Isaac of Stella, Sermons

good, evil, wretched, blessed, that is not born from the one side or the other, and is not enclosed under this general scheme. Yet in assigning and distinguishing sins, as they are born from the vices, we languish for want of names; and we confound very many of them under the same words, though the things are different; and as to the differences of the penalties, much more still. But blessed be God, Who has made us richer in the better part, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

SERMON VII. ON THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE EPIPHANY I

When Jesus was twelve years old, and so on (Luke 2:42). What the Lord Jesus did in His boyhood before the time of His baptism we are taught by the canonical reading scarcely at all, and, if I remember rightly, this alone. And so it is the more to be wondered what it means, and to be asked why it stands alone. For it is madness to suppose that He did nothing and lived idly through so long a time, that is, the whole course of His life. Yet whatever He did, how He did it is, I judge, taught by the present reading: that is, wisely and kindly. For by ten wisdom is most notably signified, and by two charity. It is superfluous to prove what is plain. Hence too the holy apostles, lamps of the world, shining with the brightness of wisdom and burning with the fervour of charity, are sufficient under this number. This, then, is signified on this occasion: that so He did all things on every other occasion. For what the holy Gospels disclose of His infancy contains rather what was done to Him or concerning Him than what He did. According to the custom, and so on. It belongs to duty, if you do not wish to give or to suffer scandal, to follow the customs of those among whom you live, above all those that are not to be condemned: otherwise either change your people or follow its customs. That a boy should also follow and obey his parents belongs to discipline. But that He stayed behind His parents belongs to a sure sacrament and a sweet mystery. They go away one day without Jesus, but that day of which no infant upon earth is without filth. But Jesus, holy and set apart from sinners, conceived as holy from holiness, not as one made holy, by no means made the journey of this day. So, while His parents went down, Jesus remained alone. For all have turned aside, together they have become unprofitable: there is none that does good, down to this One alone. He never turned aside, and so He did not go down with the others: He was ever profitable: He alone did good. But whence did His parents go down, and where did they leave Him? From Jerusalem, surely; from that very city from which that foolish and wretched man went down who fell among robbers. O Adam, would that you had remained in your peace and vision, where you had been placed by creating grace, and that we, all your sons, were not now sitting blind and begging beside the way near Jericho!

We sons have followed our father, brethren, by natural necessity; we follow him daily by culpable will. No one stands. No one abides. No one remains in what he received, or in what he was created, save Jesus alone. We go down, we slip, we plunge headlong: and had we not returned to this One alone Who remained, very nearly

our soul would already have dwelt in hell. But if, troubled and terrified because we walk without God in this world, we say, My foot is moved amiss, and with corrected step we make our way back to Jesus, without doubt His mercy will help us to be able to find Him, at least after three days: of departure through guilt, of return through penitence, of search through diligence. The temple, or Jerusalem, is the rational nature as it was established, created, that is, to see God, Who is true peace, and to become a temple where He might dwell. To this we ascend by the first movement, coming from not being to being, from nothing to something. From here we turn back through guilt, declining from being to not being, from something to nothing. For if sin is nothing, it certainly is not; and so he who inclines himself to sin makes his way back to nothing and to not being. Man too, taken from the earth by nature and lifted high above it by creating grace, returns into it through guilt. Hence it is said to him: Earth you are, and into earth you shall go (Gen. 3:19). From there he turns back through penitence, but fruitfully only if he finds Jesus. Jesus alone remained in what He was made, and so did not go down from the temple, except that upwards He advanced in wisdom and age (Luke 2:52), while downwards He truly did not fall away at all. Never did His holy and healing flesh incur imbalance through intemperance, never did it go down into corruption through pollution. Conceived of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin, it was born holy and virgin, lived, and endured death. Blessed, moreover, is that soul united to the flesh which did not cleave to the flesh (as Adam laments, My soul has cleaved to the pavement [Ps. 118:25]): it could love the flesh by the law of natural affection; it could not be glued to the flesh by the birdlime of concupiscence. Good, created by the Good, and united to a good flesh likewise created by the Good, it so kept the good of its condition for both, that, coming from not being to being (since they are creatures), they never looked back, and advanced far towards what lies ahead. For who shall boast that he has a chaste heart? Who among the clouds shall be equal to the Lord Jesus, shall be like God among the sons of God? John the Baptist was a cloud, and Jeremiah too was a cloud: both were born holy, but both were sanctified: Before you came forth, it says, from the womb, I sanctified you (Jer. 1:5). Both were born holy, but were they conceived holy? Where, then, and whence were they sanctified? And if sanctified, then surely at some time defiled. And this, where and whence? But who is equal to these questions? The Good creates a good flesh, the Good pours in a good soul; yet I find both evil, both corrupt, in such a way that both need sanctification, and neither is good sooner than evil, sound sooner than corrupt, lest the corruption be proved to be no longer original but actual.

