Sf. m. Cosma și Damian, doctori fără plată († 303). În timpul săpt Ap și Ev săpt a 2-a dR.

3:1-8 GOD’S FAITHFULNESS
OVERVIEW: Did the Jews enjoy a special place in God’s plan? The Fathers believed that they did, for two reasons. First, they had received the divine oracles before the coming of Christ and therefore had an advantage when the gospel was proclaimed. Second, Jewish Christians were able to claim descent from Abraham and the faithful of the Old Testament. Nevertheless, the Fathers insisted that the salvation of the Gentiles was not inferior to that of the Jews, nor did unbelieving Jews have any advantage over Gentile believers. Human origins do not affect the promises of God. The Fathers pointed out that Jews were human beings like the rest of us. Some of them believed and inherited the promises. Others did not and were cast out. The important thing for everybody, Jews and Gentiles alike, is that we should all believe in Christ.
The problems of evil and God’s wrath were issues that preoccupied the Fathers. To them, God was just (righteous) by nature, and this could never change. The snag was that humankind had rebelled against God’s righteousness, thereby creating the conflict between good and evil. In such circumstances the presence and sovereignty of good in a world of evil could only appear as wrath, since it is in the nature of justice to destroy everything that is opposed to it. The fact that God’s goodness shines all the more brightly when contrasted with our evil does not justify evil. The early Christians were sometimes accused of being immoral, because of this misunderstanding, and the Fathers were determined to counter such reasoning. To be a Christian is to take on something of the character of God, including his holiness, goodness and righteousness.
3:9-20 HUMAN SINFULNESS
OVERVIEW: In the final analysis there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Paul quotes the Scriptures at length to demonstrate this point, and the Fathers echo him. Total depravity was a part of human life from the time Adam fell into sin, and no one escapes its effects. No one has brought goodness to full expression, whether in Sodom, Jerusalem or the church. While in this body, we all behold the good only through a glass darkly. The purpose of the law was to demonstrate the true nature of righteousness in order to show just how far we have all fallen away from it and how hopeless our present condition is. What Paul meant by the law caused some puzzlement among the Fathers. Some argued that Paul was referring to the Old Testament (AMBROSIASTER, CHRYSOSTOM). Others, however, wanted to say that the law referred to here is the law of nature innate in everyone, which condemns through conscience (ORIGEN et al.). Either way the result is the same-the law condemns, and only Christ can save. The law is like a doctor who points out what our disease is and shows how it must be cured. As such it is a good thing, even if it is painful to experience. Although the law can diagnose our illness, it has no power to cure us. Instead it makes us more miserable, since we come to understand what is wrong with us without being able to do anything about it. We may want to escape its clutches, but without the grace of God we lack the power to do so.
Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Matthew 6,31-34;7,9-11
6:31-33 Seeking God’s Kingdom and Righteousness
ENDS AND MEANS. AUGUSTINE: At first he makes it abundantly clear that these things are not to be sought as if they were for us the kind of blessings for the sake of which we ought to make all our actions good actions but that they are necessities nevertheless. Then Jesus says, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.” In this sentence he clearly shows the difference between a good that ought to be sought as an end and a value that ought to be seen as a means. Our final good is therefore the kingdom of God and his justice. We ought to seek this good and fix our aim upon it. Let us perform all our actions for the sake of it. Yet, since we are waging war in this life in order to be able to reach that kingdom and since this life cannot be maintained unless those necessities are supplied, he says, “These things shall be given you besides, but seek you first the kingdom of God and his justice.” SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2.16.53.16
SEEK FIRST. AUGUSTINE: When he said that the one is to be sought first, Jesus clearly intimates that the other is to be sought later-not that it is to be sought at a later time but that it is to be sought as a thing of secondary importance. He showed that the one is to be sought as our good, that the other is to be sought as something needful for us, but that the needful is to be sought for the sake of the good. SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2.16.53.17

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6:34 Each Day’s Trouble Sufficient
PAYING NO HEED TO TEMPORAL THINGS. AUGUSTINE: With a single heart, therefore, and exclusively for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, we ought to do good to all. And in this well-doing we ought not to think about temporal rewards, either exclusively or conjointly with the kingdom of God. For it is with reference to all these temporal things that the Lord used the word tomorrow when he said, “Do not think about tomorrow.” For that word is not used except in the realm of time, where the future succeeds the past. Therefore, when we perform any good deed, let us think about eternal things and pay no heed to the temporal. Then our deed will be not only good but also perfect. “For tomorrow,” he says, “will have anxieties of its own.” By this he means that you are to take food or drink or clothing when it is fitting that you do so. When the need for them is pressing, these things will be at hand; our Father knows that we need all these things. “For sufficient for the day,” he says, “is its own evil.” In other words, when the need is urgent, we have sufficient reason for using these things. I suppose that this necessity is called evil because it partakes of the nature of punishment for us since it is part of the frailty and mortality that we have merited by committing sin. To this penalty of temporal necessity, therefore, do not add something more troublesome. SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2.17.56.18

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7:9-11 Giving Good Gifts
OUR GIFTS TO OUR CHILDREN AND GOD’S GIFTS TO US. AUGUSTINE: But how do evil people give good gifts? Those whom he here calls evil are sinners. As such they are still lovers of this world. It is in accordance with their notion of good that their gifts are to be called good. Their gifts are called good, that is, because the givers consider them good. Although these things are good in the order of nature, they are nevertheless temporal things pertaining to the infirmities of life. Moreover, whenever an evil person bestows them, he is not giving what is his own, for “the earth and the fullness thereof is the Lord’s.… Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them.”4 So even we who are evil know how to give what is asked. How much more confidence ought we to have that God will give us good things when we ask. God will not deceive us by giving us one thing rather than another when we ask of him. Even we do not deceive our children. And whatever good gifts we bestow, we give what is God’s and not our own. SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2.21.73.5