miracle, in testimony of the performance of the other more excellent, but less evident exertion of his power. Thus he truly verifies what the Baptist said of him, "This is he that taketh away the sins of the world." (St. Chrysostom, hom. xxx.)
Ver. 6. But that you may know. This may be understood differently, either as spoken by Christ to the Jews present, or by the evangelist to the people to whom he wrote his gospel. (St. Thomas Aquinas) --- Thus Christ proves that he had the power of remitting sins; as a falsity cannot be confirmed by a miracle, since in this case God would bear testimony to a falsity. (Menochius) --- Take thy bed, &c. This doubtless was commanded him, to convince the whole world that this was no phantom, and to add still greater credibility to the fact, and he rose, &c. --- He who was pleased to become man, is truly the Son of God; and, in this quality, he possesses all power. This he proves by the double exercise of his power over both soul and body. (Haydock) --- Surge, tolle, and vade, Christ added these words for the greater evidence of the cure. (Maldonatus)
Ver. 8. Feared, and glorified God. Here it may be observed, that the people, before they praised, feared God, for the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And St. Basil says, that fear, as a good guide, necessarily leads us to piety; and charity takes us, after having been exercised a little in fear, and makes us perfect men. (St. Basil)
Ver. 9. Named Matthew. 'Tis remarked by St. Jerome, that the other evangelist, out of respect to this apostle, did not call him Matthew, (the name he generally went by) but Levi; whereas he, in his own gospel, to shew the goodness of God who from a publican had made him an apostle, styles himself Matthew the publican. (St. Thomas Aquinas) --- (St. Augustine, de Concor. Evan.) It is most probable, says St. Augustine, that St. Matthew does not mention what had happened to him, before he began to follow Jesus; for it is supposed that this evangelist was called antecedent to the sermon on the mount; for St. Luke named the 12 that were chosen, and calls them apostles. St. Matthew mentions his vocation to the apostleship as one of the miracles that Jesus performed, for certainly it was a great miracle for a publican to become an apostle. --- Rose up, and followed him. When we hear the voice of God calling us to virtue, we must not delay. The devil, says St. Basil, does not advise us to turn entirely from God, but only to put off our conversion to a future time. He steals away our present time, and gives us hopes of the future. But when that comes, he steals that also in the same manner; and thus by giving us present pleasure, he robs us of our whole life. (St. Basil) --- Sitting in the custom-house. Jesus called St. Matthew with two words only, follow me; and presently he left all, and became his disciple; doubtless by a particular inspiration and motion of divine grace. (Witham)
Ver. 12. They that are in health. The explication of which is, I converse with sinners, that I may heal their souls from incredulity. (Menochius)
Ver. 13. I am not come. The just appear to be mentioned ironically, as it is said in Genesis, Behold Adam is become as one of us: and if I hunger, I will not tell thee. (Psalm xlix.) For St. Paul asserts, that none on earth were just: all have sinned, and need the glory of God. (Romans iii.) (St. Chrysostom, hom. xxxi.) --- Christ came to call all men, both just and unjust, since he called Nathanael, who was a just man. But the meaning of these words is, I came not to call you, Scribes and Pharisees, who esteem yourselves just, and despise others, and who think you have no need of a physician; but I came to call those who acknowledge themselves sinners. (Theophylactus) --- Or the meaning may be, "I came not to call the just to penance, of which they have no need;" thus in St. Luke, (chap. v.) I came not to call the just, but sinners to repentance. Or again, the meaning may be, I came not to call the just, because there are none just of themselves, and who stand not in need of my coming. St. Paul says, All have sinned, as above. (Menochius) --- Mercy, and not sacrifice. Christ here prefers mercy to sacrifice; for, as St. Ambrose says, there is no virtue so becoming a Christian as mercy, but chiefly mercy to the poor. For if we give money to the poor, we at the same time give him life: if we clothe the naked, we adorn our souls with the robe of justice: if we receive the poor harbourless under our roof, we shall at the same time make friends with the saints in heaven, and shall afterwards be received by them into their eternal habitations. (St. Ambrose) --- I will have mercy and not sacrifice: these words occur in the prophet Osee, chap. vi. The Pharisees thought they were making a great sacrifice, and acceptable to God, by breaking off all commerce with sinners; but God prefers the mercy of the charitable physician, who frequents the company of sinners; but merely to cure them. (Bible de Vence)