Neither, then, remains even for an instant in the state of the condition in which it is called to being, but through the vice of origin returns to not being when it begins to be, so that, wonderfully and wretchedly, it does not begin to be sooner than not to be; to come sooner than to go back; to ascend sooner than to descend; nor does the soul wretchedly begin

to give life sooner than to give death; so that the flesh is both mortifying to that by which it is quickened, and the soul quickening to that by which it is mortified. Here there come to mind those mournful nuptials of the daughter of Raguel, wife of seven husbands and as many times a killer, whom Tobias son of Tobias was able to marry without danger, since he had as companion, nay as guide, an angel stronger than the demon (Tob. 8). Tobias and Tobias, father and son, old and new, blind and seeing: Adam and Adam, first and second, father and son, old and new, blind and seeing, man and son of man. But discourse about man, or about the son of man, is framed sometimes according to the flesh, sometimes according to the soul, sometimes according to both. Here, then, Tobias signifies the soul of the son of man, Sara in general the flesh of man, and the angel, guide and companion of Tobias, the Lord, the Word of God, Who to the soul He once took up gave guidance wisely, companionship faithfully, help mightily, counsel prudently. The seven husbands, married to death rather than to the woman, [signify] all souls except the soul of Christ, which were not united to the flesh sooner than to death, yet were united to death on account of the flesh, and on account of death separated from the flesh. By the strangling demon is given to be understood that natural and original concupiscence, which is by no means cast out of the house of Raguel and the chamber of Sara unless a stronger one comes upon it.

So, when the stronger comes upon him by the power of the Word, the strong man is cast out, put to flight, bound; his vessels, that is, the natural goods that were held captive, are plundered. Captivity is led captive, the bridal chamber is cleansed, the house is set free, Sara is married without danger, the father marvels, recognizes the mystery, gives thanks to the angel, prepares a feast, invites the neighbours. These things are full of mysteries, they overflow with sacraments. The angel, while he celebrates the nuptials of Tobias, withdraws, so that Tobias may appear as the bridegroom, a true man in being born, in wailing, in sucking, in not speaking. But after a time he returns, not empty, nor without the bond of a precious deposit, so that in certain things the very same One Who is man may be made known as God. In vain, then, is the boy Jesus sought on that day of departure and forgetting among kinsfolk and acquaintances. He is left in the temple, He remains in Jerusalem; He is found in the temple by one who returns and seeks. O blessed the soul that never forgets, nor leaves behind, the boy Jesus! More blessed, the soul that ever meditates on Jesus grown great; most blessed, the soul that can ever contemplate Jesus immeasurable. The son of Abraham, says Scripture, whose name is interpreted laughter, grew until he became very great (Gen. 26:13). Let the Son of God grow in you, brother, Who is already formed in you, until He becomes immeasurable to you, and from you there comes to you laughter, and exultation, and full joy, which no one shall take from you. But if you have at some time forgotten, or carelessly left Him behind, begin from the memory of Him, that you may come to His presence. Memory puts forgetfulness to flight, brings on repentance; repentance works conversion; conversion corrects departure, so that you turn back as far as you had departed, as the Seer cries: Return, as deeply as you had withdrawn (Isa. 31:6). Yet in vain do you turn back from your way

the evil way, where you walked without Jesus, if, once converted, you do not seek. For diligence in searching merits the joy of finding. If you seek, says Isaiah, seek (Isa. 21:12), diligently, that is, and you shall find. And they found Him in the temple, and so on. But here we must be silent, so that we may rise for the little that remains of the day's labour. Perhaps Jesus will be found there too. For Isaac, that is, laughter, was also found by Sara out of doors: may He grant you to find Him out of doors and within, He Who lives and reigns, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON VIII. ON THE SAME FEAST II

