Matthew Chapter 12
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Every idle word.... This shews there must be a place of temporal punishment hereafter where these slighter faults shall be punished.
12:37. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
12:38. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying: Master, we would see a sign from thee.
A sign.... That is, a miracle from heaven. St. Luke 11. 16.
12:39. Who answering said to them: An evil and adulterous generation seeketh a sign: and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.
12:40. For as Jonas was in the whale’s belly three days and three nights: so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
Three days, etc.... Not complete days and nights; but part of three days, and three nights taken according to the way that the Hebrews counted their days and nights, viz., from evening to evening.
12:41. The men of Ninive shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they did penance at the preaching of Jonas. And behold a greater than Jonas here.
12:42. The queen of the south shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold a greater than Solomon here.
12:43. And when an unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through dry places seeking rest, and findeth none.
12:44. Then he saith: I will return into my house from whence I came out. And coming he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
12:45. Then he goeth, and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is made worse than the first. So shall it be also to this wicked generation.
12:46. As he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold his mother and his brethren stood without, seeking to speak to him.
12:47. And one said unto him: Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without, seeking thee.
12:48. But he answering him that told him, said: Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?
Who is my mother?.... This was not spoken by way of slighting his mother, but to shew that we are never to suffer ourselves to be taken from the service of God, by any inordinate affection to our earthly parents: and that which our Lord chiefly regarded in his mother, was her doing the will of his Father in heaven. It may also further allude to the reprobation of the Jews, his carnal kindred, and the election of the Gentiles.
12:49. And stretching forth his hand towards his disciples, he said: Behold my mother and my brethren.
12:50. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.