New Cloth on an Old Garment (Matthew 9:16; Mark 2:21; Luke 5:36)

The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations; nothing is paraphrased.

---

St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407)

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 30 (on Matthew 9:16) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. The fuller homily appears in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 10: https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110 Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.ix.html

On why the rigour of fasting is not laid on disciples not yet strengthened:

Here again He confirms what He has said by examples of common things; "No man putteth a patch of undressed cloth into an old garment; for it taketh away its wholeness from the garment, and the rent is made worse;" which is to say, My disciples are not yet become strong, but have need of much consideration; they are not yet renewed by the Spirit. On men in such a state it is not behoveful to lay a burden of precepts. Herein He establishes a rule for His disciples, that they should receive with leniency disciples from out of the whole world.

Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

Sermons, Sermon 210, 3 (on Matthew 9:16) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.ix.html

On the cloth as the fasting that is a feast of the Spirit:

Otherwise; Everyone who rightly fasts, either humbles his soul in the groaning of prayer, and bodily chastisement, or suspends the motion of carnal desire by the joys of spiritual meditation. And the Lord here makes answer respecting both kinds of fasting; concerning the first, which is in humiliation of soul, He says, "The children of the bridegroom cannot mourn." Of the other which has a feast of the Spirit, He next speaks, where He says, "No man putteth a patch of undressed cloth."

St. Jerome (c. 347–420)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 9:16) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.ix.html

On the old garment as the Scribes and Pharisees, and the new cloth as the Gospel precepts they could not bear:

Otherwise; By the "old garment," and "old skins," we must understand the Scribes and Pharisees; and by the "piece of new cloth," and "new wine," the Gospel precepts, which the Jews were not able to bear; so "the rent was made worse." ... The word of the Gospel is therefore to be poured into the Apostles, rather than into the Scribes and Pharisees, who, corrupted by the traditions of the elders, were unable to preserve the purity of Christ's precepts.

St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310–367)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 9:16) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.ix.html

On the examples showing that souls and bodies weakened by sin cannot yet bear the new grace:

By these examples He shews that neither our souls nor bodies, being so weakened by inveteracy of sin, are capable of the sacraments of the new grace.

Remigius (c. 841–908)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 9:16) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. (Remigius of Auxerre is a later Western compiler, not one of the Fathers; included here because the Catena is the only public-domain English of his Gospel exposition.) Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.ix.html

On the old garment as the disciples not yet renewed, and the new cloth as the new grace of the Gospel:

By the old garment He means His disciples, who had not yet been renewed in all things. The patch of undressed, that is, of new cloth, means the new grace, that is, the Gospel doctrine, of which fasting is a portion; and it was not meet that the stricter ordinances of fasting should be entrusted to them, lest they should be broken down by their severity, and forfeit that faith which they had; as He adds, "It taketh its wholeness from the garment, and the rent is made worse."