Come, brethren, wearied now, let us take breath a little, and, that we may rise again to labour more refreshed, let us taste a little of yesterday's fare, which we have kept back. And they found Him, it says, in the temple among the doctors and the wise, asking questions, and they marvelled at His prudence and His answers (Luke 2:46–47). It belongs to duty that one younger in age should listen and ask; it is not against duty that the younger, when asked, should answer. But let us return to the thread of the first exposition: and in these things, as blessed Jerome says, note Christ a man from the womb, nay, as Jeremiah says, in the womb: The Lord, he says, shall make a new thing upon the earth: a woman shall encompass a man in the womb (Jer. 31:22): Mary, Christ. For a manly mind, wise, strong and great, was in an infant, weak and small body. For neither in other human bodies do souls follow the qualities or quantities of their bodies, so that deformed souls are contained in deformed bodies and beautiful ones in beautiful, or great in great and short in short. These things are far removed from the nature of the soul, which has the divine image: which in quality is neither white nor black nor of any other colour; and in quantity neither long nor broad, nor locally here or there: for which, of itself, in respect of motion, there is nothing up or down, before or behind, to the right or to the left, whither it may be borne. For quantities of this kind, or qualities, or dimensions, or motions belong to bodily natures; but the rational soul is purely spirit, having above itself only the divine nature, which is itself also spirit: whose image it bears, whose essence it does not equal. Yet the soul is both of some quality and of some quantity, and is moved: at times white and black, long, broad and high, having something above and below, before and behind, to the right, to the left; but all these in its own manner, nor does it follow the body in such things. Wisdom makes it beautiful and bright, ignorance deformed and dark; a good conscience makes it white, light and cheerful, a bad one dusky, heavy and sad; faith makes it long, charity broad, hope high, fear contracted, avarice narrow, faintheartedness small. Here it is virtue, elsewhere vice: before it has what it seeks; behind, what it does not remember; above, what it does not grasp; below, what it despises; to the right, what delights; to the left, what troubles.

In all these things, then, the boy Jesus has a manly mind, prudently, temperately, bravely; and justly,

taught by the Godhead alone as His teacher, everywhere knowing how to refuse the evil and choose the good, on account of the food of milk and butter. Let us too, then, marvel at His wisdom and His answers. For He alone, an infant of that age, so savoured the virtues, so could answer the vices. Son, why have You done so to us? Nay rather, mother, why have you done so to your son? Granted, Joseph could forget, who did not beget Him: how did you forget the son of your womb? Can a woman, says the prophet, forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? (Isa. 49:15). And if another could, you certainly ought not to have. What? On all that dark and gloomy day did you not pray to God, not think of God, not even remember God? Who has believed this? Surely He is that very One. But perhaps you prayed to the Father, unmindful of the Son. But who can do this, when in the name of the Father the Son is named? Besides, he who has not the Son has not the Father either. Or perhaps, knowing the sacrament, you speak a mystery? Son, why have You done so to us: I would believe this is to be read as an expression of wonder rather than as a question or a rebuke. For wonder involves investigation, and investigation merits knowledge. For she wonders at what she nevertheless is not ignorant of; but by her wonder she invites you to investigate, saying with weight and wonder: O son, what lesson and instruction have You thus given us, that is, by staying here while we went away? Or if you read it as a question, nothing is lost from the sense. But someone says: It is not fitting to charge the mother of Jesus with forgetfulness; for she did not forget her son, but thought that He was in the company of others, and for that reason did not see Him. Granted, lest we seem contentious: yet Him whom carelessness lost sight of, diligence found, so that you too may be admonished to search with all diligence, grieving wholly for what you have lost through carelessness. I and your father, she says, have been seeking You sorrowing. And Jesus said to her: Did you not know that I must be in the things that are My Father's? See where the Son is to be sought: surely in the things that are the Father's. See where the Son does not wish it to be unknown that He is. Hence it was said to one who sought Him among the dead: Do not touch Me; not yet, in that [heart] of yours, have I ascended to the Father (John 20:17); not yet do you seek Me in the things that are My Father's; not yet do you know that I must be in the things that are His Who is all that is His: as not Himself, but His, and yet nothing other than He. Leaving aside, however, this unity of nature, and the natural unity of the Father and the Son, from which neither the Father nor the Son has withdrawn: even in His lowering the Son did not withdraw from the Father, since He remained ever in His obedience and will. Hence too, rebuking certain men, He says: You are of your father the devil, and you do the desires of your father (John 8:44). As if He said: You remain, and you are, in the things that are your father's.

