Thomas Aquinas Commentary Matthew 5:14-16

"Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do [men] light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house. Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." — Matthew 5:14-16 (ASV)

A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. The city is the congregation of the faithful, namely, the very assembly of the Apostles: Glorious things are said of you, O city of God (Psalms 86:3). Now, it is located on a mountain, namely, Christ: The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared in the top of the mountains (Micah 4:1), and, A stone was cut out of a mountain without hands (Daniel 2:34). Or, on a mountain, in the perfection of justice: Your justice is as the mountains of God (Psalms 35:7). A city on a mountain, however, cannot hide itself, so the Apostles cannot hide themselves, as Chrysostom says. If men who are standing at the bottom of the mountain of justice commit sin, they can hide themselves, but if they are standing at the top, they cannot hide themselves: My lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel are upon you (1 Kings 1:20).

Hilary expounds this passage otherwise, and the meaning is almost the same: A city seated on a mountain is Christ, because on the part of His human nature, which He shares with us, He is a city: I have made you this day a fortified city (Jeremiah 1:18). He is on a mountain, because He is a mountain in His divinity, which is a mountain: The mountain of God is a fat mountain (Psalms 67:16). And thus, Christ could not hide; and therefore, ‘You, Apostles, are unable to hide Me.’

The second reason He gives why they cannot hide themselves is where it is said, Neither do men light a lamp. It is as though He were to say, ‘Let us suppose that you could hide yourselves; nevertheless, you ought not to do so. For no one receiving a benefit ought to do something with it contrary to the intention of its donor.’

God gave you knowledge so that you would share it with others: As every man has received grace, ministering the same one to another (1 Peter 4:10). And so these words are said, Neither do they light a lamp, namely, men, or the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

By lamp one can firstly understand this to mean the Gospel teaching: Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths (Psalms 118:105). For a lamp has a light incorporated in it; the light of truth is placed in Sacred Scripture, and it is lighted by the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Or, by lamp, can be understood the Apostles insofar as the light of grace was imparted to them: He was a burning and a shining light (John 5:35), and, I have prepared a lamp for my anointed (Psalms 131:17).

Or, by lamp, Christ is signified, because just as a lamp is a light in an earthen vessel, so Christ’s divinity is in His humanity: For you are my lamp O Lord (2 Samuel 2:29).

After a lamp has been understood in this way, by a bushel we can understand three things.

1. According to Augustine, corporeal things are understood, for two reasons.

   The first reason is that a bushel is a measure: You shall have a just and a true weight, and your bushel shall be equal and true (Deuteronomy 25:15). Now, what we do in the body will be recompensed to us: For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he has done (2 Corinthians 5:10).

   Another reason is that all corporeal things are measured; divine things, however, are unlimited because they are beyond measure. Therefore, those who compare His teaching with temporal gain put the lamp under a bushel, whereas the former is more precious: For neither have we used at any time the speech of flattery, as you know: nor taken an occasion of covetousness (1 Thessalonians 2:5).

2. According to Chrysostom, worldly men are called a bushel, because they are empty above and solid below. They have, in fact, madness above, because they perceive nothing of the Holy Ghost: The sensual man perceives not these things that are of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). But below, in worldly affairs, meaning in business matters, they are wise: For the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light (Luke 16:8). This is a rather literal exposition.

   Therefore, according to this way of exposition, a lamp is put under a bushel when doctrine is hidden due to worldly fear: Who are you, that you should be afraid of a mortal man (Isaiah 51:12), and, I labor even unto bands, as an evildoer. But the word of God is not bound (2 Timothy 2:9).

If, however, the Gospel teaching, or Christ, is understood by the lamp, it would be hidden under Judea, but in order that it would be manifested to the whole world: Behold, I have given you to be the light of the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation even to the farthest part of the earth (Isaiah 49:6).

But upon a candlestick. These words can be expounded in three ways. One’s body can be signified by a candlestick, and the Gospel teaching by the lamp; hence, the same things said above are signified by the bushel and the candlestick, as though He were to say: ‘The Gospel teaching ought not to be submitted to temporal things, but all things ought to minister to it. Therefore, when you give things, your body or even your life unto death, for love of Christ, then you put the lamp upon a candlestick.’

Or, by a candlestick, the Church is understood, because those who are lamps are put in a higher place: As the lamp shining upon the holy candlestick, so is the beauty of the face in a ripe age .

If, however, the candlestick is understood as Christ, then by the candlestick, the Cross is understood: And through him to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, both as to the things that are on earth and the things that are in heaven (Colossians 1:20).

That it may shine to all that are in the house. This passage can be expounded in three ways. By the house, the Church can be understood: That you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God (1 Timothy 3:15). Or, by the house, the whole world is understood: For every house is built by some man: but he that created all things is God, etc. (Hebrews 3:4).

Afterwards the manner in which they ought to manifest themselves to the world is related:

1. He relates the manner of how they ought to manifest themselves: they ought to shine before men, by enlightening them: To me, the least of all the saints, is given this grace, to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to enlighten all men (Ephesians 3:8–9).

2. He relates the order of how they ought to manifest themselves, where it is said, That they may see your good works.

3. He relates the purpose of manifesting themselves, namely, not for their own glory — For we are not as many, adulterating the word of God: but with sincerity: but as from God, before God, in Christ we speak (2 Corinthians 2:17) — and this is where it is said, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. For, on account of God’s glory, we ought to perform good works so that God may be glorified by our good life: Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God, etc. (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. Observe here that the Lord fulfilled the Law in five ways:

1. He fulfilled the Law because He fulfilled those things which were prefigured in the Law: For I say to you that this that is written must yet be fulfilled in me (Luke 22:37).

2. He fulfilled the Law by observing its legal prescriptions: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law (Galatians 4:4).

3. He did this by doing works through grace, namely, by sanctifying through the Holy Ghost, which the Law was unable to do: For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son… that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit (Romans 8:3–4).

4. He did this by satisfying for the sins by which we were transgressors of the Law. Hence, when the transgressions were taken away, He fulfilled the Law: Whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to the shewing of his justice, for the remission of former sins (Romans 3:25).

5. He did this by applying certain perfections to the Law, which were either about the understanding of the Law, or for a greater perfection of justice.

Observe that the Law is destroyed in three ways: by totally denying it, by expounding it badly, or by not fulfilling its moral precepts.