Matthew 9:14

Verse 14. Then came. When the Pharisees in the prior question had been discomfited. By Saint Mark, (11:18,) we learn that the Pharisees joined with the disciples of the Baptist, and thus is reconciled what we read in Saint Luke 5:33, who only mentions the Pharisees. V.—Why do we, and the Pharisees fast. It is not without reason that the disciples of Saint John should ask this question, fasting being always esteemed a great virtue, witness Moses and Elias; the fasts which Samuel made the people observe in Masphat, the tears, prayers, and fasting of Ezechias, of Judith, of Achab, of the Ninivites, of Anna, the wife of Eleana, of Daniel, of David, after he had fallen into the sin of adultery. Aaron, and the other priests, also fasted before they entered into the temple. Witness also the fasts of Anna, the prophetess, of Saint John the Baptist, of Christ himself, of Cornelius the centurion, and so forth and so forth and so forth Saint Jerom.—This haughty interrogation of Saint John’s disciples was highly blameable, not only for uniting with the Pharisees, whom they knew their master so much condemned, but also for calumniating him, who, they knew was foretold by John’s own testimony. S. Jerom.—Saint Augustine is likewise of opinion, that John’s disciples were not the only persons that said this, since Saint Mark rather indicates that it was spoken by others. S. Thos. Aquin.

Ver 15. Can the children of the bridegroom. [1] This, by a Hebraism, signifies the friends or companions of the bridegroom, as a lover of peace, is called a child of peace: he that deserves death, the son of death, and so forth Witham.—the disciples had not yet ascended to the higher degrees of perfection, they had not yet been renewed in spirit; therefore they required to be treated with lenity; for had the higher and more sublime mysteries been delivered to them without previous preparation, they would never, not even in the natural course of things, have been able to comprehend them. I have many things to say to you, said our Saviour, but you cannot bear them now. Saint John 16. Thus did he condescend to their weakness. Saint John Chrysostom hom. xxxi.