The Healing of the Man with Dropsy (Luke 14:1–6)

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

---

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

From his Commentary on Luke (Homily 101, on Luke 14:1–6), trans. R. Payne Smith, 1859. Public domain.

On the Sabbath as shadow and type, and the true rest, which is to cease from sin:

But, O senseless Jew, understand that the law was a shadow and type, waiting for the truth: and the truth was Christ, and His commandments. Why then do you arm the type against the truth? why do you set the shadow in array against the spiritual interpretation? Keep your sabbath rationally ... Let us cease from our sins; let us rest from our offences; let us wash away our stains; let us abandon the impure love of the flesh; let us flee far from covetousness and extortion; and from disgraceful gains, and the love of lucre.

On the silence of the lawyers, who could find nothing in the Law against doing good:

But why, O lawyer, were you silent? Quote something from the scriptures; show that the law of Moses ever blamed the doing good on the sabbath: prove to us that it wishes us to be hardhearted and unmerciful, because of the rest for our bodies; — that it forbids kindness, in order that we may honour the sabbath. But this you can not prove from any part of it.

On the rescue of the son or the ox, which the Pharisees themselves would not refuse:

And as they were silent from malice, Christ refutes their immitigable shamelessness by the convincing arguments which He uses. For "whose son of yours," He says, "or whose ox shall fall into a pit, and he will not immediately draw him out on the sabbath day?" If the law forbids the showing mercy on the sabbath, why do you yourself take compassion on that which has fallen into the pit?

On the God who is good and loving, whose Law was given to lead us to love:

But you will not assent to such reasonings; you will stretch out your hand to one who is distressed, esteeming him of more account than the honour due to the law, or rather than a senseless rest ... The God of all ceases not to be kind: He is good and loving unto men: He instituted not the law of Moses as the mediator of harshness, nor appointed it as a teacher of cruelty, but rather to lead you on to the love of your neighbour.

---

Theophylact of Ohrid (c. 1055–1107)

From his Explanation of the Gospel of Luke, as compiled in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the question that exposes their folly, and the day that admits no good:

But by His question He exposes their folly. For while God blessed the sabbath, they forbade to do good on the sabbath; but the day which does not admit the works of the good is accursed.

On the son and the ox they would not leave in danger:

As though He said, If the law forbids to have mercy on the sabbath-day, have no care of thy son when in danger on the sabbath-day. But why speak I of a son, when thou dost not even neglect an ox if thou seest it in danger?

---

Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

From his Questions on the Gospels (Book 2, ch. 29), as compiled in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the dropsical man and the bound woman, both likened to a beast led to water:

Now He has aptly compared the dropsical man to an animal which has fallen into a ditch, (for he is troubled by water,) as He compared that woman, whom He spoke of as bound, and whom He Himself loosed, to a beast which is let loose to be led to water.

On the dropsical man as a figure of the covetous, whose thirst grows with his wealth:

Or we rightly compare the dropsical man to a covetous rich man. For as the former, the more he increases in unnatural moisture the greater his thirst; so also the other, the more abundant his riches, which he does not employ well, the more ardently he desires them.

---

St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735)

From his Exposition of the Gospel of Luke, as compiled in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the silence of the watchers, against themselves whichever way they answered:

But they who were asked, are rightly silent, for they perceived that whatever they said, would be against themselves. For if it is lawful to heal on the sabbath day, why did they watch the Saviour whether He would heal? If it is not lawful, why do they take care of their cattle on the sabbath?

On the covetousness that rescues an animal but begrudges a man:

By these words He so refutes His watchers, the Pharisees, as to condemn them also of covetousness, who in the deliverance of animals consult their own desire of wealth. How much more then ought Christ to deliver a man, who is much better than cattle!

On the dropsy as a figure of the soul weighed down by carnal pleasure, and the Lord who draws all from the pit:

Mystically, the dropsical man is compared to him who is weighed down by an overflowing stream of carnal pleasures. For the disease of dropsy derives the name of a watery humour ... In this example also He well refers to the ox and the ass; so as to represent either the wise and the foolish, or both nations; that is, the Jew oppressed by the burden of the law, the Gentile not subject to reason. For the Lord rescues from the pit of concupiscence all who are sunk therein.

---

St. Gregory the Great (c. 540–604)

From his Morals on the Book of Job (Book 14, ch. 6), as compiled in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On why the dropsical man is healed in the Pharisee's presence:

Rightly then is the dropsical man healed in the Pharisees presence, for by the bodily infirmity of the one, is expressed the mental disease of the other.