Lecture 3 — Persecution and reward

^5:11^ Blessed are you when they will revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: [n. 446]

^5:12^ Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you. [n. 448]

446. Blessed are you. Here he touches on the dignity of those who must teach the very teaching of the apostles. And it should be known that all beatitudes pertain to three things, for the first three are about removing an evil, namely, blessed are the poor (Matt 5:3), blessed are the meek (Matt 5:4), and blessed those who mourn (Matt 5:5); the next four are about the working of good; but the last pertains to patiently enduring evil. But those three should be in the teacher of Sacred Scripture in a most excellent way, for in undergoing evils he should not only patiently endure, but should rejoice; likewise he should remove evils from others; similarly in the third, he should light the way to the good. Hence in these three things he commissions apostolic dignity in order, and he begins with persecution because by this the perfection of all the others is designated, and it signifies that no one should assume the office of preacher unless he is perfect, the learning of a man is known by patience (Prov 19:11), and they will endure well (Ps 92:14).

Concerning this he does three things:

first, he enumerates the evils which they were to undergo;

second, he teaches the manner of suffering: rejoice and exult;

third, he assigns a reason: for your reward.

447. But evils are either present or absent; also, they become present in word and in deed: hence he sets forth the whole. Therefore he says, blessed are you.

But Augustine raises this question, for first he says when they will revile you, and afterward, and speak all that is evil against you, which seems to be the same thing. But it should be known that they revile who inflict abuses on sight, but they speak all that is evil who detract from those who are absent. For they revile those to whom many taunts are made: all curse me (Jer 15:10); or who when he was reviled, did not return abuse (I Peter 2:23). Therefore, blessed when they revile you, i.e., when they offend you in word and in deed. Chrysostom: the meriting of life eternal consists in two things: in doing the good and suffering evil, and just as any good deed, however little, is not lacking in merit, so also every injury has its reward. And persecute you, i.e., by driving you out of town after town: we are reviled and we bless (1 Cor 4:12); and further in this text, behold I send to you prophets and scribes and some of them . . . will persecute you from city to city (Matt 23:34). And they will speak, i.e., they will fabricate and accuse you of many evils, as deceivers (2 Cor 6:8), if you be reproached for the name of Christ (1 Pet 4:14). But it should be known that not everyone about whom evils are said is blessed, but it is required first that it be said falsely, and second for the sake of Christ; hence he says, untruly and for my sake; and this for my sake refers to all the things mentioned. Again, observe that it is the same when he says for my sake and above, for the sake of Christ.

448. Rejoice. Here he teaches the manner, that is, how evils are to be borne. Above, when he was speaking about all things, he said **blessed are they who suffer **(Matt 5:10), i.e., who do not resent; but in apostles this does not suffice, but on the contrary, they must exult: count it all joy (James 1:2); the apostles went rejoicing (Acts 5:41).

But to the contrary, Augustine says you command these things to be borne, not to be loved. It must be said that we are not to rejoice in tribulations, but in the hope that we have on account of enduring them, just as the person who receives medicine does not rejoice in the bitterness of the medicine, but in the hope of health.

449. And he says, rejoice and exult. There it should be known that to be delighted, to exult, to rejoice, and to be happy, are the same according to the thing, but differ in account. For delight is properly from the union of the very thing loved and the one coming together with it; joy is not only in this union but also in the apprehension of it; interior happiness and exultation are the effects resulting from joy and delight, for by these things the heart is enlarged: wherefore ‘laetitia’, happiness, is like ‘latitia’, largeness. Likewise, not only is the heart enlarged internally, but when it is signified externally, it appears, and then it is called exultation as something appearing without.

But one should rejoice because it will be to the confusion of unbelievers and the joy of believers; in this way blessed Laurence rejoiced on the rack, as it is written of him. And the reason for joy is twofold: first, the reward, hence for your reward is very great in heaven, namely, in the fiery one; hence and so will we be always with the Lord (I Thess 4:16). Augustine: in the fact that he says **in heaven, he names the object of beatitude and the substance which will not be in bodily things but in spiritual ones, namely, in the enjoyment of God; and those spiritual goods are denoted by the heavens because of their solidity and firmness. And he says very great because of the superabundant reward of the apostles: a good measure (Luke 6:38); every one will receive his own reward (I Cor 3:8); I God am . . . your reward (Gen 15:1). The second reason is that rejoicing is an example, hence for so they persecuted the prophets. For it is a great comfort when someone becomes like great men and forefathers: which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? (Acts 7:52); take the prophets, my brethren, for an example (James 5:10). And note that in this the dignity of Christ is indicated, for he has his own prophets suffering for his sake, just as in the Old Testament, and also the dignity of the apostles, which is likened to the prophets.