Signs And Showings

Et accesserunt ad eum Pharisaei et Sadducaei tentantes, et rogaverunt eum ut signum de coelo ostenderet eis. O quam duricordes! Signa quaerunt, quasi quae viderant opera Deitatis signa non fuerint. Sed quid quaerant ostendit Evangelista cum ait: Et rogaverunt ut signum de coelo ostenderet eis. Quaerebant ergo signum de coelo, ut jam supra, aut in morem Eliae, ignem de sublimi venire, aut in similitudinem Samuelis, aestivo tempore tonitrua concrepare, coruscare fulgura, imbres ruere, de quibus etiam supra dictum est, quasi non possent ista, et alia hujuscemodi calumniari ac dicere, ex occultis et variis aeris passionibus accidisse. Qua de causa sensus patet, quod non ob aliud de coelo quaerunt signum ut credant, sed ut ea quae secundo facta sunt de panibus, evacuent. Quanquam et in Evangelio Joannis monstretur eos post hoc miraculum de panibus, quaesisse ut manna more Moysi de coelo eis daret. Dicit enim Joannes eos ita dixisse: Quid ergo tu facis ut videamus et credamus tibi? Quid operaris? Patres nostri manna manducaverunt in deserto, sicut scriptum est: Panem de coelis dedit eis manducare. Ac si dicerent, ut qui multa millia hominum secundo pavisti in deserto paucis de panibus, fac in exemplum Moysi nobis manna venire de coelo, ut credamus tibi. Et hoc vere non de puritate fidei dixerunt, sicut nec patres eorum, quando dicebant: Nunquid panem poterit dare, aut parare mensam in deserto? Quae nimirum vox, non de credulitate venit, sicut nec istorum, sed de infidelitate et duritia cordis ut calumnientur et evacuent quae facta sunt a Domino, ne credentes salvi fiant. At ille respondens ait illis. Porro in Marco habetur quod ingemiscens spiritu dixerit: Generatio mala et adultera, praetermissis in medio quae Matthaeus commemorat, quoniam sicut supra turbam credentem coelestibus beneficiis refecturus, gratias agebat; ita nunc ob stultam Pharisaeorum non credentium perfidiam, et tentationis callidam fraudis petitionem, gemit et contristatur. Sanctus Paschasius Radbertus Corbeiensis, Expositio In Evangelium Matthaei, Liber VII, Caput XVI Source: Migne PL 120.550d-551b

And Pharisees and Sadducees came to Him to test Him, and they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. 1 O what hard hearts. They seek a sign, as if what they saw of the works of the Lord were not signs. But why they sought the Evangelist shows when he says, 'And they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.' Therefore they sought a sign from heaven as it was before, either in the manner of Elijah, that fire would come from the heights, or like Samuel when thunder sounded out a clear summer sky and lightening flashed and rain fell, which things have been spoken of above, as if they could not calumniate these things and those like them and say they happened because of various disturbances of the air. For which reason it is obvious that they did not seek a sign from heaven so that they might believe but so that they might make light of those things which had been done with bread. John says they spoke like this, 'What do you do that we might see and believe in you? What works? Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' 2 As if they had said that He who had just fed with a few loaves of bread many thousands of men in the desert for a second time  should act 'in the manner of Moses for us and make manna come from heaven, so that we might believe in you.' And this was not said out any sort of pure faith, just like their fathers, who said, 'Can He give us bread or prepare a meal in the desert?' 3 Which voice, then came not from belief, just like those, but from faithlessness and a hard heart, so that they might calumniate and make light of the things the Lord had done, lest believing they be saved. 'He then answered them.' But Mark has it that He groaned in His spirit and said, 'A wicked and adulterous generation,' 4 passing over here what Matthew remembers, that the crowd who were to be refreshed with the heavenly benefactions gave thanks, and thus now because of the folly of the Pharisees, and not the treachery of believers, and their clever and deceitful request, He groaned and sighed. Saint Paschasius Radbertus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 7, Chapter 16 1 Mt 16.1 2 Jn 6.30-31 3 Ps 77.19 4 Mk 8.1-12, Mt 15.31