The Feast of St. Anthony of Padua, Saturday, June 13, 2020

Matthew 5:33-37

Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the Evil One.”

In an oath, God is called upon to witness the truth of a statement, as in, “I swear to God that the man is guilty.”  Since a human cannot live in isolation and is not omnipotent, he must rely on others for many goods and services.  The procurement of these goods and services, including the rendering of justice, often involves the exchanging of promises.  At times, these promises are of such a serious nature that they are written down and signed.  The signature to the promise, or one attesting that the signature is that of one or both of the parties involved amounts to a minor oath, by which we implicitly swear by our own good name, with some thing at stake, that we are making or agreeing to a truthful statement.  In more serious cases involving the testimony of witnesses in which a person accused of a crime is at risk of punishment, oaths invoking God have been the custom.  We see that oath-taking in one form or another has an essential place in a society of weak humans who are already predisposed to selfishness and falsehood.  It is not too much to say that oath-taking makes civilization possible, whether in ancient or modern times.

So why does Jesus come down so hard on oath-taking, and what does he mean?  First, we must consider that in the Lord’s time particularly, people abused the oath by making them over trivial issues.  Since the Lord’s name was called upon, it meant a use of his name in vain.  Also, rampant breaking of oaths rendered the practice open to ridicule, further damaging the honor Lord’s name and power, since the Lord seemed not to hold the oath breaker accountable.  It became practically a matter of putting the Lord God to the test, which was forbidden.  It is against this background that we can understand the Lord’s words.

The Lord did not forbid oaths absolutely just as he does not command the cutting off of one’s hands if they “cause” a person to sin.  The Lord Jesus is here making a series of commandments using the figure of speech of hyperbole.  We use this device today when we say such things as, I’m so hungry I could eat a cow.  No one could expect to carry out such a thing, or intend to hold another to it.  The hyperbole allows a person to dramatically express a truth, such as that I am very hungry, and to impress this truth upon his audience.  Jesus does the same.  We are to understand from his words, as the Fathers teach us, that the believer must be so honest and truthful that no one would think of requiring an oath from him.  That is not to say that a believer must disclose all his hidden, private thoughts to another — no one is required to do that.  But in everyday dealings to speak no lie and to mean yes and no when we say these words.  The Christian bears the name of Christ and so must be careful to glorify that name with our actions and not to sully it with our falsehoods.

Today is the feast of St. Anthony of Padua (d. 1231), a Portuguese man who was deeply attracted to the then-new Franciscan way of life, especially to its simplicity. He was a man of deep prayer and an austere life dedicated to the study of the Scriptures.  An apparently random event led him to preach at a great ceremony, and his words, informed by Scripture and his spirituality, moved many hears.  From that time on he was in great demand as a preacher and he made hundreds of journeys through Italy and southern France, often speaking before crowds of thousands, filling them with the love of Christ.  Many miracles were attributed to him even during his lifetime.  According to one account, he was praying fervently at night in a guest room of a wealthy lord, who was drawn to the room by the issuance of a bright light from the space around the door.  Inside, he found Anthony enveloped in the light, with the Child Jesus appearing to him.  This is the reason for portraying the saint holding the Child Jesus in paintings and statues.  He also has become known as the finder of lost things.  Parish secretaries all over the world love him.  I can personally vouch for him on this.  He will find things even before a person finishes his prayer to him.  At the age of only 36, he rendered his soul to his Master in heaven, worn out from all his labors for souls.  He has been declared a Doctor of the Church.