Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed your word, and kept your covenant.
All Commentaries on Deuteronomy 33:9 Go To Deuteronomy 33
Paterius
AD 606
That man desires to know God more closely who, out of love for piety, does not want to know those he knew according to the flesh. Divine knowledge suffers a grave loss if it is shared with fleshly knowledge. Each one ought to stand apart from his relatives and neighbors if he wishes to be joined more truly to the Father of all. Those he manfully neglects for the sake of God he loves more firmly, to the extent that he ignores the passing attachment of carnal relationship. In the world of time, indeed, we should be more helpful to those we are related to more closely than to others, since this flame grows into a fire when fuel is supplied. But the fire first burns where it is kindled. We ought to acknowledge the bond of earthly relationship but ignore it when it blocks the journey of the mind. This happens when the faithful soul, on fire with devotion to God, does not despise what is joined to it below, rightly orders these relations within itself and transcends them by its love of what is highest. So we ought to see to it by resourceful concern lest such love should make its entry for the sake of the flesh and turns the heart’s progress away from the right path. It could weaken the power of higher love and press the rising mind down by loading a weight on it. Thus one ought to sympathize with his relatives’ needs in such a way that, through compassion, he does not allow the effect of his decision to be blocked. The emotions of the mind should fill the heart but not turn it away from its spiritual vocation. For holy men do not love their carnal relatives by failing to give them what they need, but by love of spiritual things they conquer that love in themselves, insofar as they temper it with the reins of discretion. Through this love, at least in a small measure, they will not stray from the right path. Cows are figures that suggest these men to us. As the cows move to the high place before God’s ark, they walk with eagerness and a determined pace, while their calves have been left in the stable. For Scripture has it, “walking on and lowing, giving forth bellows from within, and yet not turning their steps away from the path, they have set out.” Exposition of the Old and New Testament, Deuteronomy
