St Matthew Chapter V : Verses 13-16
Contents
- Matt. v. 13-16 (Douay-Rheims text) & Latin text (Vulgate)
- Notes on text
Matt. v. 13-16
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| He taught them. J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
Vos estis sal terræ. Quod si sal evanuerit, in quo salietur? ad nihilum valet ultra, nisi ut mittatur foras, et conculcetur ab hominibus.
14 You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid.
Vos estis lux mundi. Non potest civitas abscondi supra montem posita,
15 Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house.
neque accedunt lucernam, et ponunt eam sub modio, sed super candelabrum, ut luceat omnibus qui in domo sunt.
16 So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Sic luceat lux vestra coram hominibus : ut videant opera vestra bona, et glorificent Patrem vestrum, qui in caelis est.
Notes
13. You are the salt, etc. By salt is meant that interior and spiritual energy by which the Christian preserves himself from the contaminating influences that surround him in this world, and also the influence for good which he has on his fellow-men.
Cf. For it is impossible for those, who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, have moreover tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, and are fallen away ; to he renewed again to penance, crucifying again to themselves the Son of God, and making him a mockery (Heb. vi. 4-6).
It is good for nothing. “ It is plainly implied that salt, under certain conditions so generally known as to permit Him to found His instruction upon them, did actually lose its saltness ; and our only business is to discover these conditions, not to question their existence. Nor is this difficult, I have often seen just such salt, and the identical disposition of it that our Lord has mentioned. A merchant of Sidon having farmed of the government the revenue from the importation of salt, brought over an immense quantity from the marshes of Cyprus — enough, in fact, to supply the whole province for at least twenty years. This he had transferred to the mountains, to cheat the government out of some small percentage. Sixty-five houses .... were rented and filled with salt. These houses have merely earthen floors, and the salt next the ground in a few years was entirely spoiled. I saw large quantities of it literally thrown into the street, to be trodden under foot of men and beasts. It was ‘good for nothing.’ Similar magazines are common in this country, and have been from remote ages, as we learn from history, both sacred and profane ; and the sweeping out of the spoiled salt and casting it into the street are actions familiar to all men” (The Land and the Book, Thomson, p. 381).
14. You are the light of the world. As the salt of Christianity was to counteract the moral corruption of the world, so the light of Christianity was to dispel its intellectual darkness.
Jesus, our Saviour, is the true Light of the world, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world (St John i. 9). Catholics receiving the light derived from the Sun of Righteousness have a mission to reflect His beams on their fellows. St Paul teaches this doctrine to his Christian converts : That you may be blameless, and sincere children of God, without reproof, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation : among whom you shine as lights in the world (Phil. ii. 15).
A city seated on a mountain. From the Horns of Hattin, the traditional site of the Sermon on the Mount, the little city of Saphet, seated on a hill about 12 miles north-west of Capharnaum, may have been visible. In any case, Palestine abounded in cities seated on a mountain, so the comparison must have been clearly understood by the disciples. Thabor, a fortified town on a mountain south-west of Tiberias, is another illustration in point. From these words we see that the Church of Christ is to he visible, since it is compared to a city placed so as to be seen by all who approach it. Cf. In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall he prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall he exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it (Is. ii. 2).
Note the gradation in the metaphors employed —
(a) The light of the world, i.e. the sun seen by all,(b) The city visible to all the neighbourhood.(c) The lamp lighting up the whole house.
15. a candle. Lit. the “ lamp ” (λύχνον). There was only one in the house of a poor man.
a bushel. Lit. “ the bushel ” (τὸν μόδιον). The word in the Greek is derived from the Latin “ modius,” a dry measure containing a little more than a peck. It probably contained the ordinary quantity of flour for one baking.
candlestick. Lit. “ the lampstand ” (τὴν λυχνίαν). The lampstand was placed on the floor against the wall. All the metaphors here used apply to the houses of the poor, in which one large room served for the whole family, both by day and night. The furniture consisted simply of a few raised seats along the walls of the room, on which mats were placed at night, a chest containing the family wardrobe and treasures, the flour bin, the lamp on its stand, the corn measure, and a few household utensils. During the night the lamp was kept burning, but was covered by an inverted hollow vessel.
shine to all that are in the house. Those of our own family should be the first to profit by our Christianity.
16. So let your light., etc. The disciples by their good works and holy lives were to convince the world of the truth and holiness of the Christian doctrine, and by this means God would be glorified. The Pharisees sought their own glory, the disciples were to aspire to something nobler and more lasting, the glory of God.
your Father. A title often given to God in the Old Testament, but not in the same sense as in the New Testament. In the Old it is applied to God as the Creator ; in the New, it is used to distinguish the first Person of the Blessed Trinity from the Son and the Holy Ghost.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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