The sons of Adam, then, have three fathers: God, man, the devil. God on account of nature, man on account of species, the devil on account of malice. In the things that are man's, therefore, they have their being by necessity; in the things that are God's, by good will; in the things that are the devil's, by malignity. If the nature, in which, good from the Good, well,

and were created for good, you love, guard, and direct towards that for which it was made, you remain in the things that are God your Father's, and do not withdraw from Jerusalem; and by the prudence and the answers with which you reply to the thousand temptations of the flesh, the world and the devil, which question you shrewdly and most captiously while they tempt, you make the very spirits of wickedness, who are your tempters, marvel. But if you do not understand the honour of the condition of your nature, you who were made beautiful among women, and you go away after the tracks of the flocks, beginning to be likened to the senseless beasts; if you also infect the very good that is in you with malice conceived from the evil one, so that you are swollen with pride, wasting with envy, turbulent with anger, cast down with sadness, anxious with avarice, greedy with gluttony, unclean with lust: you are manifestly convicted of being in the things that are your father the devil's. But in the things that are our father man's, having, on account of a body still animal, the necessity of being, or rather of passing, let us seek only food and clothing: and let no temptation seize us but such as is human, to keep us from being willing to be content with these. For by diabolical temptation are they drawn who wish to become rich, and they fall into his snares, and into temptations one after another, and into many others, so that they rightly deserve to hear from the Son of God: You are of your father the devil (John 8:44); and that rule which is everywhere true fits them: As the father, so the son; from the devil, a devil. Have I not, He says, chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? (John 6:71). From God, a god. I have said: You are gods. From man, a man. Let man, then, leaving what is diabolical, lest he ever be in it by way of the human things without which he cannot exist, pass over to the divine, in which alone it will be well with him: let him flee the devil with all that is his; let him return to man and be content with what is man's: let him ascend to God and be enriched in what is God's. Yet all the sons of the devil are blind; for their malice has blinded them, so that, though they are rich, they think themselves poor. They do not see that what suffices for the nature of an animal body is ready to hand, nor do they hear the divine voice which promises that nothing shall be lacking to those who fear God, because they are deaf too, and so they always sweat for superfluities. But you, dearly beloved, attend to the Teacher granted you from heaven: Who took up man not only to heal him but to instruct him, stripped him of the devil, clothed him with God. Follow the manner of His life, Who was born poor, lived poor, died poor. For in this is our confidence, if as He was, so we too are in this world; and he who says he abides in Him, let him walk as He walked. He was so humble by the spirit of fear that, though He was God, He was subject to men: And He was, it says, subject to them (Luke 2:51); so meek by the spirit of piety that He was not disturbed by injuries done to Him: these two virtues He so commended above all in Himself that He said: Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Matt. 11:29). By the spirit of knowledge so compassionate and humane that, seeing the hostile city, He wept over it; and He Who in His gentleness could not be disturbed by His enemies troubled Himself most tenderly over His friend. By the spirit