The Amazed Crowd

Et factum est cum consummasset Jesus verba haec, admirabantur turbae super doctrinam ejus Quaenam turbae miratae dicuntur, cum superius ad eum soli discipuli legantur accessisse? Nisi quia aut turba discipulorum, ex quibus duodecim elegerat, dicitur admirate, quos, pernoctans in oratione, cum dies factus esset accesierat; aut certe cum descendisset, secundum Lucam, et stetisset in loco campestri, ubi et mulitudo plebis fuisse legitur. Tunc utique cum finisset eumdem sermonem quem jam forsitan supra habuerat, miratae dicuntur turbae, et non discipuli. Quia, discipulis fides potius et dilectio congruebat quam admiratio. Admiratio ergo signum est infidelitatis, qui necdum mens bene de virture Dei sentiens, stupet ad ea quae prius necdum crediderat. Prorsus et ideo fiunt miracula, ut mens ad ea commoveatur quatenus incipiat credere, et de illo cui nihil impossibile est, in nullo dubitate. Consummatio igitur sermonis plenitudo et integritas intelligatur doctrinarum, qui nihil imperfectionis habet sermo Christi. Sanctus Paschasius Radbertus Corbeiensis, Expositio In Evangelium Matthaei, Liber III, Caput VII Source: Migne PL 120.331c-332a

When Jesus had finished speaking these words, the crowd were amazed at His teaching. 1 How is it that the crowd are said to be amazed when previously it was said that only the disciples approached Him? 2 Either because it is the crowd of the disciples that are said to wonder, from which He chose the twelve, who after prayer through the night, when day had come, approached, or because, as Luke says, He went down and stood in the fields, where it is said the multitude of the people were. 3 Then when He had finished speaking there what perhaps He said above, then the crowd are said to be amazed, and not the disciples. And this is because faith and love are more befitting the disciples than amazement, and amazement is thus a sign of a lack of faith, when the mind does not rightly grasp the power of God, and it is astonished at the things in which it does not yet believe. Therefore when miracles are performed the mind is shaken and begins to believe, even that nothing is impossible for Him, and there is no doubt at all. Therefore the end of the speech is to be understood as the fullness and integrity of the teaching, for the word of Christ has no imperfection. Saint Paschasius Radbertus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 3, Chapter 7 1 Mt 7.28 2 Mt 5.1 3 Lk 6.17-20