Isaac of Stella, Sermons

our Order has been built: and its building, raised throughout almost the whole world, as it is this day, has grown into a holy temple in the Lord, in which you too, in your own place and time, are built together into a dwelling of God in the Holy Spirit, He Himself working, God Who works all things in all: to Whom be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON LI. ON THE ASSUMPTION OF BLESSED MARY.

In all things I sought rest, and in the inheritance of the Lord I shall abide, etc. (Sir. 24:7). What may properly be said of today's solemnity, that is, of the Assumption of the blessed ever-Virgin, is hard to find. For, shut in by the boundaries of the Fathers, which it is forbidden to overstep, we dare define nothing else than that on this day (whether with the body or without the body, I know not, God knows), she was taken up, not caught up for a time, nor only to the third heaven, if there are more heavens, but to a perpetual and happy dwelling, to the highest heaven of heavens. Taken up, indeed, by Him Who took flesh from her on earth, that He might set her beneath Himself alone in heaven. For we believe that, after the very fruit of her womb, she has been so ordered and placed in heaven, or, if she has not yet risen, is to be so placed, that her soul is disposed to wisdom next after His beloved soul, and her body too to glory next after His body. Rightly, then, does she sit first among the generations of the just: she who in the proper sense bore the firstborn of all. For He is the firstborn among many brethren, Who, though by nature He was only-begotten, by grace joined many to Himself, that they might be one with Him. For He gave power to become sons of God to those who receive Him (John 1:12). O lovable and wonderful power! O, if it were allowed, and if a poor and low-born man were able to choose for himself at will a rich and noble father, who would not run, who would not hasten to the kings and princes of men? And indeed as many as will can become sons of God. And why this, I ask, unless because the Son of God willed to become the son of a poor man, so that by His poverty He might make many rich? But who would do this, the son of a king and of a rich man, that he should freely empty himself, and himself become, for the sake of others, the son of a needy and low-born man? And, once made needy, how could he make others rich? made low-born, how ennoble them? Remaining noble, then, he would not wish to descend; made low-born, he would not be able to raise up. But God's incomparable charity and inestimable power could do even this, as it were, just as He willed. For as what is foolish of God, and what is weak of God, is stronger than men, so what is needy of God is richer than men, and what is low-born of God is nobler than men. Made, therefore, the son of a poor man, He made many sons of a rich man; made the son of a handmaid, He made many sons of a noble man; made, finally, the son of man, He made many sons of God. Many, then, as has been said, He joined to Himself by His charity and power, He who is only-begotten: and they, though by carnal generation they are many in themselves, by divine

regeneration are nevertheless one with Him. For the whole and only Christ is one, head and body: and this one [is the Son] of one God in heaven and of one mother on earth; both many sons and one son. For as head and members are one son and many sons, so Mary and the Church are one mother and many; one virgin and many. Each is mother, each is virgin; each conceives of the same Spirit without concupiscence; each brings forth offspring to God the Father without sin. The one, without any sin, bore the head for the body; the other, in the remission of all sins, brought forth the body for the head. Each is mother of Christ, but neither brings forth the whole without the other. Hence in the divinely inspired Scriptures, what is said universally of the virgin mother the Church is rightly understood singularly of the virgin Mary; and what [is said] specially of the virgin mother Mary is rightly understood generally of the Virgin mother the Church; and when discourse is woven about either of the two, the sentence is understood almost interchangeably and without distinction of both. Every faithful soul also, bride of the Word of God, mother, daughter and sister of Christ, is understood in its own manner to be virgin and fruitful. It is said, therefore, universally for the Church, and specially for Mary, and singularly too for the faithful soul, by the very Wisdom of God, which is the Word of the Father:

In all things I sought rest, etc. Divine Wisdom is everywhere and in all things; reaching from end to end, that is, from the beginning of all things to the end of all things, it has everywhere pressed its footprints, by which it may be tracked and found. But only in minds endowed with its image and likeness does it rest and take delight, or else labour and suffer annoyance. Hence of certain [people] it complains, saying: I have laboured, bearing them (Isa. 1:14), and elsewhere: For you are troublesome to my God also (Isa. 7:13). But of others, with whom it pauses and rests, it says: Do not trouble me; behold, my children are with me in bed (Luke 11:7). For as like things naturally rejoice the more over likeness [found] in things alike, so many naturally grieve over likeness found in things alike. How then could Wisdom be so deceived as to seek rest, namely, in all minds, when it would fully find it in few or in none at all? But, what is more wonderful, [how] was that Minerva, born of the subtlety of Jove's brain, so thickened and fattened as to seek fruit even on the fig tree (and perhaps not in the time of fruit) and not find it? For there is a time for everything under heaven; but above heaven, as there is nothing temporal, so there is no time. In the wise alone, then, does wisdom rest. A treasure to be desired, says the Wise Man, speaking of wisdom, rests in the mouth of the wise (Prov. 21:20): but to the fool it is burdensome and contrary, and therefore he hates it, and the substance which he could have had at home, quiet and rich, with his father and brother, he squanders, a fugitive in a far country, by living riotously. Now it is not only the knowledge of things that makes [a man] wise, but the choosing of good things and the rejecting of evil. For hence it is rightly said of the one nurtured on butter and honey: That he may know how to reject evil,

and to choose the good (Isa. 7:15). Such, indeed, is the three-roomed dwelling of the rational soul which Wisdom built for herself, where she might dwell and rest: that is, the rational, the irascible, the concupiscible; so that through reason [the soul] might discern between friend and enemy, between husband and adulterer; and through irascibility might either not admit the enemy of both, that is, of reason and of desire, or, if admitted unawares, might cast him out with strong zeal; [and] through concupiscibility might desire, admit and love the friend and lawful husband alone, and afford rest with herself to him alone.

From reason, then, arises knowledge; from irascibility, rejection; from concupiscibility, choice. The wise man, therefore, who through reason knows good and evil, and through zeal rejects and hates all evil, but through concupiscibility chooses and loves only the good, builds in himself a house for Wisdom and affords her rest. He also sets up a bridal chamber, or prepares a couch, where she may take her delight and repose more secretly, according as he shows himself more zealous, more fervent and more affectionate in these things. Rightly, therefore, does He seek rest in all, Who created all such that He could rest in them. But He by no means finds rest in all, since not every one has remained in what he had received. And why should He not ask back what He had entrusted? why should He not demand what He had bestowed? why should He not reap where He had sown? Thus indeed He sought Adam, whom before sin He had placed in the brightness and light of paradise, in that same place after sin; and when He did not find him there at all, for because of sin he had fled into hiding-places, He pursued him with a cry, saying: Adam, where are you? (Gen. 3:9) As if He said: Where I placed you, you are not; and where you are, I did not place you. I do not follow into darkness, I do not follow into the shadow, him whom I left in light and brightness. But what are we to do, brethren? Everything entrusted, not simply but with interest, since she handed it over to be multiplied, everything she gave, Wisdom justly demands back; and she seeks what she placed. Wantonness, indeed, has squandered the whole in living riotously with harlots: our strength, enfeebled in poverty, cannot bring back what has been consumed, even simply and without gain. Beyond doubt, those whom justice truly accuses judgement strictly condemns, unless mercy alone mercifully intercede. Justice demands the whole, malice has consumed the whole, infirmity restores nothing, judgement remits nothing. Let mercy come, then, and intervene, to meet justice, since it is the time for showing mercy, according as there is a time and a time for everything under heaven, so that, pursuing, she may lay hold of Adam as he wanders, like a sheep perishing in the desert: [Adam,] whom justice once pursued and caught hiding under the tree in paradise. Let mercy come near, even to the darkness and shadow of death, to seek what had perished, since justice, remaining in the light, rebukes from afar with a cry the lost man hidden in the shadow: Adam, where are you? Where there is misery, let mercy come, since where there is injustice, justice cannot come. Let Wisdom herself come, finally, to prepare a throne for mercy,

she who once built a house for justice. In mercy, he says, a throne shall be prepared for you (Isa. 16:5). For in justice Wisdom prepared for herself a lofty throne in the holy angels, but in men a throne raised up in mercy: whence Isaias also beholds the just and merciful Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up.

Let mercy come, then, and out of the old and ruinous house, open to winds and rains, exposed to the birds of the air and the beasts of the forest, in which man dares not dwell and the Son of man does not rest, let her renew for herself by a new art a new dwelling, where the Son of man may lay His head and meanwhile repose a little while, as it is written: Sleep now, and take your rest; and straightway: Rise, let us go hence (Matt. 26:45–46). For the rest of the saints here is small and short, but the labour great and almost continuous. Let the Eternal come at last to what is old, and, that He who makes all things new may renew the old man, let Him in a manner Himself grow old. And as by a new and unheard-of art the eternal majesty stooped, so that the height of the new head might come upon us, renewing the whole body; [as] the light was in a manner darkened and overshadowed, so that a new light might rise upon the blind and ancient darkness: so in a manner eternity grew old, that from it newness might be born for the old. And as by His emptying He filled the empty, by His poverty enriched the needy, by His foolishness taught the fool, by His weakness strengthened the feeble, by His captivity redeemed the captive, by His bonds loosed the bound, by His death, finally, gave life to the dead: so by His oldness He made the old man new. For everywhere what is less of God is greater than men. Did not the Lord, then, through oldness, renew by a new art a new inheritance out of the old, in which He might abide, and a tabernacle where He might rest: He who before had sought rest in all things, and found it nowhere? Whence it follows also: And in the inheritance of the Lord I shall abide. For the inheritance of the Lord is, universally, the Church; specially, Mary; singularly, each faithful soul. In the tabernacle of Mary's womb Christ abode nine months; in the tabernacle of the Church's faith He will abide until the consummation of the world; in the knowledge and love of the faithful soul, for ages of ages. Whence it follows:

Then the Creator of all things commanded, and said to me, etc. (Sir. 24:12) The voice of the inheritance itself. For when He had sought rest everywhere, as has been said, and found it nowhere, then He set apart for Himself the people of the Jews as an inheritance, to whom through Moses He commanded and said, that is, dictated precepts. And He who by this second creation created the Synagogue, mother of the Church, rested in His tabernacle, that is, in the tabernacle of the covenant; and in the Church likewise now, in the sacrament of His body. When also, as though He had searched through all women for one of whom He might be born, He chose and took Mary to Himself, whence she is also called blessed among women: then too through the Holy Spirit He commanded her inwardly concerning contempt of carnal union [and] concerning love of virginity, and through the archangel Gabriel He told her